Another Listing of Patent 5990

JOURNAL OF PATENT INVENTIONS.                                PAGE 201

CROPPING GRASS.-To Edwin Budding, of the Thrupp, in the parish of Stroud, Gloucester, Machinist, for "a new combi- nation and application of machinery for the purpose of cropping or shearing the vegetable surface of lawns, grass-plats, and pleasure-grounds, constituting a machine which may be used with advantage instead of a scythe for that purpose," was granted on the 31st of August, and deposited in the Enrolment Office, on the 31st of October, 1830.

The idea of Mr. Budding's invention seems to have been taken from the rotatory cutters used in cropping woollen cloth. The apparatus consists of the following principal parts,-a horizontal cutter or scythe, which is moved along the ground with its sharp or cutting edge forward. Immediately in front of this is a drum, with a number of spiral cutters, with their cutting edges coming in contact with the cutting edge of the horizontal scythe. A rapid motion is communicated to the cylinder with the spiral cutters by means of a roller, on which the apparatus is supported and moved.

On the axis of this roller is fixed a large spur wheel, which turns a pinion on the axis of a second large spur wheel, and this through the medium of a second pinion on the axis of the cutter cylinder. A solid iron roller is placed immediately behind the horizontal cutter, to regulate its distance from the ground, and the whole is supported in a cast-iron frame, to which is attached two handles, that it may be moved like a wheel barrow. It is stated, that the work performed by this apparatus is far superior 1ST DECEMBER, 1830.

VOL. V.-NO. 89.

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