US PATENT CLASS 111
Class Notes
Current as of: June, 1999
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DEFINITION
Classification: 111/
Processes and instruments for inserting in the ground seed, fertilizer, poison, plants, or other material or objects handled in a similar manner. Instruments for planting therefore include means for conveying, dropping, or directing material or objects to or upon the ground, combined with means for preparing the ground, as by furrowing, dribbling, or otherwise loosening or forming cavities therein for the reception of said material or objects, or with means for ridging, hilling, or other wise placing earth over said material or objects, or with both said means.
(1) Note. This class includes, in addition to means for planting or burying certain specificallynamed materials or objects (1) broadcast-planting, comprising means for depositing and spreading material in general uniformly over the surface, together with means operating on the surface (as plows, rollers, harrows) to prepare the surface to receive such uniformly spread material or to cover it or mix it with earth; (2) drilling and dribbling, comprising means having earth-working tools or elements, (as furrow-opener, furrow-closer, hill-marker, cavity-former, etc.), together with means for depositing the material and in most instances means for separating the material from bulk.
(2) Note. The terms "pipe or strand" and "liquid or gas" are used in the titles of subclasses herein as typical of a class of materials rather than as limitations. The term "planter element" as used herein includes devices peculiar or necessary to a complete planting operation, the usual elements being an earth-worker, a seed-depositor, and a covering device.
LINES WITH OTHER CLASSES
Mechanisms per se for dispensing or retailing material from bulk are classified in appropriate dispensing or material or article handling classes, as for example, Class 221, Article Dispensing, or Class 222, Dispensing; but mechanisms comprising a valved chute to accumulate charges or otherwise peculiarly adapted to insure depositing at intervals, when specialized for use in a planter, are deemed to be planting devices and are classified in this class.