US18659A - Improved cutting apparatus for harvesters - Google Patents

Description

PATENTED NOV. 17, 1867.

J.- L. FOUNTAIN. CUTTING APPARATUS FOR HARVESTERS.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES L. FOUNTAIN, on ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR '.l() HIMSELF. L. J. CLARK, BRADFORD MGKENNEY, AND 0. M. FOUNTAIN, ALL or same PLACE.

IMPROVED CUTTING APPARATUS FOR HARVESTERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 18,659. dated November 17, 1 -67.

'To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that 1, JAMES L. FOUNTAIN, of Rockford, county of Winnebago, in the State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful reference marked thereon.

The nature of my invention consists in a certain improvement in the cutting apparatus of harvesters, to be hereinafter more fully described.

To enable others skilled in the art. to make and use my invention, I shallproceed to' describe its construction and operation,reference being had by letter to the accom panyin g drawings, forming part of this specification,similar letters in the difierent figures referring to like par-ts.

Figure 1 is atop view of my cutting apparatus; Fig. 2, a bottom view .of the same; Fig. 3, a bottom view of a guard-finger; Fig. 4,a side view of the same; Fig. 5, a vertical section through guard-finger; Fig. 6, a. top andback edge view of the cutters and cutter-bar, showing plainly the clearing-pins a a a and Fig. 7, a detail view of cutter-section.

To the finger-bar A are securely-fastened the guard-fingers 0', the form .of which will be seen byrefereuce to Figs. Sand 4," the horns G being beveled on their lower sides, ahdhav ing their upper surfaces flush with theupper sides of the lower limb of the guard-fingers,

and extending out on each side'ot' saidfin'gers a distance equalto about one-third of the space between any two adjacentfingers at their butts.

The cutter-bar B is an ordinary flat bar of iron, tothe lower side of which the cutters D are secured, each one by two rivets, a a, projectiug through on the upper side only at a a a. Thecutters Dare beveled at b b b on their 'upper surfaces, so that'their flat sideslie close to the upper surfaces of the lower limbs of the fingers G, and also upon the upper or flat sides ofthe horns CL: The shape of the cutters is best seen at Fig. 2, their. extreme width near their back sides. being equal to thev distance between the points of twoadj a'cent fingers, and their two back corners cut outjin half squares, so that when secured upon the cutter-bar there shall remain a square cavity the depth of the thickness of the cutter (seen at .c, Fig. 2) midway. between each two guard-- fingers when the points of the cutters correspend with the fingers, each to each,

E E, Fig. 1, are holder-plates, keeping the cutters down upon the upper surfaces of the lower limbs of the guard-fingers and their motion through the slots in the guard-fingers, by means of apitman,orotherwise, connected with suitable driving machinery, the extent of T which motion -is about equal to the distance between any two adjacent fingers. This nae-- tion of the 'cutterbar through the fingers'O' produces upon the straight portion of the saidfingers the same cutting effect as in the common cutting apparatus for harvesters; but it will be-scen that more than "one-third of the cutting-edgeof the finger O is inclined from the straight edge of said finger, forming the horn G, as beforedescribed, the object and tendency-of which is to prevent the grain from being too much crowded back into the crotch of the cutters, and at the same time to outsaid grain its-effectually as possible with the inclined cutting-edges, forcing forward such I grain as is not there cut to the .portion of the fingers where it is finally cut. Itwill be perceived that with. this arrangement the grain is not so apt to crowd under as in the. arrangements. now used, for reasons, first, on

account of the cutting edges of the-cutters and fingers comingin contact at an earlier period in the motion of the cutter, and, second- .ly, because the peculiar form of the fingers, as

described, prevents the grain from being too much crowded back. r

I am' aware that fingers made with the whole length of their sides or cutting-edges inclined 'in-the same direction as the horn upon myfinger would 'causethe cutters to come in contact with them at ancarly period'of their motion; but such inclined edgesare notbest fitted anism either in the fingers or cutters.

It will he seenvfromthe drawings that my cutters are made in sections, with half-square notches at their back corners, and are riveted to the cutter-bar at (l, a in such manner'that the cutting-edges I) b shall intersect, or rather meet, at d (I, forming perfect anglesjust beyond the lineot the front edge of-the bar 13, while the rear corners do not come in contact, but leave square cavities c c, in depth equal to the thickness of the cutter, and the side of which square is nearly the width of the cutter-bar.

" "i am awaredhat sectional cutters have been made and so attachcdto their bar as to leave aspace. between eachv two cutters at their bases, allowing the edge of the cutter to meet that of thecntter'bar and form an angle therewith; but I do not think this arrangement so complete as mine. The cutters are each. as above stated, secured to'the bar by two rivets, a a, which are allowed to project through on the upper side, q. a. a, the object of which projections is to etl'ectuz'illy' clear the slotted opening'in the closed, fingers G ofn-ny grain which may he forced into said' slotted opening, which must be made of sutiic ent width, as seen at Fig. 5, to prevent the grain from being wedged ,in

tight, which would render'the clearing-pinsuseless, as the v; \\ould then only cut themselves a passage through the tightly-wedged jsralksfor example, the machine jot-V1. A Kirby, patented April-1'5, 1856, where the rivets are allowed to project" on theupper and Iowersides' of the bar playing through the fingers, the fingers in vhis machine having notches only sufliciently large to allow the free passage of the projecting rivets thus renderin g the arrangement incapable of performing the oflice for which mineis intended. I therefore do not wish my improvement to he understood as referring to a. mechanism similar to the one above mentioned, as in mine the slotted openings are made in such manner as to give plenty of room for the grain which may be forced under and the clearing-pins pass through said openings-two pins at each stroke-clearing itefleetnallyt, and not through notches only in the finger. i r

The object of the cavities c is readily understood to he thesame'asthe open spaces left between the-butts oil-Kirbyscuttersfand; v in other and different arrangements which are well known, but differing from mine-viz, to

clear thebearing-surface of the cutter-bar 'on the lower limb of the finger.

The peculiar form of my cutter-section is best seen at Fig. 7.

Having now described'thepeculiarconstruction and operation of myimproved cutting apparatns for harvesters, I do not wishto be understood as claiming broadly either the combination of an inclined cutting-edge with a straight edge on the finger, the cavities c 0., or

the clearing-pins ac; but- What [do claim,anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is

- The fingers 0, when constructed in the peculiar manner as above described, in combination with the horns or projections G, reciprocating sectional cnttlers D, and clearing-rivets an, the'whole constructed and arranged for joint operation in the manner and for thepurpose herein set forth.

In testimony whereof I have, this 17th'day of October, 1857, set my hand hereuntov Witnesses: v B-ELA Straw. L. Y. CLARK.

J-AMEs L. FOUNTAIN.

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