US437679A - colgeove - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

J. GOLGROVE.

POTATO BIGGER.

Patented Oct. 7, 1890.

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 4/ A ll: I m

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. J. OOLGROVE.

. POTATO BIGGER.

No. 437,679. PatentedOot. 7, 1890.

James OoZgroi/e UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES COLGROVE, OF CLEAR WATER, MINNESOTA.

POTATO- DIGGER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 437,679, dated October 7, 1890.

Application filed March 8, 1890.

To all whom it may concern.-

Beitknown that 1, JAMES CoLGRovE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Clear \Vater, in the county of WVright and State of Minnesota, have invented a new and useful Potato Digger, Picker, and Sacker, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has relation to potato-diggers; and among the objects in view are to provide a cheaply-constructed and simple machine, adapted to dig, clean, and deliver the potatoes, separating from the same the tops thereof.

With the above main and other minor objects in view the invention consists in certan features of construction hereinafter specified, and particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the drawings, Figure lis a side elevation of a potato-digger constructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a plan. Fig. 3 is a central vertical section. Fig. 4 is a front elevation.

Like numerals of reference indicate like parts in all the figures of the drawings.

The machine comprises an oblong frame, consisting of side bars 1, connected at their ends by transverse bars 2. The side bars 1 are continued beyond the front transverse bar, are converged, and terminate in a hook 3, which engages an eye 4, formed on the rear end of the tongue or draft-bar 5. The tongue or draft-bar 5 is supported upon an open frame 6, the front portion of which is extended at opposite sides to form converging hounds 7. This frame 6 is mounted upon a front crankaXle 8, provided at opposite sides with groundwheels 9. A drivers seat 10 is mounted on the rear portion of the tongue 5, and an operating-lever 12 is rigidly secured to the crankaXle, said lever being provided with a springlatch 13, designed to engage a toothed sector 14. By the construction thus far described it will be apparent that by manipulation of the handle 12, which, it will be understood, projects within easy grasp of the drivers seat, the crank-axle may be raised and lowered, and with it the front end of the oblong frame. The oblong frame at each of its sides and near its rear end is provided with depending side supporting frames formed by two downwardly-disposed converging-bars 15,which bars terminate at their lower ends in a bearing 16 Serial No. 343,160. (No model.)

' for the rear axle 17, which axle is provided with ground-wheels 18.

J ournaled in each of the end bars 2 of the frame is a pair of rollers 19, the peripheries of which are flanged and supported by the rollers is a longitudinally-disposed cylinder 20, consisting of opposite end chines or hoops 21, which form tracks for the rollers, which chines are connected by a series of longitudinally-disposed parallel rods or bars 22.

A rod 23 depends from one of the side bars 1 near the rear wheel, and is provided at its lower end with'a bearing 24, in which there is journaled a shaft 25, the rear end of which is journaled in a bearing formed at the lower end of the side frame adjacent thereto.

A master-gear 27 is secured to the spokes of the adjacent ground-wheel 1S and meshes with a small pinion 28, mounted on the shaft 25, which shaft at its rear end carries agearwheel 29. A ring-gear 3O encircles the cylinder 22 at its rear end, and engaging the same in the gear 29, so that motion imparted by the ground-wheel and master-gear to the shaft 25 and its gear is transmitted to the cylinder 22 and the latter is revolved.

Mounted in the cylinder 22 and extending from end to end of the same is a spiral elevator or carrier 32, which carrier is secured to the bars of the cylinder and moves therewith.

'Supportedin hangers 33, at the front of the oblong frame, is a shovel 34, the rear end of which terminates opposite the front opening of the cylinder 20.

Upon the reach 11 is mounted abridge 38, j ournaled in which and the reach is a vertical shaft 39, the upper and lower ends of which project above and below the bridge and reach, respectively. Above the bridge the shaft is provided with a gear 40, which engages a series of beveled teeth formed upon and projecting from the front chine of the cylinder, whereby motion is imparted from the cylinder to the gear and its shaft, which latter carries at its lower end a wheel 41, from the rim of which there depends a series of teeth 42. The diameter of the wheel is greater than the width of the shovel, so that said wheel extends beyond the same at each side. The object of this toothed wheel is to engage the potato-tops as they are caught by the shovel, twist the same from the potatoes, and cast them from the machine at each side of the shovel, so that when the potatoes enter the cylinder they are free from the tops and only require a separation of the earth therefrom.

A platform 36 is located at the rear end of the machine for the accommodation of an attendant, said platform being supported by hangers 37 projecting from the rear end of the cylinder-frame.

The operation of my invention is as follows: By operating the lever 12 the shovel 34 is given a'desired inclination so as to enter the hills and the machine started. The potatoes are gathered from the hills untopped and passed back into the open cylinder 20, where they are caught by the spiral conveyer and thoroughly rocked back and forth across the same until they are crowded back to the rear end. of the cylinder, by which time the earth willbe thoroughly separated therefrom, after which the potatoes are delivered at the rear end of the cylinder into a basket to be carried by the attendant. The clods of earth coming from the potatoes are by the constant agitation given them by the cylinder sufficiently crushed or powdered to pass between the bars and fall to the ground.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is 1. In a potato-digger, the combination, with a revoluble cylinder and means for operating the same, of a circular-tooth ed potato-top separator mounted on the frame and operated by the cylinder, substantially as specified.

a revoluble cylinder having a gear and means for revolving the same, of a toothed-wheel potato-top separator supported in front of the 2. In a potato-digger, the combination, with cylinder and meshing with the gear, substantially as specified.

3. I11 a potato-digger, the combination, with an oblong frame, the opposite side frames depending from the opposite sides thereof, and the depending rod 23 in rear of one of the side frames, of the cylinder mounted in the frame and provided at its rear end With a gearing, shafts passing longitudinally through the cylinder, rollers journaled upon the ends of the shafts and supporting the cylinder, an axle mounted in the side frames and provided with ground-wheels and a master-gear, a stubshaft journaled in the depending rod, and a pinion on the end of the same and engaging the gear-ring of the cylinder, substantially as specified.

4. In apotato-digger, the combination, with an oblong frame extended at its front, the

axle, and the ground-wheels and master-gear I thereon, of the opposite shafts journaled in the end bars of the frame and provided with rollers, the open cylinder mounted for rotation upon the rollers and provided at its front and rear ends with ring-gears, a toothed wheel and its shaft journaled in the said extending portion of the frame, a gear thereon engaging and driven by the front ringear of the cylinder, and a train of gearing connecting the master-gear with the rear gear of the cylinder, substantially as specified.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in presence of two witnesses.

- JAMES COLGROVE. WVitnesses:

O. B. WESTLAKE, W. W. WEBsTER.

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