USRE1177E - Improvement in reaping-machines - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

J\VM. H. SEYMOUR, OF BROOKPORT, NEW YORK, XASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF, DAYTON S. MORGAN, AARON PALMER, AND S. G. YVILLIAMS.

IMPROVEMENT IN REAPING-MA'CHINES.

Speciiicalion forming part of Letters Patent No. 8,212, dated July 5 5, 1851; Reissue No. 1,005, dated July 10, 1860; Reissue No. [,177, dated May 7, 1861.

To @ZZ whom it Indy concern:

`of Brockport, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, did invent certain new and useful Improvements in Reaping-Machines, (for which Letters Patent were issued to him, dated July 8,1851, and that said Letters Patent were surrendered by reason of a defective specification and reissued on the 10th day of July, 1860, to WILLIAM H. SEY- MOUR, DAYTON S. MORGAN, and AARON PAL- MER, of said Brockport, and to STEPHEN G. WILLIAMs, of Janesville, in Rock county and State of Visconsin, as his assignees, and that said reissued patent was numbered 1, 005 5) and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, true, and exact description of said improvements, reference being had to the`accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 represents a view in perspective of a reaping-machine to which said improvements are applied as it would appear to a spectator in the rear, on the stubble side thereof'. Fig. 2 represents an isometrical view of what we term a combination of boxes in one casting,7 in which the gearing is mostly supported. Fig. 3 represents a'view in perspective of the gearing-frame as it would appear to a spectator stationed at the point of the divider and looking toward the driving-wheel.

Previous to the date of the invention herein described the discharge of the cut grain from the platform of aharvesting-machine was mainly accomplished in one of the three following ways, viz: iirst, by discharging it heads foremost directly in rear of the platform; secondly, by drawing or conveying it in a rectilinear path to the stubble or gearing side of the machine and there depositing it upon the ground; and, thirdly, by conveying it to one end of the platform, upon which the grain falls when cut, in a rectilinear path, and delivering it upon a secondary platform upon which the grain was swept around in a curvilinear path and discharged upon the ground at the side of the machine. l

Some of the above operations have been effected by manual labor, some byautomatic mechanism, and some by both of these means.

The first of these methods is undoubtedly preferable, forits simplicity and the ease with which the discharge of the grain is effected; but as the gavels fall directly into the path traversed by the team in cutting the next swath, they must necessarily be removed bofore the return of the machine. For this reason, when the grain is too wet or too green to bind, or hands are wanting to do the work in time, it becomes important to discharge the grain at the side of the machine and far enough removed from the standing grain to,have room for the team to pass in cutting the next swath without treading on the gavels. This deside` ratum is attained to some extent by the second method above named, but not in a manner so practically successful as is desirable, for unless the gavel is swept from the platform by a, very quick motion some of its parts are liable to touch the ground while the others are still upon the platform, and as the former are at rest while the latter still partake of the forward movement of the machine, thegavel is liable to be scattered, or, as the farmers term it, the grain straggles so much as to inter? fere very seriously with the labors of the binders. The third of the above-Inentioned methods-viz., that of discharging the gavcls in a curvilinear path at the side of the ma? chine-we regard as superior to all others in practical efciencyi but the arrangements here- 'tofore adopted for carrying out thatobject have not, in `our opinion, been such as to accomplish the result sought to be attained in a satisfactory manner.

The invention claimed in this patent consists in constructing the platform, upon which the cut grain falls as it is cut, in the shape of aiguadrant, or of a sector of a circle, and placing it just behind the cutting apparatus, and in such relation to the Inain frame that the grain, whether raked off by hand or by machinery located behind the cutting apparatus, can be swept around on the arc of a circle and dropped on the ground far enough fromthe standing grain to leave room for the team and machine to pass between the gavels and the standing grain, thereby obviating the inconvenience of taking up the grain as fast as it is cut. Y

2 j v 1,177 v In the accompanying drawings the improvement hereindescribed is represented as applied to a reaping-machine having an automatic raking mechanism; but it is obviously equally applicable to machines in which the grain is raked off by hand, the mode of operation in either case being substantially the same. The said-improvement is also equally applicable to machines in which the several partssuch as the main frame, driving-wheel, supp orting-wheels, gearing, &c.occupy somewhat different positions relatively to each other from thosev shown in rthe drawings, s0 long as the platform is quadrant-shaped, lo.- cated ilnmediately behind the cutting apparatus, and so arranged as to allow-the grain to be discharged from the position in which it falls in the arc of a circle behind the drivingwheel and out of the path of the horses in cutting the next swath. y

In the accompanying drawings, the main or wheel frame A is constructed of two pieces of timber framed parallel to Yeach other, and connected by three girts-one in the rear of the driving wheel and two in front. The tongue B, to whichY the team is attached, is bolted tothe front end of the inner side piece of the wheel-frame. The finger-beam C is attached to the inner side piece of the frame A, directly under the axle 0f Athe driving-wheel, by means of a cast-iron bracket and bolts.

To the opposite end of the finger-beam C is attached the divider-piece D, which extends about three feet back of it and about two and a half feet in front of it. from the back end of the wheel-frame A to the back end of the divider-piece D. The reelbearerfE is supported by the posts F and G, which extend up from the divider-piece D. The reel-bearer extends in front of the reelposts F about three feet, and has one end of the reel-shaft hung upon its front end. The divider-board H is made fast to the front end of the divider-piece. It is also secured to the reel-post F about two feet above the dividingpiece.

