GB593983A - Improvements in or relating to devices for sowing seeds - Google Patents

Abstract

593,983. Seed-sowing machines. PARKER, W. J. June 21, 1945, Nos. 15865/45 and 16059/46. [Class 6 (i)] In a device for sowing seeds singly of the type including means for lifting seeds one at a time from a supply hopper and depositing them in a delivery shoot, the seed lifting means comprises a nozzle mounted for reciprocation between a seed collecting position and a seed discharging position and connected to an element for producing cyclic variations of suction and air pressure at the nozzle. The device is mounted on a wheeled frame adapted to be towed by a tractor and as shown comprises a casing 3 having at its rear a seed container 139 which feeds seeds into a trough 138. A shaft 14, driven from a gearbox, is fitted with eccentrics 117 on each of which is mounted a strap 118 connected by a clevis 24 to a bellows 22. A nozzle 35 and tube 34 mounted on strap 118 are connected to the clevis 24 by a flexible tube 36, the clevis being bored so that the tube connects with the bellows. When the shaft 14 is rotated the bellows are operated and the nozzle 35 travels on an elliptical path. On the outward stroke of the bellows the nozzle 35 dips into the seed trough and picks up a seed by suction and carries it to an outlet tube 48 where it is dropped due toanincreasein pressure caused by a reversal of the bellows 22. Three seed lifting means are provided in a single case and are associated with a single delivery tube which terminates in a coulter. In modifications, a triangular link is substituted for link 23. To the rear of this link is a second link pivoted to the case 3 and clevis 24 to give a parallel motion to the clevis 24. An extra air inlet port is provided on the opposite side of the bellows to the nozzle connection and is fitted with a one-way valve for clearing blockages of the nozzle 35. The device may be operated from landwheels or from a tractor power take-off or both from a selective gearbox, or alternatively it may be provided with a separate power unit. The landwheels may be dispensed with and the frame connected directly to a tractor.