IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TRAINING HOPS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Gardner, of Bekesbourne, Canterbury,
in the County of Kent, for the Invention of “IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR TRAINING HOPS."
Sealed the 21st December 1874, and dated the 6th July 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Gardner at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 6th July 1874.
I, WILLIAM GARDNER, of Bekesbourne, Canterbury, in the County
of Kent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TRAINING HOPS," to be as follows:―.
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
training hops.
In training hops it is customary to use simple poles for the hop to
climb up. It has however been suggested to connect these poles by cords
or twine. This is described in the Specification of a Patent granted to
Frederick Woolcot Collins, No. 3205, in the year 1863. According to

page_text: this Specification the poles are connected by lines, which are tied to their
tops and run horizontally from pole to pole, thus giving the hop plants a
greater length to run along and exposing a greater amount of surface to
the sun than is the case when simple poles are used. This plan has
however certain disadvantages, for example, it is found that sometimes
the head of the plant does not readily follow the horizontal course of the
line, and hanging down ceases to grow. Much time and money is also
expended in fixing the lines to lofty poles.
It is the object of my Invention to remedy these defects. Instead of
carrying the lines horizontally from pole to pole I carry them in an
inclined direction, and the hops will follow these inclined lines with the
same ease and certainty as they do the poles, and I thus obtain all the
advantages of exposing a greater surface of plant to the sun and at the
same time allow the plant to attain its full growth.
The manner in which I support the lines is as follows:-I bore a hole
at or near the top of the pole and pass through it a piece of wire, one of
the projecting ends of which I then bend into the form of a book
turning upwards and clench the other end into the pole. At a suitable
distance down the pole I bore another hole and form another hook in
the same manner, which this time turns downwards. All the poles being
thus fitted they are erected. The line is then carried from end to end of.
the rows, passing over an upper hook and then under the lower hook of
the next pole, and so on alternately. The line is also carried in the
same way along the rows of poles at right angles to the rows first
strung, the same. hooks being used; or if thought desirable the hooks
may be made double; or the line may be carried in other directions from
pole to pole, as the grower may think fit.
The line may be readily passed over the upper hooks by means of a
pole with a hook at its end.
Other methods of supporting the line may also be used, as for example,
pairs of screw hooks, nails, or notches cut in the poles, but I believe that
hooks made as above described will be found to be the best.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Gardner in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 6th January 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
GARDNER, of Bekesbourne, Canterbury, in the County of Kent, send
greeting.
.
د.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by. Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of July, in the. year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her. heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Gardner, Her special
license that I, the said William Gardner, executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Gardener, 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
APPARATUS FOR TRAINING HOPS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Gardner, 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 saiḍ'
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Gardner, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement thereof, that is to say:
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
training hops.
In training.hops it is customary to use simple poles for the hops to
climb up. It has however been suggested to connect these poles by cords
or twine. This is described in the Specification of a Patent granted to-
Frederick Woolcot Collins, No. 3205, in the year 1863. According to.
:

page_text: this Specification the poles are connected by lines, which are tied to their
tops and run horizontally from pole to pole, thus giving the hop plants
a greater length to run along and exposing a greater amount of surface
to the sun than is the case when simple poles are used. This plan has
however certain disadvantages, for example, it is found that sometimes
the head of the plant does not readily follow the horizontal course of the
line, and hanging down ceases to grow. Much time and money is also.
expended in fixing the lines to lofty poles.
It is the object of my Invention to remedy these defects. Instead of
carrying the lines horizontally from pole to pole I carry them in an
inclined direction, and the hops will follow these inclined lines with
greater ease and certainity as they do the poles, and I thus obtain all the
advantages of exposing a greater surface of plant to the sun and at the
same time allow the plant to attain its full growth.
$
(
The manner in which I support the lines is as follows:-I bore a hole.
at or near the top of the pole and pass through it a piece of wire, one
of the projecting ends of which I then bend into the form of a hook
turning upwards and clench the other end into the pole. At a suitable.
distance down the pole I bore another hole and form another hook in the
same manner, which this time turns downwards. All the poles being
thus fitted they are erected. The line is then carried from end to end of
the rows, passing over an upper hook and then under the lower hook of
the next pole, and so on alternately. The line is also carried in the same
way along the rows of poles at right angles to the rows first strung, the
same hooks being used, or if thought desirable the hooks may be made
double. The bine may be carried in other directions from pole to pole, as
the grower may, think fit.
The line may be readily passed over the upper hooks by means of a
pole with a hook at its end.
Other methods of supporting the line may also be used, as for example,
pairs of screw hooks, nails, or it might even be notches cut in the poles
or natural projections on the poles, but I believe that hooks made as
above described will be found to be the best.
In order that my Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into effect I have shewn in the Drawings hereunto annexed
systems of poles and strings arranged for training hops in the manner
above described,

