IMPROVED DELIVERY APPARATUS FOR HARVEST MACHINES
Year: 1859

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by William McIntyre Cranston at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Decla-
ration, on the 16th July 1859, pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent
Law Amendment Act, 1852.-A communication from abroad by Walter
Abbott Wood, of Hoosick Falls, County of Renssalaer, State of New
York, America.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MCINTYRE CRANSTON, 11, New Broad Street, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVED DELIVERY
APPARATUS FOR HARVEST MACHINES," and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant
unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters
Patent for the same, and have made solemn declaration that the same is a
communication to me from abroad by Walter Abbott Wood, of Hoosick Falls,
County of Rensselaer, State of New York, America:
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William McIntyre Cranston, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification under my hand and seal
fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed :-
Fig. 1, represents a top view of a platform upon which the cut grain falls,
and showing the series of carrying belts in place; Fig. 2 represents a top view
of a similar platform, with a modified arrangement of the belts for effecting

page_text: the same object; Figs. 3 and 4, represents vertical cross sections through the
platform and conveying apparatus. Similar letters of reference where they
occur in the several Figures denotes like parts of the apparatus in all of them.
Carrying belts have been used in conveying grain from the platform of a
harvesting machine, but where so used the belts have all been of uniform
length, or the platform has been rectangular, which of course implies the use
of belts of uniform lengths.
My Invention consists in the application of a series of carrying belts to an
oblique delivery, and which implies the use of belts of variable lengths inas-
much as the line of delivery is not parallel to or at right angles with the front
or grain side of the platform. Or, in other words, my Invention consists in
conveying cut grain from the platform of a harvesting machine by a system or
series of endless belts combined with a platform having at least one oblique
side, or by a system or series of belts of varying lengths, to effect an oblique
delivery of the grain.
To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my Invention, I will
proceed to describe the same with reference to the Drawings.
A, represents a platform with five sides, in which the side 1 is placed next
to the cutting apparatus, and the side is the delivery side. Over the top of
this platform, and around rollers or drums at the sides 2, 3, thereef, pass a
series of carrying belts a, a, &c. These belts do not travel in a right line, but
pass behind pulleys c, c, where their parallelism with the front of the platform
is changed, and from thence they run in an oblique direction to the delivery
edge 2, pass around the roller or drum there, and return under the platform
to the opposite side 3, and so on. The platform stands at an inclination from
front to rear (1 to 4), as shown in Figs. 3, 4, and the pullies c as shown in
Fig. 3, have a greater inclination than the platform, the object being to pre-
vent them from opposing the free conveyance of the grain by projecting above
the platform in front, but to project in rear sufficient to allow the carrying
belts a, a, to run or pass in their grooves, and to prevent the straw from
getting underneath the belts, inclined ribs e, as shown in Fig. 4, are placed
in front of said belts, which raise up the straw and prevents it from getting
under them.
B is a shield at the frame end of the platform which may be a simple
piece of bent wiro that will catch and partially retain the butts of the stalks
as they are carried along by the belts, whilst the heads continue to move
along, and thus the bundle or gavel is turned around until it is parallel with
the oblique delivery side 2, where it drops off on to the ground by the con-
tinued motion of the belts.

page_text: In Fig. 2, the same oblique delivery is attained by the series of belts, but
in this case the pulley c are moved to the delivery side and set up edgewise,
which in effect would be the same as cutting up the drum or roller of Fig. 1
into sections, one for each helt. This modification admits of the belts moving
in a right line instead of a partially oblique one, but they must be of variablo
lengths, so as to come out to the line of the oblique or delivery side.
It is obvious that an oblique rear delivery may be effected by the same
system of belts of variable lengths, or any delivery, when the delivery side is
not parallel to or at right angles with the line of cutters or the receiving side
of the platform. And it is immaterial to my Invention what the general form
of the platform may be, whether four (as in Fig. 2) or five-sided, as in Fig. 1.
It may be of a trapezoidal or rhomboidal form, but so long as the delivery
side is oblique to the receiving side of the platform, and the grain is carried by
a series of two or more belts, I should consider it as involving my Invention.
The belts may be driven from any of the moving parts of the harvester, and
their motion graduated to the quality of the crop. The motion may be con-
tinuous or intermittent, just as the delivery may be preffered, all of which is
well known to mechanicians, and need not be more than mentioned.
Having thus fully described the nature and object of my Invention, what I
claim therein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is effecting an
oblique delivery of the cut grain from the platform, where it falls by a series
of carrying belts of different lengths, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William M°Intyre Cranston, bave here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
W. M. CRANSTON. (L.S.)