SEEDING MACHINERY 103 



the first, but none are worthy of mention until a patent was 

 granted to J. Gibbons, of Adrian, Michigan, August 25, 1840. 

 Gibbons's patent was upon the feeding cavities and a device for 

 regulating the amount delivered. A year later he patented a 

 cylindrical feeding roll with different-sized cavities. 



M. and S. Pennock, of East Marlboro, Pennsylvania, obtained 

 a patent March 12, 1841, for an improvement in cylindrical drills. 

 The patent pertained to throwing in and out of gear each seeding 

 cylinder, and also to throwing the machine in and out of gear 

 while in operation. These men manufactured their drill and 

 sold it in considerable quantities. 



Following the patent issued to the Pennock brothers came a 

 long list of patents upon "slide" and "force-feed" drills. Slide 

 drills are distinguished from the others in that a slide is pro- 

 vided to vary the size of the opening through which the seed 

 has to pass, and in this way the amount of seed sown is varied. 

 Force-feed drills carry the seed from the seed box in cavities 

 in the seed cylinder, in which the amount is varied either by 

 varying the size of seed pockets or by varying the speed of the 

 seed cylinder. 



The first patent upon a force-feed grain drill was issued 

 November 4, 1851, to N. Foster, G. Jessup, H. L. and C. P. 

 Brown, and was the introduction of the term force feed. In 

 1854 the Brown brothers incorporated as the Empire Drill Com- 

 pany and established a factory at Shortsville, New York. In 

 1866 C. P. Brown devised and patented a modification which 

 has been known ever since as the ''single distributer." One of 

 Brown's employees, in connection with a Mr. Beckford, removed 

 to Macedonia, New York, and in 1867 took out several patents 

 which presented the "double distributer." The double distributer 

 was a seed wheel with a flange on each side, one with large 

 cavities and the other with small to suit the different sizes of 

 grain. This system was adopted by the Superior Drill Com- 

 pany, of Springfield, Ohio. In 1877 a patent was granted to J. P. 

 Fulghum for a device for varying the length of the cavities of 

 the seed cylinder, and thus varying the amount of seed drilled. 

 This principle is now used by many manufacturers. 



The first drills were provided with hoes, but later a shoe was 

 found to be more satisfactory. Perhaps the shoe was introduced 

 by Brown, who devised the shoe for corn planters. 



