IMPROVE- MENTS IN HOEING AND OTHERWISE CULTIVATING LAND
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Hawkins Nicholls, of Bedford, in the
County of Bedford, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN HOEING AND OTHERWISE CULTIVATING LAND."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Hawkins
Nicholls at the Office_of_the_Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 28th November 1853.
I, ROBERT HAWKINS NICHOLLS, of Bedford, in the County of Bed-
ford, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN HOEING AND OTHERWISE CULTIVATING LAND" to be
as follows, viz. :-
My Invention has for its object an, apparatus for placing hoes,
paring shares, and cultivator and scarifier tines in such a position as to
cause them to work at an equal depth in the ground when passing over
irregular surfaces, and also to guide them by turning their points in the
ground while the machine is in motion. I proceed to describe the
mechanical arrangement of my Invention. I use an ordinary frame

page_text: having wheels, and on this frame work I fix independent vertical stems
in sockets or otherwise; to these stems I fix hoes, paring shares, culti-
vator or scarifier tines, as the case may be, by simple fastenings, which
will allow them to be removed at pleasure in order to retain the vertical
position of the stems, and at the same time to give them the power of
rising and falling to meet the undulating surface of ploughed land. I
fix them by a sockets to the framework of the machine by two con-
necting bars having a parallel motion, and to regulate their depth in
the land I place a wheel or regulating plate to each of the independent
stems; these stems are cranked at the upper end at right angles, and a
connecting bar is placed by pins to each of them, coupling them all
together. A handle moving upon a pin is fixed upon the frame work
of the machine, and fixed by another pin to the bar already described;
this handle will then act as a lever, and enable the operator to turn the
stems in their sockets, and the points of the hoes, paring shares, and
tines already described will be directed in the position in which the
implement is required to move. A simple lever is fixed upon the frame
work to lift the stems and hoes out of the ground when required.
The improvements effected by my Invention are that an implement
so constructed will hoe, pare, and cultivate land at an equal depth when
passing over unlevel surfaces, and that the machine can be guided
when at work in any direction by a certain and simple process.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Hawkins Nicholls in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 27th May 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
ROBERT HAWKINS NICHOLLS, of Bedford, in the County of Bedford,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of November, in
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her.reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
the

page_text: sors, give and grant unto me, the said Robert Hawkins Nicholls, Her
special licence that I, the said Robert Hawkins Nicholls, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said 'Robert
Hawkins Nicholls, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times.
thereafter during the term therein 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN HOEING AND OTHERWISE CULTIVATING LAND,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Robert Hawkins
Nicholls, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Robert Hawkins Nicholls, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement (that is to say) :-
My improvements consist in giving to implements of culture, or
certain parts of them, an independent action, vertical or otherwise, in
conjunction with regulating wheels or plates, for the purpose of working
and cultivating land by hoeing, paring, skimming, or scarrifying, drilling,
ploughing, subsoiling, and raking, at an equal and uniform depth from
the surface, and also for pressing and rolling land with an equal or
uniform pressure. The paring or skimming, cultivating, and drilling is
effected by means of hoes, paring shares, tines, and other usual and
necessary appendages of a like nature connected to the usual cultivating -
implements by means of vertical stems, either in sockets or otherwise,
and parallel connecting rods, friction rollers, or other equivalent.
mechanical means, so arranged and connected with the framework of
the implement as to give an independent vertical action to its cutting
or cultivating parts, so that the inequalities or undulations of the land
may form no obstacle to its perfect cultivation. The pressing or rolling
of the land is effected by a series of rings, cylinders, rollers, or their

page_text: equivalents, each having a separate axis, and connected by rods to the
frame, or by vertical stems and parallel connecting rods or other'
mechanical equivalents, giving to each an independent action, vertical
or otherwise: The ploughing of land is effected by the application of
the vertical independent action, as above described, to ploughs fixed in
a suitable framework. The subsoiling is effected by attaching the sub-
soil plough to the beam of a plough or to a framework by the sanie
mechanical means, or by connecting rods, giving it an independent
action, vertical or otherwise; when the subsoil plough is attached to
the beam of the plough it works parallel with it, subsoiling the bottom
of one furrow while another is being-ploughed upon it.
In paring, skimming, scarrifying, cultivating, or grubbing land I
adopt my independent vertical arrangement as" before described, or I
obtain a simply independent action of each tine by giving it motion on
the shaft of the framework of the implement, and by a regulating bar I
prevent the tine from penetrating too deeply into the earth. I also
place a lever to every two or three tines for the purpose of lifting them'
independently of the others:
A double or treble tine may be used to each stem to which the lever
is attached. The advantages of these arrangements are that the imple-
ment is used with greater ease, and cleaned with greater facility. For
ploughs I fix a skim coulter, having a regulating wheel, and my vertical
independent action upon the beam of the plough. In applying these
improved mechanical arrangements to the drilling of land each deposit-
ing stem or coulter has an independent vertical action, whose depth of
working is regulated by a press or other wheel or regulating plate.
. The seed is. delivered from the seed box or hopper on to a wheel,
which, instead of turning round in the usual manner, and delivering the
seed from cups cut in the centre of the rim, receives a to and fro or
reciprocating motion by means of any suitable contrivance or means
derivable from the motion of the regulating wheels, and delivers the
seed from grooves or recesses cut out of the sides of the wheel. Each
stem is an independent drill, and may be used singly, or several may be
used together, and may be connected to a plough or other implement of
In raking land I attach the usual rake to my vertical stem
culture.

