USRE2270E - Improvement in harvesters - Google Patents

Description

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VILLIAM K. MILLER, OF CANTON, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN HARVESTERS.

Speciiication forming part of Letters Patent No. 22,885, dated February 8,1859; Reissue No. 2,270, dated June 5, 1866.

DIVISION F.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM K. MILLER, of Canton, in the county of Stark and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Harvesting -Machines for Cutting Grass or Grain 5 and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the saine, reference being had' to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure I represents. a perspective view of the lnachine in one of its working positions, with the covering removed to show the gearing and parts underneath it. Fig. Zrepresents a top view of a portion of the frame and the connection of the finger-bar thereto. Fig. 3 represents a vertical section through the frame and finger-bar and portions of their connections. Fig. represents a perspective view of the machine in its other working position, or changed from a front to a rear cutting niachine. Fig. 5 represents the frame and the connection of the finger bar thereto in its changed position from a front to a rear cutting machine. Fig. 6 represents a side view of the shoe and hinge-piece, showing, in red lines, their capability of being adjusted in relation to each other.

Similar letters of reference where they occur in the several iigures denote like parts of the machine in all the drawings.

The nature of Iny invention consists in so constructing and adapting the parts of a grain or grass harvester as that the machine may be converted from a front to a rear cutting machine without taking away from or adding to the machine any pieces or parts, the cutterin both of its positions being on the right-hand side of the driver or operator when sitting fronting the team.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to de scribe the same with reference to the drawings.

A pair of supporting and driving-wheels, A A,are so connected to an axle, B, by a ratchet and pawl, a b, as to turn with or independent of said axle, as circumstances may require.

The mainframe O,wl1ich is of quadrangular form, is supported on or by the axle B, so as to be as nearly balanced thereon as will best conduce (with the driver or operator in his seat) to an efficient operation of its parts.

On the axle B there'is a cog-wheel,D,which takes into a pinion, c, on a shaft, o, suitably supported in bearings'on the main frame O, and this shaft e thus receivesits motion. The shaft c carries a bevel-gear wheel, E, which takes into and turns a bevel-pinion, i, on a shaft, d, which shaft has its bearings in the han gers f f, which are rnily connected tothe main frame, and thus the shaft d receives its motion.

' A crank-wheel, F, is connected to the front end of the shaft d to a wrist-pin, in which one end of the pitman or connecting-rod Gr is attached, the other end thereof being attached to a stud or projection, g, on the end ofthe cutter-bar, to give motion to thc cutters h.

In the han gers ffare also supported the journals 7c of a rocikng bar, II, to which the two braces I J are firmly attached by their ends l 2, respectively, the other ends, 3 et, thereof being also (when properly adjusted) rigidly attached tothe hinge-plate K, an'd where the braces I J cross each other they are also rigidly united, as seen at 5.

It will be perceived from this union of the parts just above described that any motion which the hinge plate K and the braces I J may have is solely through the rocking ofthe bar H on its `iournals, and that though they thus constitute a rigid frame-work to properly support the iinger-bar, yet they have all the free play or motion necessary to allow the linger-bar to rise and fall to all the undulations of the ground, or to be raised or lowered and held at any desirable height above the ground, or to be raised np and folded over ontofthe frame O, or to be swung underneath the main frame, or even to putting the cuttin g apparatus on the other side of the machine, as some users prefer having it, and as will be hereinafter explained.

The hinge-plate K may be connected to the brace J at the point 7 by a pivot, on which it may turn as a center; or this pivot may pass through a slot in said hinge-plate, if found essential, so that said plate may be raised or lowered thereon at its rear portion as well as y its front end; but generally the adjustment at its front will be found ample, and then the rear portion can turn on its pivot 7.

Slots 8 8 are cutthrough the hinge-plate Kfor the set-screws 99, that hold it rmly to the braces, or the iianges on the end of the braces to pass through, and thus the hinge-plate is made adjustable to the braces I J; but when adjusted it is then rigidly attached, so that they can only move together and not independent of each other.

0n the adjustable hinge-plate K are two lugs, m m, to which is pivoted,by its two corresponding lugs, n n, the shoe L, and to this shoe the finger-bar M is firmly connected by one of its ends, the other end being similarly connected to the outer shoe or divider, N.

- The joints made by the several pivots 0 o may be as well made by a single rod passingthrough both sets of lugs, and would be more readily removed when it is desirable to detach the shoe L for any purpose.

