100 Years of Patents – Agricultural Planting EquipmentAugust 14, 2024

As McKee, Voorhees & Sease celebrates its 100^th anniversary this year (2024), it is good to look back on the technological developments and advances that have occurred. There is no better place to look than through patent filings and grants. One particular area that we in the Midwest are well versed in is agriculture. Let’s look back at some filings from 1924 and current technologies, to see what is the same and different.

First, U.S. Patent No. 10,842,072 to Kinze Manufacturing covers high speed planting technology, which Kinze refers to as True Speed®. With True Speed, planters are able to plant seeds at desired spacing and depth at speeds up to 12 MPH. To do so, the seed meter of True Speed includes vacuum pressure to hold seeds that can be pneumatically supplied to a seed meter on an electrically rotated disk that are passed along, via an electrically operated brush wheel to a flighted belt that rotates (via electric motor) at a speed corresponding to the ground speed of the planter. The correlation of the planter speed and belt speed means that the seed is released toward the ground such that it experiences relatively zero net velocity in the horizontal direction, allowing it to softly land with limited to no roll in a furrow. This continues for each seed.

U.S. Patent No. 1,566,242 was filed on May 15, 1924, and is titled “Machine for Sowing Seeds”. The first thing that jumped out to me was in the background of the invention, which included “As is well known, the germination, growth and thriving of grain laid in the soil take place under the most favourable [sic] conditions, when the grains of corn are sown at systematically determined distances apart, have sufficient space, air and light for development and do not hinder each others [sic] growth.” This is the goal still today with modern equipment, including Kinze’s True Speed patent. However, in 1924, equipment did not use or presumably consider the use of vacuums, air pressure, electronics, or many of the modern technologies.

Instead, according to the ‘242 patent, only mechanical means are used to control the placement of seed in the ground with the desired spacing and depth. The technology includes the use of mechanical grippers on a rotating disc. The grippers scoop up grain and carry it to a location where fingers of the gripper are forced open to release the seed through a funnel towards the ground. The machine was ground driven with a drive wheel contacting the ground connected to the seed disk via a chain. Thus, rotation of the drive wheel will mechanically operate the disc and grippers to continuously plant seed.

These two patents are just a few of the many patents and applications that have been filed over the years to improve agricultural performance. It is interesting to see that many of the same problems associated with planting (e.g., seed spacing and depth) that existed in the 1920s are still being solved today utilizing and implementing updated technologies. However, as the size of farms has grown over the years, new problems have developed, such as the need to farm more acres in the same or less time. Thus, companies like Kinze continue to innovate and develop improvements that aid farmers and help everyone.

From seed development to agricultural equipment innovations and everything in between, we at MVS have seen and handled it all. The attorneys and patent agents at MVS continue to be at the forefront of the law to help companies protect their innovations and to develop strategies to be industry leaders. Over the last 100 years, we have helped companies grow and maintain their presence by offering top-tier service that combines our specialty in Intellectual Property Law with many having a science and engineering backgrounds to understand even the most complicated of technologies.

Luke T. Mohrhauser is a Patent Attorney, Managing Partner, and Chair of the Mechanical and Electrical Practice Group at McKee, Voorhees & Sease, PLC. For additional information please visit www.ipmvs.com or contact Luke directly via email at luke.mohrhauser@ipmvs.com.