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Title: |
1880 Article-Charles Burrell & Sons, Ltd., Verett & Adams' Steam Ploughing Engine |
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The Engineer Magazine, 16 Jul 1880, pgs.43 & 44 |
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1/26/2013 2:15:27 PM |
The engine sent by Messrs. Burrell and Sons, of Thetford, we illustrate on age 44. It is constructed under the patents of Messrs. Everitt and Adams, of Ryborough. The first engine of the type ever built was exhibited last year at Kilburn. The prominent peculiarity of the engine is the mounting, on each side of it, of a winding drum, either of which can be caused to revolve by putting a pinion on the crankshaft in gear with the ring of cogs on the drum. These drums are, in fact, vertical windlasses and wind up the rope which hauls the plough or other implement. If two engines are used, one on each headland, then a single drum on each will suffice ; but for roundabout work, both are required; and in order to lead one rope in the proper direction, a horizontal pulley of large diameter is fitted under the foot-plate, and round this the rope is led. Thus the rope from either drum can be led off at any angle. The engine is 10-horse power by the Society's rules—that is to say, it has a cylinder 10 in. diameter and 12 in. stroke. The safety valves are loaded to 150 lb. on the square inch. The boiler is of steel, as is all the gearing, but the brackets, road-wheels, and drums are of wrought iron, the latter having cast iron cog rings. The drums are 6 ft. 6 in. in diameter, and each carries 800 yards of ¾ in. wire-rope. A self-acting brake is fitted to each drum. It consists of a hoop, lined with wood, encircling a sheave fixed to the drum. The hoop can be tightened by a. screw. On the stud on which the drum revolves is fixed a small ratchet wheel. An arm provided with a click is fixed at its outer end to the brake strap, while at its inner end it embraces the stud. When the drum is winding, the brake carries the arm round with it, the click running over the ratchet wheel ; but when the drum is paying out, the click enters the teeth of the ratchet wheel, and the arm then prevents the brake strap from revolving with the drum and in this way the tall rope is kept tight. There are eleven teeth in each of the drum pinions, and 107 teeth in each of the drum rings, so that as the engine makes about 150 revolutions, per minute, when hauling, the drums make nearly 15.5 revolutions in the same time, which corresponds to a speed of implement of, say 310 ft. per minute or over 3.5 miles an hour. For ploughing the speed is less than this, the engine being run more slowly, but for cultivating in light land the velocity is higher, the engine making
from 200 to 250 revolutions per minute. The driving wheels are 185in. wide, and 5 ft. 8 in. diameter. The leading wheels are 4 ft. by 16 in. By a very neat arrangement of brackets the pinions driving the drums are kept quite close up to the bearings when in gear. The workmanship of this engine, we need hardly add, leaves nothing to be desired. The side drums, it may be proper to add, are carried on studs, which are really the arms or ends of a strong axle, bent in the middle to half encircle the boiler, to which it is secured by bolting it between stout angle irons riveted to the barrel of the boiler.
Image Courtesy of Grace's Guide
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/File:Im1880EnV50-p044a.jpg |
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