IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Archibald Brooman, at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
April 1862. A communication from abroad by Ernest Clement, of 23,
Boulevard de Strasbourg, Paris, France.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES," (communicated to me
from abroad by Ernest Clement, of 23, Boulevard de Strasbourg, Paris,
France,) to be as follows:-
These improvements mainly consist in the construction and employment in
reaping and mowing machines of an apparatus, constructed as hereafter
described, for collecting the cut crop, and delivering it in sheaves from the
side of the machine. This apparatus consists of an endless chain carrying
rakes, which pass above and below the platform; it is supported by a fore
carriage in the form of a sledge, carrying the finger beam and knife, and
jointed to a bind carriage mounted on wheels. The fore carriage is supported
upon two metal bars in preference to rollers, which have been found to enter
the soil, grass, or straw, with which they come in contact, and become
entangled or charged therewith; it is supported at the rear by a train
of wheels fixed to the frame, the side bar of which has a groove formed in it,
covered by plates forming sockets, and uniting the frame and one of the metal
bars before mentioned, whereby the necessary joint is formed for uniting the

page_text: two carriages, and the fore part and cutting apparatus are enabled to follow
the undulations of the soil. The outer end of the axle on which the train of
wheels is mounted, has a series of holes in it, whereby the position of the
bearing or running wheel may be altered, so as to equalize the resistance
offered by the crop. This arrangement is intended to remedy the incon-
venience arising in ordinary reaping and mowing machines, from the knife
moving obliquely in proportion to the strength of the crop. A toothed wheel
with spring clutch on the wheel axle transmits motion through wheels and
jointed rods to the knife. The separator or divider is fitted with a cutting
blade for cutting the grass or other herb which will not separate, and which
would otherwise clog it, and which is delivered on to the platform. The reel
for throwing the corn to the knife has rotary motion imparted to it through a
pulley on its own shaft, communicating by a band with another pulley on a
shaft, receiving motion from a pulley on the same shaft as that communicating
motion to the knife. The rake chains have motion communicated to them.
across and round the platform by belts and bevelled wheels, driven from the
main wheels of the machine. The motion communicated to the rakes causes
them to deliver the cut crop in sheaves or bundles on the left side of
the machine, at regular intervals. The pole which is supported and held by a
moveable bolt to a bar rising from the fore carriage, in which several holes
are pierced, in order to raise or lower the point of traction according
to requirement. The driver's seat is placed at the rear of the machine; the
driver has the whole of the machine before him, and has the working parts
wholly under his control, and can with his foot throw the knife out of gear,
and stop the machine when he desires; this seat is placed to the left of the
machine, so that its weight and that of the driver may counterbalance that of
the knife carrier; if, however, this is not sufficient, a weight may be suspended
from the seat frame, so that the driver by moving out of his seat to the left,
may raise the knife carrier. This machine is with facility moved from
place to place, and can be easily altered from a reaping to a mowing machine,
and vice versa.