CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN POWER MACHINES OR MACHINERY FOR TILLING, DRAINING, AND OTHERWISE CUL- TIVATING LAND, AND IN THE MODE OR MODES OF WORKING THE SAME
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
TULLON OSBORN, of Demerara, now residing in London, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twenty-third day of July, in the tenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Tulloh Osborn, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial
license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Tulloh
Osborn, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Tulloh Osborn, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all
Her Majesty's Colinies and Plantations abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN POWER MACHINES OR MACHINERY FOR TILLING, DRAINING, AND OTHERWISE CUL-
TIVATING LAND, AND IN THE MODE OR MODES OF WORKING THE SAME;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said John Tulloh Osborn,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, .I, the said
John Tulloh Osborn, hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described in and
by the present Specification thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, that is to say:
My said improvements have reference to such power machines or machinery
for tilling, draining, and otherwise cultivating land, as may be actuated either
by the direct impulsive force of steam, or water, or air, or by vacuum pressure
obtained through the instrumentality of these elementary agents, or by a
combination of both means, or by animal power, and consist in certain
improved methods of transmitting the power of such machines or machinery
to the machines or implements by which the tilling, or draining, or other
process of husbandry is effected, such as-ploughs, harrows, rollers, scarifiers,
crushers, dibbers, &c. And these improved methods are as follows:-
Firstly, to till, by means of steam or other power, an open field or piece of
land not intersected by roads, or canals, or wide ditches, I make use of two
locomotive engines similar to those used on railways, except that the power
of the pistons is differently applied. I place them on the land to be tilled
at distances of from one hundred to two hundred yards apart, and exactly
opposite the one to the other. I cause them to traverse the land on temporary
rails laid for the purpose in parallel lines, at right angles to the direction in
which the land is to be tilled, that is to say, in which the furrows are to run.
And I employ the pistons of each engine to produce, by means of intermediate
gearing, a continuous revolution of two drums placed on the near side of each
engine, or that side which faces the opposite engine, and on the same frame-
work as the engine, which drums have attached to them chains or ropes by
means of which two ploughs or other tilling machines are simultaneously
drawn in opposite directions from one side of the field to the other. Figure 1
of the annexed Drawings exhibits a transverse elevation, and Figure 2 a plan
of a combination of arrangements of this description. A, A, are the tempo-
rary rails, which consist of hollow, circular tubes of iron or other suitable metal,
of from one and a half to two inches diameter, and of from twelve to fifteen
feet in length; which screw.endwise into one another and rest. on moveable
chairs a, a, which are supported by moveable wooden planks or sleepers b, b.
B, B, are the engines, an elevation and plan of one of which are given sepa-
rately on an enlarged scale in Figures 3 and 4. The bearing wheels W, W,
are made with broad flat ties, having semicircular grooves in the centre
of the same diameter as the circular tubular rails, so that the engine
may be moved or drawn on common roads to the place of operations,

page_text: and then shifted on to the tubular rails. D³, D³, D³, D', are the drums.
E is a crank shaft worked by the pistons P, P, which has on
one end
of it a vertical pinion F, which takes into a horizontal bevel wheel G,
which works a horizontal cog wheel H, which turns in opposite directions two
spur wheels K, K, attached respectfully to the axes of the drums. M', M³,
are two ploughs. Each plough is worked to and fro by means of one of the
pairs of opposite drums D', D³, or D', D', and the chains or ropes attached
thereto. Supposing, for example, the plough M³ to commence operations at
p, there are two chains or ropes r, r², attached to it, one (1) in front,. and
the other () behind, the former being the chain or rope belonging to the
drum D¹, from which it is almost wholly unwound at starting, and the latter
being the chain or rope belonging to the drum D', round which it is at the
same stage of the operations, nearly all coiled. On the engines being set to
work the drum D' winds up the chain or rope r³, and draws forward the
plough M', while the plough M', as it advances, unwinds 'the rope r² from the
drum D³, and brings it along with it forward to the point q, in order that it
may be there ready for the return operation of the drum. The rear chain or
rope, is not attached directly to the plough like the other, but to an
outrigger O, in order that it may be always laid down on the outside of the
plough at a distance from it equal to the breadth desired to be given to the
furrows. While the plough M¹ is thus working in one direction, and laying
down the chain or rope by which it is to be worked back to the side
from which it started, the other plough, M³, is performing a similar course
of operations in the reverse direction. When both ploughs have each
traversed the ground once, the engines are moved forwards the breadth
of one furrow by means of a chain or, rope V, one end of which is
attached to an anchor laid out ahead, as shewn in Figure 2, and the other
to a drum (not seen in the Drawings) connected with the crank shaft. When,
again, the plough M¹ has, ploughed up to the part where the plough M²
commenced working, the engines are moved forwards a distance equal to the
entire space (say five feet) between the outermost parts of each pairs of drums,
so as to bring the drums D' and D³ the breadth of one furrow beyond the
point where the plough M has just previously ceased its operations. And in
order that the ploughs and ropes or chains may be correspondingly advanced,
the following arrangements are adopted :-Each plough is provided with an
extra outrigger (laid loosely on two crutches affixed to the plough frame), of a
length equal to the breadth tilled by each plough in each entire remove of the
engines, and the breadth of one furrow more, which extra outrigger is sub-
stituted for the other when the plough comes to its last course of work, (in