page_text: ▸
Figure 1 shews a perspective view of one arrangement. a, a, are the
poles; b, b, are the cords passing in slanting directions from pole to
pole; c,
c. are shorter poles up which the plants are trained. On the
right hand side of the Drawing four plants are shewn trained up each of
these poles. Two of the plants may be allowed to grow to the top of
the pole, whilst the others are led off on to the sloping cords and allowed
to grow to their full length. On the left-hand side of the Drawing two
shorter poles or sticks c, c, are shewn, up which any desired number of
bines may be trained and led on to the cords, the number of bines to
each pole depending on the number of cords running between the
several poles.
The cords in Figure 1 are arranged to pass from pole to pole in the
manner shewn in the small diagram, plan view, Figure 2, but the
directions in which the cords are led from pole to pole may as before
stated be varied, as for example, other cords b¹ may be used in addition
and led diagonally from pole to pole in the manner shewn in the diagram
view Figure 3.
At Figure 4 I have shewn on a larger scale parts of one of the poles a
with hooks d for retaining the cords attached to it in the manner I
prefer..
:
A bent wire or staple of the form shewn at Figure 5 is passed througli
the pole and its shorter end driven into it. The longer end of the staple
projecting from the opposite side of the pole is then bent either down-
wards or upwards to form it into a hook in the manner shewn at Figure 4,
the lower hooks being bent downwards and the hooks at the top of the
poles upwards.
Figure 6 shews a pole with a hook at its upper end by means of which
a cord can readily be placed on to the hooks at the top of the poles a so
that a cord can very quickly be carried along from pole to pole, being
placed under the lower hook on one pole and over the top hook on the
next pole, and so on, without the trouble and delay of tying the cords to
the poles. The cords may however if desired be twisted around the
lower hooks or around the poles if further attachment is required.
I would also remark that I do not confine myself to the use of
the means above described for attaching the cords to the poles, as
these may be considerably varied so long as the cords are led in
slanting directions from pole to pole in the manner herein-before
}

page_text: described. The distance from the ground at which the lower hooks are
fixed to the poles may also be varied so that the bines might even if
desired pass directly on to the cords. In this case the cords may if
desired be led up for a distance nearly parallel with the poles, and be
again attached to the poles at any desired distance from the ground by
short rods or ties before being led off in a slanting direction to the top of
an adjoining pole.
By my Invention not only are the advantages obtained which are derived
from the use of cords, as in Collins' plan, herein-before mentioned, but
also the cords can very quickly be connected to the poles as above
explained by a man standing on the ground, whereas heretofore great
difficulty has been experienced in carrying them from the top of one pole
and securing them to the top of another as in Collins' plan. The
slanting directions of my cords also enables the bines to readily grow.
along them, whereas when the cords were horizontal much care and 1
attention was required to train them along the cords. In place of using.
cords or strings wires might be employed if preferred.
.
.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I claim the com-
bined arrangement of cords, or it might be wires, and poles for training 2
hops, substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Gardner, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.