GB223964A - A machine for thinning out beet plants - Google Patents

Abstract

223,964. Andersen, M. July 25, 1923. Moving-tool machines with means for breaking down vegetation.-A hoe is moved transversely to break up the line of beets into separated clumps and one plant in each clump is then isolated, the remaining plants being pulled out between gripping arms. The hoe 35, Fig. 11, is carried with two curved guides 36 on the shaft of a spring- pressed plunger 38 mounted in a cylinder 40 at the end of a connecting-rod. 33, this rod being slotted to take a pivot on a bracket 34 and attached at its other end to a crank pin on a shaft 30 driven from the main wheels of the machine. The depth of penetration of the hoe is controlled by the guides 36 which cause the plunger 38 to be pressed back against its spring when they engage the soil. The clumps of beet left by the hoe are engaged by an horizontal flange on a plate 13 depending from the rear part of the machine. This flange is provided with a tapered slot leading to a circular opening sufficiently large to receive one beet top. After one beet has entered this opening it is isolated from the rest by a transverse bar 22 that is moved between it and the. other plants by a rod 20 which, with a cooperating rod 19, is provided with a universal pivotal mounting in a bracket 21 and is actuated by a cam 10 on a vertical shaft operated from the main wheels. The rod 20 also causes a pivoted part 16 of the plates 13 to be moved to one side, permitting the isolated plant to escape from its opening as the machine moves forward. The remaining plants in the clump are gripped between the bar 22 and a transverse extension 23 of the rod 19 and pulled from the soil. The movement of the rods 19, 20, actuated by the cam 10, is controlled by a trapezoid opening 12 in a plate 11.