A NEW METHOD OF MOWING CORN, GRASS, AND OTHER THINGS, BY MEANS OF A MACHINE MOVING ON WHEELS, WHICH MAY BE WORKED EITHER BY MEN OR HORSES
Year: 1805

page_text: PLUCKNETT'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
THOMAS JAMES PLUCKNETT, late of Butt Lane, Deptford, in the County
of Kent, but now of the Parish of Christ Church, in the County of
Surrey, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the
Third, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster the
Twenty-third day of August in the forty-fifth year of his reign, did give
and grant unto me, the said Thomas James Plucknett, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, his special licence, full power, sole privi-
lege, and authority that I, the said Thomas James Plucknett, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of fourteen years
therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, exercise, and vend,
within that part of His said Majesty's kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England, his dominion of Wales, and town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF MOWING CORN, GRASS,
AND OTHER THINGS, BY MEANS OF A MACHINE MOVING ON WHEELS, WHICH
MAY BE WORKED EITHER BY MEN OR HORSES;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Thomas James
Plucknett, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an

page_text: instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and to cause the same
to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one
calendar month next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as, in and by the same, relation being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas James Plucknett, do hereby declare the principal of my said
Invention to be as follows: by means of a pair of common carriage
wheels, fixed at the ends of an iron axle, so as, by the going of the
wheels, the axle is turned in collars, to which axle is fixed a cog-wheel
which communicates with two others, by which means it turns an
upright shaft to which a circular steel cutter or knife is fixed under
the axle, higher or lower, according to the use to be made of it, which
cutter or knife traverses round, by the upright shaft going through the
centre of it. The machine is conveyed along by two arms, in like
manner as a common hand cart, and which said Invention I do par-
ticularly describe and ascertain in manner following, (that is to say :)
The machine is about two feet six inches wide between the felly of
the wheels, and is made as follows: two shafts, about two inches square
and about seven feet long, are framed with a cross bar before the axle
of the wheels, about ten inches, and another behind the axle of the
wheels, about two feet six inches; below, and directly under the
axle, is a piece of plank, about five inches thick, and ten inches wide,
fastened to the shafts with four (more or less) small bolts in each end,
through chocks five inches (more or less) deep, under the shafts; the
wheels are about four feet six inches diameter, the stock and box are
cast-iron or brass, or any fit material, and are made as follows; the
inside of the box is octagon, to prevent the wheels turning on the axle,
or if the box is made to turn on the axle there will be less friction.
To the outside of the box is a flanch, about four inches, or more, as.
may be necessary, by the side of which are fitted the spokes, which are
likewise placed by the side of each other within the flanch, then a
shifting flanch, with a hole made for the box to pass through, is, with a
screw bolt through each spoke and both flanches, fastened by means
of these bolts to the fixed flanch which is cast or wrought to the

page_text: box; in consequence of these flanches and bolts, you have no wood
stock or nave, and the spokes are more secure and fit to be exposed
to the weather without injury; the other parts of the wheels are made
in the usual way; the axle is made of iron or other strong metal, with
octagon, square, or other shaped arms, to fit the cast-iron or brass boxes,
with octagon, square, or other shaped holes; on the axle are turned
round collars, at the breadth of the shafts, where there are fastened proper
coupling irons (or of brass or other fit material) for the axle to work
in, one over the other; the axle is properly secured by means of screw
bolts or other fastening through each coupling iron, so that the axle is
fitted on the upper side of the shafts, by which means the weight of the
machine is hung by or upon the coupling irons where the axle turns.
On the axle is fitted a tooth wheel of about twelve inches diameter,
which works in a pinion of about three inches and a half diameter,
fitted to the plank under the axle; under this pinion, on the same
spindle, is fixed a tooth wheel of about twelve inches diameter, which
turns the knife pinion; this pinion is so called because it has a hole
about three fourths of an inch square through it and the spindle:
by means of these wheels the knife makes near eleven revolutions to
one of the carriage wheels. The knife or cutter may be made to any
diameter, agreeably to the power you mean to apply to the machine:
for a man's power, about one foot eight inches is sufficient for any
purpose; if for a horse, about three feet. The knife is a cast or wrought
steel plate, circular, of about one foot eight inches diameter; the whole
of the circumference is made perfectly sharp, and fitted on a spindle
which fits the square hole through the knife pinion, the upper end of
which has a screw, to adjust the knife to any height above the ground,
and as it revolves parallel to the ground, if it meets, as it is carried along
by the carriage, with any obstruction, it will immediately fly up through
the hole above described, without stopping the machine, and adjust itself
again as the obstacle is removed. Leaders to take up the grass or corn
where it is laid with the wind or otherwise. As this machine is driven
before the man or horse, there is fitted an iron or other metal stay,
about half an inch diameter, leading from the fore end of each shaft

page_text: down to the knife, where they are screwed to a piece of iron or other
metal, in the form of a cross or any other proper shape whose ends are
above the length of the diameter of the knife, one on each side,
and one behind; on this cross is fixed a centre for the knife to
work on, by which means the knife is fixed at the under side
as well as through the square of the pinion; it likewise secures
the ends of the leaders down to the knife; in the front of these leaders
project two, three, or more horns of iron or other metal, about two
inches long, or more if necessary, parallel to the ground, divided
between the length of the leaders, the upper edge sharp, (or otherwise,
as may be necessary,) to cut where it meets with any grass or corn
entangled together; by means of the leaders and horns, all grass and
corn will be taken up and led to the knife, and not missed or passed
over. The ends of the shafts make the handles for the power (as man
or horse) to drive the machine before them. The above description is
for the machine to be so made that all the work is hung to and below
the axle; if it is necessary, the whole may be placed above the axle,
as circumstances may require, where it is to cut very high from the
ground, in that case the knife or cutter is to be taken out of the socket
pinion and replaced in the under side of the axle, as before described.
Note, this description is for Grass, Corn, &c., &c., but the machine
may be made of any other dimensions, as circumstances may require.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas James. Plucknett, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of Sep-
tember in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and five
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the same Twentieth day of
September in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Thomas James
Plucknett came before our Lord the King in his Chancery, and
acknowledged the specification aforesaid, and all and everything therein
contained and specified in form above written, and also the specification

page_text: aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in that case
made and provided.
Enrolled the same Twentieth day of September in the year above