USRE917E - Improvement in reaping-machines - Google Patents

Description

OLHUSSEY.

Harvester Cutting Apparatus,

No. 917, Y Reissded Feb. 28.1860.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE;

OBED HUSSEY, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN REAPING- MACHINES.

Specification formingpart of Letters Patent No. 5,227, dated August 7, 1847 Reissue No. 450, dated April 14,

1857; Reissue N0. 743, dated June 21, 1859; Reissue N0. 917. dated February 28, 18(10.

10 all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ()BED HUSSEY, of the city and county of Baltimore, in the State of.

Maryland, have invented a new and useful improvement in the cutting apparatus of reaping machines for cutting all kinds of small grain and grasses, the special object of the improvement which is the subject of this patent being the cutting of grass or mowing.

Figure 1 is a birds-eye view of the cutting apparatus, in which A A A A A A represent angular blades, and A A the bar or stock of a rectilinear vibrating sickle, the blades being riveted or otherwise secured to the stock, and so constructed and arranged that their cuttingedges form a zigzag or scalloped line. B B B B B B represent the permanent guard-irons or fingers. H represents the finger-beam, or beam to which the fingers are attached, and which carries and supports them and the cutter. The guards or fingers are formed of a lower part and an upper part, between whichthe blades pass and repass in cutting, so that the grass or other material which comes in between the guards to be cut is firmly supported both above and below the vibrating blades. In

nlyimproved combination the loweraud upper parts of the guard or finger, between which is the slot for the cutter to play through, instead of surrounding the slot are so constructed and arranged as to leave an opening out of the slot through which clogging matter may escape.

Fig. 2 of the drawings represents one of the guards or fingers, the cutter, and the confining ways or guides for holding the cutter securely in the open slotted finger. As one convenient way of holdingthe cutter, I have arranged the bar A, to which the blades are attached, to travel in guides e s or, while the blades on the side opposite to the bar are held by a guide, W, against which they bear. It is obvious that the guide 6, merely as such, need not necessarily be a bar, as shoulders on the fingers, as seen in Fig. 1, would perform this function. Fig. 3 represents a portion of the stock or bar A, to which the blades or sections of the cutter are attached, and one of the blades or sections, having its edges E E flushed on each side of and at the fork of the blade, the cutting-edge in front of the flush being beveled on both sides, or having the flush taken ofi enough to prevent it from cutting into the corners of the fingers as it vibrates across the same.

In the organized cutting apparatus which.

constitutes the subject-matter of this patent it is essential that the fingers be made so short and with so little projection below the cutter to permit the edge of the cutter td vibrate as near the ground as thesmaller grasses are usually cut. Thisdistance is sometimes required to be about and even less than one inch. 1 find fingers which project aboutfive inches in front of the finger-beam to answer well. They cannot without considerable disadvantagebe increased to twelve inches, and they may be made less than five inches long'without material disadvantage, if they are not set more than from two and a half to four inches apart and the cutter does not project too far forwardh For the reason above stated I make the projection ofthe finger below the edgeof the cutter not to exceed an inch. It is also essential that the fingers be made stiff, and that each of them should have on each side a durable angular shearing-corner, either at the top orbottom of the slot. To obtain this stiifness without increasing. their size injuriously, the

fingers must be made of hard and strong metal.

The cutter must also be made I prefer iron. with a portion of the cutting-edges of each blade or scallop flushed on one side, and the cutter must be so inserted and vibrated in the slots of the fingers that the cutting-edges of the scallops shall pass in close proximity to the angular shearing-corners ot' the fingers. The stifi'ness, durability, and angularity of the fingers, in conjunction with the flushing and proximate position of the vibrating outting-blades, as above mentioned, and as seen in one form in the drawings, are necessary to produce the shearing action which is essential to the efficiency of the present organization. It is also'essential (and much more so when the cutting-edge is smooth than when it is s'ickled) to preserve this relative position of the edge of the blades to the shearing-corners of the fingers during the vibration of the cutter, and this is effected by means of asuitable guide or guides. If the guides were placed only at the extremities of the cutter or at long intervals, the cutting-edges of the blades and fingers would not preserve the proximity requisite to full shearing action, especially with Q sm ooth-edge scallops.

I result is also secured by the guides.

It is important, also, that ,the cutter vibrate in a straightline, which The angle which the edges of the scallops or blades make with the sides of the finger is also an important feature in this organization. In cutting the smaller grasses they are not held. against the edges of the cutter by reason of the stiffness of their own stalks and the firmness with which they stand on the ground, as is the case with wheat and other grain, and on account of this want of stiffness, as well as because of the shortness of such grasses, a reel or other mechanical apparatus to press the grass back against the cutters edge cannot be advantageously employed. This angle should therefore be such as to insure a complete shearing action between the angular corners of the fingers and the flush portions of the edges of the blades. by the mere sliding of the latter over the former; or, in other words, this angle should be such that the grass will be nipped or pinched and held until itis cut by the mere action of the approximate edge of the cutter across the corner of the finger. I find about twenty-fivealegrees to be a good angle for nipping and clipping, or, in other words, for a complete shearing action with an unsickled cutting-edge. This angle between the finger and the edge of the blade may be diminished slightly, but without any advantage, and to diminish it much would be highly disadvantageous. The angle may be increased to fortyfive degrees and retain snfficient nipping effect, and it may even be increased to sixty degrees, but with a diminished effect, and it is obvious that for a smooth edge the angle must beless them from being pushed from between the blade and finger before being severed. The important point is to make this angle snfficiently acute to secure the nipping, which, as above stated, is essential to full shearing action. In cutting the smaller, grasses it is furtherimportant that the cut grass be deposited, as fast as out, upon the ground behind the cutting apparatus. Hence in the present organi zation I employ no platform, but only a beam for carrying the fingers and cutter, over which the cut grass will,it is obvious, readily fall upon the ground. The narrower this beam is made consistent with sufficient strength the better. I have usually made it of white oak, from five to seven inches wide and from one and a half to two inches thick, and have found these proportions to answer very well in the Hussey mower. i If made of diiferent materials or placed in other machines, subjected to difierent strains, the proportion would have to be correspondingly varied. A beam (without port the fingers and cutter is an important element in the adaptation of the mowing-machine to cut to the best advantage fine as well as coarse grassand on uneven as well as on even ground.

What I claim under this patent as my invention is- The combination of the finger-beam, (without a platform,) the short open-slot fingers having small projection below the cutter, the sealzloped cutter, and the guides for the cutter, these parts being constructed and combined substantially as described, the cutter vibrating in a stra ightline, each scallop having an edge sliding in close proximity to an angular cor- Vner of the finger and forming therewith a nipping-angle, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name.

OBED HUSSEY. Witnesses:

P. H. WATSON,

W. RENwIoK SMEDBERG.

any platform) only snfiicient to carry and sup-

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