US2047A - Improvement in machines for planting corn and other seeds - Google Patents

Description

E. L. MILLER.

Corn-Planter.

Inventon UNITED STATES PATENT GEEICE.

EZRA L. MILLER, 0F BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES FOR PLANTING CORN AND OTHER SEEDS.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 2,0117, dated April 10, 1841.

To all whom it may concern:

.Be it known that I, EZRA L. MILLER, of the city ot' Brooklyn, in the county ot' Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful improvements in machines for planting corn, sugar-beets, and other seeds which require to be planted at regular distances, and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

My machine resembles in many respects some which have been previously known and used; but I have made therein certain improvements by which it isrendered more efficient than any other for the same purpose of which I have any knowledge.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 6 is a perspective view otL my machine; Fig. 1, a top view thereof with one ot' the hoppers removed; Fig. 2, a longitudinal section through one ot' the hoppers and its immediate appendages. Figs. 3, 4, and 5 show certain parts in detail 5 and in all these figures like parts are designated by the same letters ot' reference.

The frame of the machine, A A, I generally make ot'wood, although it may, if desi-red, be constructed ot' metal. It is supported upon three wheels, B, B, and E. The two wheels B B are atxed to the main shaft D, upon which, however, they are made adjustable, so that their distance from each other may be varied. The fore wheel, E, is also made adjustable vertically, and by this adjustment the depth of the furrow may be readily' regulated. C C are the'handles i'or guiding the machine.

When this machine is intended for planting two rows at the same time, as represented in the drawings, the frame should be about four feet by two. The center piece, which supports the regulating-wheel E, should extend two or three feet in front of the general frame. It may be made to plant a single row only, and the frame will then ofcourse be made smaller. In describing it, however, I shall confine myselt' to the machine as represented for planting two rows.

Upon thefront timber, A', ot' the frame I place two hoppers, O 0, for containing the seed. These may be formed of wood or of metal. For corn and other seeds of the larger kind the bottom of this hopper should be about two inches wide and four or ve inches long. A slide, K, to which a reciprocating motion is to be communicated by means to be presently described,

forms the bottom ot' each hopper, and this slide has a hole, S, through it, by the diameter ot' which and the thickness of the slide the seed ismeasured. Suitable openings are ofcourse made in the lower part ot' the two ends of the hopper to receive and guide the thickest slide which it is intended to use.

L is a bed-plate upon which the slide works, and through a perforation in which the seed is to pass from the measurer S into one of the sockets or openings R, and thence into the hollow or tubular shafts 'Il ofthe shares U.

The hoppers are made t0 shift upon the bar A', the respective sockets R R and the marks V V upon the shaft D indicating the scale of distances to which the said hoppers` and wheels may be shifted so asto correspond with each other.

The wheels B B are to have a tread of three or four inches in width for the purpose of pressing the earth upon the seed, and they may he ofany convenient diameter. From these wheels the slides receive their reciprocating motion, for which purpose said wheels have inclined planes or cams G G upon their sides, and these, as the wheels revolve, are brought into contact with the levers H H, working on t'ulcra a a, and attached at their outer ends to the slides K, which are consequently forced under the hopper by their action. rIhe slides are drawn ont by the action of a spiral spring or springs within the case W, connected to the slides by the rods b b and the links X X, which hook into c, Fig. 2, at the end of the slide.

N represents the pin by which the levers H and the slides are connected, the inner ends of said levers working on these pins.

M is a stop or shoulder upon the bed-plate L, against which the ends ot' the slides strike with great force by the action of the spiral spring as the levers H are liberated from the action of the cam, by which blow a vibratory action is given to the slide, which insures the falling ofthe seed from the measurer S into the tubular shaft of the share, thus preventing a `failure in this particular, which is very apt to occur in other planting-machines. `Combined with this part of the apparatus is another ilnportant improvement for insuring regular and perfect action in the feeding and delivery of the seed, which improvement I have denominated the spring-strike. .By its aid the superuous seed is removed from the measurer S in the slide, and that without the danger of jamming or bruising the seed. I construct the spring-strike by taking good elastic quills, which I divide into suitable lengths, cut open, soak, and press iiat, so as to be able to place a bundle of them together, and contine one end of them in a suitable box or case, while their other ends project out, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3 in the drawings, where P is the casein which the quills d e are contained. This box is coniined within the hopper by a bolt,f, passing through it and through the block or packing Z, so that the outer ends, e, ot' the quills may be in contact with the slide K. The bolt j' is confined in place by a screw-nut, and passes through a slot in the hopper, admitting of the adjustment of the strike to the thickness oi' the slide.

It not unfrequently happens that the seed contained in the hoppers ot' plan ting-machines, especially when ot' a light kindsuch as beetseed-forms a kind ot arch by the pressure ot' one against the other, and their regularly falling into the feeding-openi ugs is thus prevented. To obviate this difficulty I use what I denominate an agitator, and this I construct in the following way:

g, Fig. 2, is a standard or rod attached by its lower end to the slide K, and Q, is a rod having a brush or other similar appendage, h, at its lower end. The rod Q, works 011 a jointpin at t, a-nd is connected to g by a rod working on joilitpinsatjj; and it will be seen that by this arrangement, as the slide K is moved backward and forward, the rod g being attached to it and the join t-pin t' to the hopper, the lower part of the agitator will be kept in action and insure the falling of the seed into the opening S, which it does more ett'ectually than the revolving brushes, or any other device heretofore essayed for that purpose.

Having thus fully described the manner in which I construct my machine for planting seeds of various kinds, what I claim therein as constituting my invention, and desire to secure Y by Letters Patent, is-

l. The manner in which I have combined the reciprocating slide K, the stop M, the cams on the whee1s,and the spring or springs by which the slides are operated, by means of which combination an alternately slow and rapid motion is given to the reciprocating slides, by the sudden arresting of which against the stop a concussion is produced when the seed-vessel is directly over the dropping-tube, which insures its falling.

2. The particularconstruction of the springstrike, formed ot' elastic quills, and aflixed and operating substantially iu the manner and for the purpose set forth.

3. The manner ot' constructing and operating the agitator, as herein described.

E. L. MILLER.

Witnesses: "if

Trios. I. JONES, B. K. MoRsELL.

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