IMPROVEMENTS IN PLOUGHS AND CULTIVATORS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Corbett, of Wellington, in the County of
Salop, Agricultural Implement Manufacturer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PLOUGHS AND CULTIVATORS."
Sealed the 18th June 1872, and dated the 9th March 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Corbett at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th March 1872.
I, SAMUEL CORBETT, of Wellington, in the County of Salop, Agricul-
tural Implement Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PLOUGHS AND CULTIVATORS," to be as
follows:-
My Invention consists of the improvements in ploughs and cultivators
herein-after described, whereby the plough or cultivator is made to lift
and lighten up the soil on the surface of the furrow, and fork out or
separate the twitch therefrom; and when applied to potato raising
ploughs to lift the potatoes on to the surface of the land; and also in so

page_text: My Invention consists further in constructing the fore ends of ploughs
in the following way :—
According to my Invention I make the fore end of ploughs separate
from the main beam instead of making it in one piece therewith as
usual. The front end of the main beam is provided with a tenon or bar
which engages in a mortice or fork in the rear end of the separable or
detachable fore end, the two parts being connected together by rivets or
screw bolts and nuts. The detachable fore end for wheel ploughs is
provided with boxes or mortices to carry the vertical bars of the wheels.
For swing or hand ploughs, which require the beam to be much shorter
than that of a wheel plough, I remove the fore end, which is fitted with
wheel boxes, and fix on the beam a shorter fore end, and fix it by the
tenon and mortice herein-before described.
Besides facility of manufacture and convenience in repair, this part
of my Invention enables a wheel plough to be converted into a swing or
hand plough with great facility by the use of a different fore end. This
part of my Invention is applicable to wheel ploughs, double furrow,
ridge, and swing ploughs.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Corbett in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 5th September 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
CORBETT, of Wellington, in the County of Salop, Agricultural Implement
Manufacturer, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Samuel Corbett, Her special licence that
I, the said Samuel Corbett, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Samuel Corbett, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein

page_text: expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PLOUGHS
AND CULTIVATORS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Samuel Corbett, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the
same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Corbett, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained.in and by
the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists of the improvements in ploughs and cultivators
herein-after described whereby the plough or cultivator is made to lift
and lighten up the soil on the surface of the furrow, and fork out or
separate the twitch therefrom, and when applied to potato raising ploughs
to lift the potatoes on to the surface of the land, and also in so con-
structing the fore ends of ploughs as to simplify the plough and facilitate
its manufacture and repair.
My Invention consists principally in constructing and adapting to
ploughs a rotating or revolving fork, the said rotating fork being placed
behind the mould board of the plough. The said rotating fork consists
of a boss or centre piece with a long bearing, the said boss consisting of
a disk in the periphery of which one or more rows of spikes or prongs
are cast or fixed. The said spikes or prongs may be either single or
double, and curved or straight, aud are situated in or nearly in the
same plane as the said disk, that is, in the plane of rotation.
In connecting the rotating fork with the plough the axis on which
the rotating fork turns is carried by a vertical cylindrical bar capable of
rising and falling in a loop or carrier, and also of turning on its axis in
the said loop or carrier. This loop is carried by a square bar fixed across
the plough tail.
By the method described of attaching the rotating fork to the plough
the said rotating fork is capable of being raised and lowered, and also of

page_text: being twisted so that the vertical plane in which it rotates may be inclined
at any required angle to the furrow to suit the nature of the soil to be
operated upon.
The adjusting mechanism is provided with set screws to firmly fix the.
adjusted rotating fork in the required position. I do not however confine
myself to this particular method of connecting the rotating fork to the
plough. The said rotating fork is applicable to ridge potato raising
ploughs and single and double ploughs, and also to cultivators.
In applying the said rotating fork to ploughs for raising potatoes I
use a ridge plough body having the mould boards shorter than usual,
and I fix a rotating fork at the back of each of the said mould boards
for the purpose of forking the potatoes on to the surface of the land.
In applying the said rotating fork to cultivators I remove the ordinary
tines from the frame of the cultivator, and fix to the said frame a series
of small plough bodies, each plough body having behind it one of the
said rotating forks constructed and arranged as herein-before described
with respect to ploughs.
My Invention consists further in constructing the fore ends of ploughs
in the following way :-According to my Invention I make the fore end
of ploughs separate from the main beam instead of making it in one
piece therewith as usual. The front end of the main beam is provided
with a tenon or bar which engages in a mortice or fork in the rear end
of the separable or detachable fore end, the two parts being connected
together by rivets or screw bolts and nuts. The detachable fore end for
wheel ploughs is provided with boxes or mortices to carry the vertical
bars of the wheels. For swing or hand ploughs which require the beam
to be much shorter than that of a wheel plough I remove the fore end
which is fitted with wheel boxes, and fix on the beam a shorter fore end
and fix it by the tenon and mortice herein-before described.
Besides facility of manufacture and convenience in repair this part of
my Invention enables a wheel plough to be converted into a swing or
hand plough with great facility by the use of a different fore end. This
part of my Invention it applicable to wheel ploughs, double furrow,
ridge, and swing ploughs.
1
Having explained the notum of my Invention T
d