page_text: each remove) so that it shall lay down the chain or rope for the next return
course on the advanced line at which the plough has to resume operations.
Each plough again, when it comes to the end of its last course of work, is
directed by the person superintending its operation on to an inclined plane,
attached by hinges to the near side of each engine, which gradually raises it
free of the ground, and on which it is held till the remove of the engines has
been effected; and so the work goes on till the whole field has been ploughed.
Rails may be laid down at once for the whole distance which the engines have
to travel over, or two lengths only may be made use of, one to be always
employed in sustaining the engine, and one to be taken up from behind at
each entire remove forward of the engines, and re-screwed into the front ends
of the rails left on the ground.
Secondly. Where the field to be tilled is bounded on the two sides along
which the engines have to travel by canals or ditches filled with water of depth
enough to float boats or punts, I place the engines in such boats or punts, and
make the drums to slide on their axes, so that they can be raised or lowered to
suit the relative levels of the ground and water. An arrangement of this
description is represented in Figure 5 of the annexed Drawings. Or, should the
field, though thus bounded on two sides by canals or wet ditches, happen to be
of two great a width to be mastered at one ploughing or tilling, I make use of
each canal or ditch as a substitute for one line of rails only, and lay the other
on the ground, as in the case first herein-before provided for.
Thirdly. Where land happens to be so much intersected by open and deep
drains or ditches as not to be conveniently cultivated (if at all) by ploughs or
other tilling instruments of the ordinary length, I employ, in combination with
power engines in the manner aforesaid, ploughs of the description represented
in Figure 6 (a plan) and Figure 7 (a side elevation) of the Drawings hereunto
annexed. I may cite, as an example of the sort of land to which I here
allude, the territory of British Guiana, which consists of a broad alluvial flat,
with a slight descent towards the sea, which is regularly intersected at
distances of from twenty-four to thirty-six feet, with opens drains of from two
to four feet wide, in order to draw off the vast quantities of surplus water
which fall during the rainy seasons. As animals cannot step over such drains,
and maintain at the same time their draught at a plough, it is impossible to
use animals at all for ploughing in the country referred to, except at an
enormous disadvantage; neither would it be practicable to introduce there
steam or other mechanical power as a substitute for human labour in
ploughing, unless accompanied with ploughs of a length greatly exceeding that
of the ploughs ordinarily employed in agriculture, in order that they may be

page_text: drawn across such drains without dipping, or any material deviation from the
horizontal line. The Drawings Figures 6 and 7 represent a plough of the
elongated description required for such localities, and possessing other pecu-
liarities consequent upon or arising out of such elongation. A, A, is the beam..
It may be made either of wood, or of wood and iron, or wholly of iron, as it is
represented in the Drawing. The two side pieces of the beam B, B, are
similarly shaped plates of thin iron, firmly held together by bolts and nuts.
C, C, are intermediate pieces which serve to keep the side pieces B, B, at about
three or four inches apart, the distance depending upon the size of the
machine and the nature of the work which it is intended to perform. D, D,
are two coulters, one fronting towards each end. E is a double ended share,
the two ends of which correspond to the coulters D, D. F is a moveable
mould board, which is free to turn upon its axis so as to point either towards
the right or left hand coulter, as may be desired. When the mould board is
set in the position shewn in the Drawing, the plough is in trim for proceeding
towards the left; but, supposing it to have arrived at the end of the furrow,
the mould board would then be turned with its opposite end towards the solo
of the earth-board, which would bring the plough into trim for returning
towards the right. H, H, are wheels for regulating the depth of the cut to be
taken by the plough, and which also serve as a means for transporting it from
place to place, the arms I, I, being of sufficient length to raise the whole of
the cutting part of the plough clear of the ground. K is a subsoil cutter
which may be drawn up from or lowered deeper into the earth at pleasure; it
is represented in the Drawing at its greatest range of depth. L is a handle
which fits alternately into a recess in either end of the plough beam, by which
the action of the plough is regulated by hand. M, M, are outriggers, for the
purpose described under the first head of this Specification. In order to
facilitate the shifting of this plough from one part of a field to another, (which,
from its being necessarily of greater weight than the common plough, might
not be easily done by hand, I propose to attach to the framework of each
engine a small crane by hooking the plough, on to which it can be moved to
either side with ease, and to project also from the near side of each engine
frame an inclined plane (similar to that before described) on to which the
plough may pass as it comes to the end of each course of work, and be thus
gradually raised free of the soil and made ready for the crane to act upon it.
Fourthly and lastly, my Invention consists of another form of implement
well suited for being used in combination with power engines, in the manner
aforesaid, as a grubber, or scarifier, or subsoil plough. Figure 8 is an eleva-
tion, and Figure 9 a plan of this implement. It has a two-way action, like

page_text: that last described, so as to be capable of cutting either to the right or left
without being turned round. A, A, is the beam; B, B, wheels, which both
support the implement and regulate the depth of the cut to be taken by the
machine. C, C, is a framework attached to the beam A, A, to which frame
are attached three sets cutters D, D, D. In the Drawings these cutters are
represented as of a triangular shape, but they may be made of any other
suitable form.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, in the several
parts of which the same consists, I declare that what I claim is as follows:-
First, I claim the two several improvements in power machines and ma-
chinery for tilling, draining, and otherwise cultivating land, and the several modes
of working the same, described under the first and second heads of this Specifica-
tion, in the general arrangement and combination of parts of which the same
consists; that is to say, in so far as the employment of two engines, each fitted
with two drums and ropes or chains to cause the simultaneous and reciprocating
progression of two ploughs or other implements in opposite directions, forms an
essential part of the said arrangements and combinations.
And, second, I clam the employment, in combination with power machines
for tilling, draining, and otherwise cultivating land, of ploughs of the construc-
tion described under the third and fourth heads of this Specification.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Tulloh Osborn, have 'hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.