IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TOPPING, TAILING, AND LIFTING TURNIPS AND SIMILAR VEGETABLES
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Thom, Proprietor, of Leden, Urquhart, Strathmiglo,
in the County of Fife, North Britain, and James Constable, Blacksmith, of
Balvaird, in the same County, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR TOPPING, TAILING, AND LIFTING TURNIPS AND SIMILAR
VEGETABLES."
Sealed the 18th July 1876, and dated the 26th January 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Thom and James
Constable at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 26th January.
1876.
JAMES THOM, Proprietor, of Leden, Urquhart, Strathmiglo, in the County of Fife,
North Britain, and JAMES CONSTABLE, Blacksmith, of Balvaird, in the same County.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TOPPING, TAILING, AND LIFTING TURNIPS AND
SIMILAR VEGETABLES."
This Invention has for its object the combining in one implement of mechanism
for performing the several operations of topping, tailing, and lifting turnips and
similar vetetables, in an improved manner; and an important feature of the
improved combination is an arrangement admitting of the topping mechanism
being very easily adjusted, as regards its level, whilst the implement is in motion.
The various details of the implement are attached to a light frame of a rect-
angular or other convenient form in plan, arranged to be drawn by one or more
horses, and mounted on three wheels, two of which are near the back and serve
through suitable gearing to give motion to revolving knives for the topping
operation and to a revolving hoe or fork piece for lifting the turnips. The third
wheel is near the front end at one side, being adjustable as to height to suit the
depth of furrow in which it runs beside the drill that is being operated on
A pair
of curved guide blades are fixed at the front end of the implement to gather the
shaws or turnip tops to the middle, and just behind these guide blades there are,
according to one modification, two vertical shafts carrying horizontal knives, which
being driven by means of the gearing from the after carrying wheels, cut off the
tops or shaws. The knives are fixed on discs or bosses fitted loosely on square or
equivalently formed parts of the vertical shafts, and the bosses are formed with
grooves in which the forked ends of levers engage, and these levers being connected
in any convenient way to a hand lever at the rear of the implement the knives can
thereby be raised or lowered on their shafts whilst rotating therewith.
Price 6d.1

page_text: The tailing or cutting off of the roots of the turnips is effected by a narrow
transversely placed steel share formed on or attached to the lower end of a vertical
shank which is fixed near the back end of the implement, but which is adjustable
as to height, so as to move the share along through the drill at a level just beneath
the turnips. The revolving hoe or fork piece is behind the tailing share and moves
in a transverse vertical plane, and its hoes or radial blades are set in inclined
positions, with the view of not injuring the turnips when throwing them aside from
the drill.
A single vertical shaft and set of topping knives placed centrally may be used
instead of the pair herein-before referred to, and will require somewhat simpler
driving gearing than the pair.
t
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said James Thom and James Constable in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 25th July 1876.
JAMES THOM, Proprietor, of Leden, Urquhart, Strathmiglo, in the County of Fife,
'North Britain, and JAMES CONSTABLE, Blacksmith, of Balvaird, in the same County.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TOPPING, TAILING, AND LIFTING TURNIPS
AND SIMILAR VEGETABLES."
My said Invention has for its object the combining in one implement of mechanism
for performing the several operations of topping, tailing, and lifting turnips and
similar vegetables in an improved manner; and an important feature of the
improved combination is an arrangement admitting of the topping mechanism
being very easily adjusted, as regards its level, whilst the implement is in motion.
The various details of the implement are attached to a light frame arranged to
be drawn by one or more horses, and mounted on three wheels, two of which are
near the back end, and serve, through suitable gearing, to give motion to revolving
knives for the topping operation and to a revolving hoe or fork piece for lifting the
turnips, whilst the tailing or cutting off of the roots of the turnips is effected by a
narrow transversely placed steel share.