page_text: with regulating wheel, as described for the hoes. The mode of draught
I apply to agricultural implements in which shafts are used, consists in
giving them a loose parallel motion by means of pins, cross bars and
slots, as represented in the' Drawing. In those implements which
require guiding the stems are fixed in sockets, and turned upon their
axis by means of cranks working in slots, and fixed to a moveable bar,
as before described. In the 'annexed Drawing A is the framework of
the machine for hoeing, on which the various parts are fixed, supported
on wheels. B, B,' are two shafts fixed across the framework, one above
the other, and on which the jointed arms C, C, &c. work, all in the
same parallel. As will be seen by the Drawing, each of the hoes is
fixed by means of a set screw to one end of a cranked shaped piece, to
the other end of which a regulating wheel is likewise attached in such
a manner that the wheel shall be always'in front of the hoe, the point
of which comes a few inches under the wheel so as to enter the requisite
depth into the ground. D, D, &c. are the hollow stem-bearers, having
hinges at the upper and lower extremities with which the jointed arms
C, C, &c. articulate. At the top of these hollow stem bearers are
cranks fixed upon the stems which turn in them, which rise up through
slots fixed into the parallel guide bars" E, E, to which is attached the
guiding handle of the machine, which has its fulcrum on the supporting
bar F.
It is evident that when the guiding handle is turned in any required
direction the parallel bars E, E, will cause (by means of the slots) the
cranks to turn the stems, which run through the hollow stem bearers D,
and consequently the hoes and wheels to which the stems are attached
by means of the lower crank shaped pieces. The path of the machine
itself will also be changed to the same direction with the hoes and
regulating wheels on account of the back wheels of the framework
being connected in like manner to the parallel guide bars by means of
their vertical axles and connecting bars, so that they must always be in
the same direction as the hoes and regulating wheels. It will also be
evident that by my arrangement of the jointed arms and other parts
connected with the hoes and regulating wheels an independent vertical
or upward and downward motion is effected. Thus when the regulating

page_text: wheel passes over uneven ground, as it rises or falls according to the
surface; it does so independently of the other portions of the machine,
and raises or lowers the hoe behind it, so that it shall always cut
at an equal depth, notwithstanding the undulation of the ground. G
is a lever attached to the shaft H, which works in the framework; this
shaft has at each end a semicircular grooved piece, in which a chain is
attached; each chain descends to the bar I, placed underneath the crank
shaped pieces of the hoes and regulating wheels. By this contrivance
it will be evident that I can, by bringing down the handle of the lever,
cause the bar I, to be drawn upwards together with all the hoes and
regulating wheels; the lever is then maintained in the necessary position
by means of the catch K. This motion is intended to be used to
withdraw all the hoes and wheels from their working level, in order to
turn at the end of a field, or that the machine may be conveyed from
place to place without the hoes and regulating wheels coming in contact
with the ground.
The slots in the guide bars E, E, are of sufficient length to allow of
the play of the cranks.
L, L, are the shafts attached to the drawing bar N, by means of
pins for the purpose of the draught of the machine. M, is a rod placed
by pins across the shafts at a right angle with the line of draught, and
parallel with the drawing bar. O, 0, are two bars placed diagonally
one over the other, and attached to the drawing bar by the same pins
as the shafts. At their other extremities they have slots, and are
attached to the shafts by means of the same pins which attach the bar
M. By this contrivance the unsteady or rocking motion of the horse
is prevented from being communicated to the implement. I claim,
first, with regard to the hoes, the independent vertical action of the hoes,
together with that of the regulating wheels or plates, and the turning
the points or hoes and regulating wheels in the required direction, as
herein described, or by any other means substantially the same. With
regard to the drill, the independent vertical action of the depositing
stem, and the regulating wheels or plates, and the mode of depositing
the seed, as described. As regards the subsoil plough, I claim the
position of the subsoiler on the plough, either with or without my

page_text: independent action, vertical or otherwise, as described. For the paring
plough, skimmer, or cultivator, the independent action, vertical or other-
wise, of the shares and tines, and the independent lever, as described.
For the roller or land press, the independent action of the pressing or
rolling parts, and the turning or directing them when at work, as
described. For the horse rake, the independent vertical action and
regulating wheels. For ploughs, the independent action as described. I
claim also the mode of draught, as described, or any other substantially
the same, as being applicable to all agricultural implements in which
shafts are used. I claim the mode of adaptation of the skim coulter to
ploughs, as described. I claim, lastly, the independent vertical action of
the hoes, either as effected by the arrangement described, or by the aid
of friction rollers or any other arrangement substantially the same.
Likewise the independent vertical action aforesaid, as regards their use,
in any other agricultural implements whatever; also the guiding or
turning, as well as the draught, either as effected as herein described, or
by any other arrrangement substantially the same, as being also appli-
cable as above.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Hawkins Nicholls, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of
May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-four.
ROBT H. NICHOLLS. (L.S.)