IMPROVEMENTS IN HARROWS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Oliver Maggs, of Bourton, in the County of Dorset,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN HARROWS."
Sealed the 4th November 1859, and dated the 30th May 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Oliver Maggs at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th May 1859.
I, OLIVER MAGGS, of Bourton, in the County of Dorset, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN HARROWS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in harrows. For these
purposes each harrow is composed of numerous blocks chained or connected
together by suitable links or flexible connections. Each block has on its under
side one or more teeth or tines, and the tines or teeth may be so arranged, and
the blocks so connected, that the tines may succeed each other in action in the
same parallel lines from end to end of a harrow, or the succeeding tines may
be set so as to act on the surface of the land, and produce different parallel
lines. The forms of teeth or tines may be varied. The several blocks are
arranged to be readily connected up into a large or small harrow. At the
front a draft beam or bar is used, and the several blocks are connected thereto,

page_text: and it is proposed that the hinder transverse row of blocks should be connected
or linked together; the intermediate transverse rows of blocks may or may not
be linked or connected together.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Oliver Maggs in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
29th November 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, OLIVER
MAGGS, of Bourton, in the County of Dorset, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Oliver Maggs, Her special licence that I, the said Oliver Maggs,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Oliver Maggs, 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 Oliver Maggs,
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 per-
formed, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Oliver Maggs, do hereby declare
the nature of the 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 thereof, that is to say: -
For these
This Invention has for its object improvements in harrows.
purposes each harrow is composed of numerous blocks chained or connected
Each block has on its
together by suitable links or flexible connections.
under side one or more teeth or tines, and the tines or teeth may be so
arranged, and the blocks so connected, that the tines may succeed each other

page_text: in action in the same parallel lines from end to end of a harrow, or the
succeeding tines may be set so as to act on the surface of the land, and
produce different parallel lines. The forms of teeth or tines may be varied.
The several blocks are arranged to be readily connected up into a large or
5 small harrow. At the front a draft beam or bar is used, and the several
blocks are connected thereto, and it is proposed that the hinder transverse row
of blocks should be connected or linked together; the intermediate transverse
raws of blooks may or may not be linked or connected together.
Figure 1 is a plan, and Figure 2 is a side view, of a harrow constructed
according to my Invention. a, a', a², a³, a, a, a, and a', are rows of blocks, by
preference, of wood; the first row a is connected to a draw beam or bar 6 (to
which horses may be harnessed) by chains c, c, and the succeeding rows of
blocks are each connected to the row immediately in front of it by by other
chains c*, c*. The under side of each block is shod with a cast-iron plate, on
which projections or tines or teeth are formed; these projections, tines, or teeth
are, by preference, cast in chills. A side view of a portion of one of these
plates is shown at Figure 3; an end view of the same at Figure 4; and an
under side view at Figure 5. The form of the projections, tines, or teeth is
clearly shown in these Figures, and a section of one of them, taken at the
line A, A, Figure 3, is shown at Figure 6. It will be seen that the projections,
tines, or teeth of the front blocks are longer than those of the blocks behind,
and this arrangement is preferred. Where the block carries only one tine,
tooth, or projection, as at B, B, the block is linked to that next to it, in order
to keep it in an upright position. The blocks in the rows as and a' are also
linked the one to the other across the harrow, in order to keep them suffi-
ciently together; for the purpose of making these connections, one of the two
blocks to be connected is furnished with a lug or eye, which enters between
two other lugs or eyes on the other block, and a pin passes through the whole.
The two hinder rows of blocks a and a' are furnished with additional teeth.
Figure 7 is a plan of another harrow, in which the blocks are somewhat
differently arranged.
The harrows may, if preferred, be made with the blocks round in section.
Figure 8 is a side view, and Figure 9 an under side view, of a harrow so con-

page_text: structed. The barrow may be made to take apart by means of hooks in the
links, so as to reduce or increase the length, and make it suitable for a greater
or less number of horses.
In witness whereof, I, the said Oliver Maggs, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
E. S. HINDLEY,
Bourton.
OLIVER MAGGS. (L.S.)