USRE899E - Improvement in reaping and mowing machines - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STAT-Es IUITENTv OFFICE.

J. T. VVHITAKER ANI) C. D. READ, C F ST. CHARLES, ILLINOIS.

`IMPRIOVEMENT IN REAPING AND MOWING' MACHINES.

Speciiication forming part of Letters Patent No. 17,990, dated August 11, 1857; Reissue No.- S99, dated February 7, 1860. i

DIVISION D.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Beit known that we, JOHN T. WHI-TAKER and CALVIN D. READ, of St. Charles, in' the county of Kane and State of Illinois, have made a certain new and useful Improvement inlteaping'and Mowing Machines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference' being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of thisspeciiication, in which- Figure 1 represents a plan of such parts of a harvesting-machine to which our improvement relates, and Fig. 2 a side elevation of the same.

Our invention which is the subject of this specification relates to an improvement for tightening the belt Whichdrives the reel that gathers the grain into the sickle, which we eft'ect bymeans of a couple of friction-pulleysVV mounted upon a right-and-left screw suitably arranged at the side of the belt for that purpose.

To enable others skilled in the art to make, construct, and use ourimprovement, we will now proceed to describe it in detail, omitting a description ofA such parts of a reaping-Ina-y chine as are unessential to a full understanding of our invention.'

In the accompanying drawings, A represents the frame or beam for the support of the driving-wheel B, reel d', and cutter-bar E, and to the front end of which the tongue is also attached, there being one centerbolthole, a, formed in it, to which the tongue is pivoted, and a series of holes, a', arranged in advance of it in the arc of a circle of which the former, a,\is the center, through either of which a bolt is passed for the purpose of at. taching the pole rigidly to the beam, according as circumstances may requirethat is to ing for this purpose mounted on the reel-.shaft c. The driving-wheel is kept in place on the tubular stud by means ofa shoulder formed on that end of the shaft c which projects onV the inside o t' the beam A, and a nut, z, on its opposite end-that is to' say, the end which projects through the end of the stud b. This,

nut bears upon a washer which ts the square end ot' the shaft c and projects over the end of the stud b and hub of the driving-wheel, and is provided with projections on its inner face, which takeinto corresponding depressions on the face'of the hub, so that'when the nut z is screwed down on the washer the tush of the latter is made to engage with the indentations ot' the hub of the wheel, and thehub being slightly longer than the4 collar or stud b the wheel is kept in place, and so that it shall be free to turn on the stud, and yet cause the shaft o to turn, and carry with it the pulley d, that drives the\pulley d of the reel, and in this way communicate a rotary motion to the latter. The reel is supported at that end next the driving-wheel in bearings y, and of which there are several formed in a crooked bar, D, ot' iron or other suitable material, secured by means of bolts y y' to the outer side ot' the beam A, and is driven by means -of a belt, f, passing around the pulleys d and d',- but as this belt is apt to stretch, and also to tighten and loosen as it becomes damp and dry, and as in raising and lowering the reel the same belt is not always of the properT` length to suit the various changes, We apply a belt-tightener, which enables us to remedy these various defects, and which consistsin arranging two pulleys, g and g', one ou either side of the belt, as seen at Fig. 2, and mounting'them on a right-and-left-hand screw, and forming on the end of the shaft on which they revolve a guide, which takes into a slotted -t'rame,j, secured to theinner side ot' the crooked f beam D, that supports the reel, by means ot which, according as'the screw h is turned, the friction-rolls g and g' are made to approach or recede from each other, thereby tightening or loosening the belt, as required, either to compensate for the change in the tightness or looseness of the belt arising from the effects of the weather, or to enable theoperator to raise or lower the reel to snit the dierent heights means of the pulleys g and g', screw h, and of grain-al1 objects of great practical imporguide-framej, the whole being arranged upon y tance to the parties using them. the harvester-frame and operated in the many From the foregoing description it will heapner substantially as set forth. parent that our belt-tightener may be applied In testimony whereof we hereunto set our to any machine, irrespective of' the mode, in hands.

which the pulleys are driven. JOHN T. WHITAKER.

Having thus described our invention, what CALVIN D. READ.

We claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters lVitnesses':

Patent., is- ALEX. V. SILL,

. Loosening andi tightening the reel-belt by T. H. COLLINS.

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