John Fowler - Plough Patent
From Patents for Inventions;
Abridgments (1884)
A.D.
1852, October
21.—No. 480.
FOWLER,
JOHN—"Machinery for draining land."
The invention relates to machinery for
forming drains in land by steam power and consists in so arranging the
parts that "the boiler, steam-engine, and coulter or cutter are all
combined and go together, the steam-engine giving motion to a drum to
wind on a wire rope, and thus to move itself up to an anchor or fixed
point on the land." The machine is furnished with an upright coulter
and a shoe or share for forming the drain and drawing a continuous
series of drain tiles into it, like the apparatus described in Nos.
12,989, A.D. 1850, and 13,285, A.D. 1850. A steam-engine and
boiler are fixed upon the carriage, which travels on four broad wheels,
and carries at its front end a large drum. On the crank shaft driven
from the steam cylinder are four eccentrics, and these, by suitable
connecting rods acting on a ratchet wheel on the drum shaft, impart a
"step-by-step" motion thereto. The end of a wire rope is conducted from
the drum to the opposite side of the field, passed round a pulley
attached to an anchor or holdfast, and then brought back and fastened
to the frame of the carriage; so that on the drum being put in motion
by the engine, it winds up the rope, and draws the machine towards the
anchor. If greater speed be required, the pulley is dispensed with, and
the end of the rope is secured to the anchor. When the machine has
arrived at the anchor, the power of the engine is applied to turn a
small drum, round which is passed a rope from an anchor situated at the
place where the machine is to recommence its action; and as the
carriage is thus drawn back to the opposite side of the field, the
large drum pays out or delivers its rope in readiness for the next
forward movement of the machine. The patentee states that for some
purposes he prefers to perform the operation of delivering or paying
out the rope from the large drum by turning the front wheels by any
convenient gearing worked by the engine, so that the bite of such
wheels upon the land shall act to drive the machine in the requisite
direction. This arrangement also serves for the transport of the
machine from place to place along common roads.
Text from: Patents for Inventions;
Abridgments of Specifications Relating
to Agriculture, Division III, Agricultural and Traction Engines, A.D.
1618-1866, published by
The Commissioners of Patents for Inventions (1884).
