1861-12-20 Thomas Green - Patent 3201
A.D. 1861, 20th DECEMBER. N° 3201.
Lawn Mowing Machines.
LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Green, of Smithfield Iron Works, Leeds, in the County of York, Willoughby Green, of 11, Brunswick Place, Leeds, and Robert Mathers, of Trafalgar Street, Leeds, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LAWN MOWING, ROLLING, AND COLLECTING MACHINES."
Sealed the 18th March 1862, and dated the 20th December 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Green, Willoughby Green, and Robert Mathers, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 20th December 1861.
We, THOMAS GREEN, of Smithfield Iron Works, Leeds, in the County of York, WILLOUGHBY GREEN, of 11, Brunswick Place, Leeds, and ROBERT MATHERS, of Trafalgar Street, Leeds, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LAWN MOWING, ROLLING, AND COLLECTING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in lawn mowing, rolling, and collecting machines. For this purpose, in constructing mowing machines known as "lawn mowers," we make the outer edges of the main drum or drums rounded, so as to prevent them cutting or marking the turf, and the outer edges being thus turned up, greater strength is obtained without increasing the weight, and the drums are less liable to fracture than hitherto. When two drums are employed we place the catches for throwing the cutters into or out of work between the two drums and arrange them so that they are both acted upon by one lever instead of two, as hitherto, outside of each drum.
In order to adjust the cutters (usually spiral blades ranged around an axis) to the bottom blade we employ carriages or plummer blocks having a set screw acting on the top and a spiral or other spring on the under side of them, the carriages or plummer blocks carrying the axis of the cutters. This arrangement allows of the adjustment being effected to the greatest possible nicety.
In order to communicate motion from the drum shaft to the spiral cutters we employ an internal toothed wheel on the drum shaft, by which means we are enabled to employ a wheel of greater diameter than when using an externally toothed wheel, as heretofore.
The grass boxes of mowing machines we make of thin sheet iron, having suitable devices stamped upon them, ensuring strength and lightness.
Our last improvement consists in composing the front or leading roller of thin iron discs, having bosses on each to keep them any suitable distance apart, the discs being mounted on an axis, and each disc being free to revolve.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed by the said Thomas Green, Willoughby Green, and Robert Mathers in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th June 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS GREEN, of Smithfield Iron Works, Leeds, in the County of York, WILLOUGHBY GREEN, of 11, Brunswick Place, Leeds, and ROBERT MATHERS, of Trafalgar Street, Leeds, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said Thomas Green, Willoughby Green, and Robert Mathers, Her special licence that we, the said Thomas Green, Willoughby Green, and Robert Mathers, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Green, Willoughby Green, and Robert Mathers, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LAWN MOWING, ROLLING, AND COLLECTING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Thomas Green, Willoughby Green, and Robert Mathers, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Mathers, on behalf of myself and the said Thomas Green, and Willoughby Green, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in lawn mowing, rolling, and collecting machines. For this purpose, in constructing mowing machines known as "lawn mowers," we make the outer edges of the main drum or drums rounded, so as to prevent them cutting or marking the turf, and the outer edges being thus turned in, greater strength is obtained without increasing the weight, and the drums are less liable to fracture than hitherto.
When two drums are employed we place the catches for throwing the cutters into or out of work between the two drums and arrange them so that they are both acted upon by one lever instead of two, as hitherto, outside of each drum.
In order to adjust the cutters (usually spiral blades ranged around an axis) to the bottom blade we employ carriages or plummer blocks having a set screw acting on the top and a spiral or other spring on the under side of them, the carriages or plummer blocks carrying the axis of the cutters. This arrangement allows of the adjustment being effected to the greatest possible nicety.
In order to communicate motion from the drum shaft to the spiral cutters we employ an internal toothed wheel on the drum shaft, by which means we are enabled to employ a wheel of greater diameter than when using an externally toothed wheel, as heretofore.