And in order that iny said Invention, and the manner of performing the same,
may be properly understood, I hereunto append a sheet of explanatory Drawings,
to be herein-after referred to, representing one modification of a machine for
topping, tailing, and lifting turnips, and embodying my improvements. In these
Drawings the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts
wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1 of the Drawings is a plan, and Figure 2 is a side elevation of the
implement, which comprises a light rectangular frame 1 formed by longitudinal and
cross bars of iron, and mounted on three wheels, two of which 2 are on an axle 3
passing through bushes 4, bolted to the longitudinal bars of the frame 1 near to the
centre or the back end of the implement. The third wheel 5 is held by a bent fork
6 formed on a rod 7 passing up through a block 8 attached to the frame near the
front at one side, and is adjustable as to height to suit the depth of furrow in which
it runs beside the drill that is being operated on. The axle 3 of the back carrying
wheels 2 has fixed on it a bevil wheel 9 gearing into two bevil pinions 10, 11, on
horizontal shafts 12, 13, supported in bearings 14, 15, on cross bars of the frame 1
and by a bracket 16 placed centrally. On the shaft 12 is fixed a spur wheel 17,
which gears into two spur pinions 18 keyed on parallel horizontal shafts 19
supported in bearings 20, 21, on cross bars of the framing 1, and on these shafts 19
are fixed bevil wheels 22 in gear with bevil wheels 23 on parallel vertical shafts 24
supported by a cross bar and carrying horizontal knives 25 which are caused to
revolve in contrary directions by the bevil gearing 22, 23. A pair of curved guide
blades 26 adjustable vertically are suspended by brackets 27 immediately in front of

page_text: the vertical knife shafts 24, and these gather the shaws or turnip tops to the middle,
where they are cut off by the revolving knives 25.
The knives, also shown in plan and elevation in Figures 3 and 4 respectively, are
fixed on discs or bosses 28 fitted loosely on square or equivalently formed parts of
the vertical shafts 24, and the bosses are formed with grooves 29 in which the
forked ends of levers 30 engage, and the knives can be raised or lowered on their
shafts, whilst rotating therewith, by means of a hand lever 31 (not shown in
Figure 1) extending to the rear of the implement and connected to the levers 30.
The front end of the lever 31 has an eye formed on it, and through this and the
forked end of an upright bar 32 a pin passes and serves as a fulcrum for the hand
lever, whilst its rear end passes through a double bar in which are holes for inserting
a pin to retain the hand lever in any desired position. A narrow transversely
placed steel share 33 formed on the lower end of a vertical shank 34, which is held
near the back end of the implement, effects the tailing or cutting off of the roots of
the turnips. The shank 34 passes through a slot in an enlargement formed on the
end of one of the longitudinal frame bars 1 and is adjustable, as to height, so as to
move the share 33 along the drill at a level just beneath the turnips. On the end
of the shaft 13 and behind the tailing share 33 is fixed a revolving hoe 35, shown
also in the end view, Figure 5, which is moved in a transverse vertical plane by the
bevil gearing 9, 11, and its hoes or radial blades are set in inclined positions, with
the view of not injuring the turnips when throwing them aside from the drill.
hake 36 secured to the fore end of the frame bars serves for the attachment of the
hauling tackle of one or more horses, by which the implement is drawn along, and
handles 37 attached to the framing are provided to aid in guiding the implement
along the furrows.
A
A single vertical shaft and set of topping knives placed centrally may be used
instead of the pair herein-before referred to and will require somewhat simpler
driving gear than the pair.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise details
herein described and delineated; but that what I believe to be novel and original,
and claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent, is,--
1. The arrangement and combination of parts forming a complete implement for
topping, tailing, and lifting turnips and similar vegetables, as herein-before described
and shown on the accompanying Drawings.
2. The arrangement and combination of the horizontal knives 25 on the vertical
rotating shafts 24 with the guide blades or rods 26, the bosses 28 of such knives
being made adjustable on the vertical shafts or shaft, substantially in the manner
and for the purpose herein-before described.
In witness thereof, I, the said James Thom, on behalf of myself and the said
James Constable, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second
day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
samenty.eiv
JAS. THOM. (L.S.)