The seat I for the operator is constructed of four braces extending up from the wheel-frame A--one from each corner ofthe frame-formin g two triangles parallel to each other, to the top of which aseat is attached. The foot-board J is bolted to thesefbraces.

The reel-post K, the lower end of which is inserted into a Vmortise in the inner side piece of the frame A, near its front end, passes up by the side of the diagonal brace L,` to which it is attached by a bolt passing through a slot in it, and also through one in the brace. This post, to the upper end of which one endof the reel-shaft is hung, is supported in this manner to admit of its being raised and lowered to vary the height of the reel. A guardboard, M extends from the tongue B to the iingerbeam C, for the purpose of bringing the grain to the sickle. A brace of three-fourths inch round iron extends from the tongue to the nger-beam C, directly under the guard-board.

A brace, d, extends wheel. A inion O whichishunoonatransp i y a verse shaft, 02, that has its bearings attached to the cast frame P, in the manner hereinafter described, meshes into the spur-wheel O. A bevel-wheel, O3, aboutone foot in diameter, is hung on this shaft and meshes into abevelpinion, O, hung on a vertical crank-shaft, O5,

that has its upper bearing in a box supported in the cast frame l), and its lower bearing in a step bolted upon the inner side piece of the frame A.

The combination-box or cast frame P, Fig. 2, in which the gearing is mainly hung, has a long broad base, p side piece of the frame A. Near the back end of the base is an elevation of six or eight inches, to the back part of which is bolted another pieceof casting, andthustwoboxes are formedone above the other-for the inner end of the axle of the driving-wheel, which axle is shifted from one to the other of these boxes to vary the height of the cut. There is another elevation at the front end of the base, corresponding in height nearly with the one at the back end, and the upper plate of said cast frame or combination-box extends from one of these elevations to the other, as shown at h, Fig. 2, and is made broader than the base or elevation, so as to project beyond them, as shown at 3, Fig. 2. Near the center of this upper plate there is a slot made, in which the bevel.

wheel is placed, its shaft being supported at each end by bearings on this plate. The upper crank-box, 4, is bolted to the inner side ofl this plate directly under the bevel-wheelr box By this arrangement of the gearing it is more compact than it could otherwise be made, and admits of a pitinan-rod' of sufcient length being used, without the necessity of widening the machine to make room forY the pitman-rod, which would have to be done were the gearing not thus compactly arranged.

The mechanism may be thrown into or out of lgear at will by means ofa disconnectinglever, p, Fig. 3, which operates a sliding clutch on the shaft O2.

The sickles e e e are attached to the crank by means of a rod or pitman one and a half feet long, which gives the 'sickles a quick vibratory motion. The crank is two inches in length, and gives the sickles a stroke of four inches. f

There is a pulley, O5, four and a half inches in diameter on the inner end of the bevel-wheel shaft, and anotherpulley, O7, of nineteeninches in diameter on the reel-shaft in range with it, over which-pulleys runs a belt that gives motion to the reel. ,f

The guard-teeth o o o o, eighteen in number,

more or less, are six inches long, made of cast-iron, and attached to the nger-beam CY and is bolted to the inner by means of wood-screws. These guard-teeth .lave slots through them, through which the sickle vibrates, which slots are enlarged back of the sickle to prevent clogging.

` The side of the machine opposite the driv ing-wheel is carried on a-wheel two and a half feet diameter, the axle of which slides vertically in guides secured upon the post F, in which guides it is raised or lowered by means of a rack and pinion, F.

The platform Q, instead of being made of a square form, and extending back of the sickle only three or four feet, as heretofore, is eX- tended back in a circular form, as shown in the drawings, so that the grain, instead of being raked off behind the machine, as heretofore, making it necessary to take up each swath as it is cut, is swept off on a circle, and dropped far enough from the standing grain to be out of the way of cutting the next swath, thereby obviating the necessity of taking up each swath before another can be cut.

The guards Z Z prevent the grain from falling off the platform and from becoming entangled in the gearing.

The drawings also represent the machine as having an automatic rake; but a detailed description of said rake is deemed unnecessary here, as it forms no part of the subject-matter herein claimed, and is, besides, fully set forth in Divisions A and B of the original patent hereinbefore mentioned, 4for which Letters Patent were issued on the 10th day of July, 1860.

rlhe operation of the machine is as follows: As the wheels revolve, the gearing is put in motion, and the stalks are severed by the cutting apparatus and swept backward upon the platform by the reel. They are then swept around upon the platform on an arc of a circle and discharged heads foremost upon the ground at the side of the machine, behind but somewhat inside of the driving-wheel, and out of the path of the horses in cutting the neXt swath.

Vhat is claimed underthis patent, and for which Letters Patent are desired, is-

' A quadrant-shaped platform arranged relatively to the cutting apparatus, substantially as herein described, for the purpose set forth.

XVM. H. SEYMOUR. D. S. MORGAN.v

" AARON PALMER.

S. G. WILLIAMS.

Vitnesses as to signature of Wm. H. Seymour, D. S. Morgan, and Aaron Palmer:

Gno. H. ALLEN, NVILLIAM STOUGHTON. Titnesses as to signature of S. G. Williams:

G. H. BENHAM, T. S. PaDDooK.

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