The grass boxes of mowing machines we make of thin sheet iron, having suitable devices stamped upon them, ensuring strength and lightness.
Our last improvement consists in composing the front or leading roller of thin iron discs, having bosses on each to keep them any suitable distance apart, the discs being mounted on an axis, and each disc being free to revolve.
Having thus stated the nature of the Invention we will proceed to describe more fully the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a side view, and Figure 2, a plan of a machine having our improvements applied to it; Figure 3 is a horizontal section through the axis of the drums. In each of these Figures the same letters of reference refer to the same parts.
The first improvement, which consists in turning up the outer edges of the main drum or drums so as to make them rounded and thus strengthen them, and at the same time prevent them cutting or marking the turf, is shown in the sectional view, Figure 3, the outer edges a1 of a pair of main or driving drums a being there shown rounded by being turned inwards. When the machine is made with only one drum, then both edges of the drum are turned inwards, so as to make both edges rounded. Figure 3 also shows the catches for throwing the cutters into or out of work placed between the two drums, and also an arrangement by which the catches may be acted upon by a single lever between the drums. In this Figure, b' is a fork upon the end of an axis b, on which is fixed a lever handle, not shown in the Drawing; the fork b1 embraces collars a2, a2, formed upon the catches a3; these catches are formed with teeth, as shown, and the catches are kept continually pressed by means of the spiral spring c into corresponding toothed surfaces cast on the inner faces of the drum bosses, and as the catches are prevented from turning upon the shaft d by feathers d', the shaft d will be caused to turn as the rollers roll the ground. When, however, the axis b is turned by the lever handle upon it the two catches will, by means of the fork, be drawn towards each other, and the drums will then be free to revolve around the shaft d. The drums are constantly kept at the proper distance apart from each other by the ends of the feathers d1 inserted in the axle d. The novelty of this part of our Invention consists in placing the catches between the drums and arranging them so that they are both acted on by one lever instead of two, as hitherto, on the outer side of each drum.
Figures 4 and 5 show our improved arrangement for adjusting the cutters to the bottom blade, Figure 4 being a transverse section, and Figure 5 a side view, of one of the carriages or plummer blocks for carrying the axis of the cutters. g is the carriage, which slides in guides formed in the framing h of the machine; this carriage is constantly pressed upwards by the spiral spring i, and the height to which it is pressed up can be limited by means of the screw j.
The improved arrangement for communicating motion from the drum shaft to the spiral cutters by means of an internally-toothed wheel on the drum shaft is shown in Figures 1 and 3. In these Figures e is the internally-toothed wheel on the drum shaft d. This wheel, in the arrangement shown in the Drawing, gives motion to a pinion 7, on the axis of which is a chain wheel l1, from which motion is communicated by an endless chain k to the chain wheel m on the cutter axis; but in place of transmitting motion from the internally-toothed wheel e to the cutter axis in the manner above described, it may be transmitted in any other suitable manner.
Heretofore the grass boxes of lawn mowing machines have generally been made with wooden ends, and the front of the box has been made of sheet metal bent over at the top to correspond with the form of the ends; now, according to our Invention, we construct the grass boxes of lawn mowing machines of thin sheet iron, having suitable devices stamped upon it, in order to obtain strength and lightness, which is important in the construction of lawn mowing machines. In Figures 1 and 6, the latter being a perspective view, the grass box n is shewn to be made of sheet iron with projections and indentations stamped upon it, but we would remark that the sheet iron may be stamped to any other suitable pattern than that shown in the Drawings so long as the pattern is suitable for giving strength to the box.
The front or leading roller of the machine, represented in Figures 1 and 2, is shown to be composed, according to our Invention, of thin discs o, o; each disc has a boss on each side of it, by which the discs are kept apart from each other, and the discs are mounted and turn freely upon the axis p.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Mathers, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
ROBERT MATHERS. (L.S.)