IMPROVEMENTS. ON. THE WHEEL AND SWING PLOUGH
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, ROBERT
RANSOME, of Ipswich, in the County of Suffolk, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirtieth day of May, in the
forty-eighth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the, said Robert
Ransome, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Robert Ransome, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my "IMPROVEMENTS. ON. THE WHEEL AND SWING PLOUGH; in which Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Robert Ransome,
under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my.
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at
large appear:
NOW KNOW. YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Ransome, do hereby declare that my said Improvements on the Wheel
and Swing Ploughs consist in making and fixing a variety of parts (of wrought
or cast iron, to one frame, so as to adapt the plough to every kind of land.
By these means many advantages are gained, particularly in preventing the
adhesion of clays or, stiff soils which occasion so much friction and incon-
venience in the working of the common ploughs. The annexed Drawings

page_text: and following references thereto, shew the construction of the several parts,
and the manner of putting them together to answer the various purposes:-
REFERENCE TO THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1, A, A, is the iron frame, to which is affixed the mould (or breast)
plates. The letter R is the nose of the iron ground, on which the share is
fixed by a socket. S, S, represent the screws and nutts which fasten the
bottom iron to the frame. Figs. 2, D, three different shares to fix on the nose
of the iron ground, one of which is placed in front of its plough. Fig. 3, E, F,
are two sliding bars that are used for the purpose of regulating the breast plates
to any width required at the heel. These are slipped into dovetails on the
iron frame, which are made fast by a pin marked 1, on the frame, Figure 1.
Fig. 4, G, H, shews two breast plates, whose pins a, a, in front are slipped
into holes a, a, on the iron frame, Figure 1, and then made fast at the heel by
a screw and nut to the sliding bars E, F, Fig. 3. Fig. 5, I is a cutter, whose
tenon slips into the share and fastens it to the front of the iron frame by a pin
marked 2, Figure 1. Fig. 6, K, K, are the wrests which are used with the
turn-wrest plough. The wrests are shifted from right to left, in the whole,
marked 3, Figure 1, and fastened with a wedge, marked 4, Figure 6. These
are fastened to the sliding bar in like manner as the breast plates are to the
sliding bars E, F. Fig. 7, L is the crotch or stay for strengthening the
coulter. This is fixed to the iron frame in front by way of dovetail. Fig. 8,
a foot or swing plough, to which is fixed the sliding bar F, the breast plate II,
and the crotch or stay L. Fig. 9 is a plough similar to the above, except the
beam, which is adapted for wheels. Fig. 10 is the plough fitted with two
breasts for the purpose of earthing or moulding potatoes or such crops as
require it. Fig. 11 is the ground plan of the above plough. Fig. 12 is the
same frame handle and beam used as a foot or wheel plough, and here made
use of for the purpose of the turn-wrest plough. Fig. 13, the ground plan
of the turn-wrest plough. If the ploughs are put together as the parts are
marked in the order of the alphabet, their different uses will appear, and no
mistake can possibly arise. B, C, in Figures 8, 9, 10, and 12, represent the
usual woodwork. N.B.-The letters which refer to the various parts of the
ploughs represent the same parts in all the Figures.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Ransome, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of June, One thousand
eight hundred and eight
ROBERT (L.e.) RANSOME.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-ninth day of June, in
the forty-eighth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, the
said Robert Ransome came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
forty-fourth year of His said Majesty's reign.
Inrolled the Twenty-ninth day of June, One thousand eight hundred and
eight.