page_text: describe with reference to the accompanying Drawings the manner in
which the same is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents in elevation, and Figure 2 in plan a single furrow
plough with which is combined a rotating or revolving fork constructed
according to my Invention.
'
a, b, is the rotating fork placed behind the mould board c of the plough
and crossing the furrow made by the said plough. The said rotating
fork works in a vertical plane, and its construction and the mechanism
för connecting it to the plough and adjusting its position are herein-
after described. The said rotating fork and parts connected therewith
are represented on a larger scale detached from the plough in front.
elevation in Figure 3, side elevation in Figure 4, and vertical section in
Figures 5 and 6; and the mechanism for attaching the rotating fork to
the plough and for adjusting its position is represented also on a larger
scale in Figures 7, 8, 9, and 10, Figures 7 and 8 being elevations taken
at right angles to one another, Figure 9 a portion of Figure 7 in section,
and Figure 10 a plan of Figure 8.
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several
Figures of the Drawings.
The said rotating fork consists of a boss or centre piece a having a
long hollow bearing a². In the periphery of the said boss a row of
curved (or straight) spikes or prongs b, b, are cast (see the sections
Figures 5 and 6) or fixed. The rotating fork is connected with the
plough in the following manner:-The boss or centre piece a and its
bearing a turn upon the horizontal arm d³ of the bar d, d³, the said
´arm d³ being secured in the said bearing a³ by the cape and cross pin
or cotter f, the said pin or cotter passing through the said cap and the
extreme end of the arm d' (see Figure 5). By an examination of
Figures 5 and 6 it will be seen that the rotating fork a, b, takes a
bearing at one end against the shoulder d³ of the arm d³, and at the
other end against the cap e. Fixed across the plough tail is a slotted
bar capable of adjustment, having at its cylindrical and cranked end *
a carrier for the rotating fork. The bar h, h³, is represented detached
from the plough in Figure 24, and the manner in which it is connected
to the plough tail is readily seen in the Drawing. The carrier of the
rotating fork consists of a block or frame i, and two loops or eyes k, l,
Having screwed stems and fixing screw nuts marked respectively, r,
.

page_text: (see the section of Figure 9). The loop or eye k is situated horizontally
and the loop or eye is situated vertically. The carrier i is fixed on
the cross bar h of the plough by sliding the eye or loop k on the cranked
end h² of the said bar h, and fixing it thereon by driving home the screw
nut k², and the rotating fork a, b, is connected to the said carrier by
the nearly vertical arm d of the said fork being introduced into the
loop or eye l, and secured in the said loop by driving home the screw
nut. The arm & passed through the loop lies in depressions at
(see Figure 8) above and below the said loop, the driving home of the
screw nut binding the said arm in the said depressions 1, 1, and
thereby connecting the fork firmly to the plough. The rotating
fork a, b, so attached to the plough is capable of being raised or
lowered by raising or lowering the arm d in the loop 1, and also of
being inclined at any required angle to the furrow by swivelling the
arm d in the said loop 7, and swivelling the loop k upon the cranked
arm h³, the motion of the fork in a horizontal plane being effected by
the turning of the arm d in the loop 1, and the motion of the fork in a
vertical plane being effected by the turning of the loop k upon the
fixed cranked arm h³. By sliding the loop k on the cranked end *
of the bar h the distance to which it is wished the rotating fork to
project from the side of the plough may be adjusted. After the
height, angle, and position of the rotating fork a, b, have been adjusted,
the driving home of the screw nuts k*, *, fixes the fork in its adjusted
position.
Although I have found the mechanism described and represented for
attaching the rotating fork to the plough and for adjusting its position
thereon to answer well in practice, yet I do not limit myself thereto as
other mechanical arrangements may be employed for those purposes
herein-after described and illustrated in the Drawings.
When a plough provided with my Invention is at work the fork a, b,
behind the mould board is rotated by coming in contact with the furrow,
and as the plough advances the said rotating fork lifts and lightens up
the soil on the surface of the furrow, and forks out or separates the
twitch therefrom.
The series of curved (or straight) spikes or prongs 6 of the rotating
fork may either be cast in the boss or centre piece a, or the said spikes
or prongs may be so secured in the boss that on the breaking of one or

