IMPROVEMENTS IN HARROWS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Shaw, of New Wortley, Leeds, Implement
Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN HARROWS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Shaw at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd
January 1864.
I, JOHN SHAW, of New Wortley, Leeds, Implement Manufacturer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
HARROWS," to be as follows:-
My improvements have reference to the description of harrows well known
as chain harrows or link harrows. To make these harrows more efficient in
arable land, (more especially when following the cultivator, harrowing out
couch grass, and in some lands in preparing the surface as a seed bed,) I
propose to add to the front of the harrow a second harrow having tines or
prongs as in the ordinary beam Harrow. This tined or pronged portion may
either precede the rows of links or be placed beneath them, or it may be

page_text: over the links, so that the tines project through them and work simultaneously
with them on the same surface.
I prefer the last named mode of arrangement, and for the sake of
lightness and economy of construction I propose to put the tines in that
part or those parts of the chain barrow which is or are used for keeping
it stretched out, and which are called stretchers. I intend these tined or
pronged stretchers to be hinged, linked, or otherwise so attached to the
chain part of the harrow that when the action of the tines on the ground is
not desired, they may be raised and held suspended or be turned quite over
with the points upwards, their efficiency as stretchers being still retained.
With this improvement the implement will be adapted for use as a chain
harrow simply and also as a composite chain and tined harrow.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Shaw in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 19th
July 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
SHAW, of New Wortley, Leeds, Implement Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the
-year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Shaw, Her special licence that I, the said John Shaw, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Shaw,
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 Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN HARROWS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Shaw, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Shaw, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say:
My improvements have reference to the description of harrows well known
as chain harrows or link harrows. To make these harrows more efficient in
arable land, (more especially when following the cultivator, harrowing out
couch grass, and in some lands in preparing the surface as a seed bed,) I
propose to add to the front of the harrow a second harrow having tines or
prongs as in the ordinary beam harrow. This tined or pronged portion may
either precede the rows of links or be placed beneath them, or it may be over
the links, so that the tines project through them and work simultaneously with
them on the same surface.
I prefer the last named mode of arrangement, and for the sake of
lightness and economy of construction I propose to put the tines in that part
or those parts of the chain harrow which is or are used for keeping it
stretched out, and which are called stretchers. I intend these tined or
pronged stretchers to be hinged, linked, or otherwise so attached to the chain
part of the harrow that when the action of the tines on the ground is not
desired, they may be raised and held suspended or be turned quite over with
the points upwards, their efficiency as stretchers being still retained. With
this improvement the implement will be adapted for use as a chain harrow
simply, and also as a composite chain and tined harrow.
In the accompanying Drawing, Figures 1 and 2 represent the plan
and side view respectively of a portion of a chain harrow a, with its draught
irons 6 and draught pole c. My improvements are shewn by the parts
colored blue.
A, A', A", are angular shaped stretchers or beams; t, t, t, in Fig. 2, are the
tines, which are attached to the beams by nuts, or in any known mechanical
way; these tines t are shewn projecting through the links on to or into the
ground. The dotted lines t' show the same, tines reversed with their points
upwards, the beams being still retained as stretchers. The tines can be with-
drawn from the ground and reversed by unhooking the draught chains at
d, d, d, and turning the beams or stretchers A, A¹, A", on their backs, the
eyes at e, e, e, forming fulcra for that purpose. Instead of the preceding plan
tined beams may be attached to and precede the links where the draught
chains are now shewn, or they may be placed underneath the links and be
detachable when necessary. Any mechanic would be able to accomplish this,

page_text: therefore Drawings of any particular plan of doing it are unnecessary for the
purpose of this Patent.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Shaw, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord,
1864.
Witness to the Signature,
JOHN THOMAS SHAW,
New Wortley,
(Clerk.)
JOHN SHAW. (L.S.)