AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE CON- STRUCTION OF PRESS WHEEL ROLLERS AND CLOD CRUSHERS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Colborne Cambridge, of Bristol, Agricultural
Implement Maker, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE CON-
STRUCTION OF PRESS WHEEL ROLLERS AND CLOD CRUSHERS."
aled the 25th November 1856, and dated the 7th July 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Colborne Cam-
bridge at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 7th July 1856.
I, WILLIAM COLBORNE CAMBRIDGE, of Bristol, Agricultural Implement
Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVE-
MENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PRESS WHEEL ROLLERS AND CLOD CRUSHERS," to be
as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to make the wheels or discs of press wheel
rollers and clod crushers self-clearing, and thus to avoid the necessity for
employing scrapers to. remove the adhering earthy matters from the pressing
surfaces. For this purpose I make the wheels or discs of unequal diameters,
and arrange them loosely on their axle, placing thereon a larger and then a
smaller diameter alternately.. The larger wheels I form with a central hole of
a triangular form, or of a figure with flattened sides, which will make those
wheels take an irregular movement, and shift backwards and forwards on their
axle when the implement is in use. Any earthy matters that may adhere to
the wheels will thus be immediately cleared off, and no accumulation of mould
can therefore take place on the working surfaces.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Colborne Cambridge in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 7th January 1857.
TO ALL. TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
COLBORNE CAMBRIDGE, of Bristol, Agricultural Implement Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six,. in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Colborne Cambridge, Her special license that I, the said William
Colborne Cambridge, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Colborne Cambridge, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PRESS WHEEL ROLLERS
AND CLOD CRUSHERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
William Colborne Cambridge, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, 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 said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Colborne Cambridge, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
: The object of my Invention of "An Improvement in the Construction of
Press Wheel Rollers and Clod Crushers" is to make the wheels or discs of
such implements self-clearing, so as to avoid the necessity of employing
scrapers or other extraneous contrivances or instruments to remove from the
pressing surfaces or rollers any earthy matters that may adhere thereto when
the implement is in operation upon clayey ground. For the purpose of
effecting this object I make the wheels or discs of unequal diameters, and
arrange them loosely on a common axle, placing thereon alternately a wheel
or disc of the smaller and then one of the larger diameter, until a sufficient

page_text: number is placed on the axle to make up the required breadth of rotating
pressing surface. In the larger wheels I form the central hole (to receive
the axle) of a three-sided figure, and of such size as will permit of these
wheels preserving when in action the same mean ground level as the wheels
of smaller diameter, whose position with respect to the ground is determined
by the elevation of the axle of the roller, to which they are fitted as usual.
By this arrangement the large wheels will be caused to make an irregular or
intermittent axial movement as the implement is drawn over the ground, and
at intervals slip on their axle in a direction parallel to the line of draft, while
the other or smaller discs will continue to rotate regularly. Any earthy
matter, therefore, that may adhere to the pressing surfaces of the roller will
by this irregular movement of the larger wheels be immediately cleared off,
and an accumulation of mould or earth on these surfaces will be completely
prevented.
In order that my Invention may be clearly understood, I have shewn in the
accompanying Drawing two views of a clod crusher or roller constructed upon
my improved plan.
Fig. 1 is a front elevation of part of a clod crusher, shewing the alternate
setting of the larger rollers, discs, or pressers a, a, a, and the smaller ones b, b, b,
on one common axle c, c, which turns in bearings in the pendent arms d, d, of
the framing of the implement; Fig. 2 is a side or sectional view of the same,
shewing the form of the central hole of the larger rollers a, a. Supposing
the rollers or wheels a and b to be in the position shewn in Fig. 2, and the
implement to be moving in the direction of the arrow, the action of the parts
will be as follows:-The friction of the pressing surfaces of the rollers 6 on
the ground will cause them to rotate and move together with their axle c
forward to the position shewn by red lines, but as a flattened part of the
central hole of the rollers a is in contact with the axle c, the rollers a will now
have little or no rotary motion, but they will slip to a backward position. As.
soon, however, as the rounded corner of the hole is reached by the axle c, as
shewn by red lines in Fig. 2, their rotation will be renewed, and they will
continue to rotate with the axle until the next succeeding flattened part or
side of the hole takes a horizontal position. Immediately this takes place the
wheels a will stop for an instant until the axle c has again advanced to the
forward angle, which will be tantamount to shifting the wheel a back on its
axle. A continuous repetition of this irregular or intermittent rotary motion
of the wheels a, combined with the uniform action of the other rollers, will
have the effect of rubbing off any clods that may adhere to the. pressing
surfaces, and thus avoid the necessity for using scrapers or other appliances.

page_text: Having now set forth the nature and object of my Invention of "Añ
Improvement in the Construction of Press Wheel Rollers and Clod Crushers,"
and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be
understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim, the
application to such implements of. pressing wheels or dises having central holes,
formed as above described, so as to admit of their receiving an intermittent
axial motion while the wheels interposed between them are revolving con-
tinuously and in a uniform manner.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Colborne Cambridge, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Thirty-first day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
•
WILLIAM COLBORNE CAMBRIDGE. (L.S.)
Witness,
WINTOM EVANS BAKER,
Raglan House, Stapleton Road, Bristol.