page_text: more of them the said broken spikes can readily be removed or
replaced by fresh ones.
Various arrangements may be employed for fixing the spikes or prongs
in the boss or centre piece of the fork.
In Figures 3, 4, 5, and 6 the spikes or prongs are fixed in the boss by
casting, and in Figures 11 and 12 the parts of the boss and the spikes or
prongs are so constructed that the said spikes or prongs are capable of
being readily fixed in and removed from the said boss. In the last
arrangement the boss or centre piece is made in halves, the said halves
being marked respectively a and a³, the half a being made in one piece
with the long bearing a², and the other half a³ being made separable
therefrom.
Figure 13 represents in front elevation the half boss a drawn to a
larger scale.
Figure 14 represents in front elevation the other and separable half
boss a³.
And Figure 15 represents in section the parts a, a³, joined together
with the prongs b, b, between them. In the inner faces of each of the
half bosses a, a³, depressions a*, a*, are made of a shape proper to receive
the heads 6, 6, and parts of the stems of the prongs b, b. By placing
the heads b³, 63, of the prongs b, b, in the depressions a, a, in the
half boss a, and arranging the separable half boss a³ upon the boss a, so
that the heads are completely enclosed between the two half bosses, and
then fastening the said bosses together by the screw pins and nuts at a³,
a³, the prongs are securely fixed in the boss, and in case of breakage
may be readily removed therefrom and fresh ones fixed in their places.
The heads on the inner ends of the prongs and the depressions in the
halves of the boss to receive the said heads may have the shape repre-
sented in Figures 16, 17, and 18, or other convenient shape.
Figure 19 represents in elevation and Figure 20 in plan another a
method of attaching the prongs to the boss or centre piece. In this
arrangement the separable half boss as is omitted, and the boss a, made
in one piece with the long bearing a², is provided with a flange aª, in
which flange openings a' are made through which the prongs b pass.
The inner ends of the prongs b are furnished with eyes, through which a
eyes and the openings a' in the boss screw bolts m are passed for fixing

page_text: the prongs to the boss, the said bolts being secured in their places by the
screw nuts n, as will be understood by an examination of Figure 20.
Although I have only represented a rotating fork provided with a
single row of prongs, yet the said fork may be provided with two or
more rows of single or double prongs.
i
Figure 21 represents in plan a double-furrow plough to which my
Invention is applied. c, c, are the two mould boards, behind each of
which a rotating fork a, b, constructed according to my Invention is
situated. In this plough the height and angle of each of the rotating
forks are adjusted by sliding and swivelling the arm d of the fork in the
fixed loop or eye on the frame of the double plough, the adjusted
position of the fork being fixed by driving home the screw bolt w.
Where the plough has more than two mould boards I place a rotating
fork behind each mould board.
Figure 22 represents in elevation and Figure 23 in plan a ridge or
potato raising plough provided with my Invention. In this plough I
fix a rotating fork a, b, constructed as herein-before described at the
back of each of the mould boards r, r, of the plough, the said mould
boards being shorter than those commonly used in ridge ploughs. The
said rotating forks form a continuation of the rear ends of the mould
boards r, r, as seen in the plan Figure 23.
The height and angle of the rotating forks a, b, a, b, may be adjusted
in any required manner. In the Drawing I have shown an arrangement
for adjusting the said forks, consisting of a sliding plate & carrying
hemispherical bearings (s, t, and eyes or loops t, t, through which loops the
arms u, u, of the forks are passed. The loops or eyes t, t, are fixed in
the hemispherical bearings t³, t, the said bearings turning in cup-like
sockets carried by the sliding plate s. By sliding the plate & in the
frame of the plough the height of the forks may be adjusted, and by
swivelling the hemispherical bearings, t, in their sockets the angle of
the said forks may be adjusted. The fixing of each of the arms u, u,
of the forks is effected by means of a screwed stem on the under side of
the loop t. This stem passes through the hemispherical bearing t² and
its socket, and has a screw nut on its lower end, by tightening which
screw nut the hemispherical bearing is fixed in its cup-like socket. By
the sliding of the arms u, u, of the forks in their loops t, t, the said

