AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR DRILLING LAND AND SOWING GRAIN AND SEEDS OF DIFFERENT DESCRIPTIONS, EITHER WITH OR WITHOUT BONE OR OTHER MANURE
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
HORNSBY, of Spittlegate, in the County of Lincoln, Agricultural Machine
Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-fifth day of November, in the second year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Richard Hornsby, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Richard Hornsby, my
exors, adiiors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Richard Hornsby,
my exors, adiiors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion
of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all Her
Majesty's Colonics and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED
MACHINE FOR DRILLING LAND AND SOWING GRAIN AND SEEDS OF DIFFERENT
DESCRIPTIONS, EITHER WITH OR WITHOUT BONE OR OTHER MANURE;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Richard Hornsby, shall
cause a particular description of my said Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, within compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Richard Hornsby, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
set forth in the Drawings hereunto annexed, and in the following description
and explanation thereof, that is to say :-
Figure 1 of the said Drawings is a side view of my improved drilling
machine, supported as usual on a frame and two wheels. Figure 2 is a
transverse or back view of the same. Figures 3 and 4 a side view and
back view of a modification of my said machine, adapted to ridge drilling, and
Figures 5 to 9 inclusive detached representations of the parts of my said
machine, on which its superior efficiency depends. All those parts of tho
machine, in respect of which it is similar to the drilling machines in common
use, or which exhibit only immaterial variations from contrivances heretofore
in use, I shall pass over, as unnecessary for me to describe (as referring to the
Drawings hereunto annexed for a sufficient explanation thereof), and confine
myself chiefly to those which I consider to be new. A, Figures 1 and 2, is a
hollow wheel, by means of which the seed and manure are immediately depo-
sited in the ground. It is divided in the interior into compartments in manner
herein-after explained, and revolves within the coulter C on an axis a, which
passes through one side of the coulter. B is a driving pulley fixed outside of
the coulter on the same axis as the wheel A, and connected by an endless
strap b, with the last wheel (K) of the gear work G, H, I, K, so that as the
main cog wheel H, which is affixed to the axis of the carriage wheels, revolves
along with them, it imparts through the lesser cog wheels I, K, the strap b,
and pulley B, a simultaneous rotary motion to the wheel A. The seed and
manure are supplied to the wheel A through an orifice in the side, just below
the axis, by a diminishing series of funnels, suspended, as usual, by chains from
the upper part of the machine. The construction of the interior of the
wheel A is shewn in Figures 5 and 6, the former of which exhibits a sectional
view, and the latter a plan of the wheel, and the other parts of the apparatus
immediately in connection with it. The hollow space inside of the wheel is
divided into compartments by means of the angular projecting pieces t, t, which
are placed in such positions that they shall catch the seed and manure as they
issue from the mouth of the supply funnel. The periphery of the wheel
is equally divided into a series of doors o, o, o, which turns on hinges p, p,
and have springs q, q, outside to keep them closed under the circumstances to
be presently explained. R, R, is a semicircular ward, which is secured by
bolts and stays to the coulter and its framework, and so placed that as the
depositing wheel revolves its periphery shall approach so near to the face of

page_text: the ward that the springs q, q, outside of the doors shall press against it, and
so prevent the doors from opening during all the time they are passing the
said ward. As each spring escapes from the pressure of the semicircular ward
at the bottom point s, the door to which it belongs flies open, assuming the
position indicated by the red lines in Figure 5, and allows the portion of seed and
manure in the compartment immediately behind it to drop into the ground, after
which it returns in the course of the upward revolution of the wheel to its
original position. The intervals of space between the successive depositions of
seed and manure will depend, of course, on the degree of rapidity given to the
driving pulley; and in order that this may be varied at pleasure, the axis of the
wheel I is made to shift in a slot, so that, by moving it forward or backward from
the position in which it is represented in Figure 1, a wheel may be substituted
for the present wheel K of a larger or smaller diameter, and the speed of the
depositing wheel be thereby proportionally diminished or increased; and although
I have now heretofore spoken of one coulter and depositing wheel only, it is to
be understood that any number of such coulters and depositing wheels may
be employed as the width of the machine will conveniently admit of. I think
it right also to observe, that I do not confine myself to the particular manner
of constructing the depositing wheel before described, but that the same may
be varied in several ways to produce the same effect.
In Figures 7, 8, and 9, I have shewn three different modifications of this
wheel. In Figure 7 each door consists of two unequal parts v and a, which
turn on one common hinge w; the longer part is the only one which opens
outwards, while the shorter moves inwards on a pin d, which traverses the slot e,
and is made so much heavier than the other (as represented by the shading in
Figure 6) that it keeps the door constantly closed while below the axis of the
wheel, except at one point only of the revolution, when it is required to
be opened. The opening is effected by means of a projecting piece f, attached
to the coulter cheek, which, catching the pin d as the wheel ascends, causes
the heavy part a to move inwards in the direction of the slot e, and thereby
throws open the longer and lighter part v, which allows the seed and manure
to drop out. In the plan shewn in Figure 8, the wheel is divided into ten
compartments, five of which are closed and five left open, the closed and open
compartments alternating with one another, and instead of one semicircular ward,
like that before described, I make use of two wards W and W, the former
of which embraces nearly the entire half of the periphery of the wheel on one
side, and the latter about one fourth thereof on the other side. These wards
are fixed in such positions that they come into close contact with the face of
the wheel as it revolves, and between them at top there is a space left for the
mouth of the funnel which supplies the seed and manure. As the wheel

page_text: revolves in the direction of the arrows represented in the Drawing, and each
open compartment comes under the funnel, it obtains its requisite supply of
seed and manure which it retains till in passing round it emerges from the
semicircular ward W', when it discharges its contents into the ground. The
plan shewn in Figure 9 differs from Figure 7 in this only, that the compart-
ments are reduced to six, and the whole of them left open. In. Figures
3. and 4, the former of which is a side view and the latter a back view of my
improved machine, adapted to ridge drilling, a depositing wheel is eniployed,
precisely similar to that represented in Figures 1 and 2, and before described,
and the only difference consists in the gear work, from which the motion
is obtained, which is somewhat differently arranged, but as to which I claim
nothing new.
Figure 3 shews another variety of arrangement in respect to the gearing of
a ridge drill, but as to that also I claim nothing new.
And having now particularly described the nature of my said improved
machine and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I declare that
what I particularly claim as the improvement of my Invention is, the seed and
manure depositing wheel A, with its appendages, whether the said wheel with
its appendages are constructed of any of the particular forms represented in
Figures 5, 7, 8, and 9, and before described, or of any other variety of form not
essentially differing from the same, and producing substantially the same results;
and whether the said wheel and appendages are used in combination with such
other drill machinery as I have represented in the Drawings hereunto annexed,
or in combination with any other description of drill machinery whatever. And
I declare that I claim a right to use my said improved machine, either for depo-
siting the seed and manure conjointly by one and the same operation, or for
depositing the seed only or the manure only. And such my said Invention
being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never before
used within that part of Her said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, or in any of Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, I do hereby
declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe
this, my said Specification, doth comply fully and in all respects, without reserve
or disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained. Wherefore, I hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and
privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-
second day of May, One thousand eight hundred and forty.
RICHARD (L.S.) HORNSBY.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1840, the aforesaid Richard Hornsby came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.