O is the tongue to which the team is hitched, and P is the driver-s seat. Q is a segmental ratchet pivoted at r to a bar, p, that'is fast to or a part of the main frame, and R is a handle or lever attached to the ratchet, and extending back to a position convenient for the driver to grasp from his seat. rIhere is a tooth, s, on the plate p, upon which the notches of the ratchet will take and hold at any desired height. A cord or chain, t, connects the bar J to this segmental rack Q, and thus the driver or conductor from his seat can raise up and let down the nger-bar at pleasure, or arrange it at any proper height, and cause it to be held at such regulated height.

The pawls b b are springend-pivot pawls, so that they can be thrown into and out of action, and held in either position by said springs, so that the jarring' of the machine will not affeet them.

The hinge-plate K is not affected by any rising or falling motion of the finger-bar as it passes over and yields to the undulations or inequalities of the ground over which it is drawn when cutting, for, as seen in Fig.3, the shoe and finger-bar L M can rise without changing the position of the said hinge-plate, theyv simply playing on their hinge-joints, while the hinge-plate is rigidly fastened to the braces I J, and can only move when they moveand the motion which these braces, in turn, have is that only which they receive through the rocking bar H.

The nger-bar can be raised up and folded over onto the main frame for'transportation, if it is desirable to do so; and the Whole ma` chine may be transposed, by swinging the braces, hinge-plates, shoes, and linger-bar and cutters underneath the frame and to its opposite side. .Ihen detach the hinge-plate from the braces,with the parts connected to it, and turn them over, and again connect them by the same set-screws, slots, and pivots, which may all be readily made and arranged for such a purpose. Shift the tongue to what was before the rear of the frame, and bring the seat back to what was before the front of the machine, and the harvester has been converted from one which had its cutting apparatus in the front to one which has its cutting apparatus at the rear of the frame, and this, too, without any pieces being taken away or added to the machine; and in both these positions the cutting apparatus will be on the right-hand side of the driver.

The machines, if made 1eft-hand,7 as it is termed, may undergo the same changes of position of the cutting portions 5 but to change from right to left on the same machine would require the removal of some and the substitution of other parts, which would be, in effect, making another machine, and not converting it, in its entirety, from a front to a rear cutting machine, and vice versa, by simply turning around or reversing the same parts. In my case I may say that I simply turn over or reverse the several parts to effect the abovedescribed object, and do not add to them, or take away anything essential tothe change and the operation of the machine in either of its changes from front to rear, or vice versa.

rlhis invention relates more especially to the convertibility of the harvester from a front to a rear cutting machine.

Figs. 1 and 2 represent the several parts as arranged for a front-cutting machine, the cutting apparatus being on the right of the attendant occupying the seat P.

Figs. 4 and 5 represent the machine as converted toa rearcutting machine. The cutting apparatus, though turned over to the opposite side of the machine, will still be on the right of the attendant occupying the seat I), the seat, as well as the tongue 0, being turned around and shifted to the opposite ends of the main frame from that they occupy in Figs. 1 and 2, as also the lifting-lever E. from one side to the opposite one.

To make the change, the connecting-rod G is unhooked, the shoe L and piece K detached, and the coupling or drag-bar J and brace I swung round to the opposite side. The piece K, to which the shoe is hinged, andthe finger-bar attached to the shoe are then placed against the brace and drag bar, the bolts 9 putin, the connecting-rod hooked into thelug or ear of the cutter-bar, the seat and tongue are shifted, as shown in the figures, and the change is effected. Every piece or part used in one of the positions of the cutting appara tus is used in its other position, and no other piece or part is required for the change than is found on the machine in either of its transposed conditions. 'lhe lifting-lever R is regarded as one of the parts or appendages of the cutting apparatus, and, of course, it is shifted from one side to the other of the main frame when the cutting apparatus is shifted or transposed.

The red lines in Fig. 6 show how the shoe may be adjusted on the intermediate pieee,K, may be converted from a front to a rear eutand the finger-bar being fastened to the shoe, ting n1aohine by transposing said parts Withits fingers would be correspondingly turned out taking from or adding to the machine any up at their points and down at the heel by other parts or pieces than those which constisuch adjustment. tute the cutting apparatus in either of its po- What I claim under this invention, and desitions, substantially as described.

sire to secure by Letters Patent, is- W. K. MILLER.

S0 constructing and arranging the cutting Witnesses:

apparatus of a harvesting-machine and its A. B. STOUGHTON,

connections With the main frame as that it EDM. F. BROWN.

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