page_text: forks can be adjusted at a greater, or less distance apart, so as to form
ridges of different distances apart.
When the plough is in use for lifting potatoes the rotating forks a, b, a,b,
lift the potatoes which have been raised by the action of the mould
boards r, r, on to the surface of the land. When used for ridging the
rotating forks assist the mould boards in forming the ridges.
Figure 24 represents in plan a triangular or V cultivator, to which a
series of rotating forks constructed according to my Invention is applied.
Each of the said forks a, b, is situated behind a small plough body (not
represented in the Drawings) fixed to the frame of the cultivator, or the 1
said rotating forks may be used as represented, that is, without plough
bodies or tines. These forks are adjusted in the manner before described
with respect to the double plough, Figure 21.
Figure 25 represents in plan a square frame cultivator to which a
series of rotating forks constructed according to my Invention is applied. 1
In this cultivator the rotating forks are arranged diagonally in the
cultivator frame, each fork being situated behind a small plough body
fixed to the frame. The cultivator may however be used without the
said plough bodies, as represented in the Drawing. By an examination
of Figure 25, it will be seen that the whole of the rotating forks a, b, 2
are carried by a shaft x, turning in adjustable bearings in the cultivator
frame, the boss a of each fork having a square hole in it which takes
'shaft x.
upon the
square
The long bearings a³ of the several forks
a, b, abut against one another and are bound firmly together on the
shaft x.
Figure 26 represents in plan and section the separable or detachable
fore end of a wheel plough constructed according to my Invention; and
Figure 27 represents in plan the separable or detachable fore end of a
swing or hand plough constructed according to my Invention. 1 is the
front end of the beam, and 2 is the separable fore end. The front end
of the beam 1 is provided with a tenon or bar 3, which engages in a
mortice or fork 4 in the rear end of the separable or detachable fore
end 2, the engaged parts 3 and 4 being connected together by a rivet or
rivets at 5, or by screw bolts and nuts. In order to prevent motion in

page_text: a horizontal plane of the beam in the fore end the part 6 of the mortice
4 is provided with internal side shoulders with which the extreme end of
the tenon 3 of the beam engages as best seen in the section of Figure
26. 8, 8, are the boxes or mortices for carrying the vertical bars of the
wheels of the plough.
By constructing the fore ends of ploughs according to my Invention,
the plough may be converted into a wheel plough or swing plough at
pleasure by applying to the plough one or other of the fore ends
represented in Figures 26 and 27 of the Drawings..
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do
not limit myself to the precise details herein-before described and
illustrated in the Drawings, as the same may be varied without departing
from the nature of my Invention. But I claim as my Invention of
improvements in ploughs and cultivators,-
Firstly. Constructing and adapting to ploughs one or more rotating
or revolving forks working in a vertical plane, one of the said rotating
or revolving forks being situated bebind the mould board on each of the
mould boards of the plough, each of the said rotating or revolving forks
consisting essentially of a boss or centre piece in the periphery of which
one or more rows of spikes or prongs are cast or fixed, substantially as
herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
Secondly. The combination with each of the small plough bodies of
cultivators of a rotating or revolving fork constructed and applied.
substantially as herein-before described, also the combination of the said
rotating or revolving forks with cultivator frames without plough bodies
or tines, as herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawings.
Thirdly. The several arrangements or combinations of parts herein-
before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings for
connecting the rotating fork or forks to the plough or cultivator, and for
adjusting the height, angle, and position of the said fork or forks.
Lastly. Constructing the fore ends of ploughs separate from the main

page_text: mortice, or other equivalent connection, substantially as and for the
purposes herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Corbett, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Third day of September, in the year of 5
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
SAMUEL CORBETT. (L.s.)