This account of a patent issued to Messrs. Reeves, of Bratton, Wiltshire was first published in The London Journal of Arts, Sciences and Manufactures and Repertory of Patent Inventions conducted by Mr. W. Newton of the Office for patents, Chancery lane, London in 1852.
Messrs. Reeves, of Bratton, Wiltshire, obtained a prize medal for a liquid manure drop drill and a liquid manure distributing cart, the invention of Mr. Chandler, of Aldbourne, Berkshire, but improved and manufactured by the exhibitors. The drill is designed to deposit seed in the earth, and, at the same time, apply liquid manure thereto. The seed-depositing apparatus is of the ordinary kind, and is applied to the back part of the machine, at the top of the chamber that contains the liquid manure. The framing of the machine is similar to an ordinary cart frame, and is furnished with a pair of travelling wheels and a pair of shafts. The manure chamber is made with the front part upright, the back inclined, and the bottom semicircular; and it is supported by a pivot or axle on each side, so as to admit of being turned partly over, by means of suitable mechanism, in order to empty it completely. The chamber contains two horizontal shafts, one at the upper and the other at the lower part thereof; on each shaft are fixed as many chain-pulleys as there are coulters attached to the machine; and around every pair of pulleys an endless chain passes, carrying several buckets. The shafts, and, consequently, the endless chains, are set in motion by gearing from one of the running wheels; the buckets are thereby made to descend into the liquid manure, and take up a supply thereof; and they then ascend to the upper part of the chamber, and discharge their contents into large tin funnels, or conductors, connected with the coulter. The seed is delivered from the seed-box, by the usual means, into small funnels, or conductors, and discharged into the large funnels, whence it descends, with the liquid manure, into the furrows or channels formed by the coulters.
