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US Patent 1181094 April 26, 1916
This invention relates to an attachment for binders, corn harvesters and other analogous machinery, and the primary object of the same is to provide an attachment that will permit a binder, harvester or other machine to travel or more over soft or muddy ground and operate as effectively as when moving over a hard ground surface by obviating sinking of the ordinary bull wheel into soft ground and interfering with the operation of cutting and binding mechanism.
The invention primarily consists in mounting a broad tread roller adjacent to the bull wheel of a binder or harvester and in having said roller normally elevated above the ground surface on which the bull wheel rests and has movement, the roller attachment and the bull wheel having such relative dimensions that when the bull wheel sinks a short distance into soft ground or mud the roller will come in contact with the surface of the ground and, having a broad tread, will prevent sinking of the ground wheel a greater distance into the ground and thus hold the machine up so that the mechanism of the binder or harvester may effectively perform the functions for which it has been devised.
The advantage of the improved attachment is that a harvester or binder may be worked over hard or soft ground with equal efficiency, it being understood that when the bull wheel moves over a hard ground surface the roller attachment will not come into operation or will not engage the ground surface.