IMPROVEMENTS IN SELF-DELIVERY REAPING MACHINES."
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Jack, of Maypole, in the County of Ayr, North
Britain, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SELF-DELIVERY REAPING
MACHINES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Jack at the Offico
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th September 1876.
ALEXANDER JACK, of Maypole, in the County of Ayr, North Britain.
MENTS IN SELF-DELIVERY REAPING MACHINES."
" IMPROVE-
This Invention, which relates to improvements in reaping machines, consists as
herein-after set forth, and the improvements are applicable to machines in which
the delivery is self acting or operated by hand or foot, or both.
In carrying out the Invention a chain pulley is placed on the main shaft of the
machine, and this pulley is provided with a clutch for either fixing it firmly to the
main shaft or leaving it loose thereon, as required. When the whole of the machine
is in operation this chain pulley is fast upon the shaft, and therefore rotates with
it ; and the chain which it drives also passes round a corresponding chain pulley
on the axis of the revolving rake or reel carried on an arm in the front of the
machine.
In proximity to the seat whereon the attendant sits during the travelling of the
machine a handle or treddle, or both, are situated, and these are coupled by means
of a rod to a lever at the upper part of the aforesaid arm; to which lever there is
also connected a light rod carried by an arm, so that the rod lies parallel to and
outside the periphery of the revolving rake or reel. The object of this light rod is
to support the grain as it falls on being cut during the interval that the drop is
lowered for the purpose of delivering the grain for the sheaf, and which thereby
prevents the scattering of the grain over the surface of the ground during that
interval. So soon as the drop is again raised this light rod is also simultaneously
raised to a level at which it cannot receive the falling grain. In order to render
the foregoing mechanisin self acting the upper chain wheel on the axis of the
revolving rake or reel is provided with a camb of the requisite shape for imparting
to the light rod and the drop the intermittent rising and falling motions herein-
before described.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Alexander Jack in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th March
1.877.
ALEXANDER JACK, of Maypole, in the County of Ayr, North Britain.
MENTS IN SELF-DELIVERY REAPING MACHINES."
"IMPROVE-
My said Invention relates to improvements in reaping machines, the said im-
provements being applicable to machines wherein the delivery is self acting or
operated by hand or foot, or both.
And in order that my said Invention may be properly understood, I now proceed
more particularly to set forth the system, mode, or manner in or under which
the same is or may be used or practically carried into effect, reference being had to
the annexed Sheet of Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon,
that is to say :-
On the Sheet of Drawings hereunto appended Figure 1 is a side elevation, with
portions in section, of part of a self-delivery reaping machine, having the improve-
ments constituting my said Invention shewn applied thereto; Figure 2 is an end
elevation; and Figure 3, a plan of the part of the reaping machine illustrated at
Figure 1.
In carrying out the Invention a chain pulley A is placed on the main shaft of the
machine and provided with a clutch for either fixing it firmly to the main shaft or
leaving it loose thereon, as required. This clutch consists, as more particularly seen
in plan as at Figure 3, of a collar B surrounding the main shaft C and formed with
two or a greater number of projections a lying parallel with the shaft C. The
sides or edges of the collar B are gripped between jaws inade in a bracket D,
loosely surrounding the shaft Cat E, Figure 3, and connected by a rod or link F
to the weighted lever G operating the clutch H into and out of gear with the clutch
box of the bevel wheel I, which reciprocates the knives or cutters through the
intervention of the bevel pinion J and shaft K, a crank disc on the forward end of
the said shaft being connected to the knife bar in the usual manner.
On the chain
pulley A heels or projections b are made at its inner side, as seen at Figure 3, and
in detail at Figure 4 of the Drawings; and against these projections the projecting
arms a on the collar B bear, and so gear the pulley A with the shaft C. The
collar or clutch B is prevented from turning on and is made to turn with the
shaft C at all times by the arms a passing through holes made for that purpose in
the boss of the carrying wheel L; and the collar is so arranged relatively with the
clutch H for the knife bar motion that when the lever G is raised and the clutch H
so thrown or moved out of gear with the wheel I, the pulley A is at the same time
rendered loose upon the shaft C by the arms a being drawn away from its inner
side, and so passing out of contact with the projections b, and vice versa, when the
clutch H is geared with the wheel I, the pulley A is at the same time made fast
upon the shaft C, and therefore rotates with it. The chain c, which the pulley A
drives, passes under two guide pulleys, d and e respectively, carried in brackets
fixed to the upright post M, from whence it passes over the chaiu pulley N on the
axis of the rake or recl O, and so rotates the said rake or reel.
In proximity to the scat at the back of the machine whereon the attendant Bits
whilst it is travelling a handle and treadle P are situated on a shaft R, which is
cranked at one end and connected by means of a rod f to one arm of a crank g
carried on a bracket fixed at one extremity of the deliverer or drop Q. The other
arm of the crank is connected by a rod h to a light rod k carried in the bracket
which supports the rake or reel O; and the lower extremity of this light rod is
bent or has a piece attached to it, the bent or connected piece lying parallel to the
bars or blades of the rake or reel, and outside the path or circle which the said bars
describe in revolving. The object of this light rod is to support the grain which is
cut and falls during the interval that the drop Q is lowered into the position shewn
on the Drawings for the purpose of delivering the grain for the sheaf, and by means

page_text: of such support the grain is prevented from being scattered over the surface of the
ground during that interval. So soon as the drop is again raised the light rod k
delivers the grain supported by it to the drop, and it is almost simultaneously
raised to a level at which it cannot receive the falling grain. In order to render
this simultaneous raising and lowering of the drop or deliverer and of the rod k self
acting, the chain wheel or pulley N on the axis of the rake or reel O is provided
with or has formed on it a spur pinion m, which gears with a corresponding
wheel n carried in the lower part of the bracket 1. A camb 2, or its equivalent, is
made on the back of the wheel n, which camb in rotating acts upon a roller 8
carried in the forward end of a lever t, also centred in the lower part of the
bracket. The rearward end of the lever t is connected to the lower arm of the
crank g by a rod u, so that as the chain wheel N rotates the camb " by acting on
the forward end of the lever t depresses it, and so raises the deliverer or drop Q
and the rod k into the position shewn in dotted lines at Figure 1. The deliverer or
drop and the rod k fall by their own weight when the under portions of the camb
have passed the roller 8. The deliverer or drop and the rod are or may be raised
to their highest position previous to moving the machine from one situation to
another, or at other desired times when the knife bar and other moving parts,
herein-before referred to, of the machine are not in operation by actuating the hand
lever or treadle P on the shaft R, or by operating both the lever and treadle.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and the system, mode, or manner, in or under which the same is or may be used
or practically carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider
to be novel and original and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First. The adaptation or application to reaping machines whose delivery is self-
acting, or operated by hand or foot, or both, of a rod k, actuated as set forth from
the axis of the revolving rake or reel, so as to support the grain cut during the
interval in which the drop is lowered and again raised, whereby the grain so cut
is prevented from being scattered over the ground, substantially as herein-before
described with reference to the appended Sheet of Drawings.
Second. The clutch arrangement, consisting of the collar B and its attachments,
whereby in conjunction with the clutch H, the knives, the rake or reel O, the
deliverer Q, and the rod, are simultaneously thrown into and out of operation,
substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Jack, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Thirteenth day of March, One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-seven.
ALEX. JACK. (LS.)