Beet tare-taking apparatus

A tare taking mechanism for carrying a tare bucket transversely through a stream of beets to obtain a sample of beets in the bucket, the mechanism comprising:

• a central arm having two opposing ends and mounted to rotate about a fixed central axis perpendicular to one of the ends of said arm;
• power means for rotating the central arm about the central axis,
• a tare bucket arm having two opposing ends and mounted to rotate about one of its ends about a bucket arm axis parallel to the central axis and through the other opposing end of the central arm;
• a tare bucket attached to the other opposing end of the tare bucket arm;
• means causing the bucket arm to rotate about the bucket arm axis with respect to the central arm at twice the rate of rotation of said central arm, in the opposite direction to the direction of rotation thereof;
• and
• tare mechanism support means securing the mechanism in position to cause the tare bucket to pass through the stream of beets during a desired portion of its path;
• wherein
• the central arm is secured to rotate about one of its ends about the central axis;
• the tare bucket arm is fixedly secured at one of its ends outstanding from a bucket arm drive shaft mounted parallel to the central axis rotatably at the other end of the central arm;
• a central arm drive gear is affixed to the central arm coaxially with the central axis;
• the power means is connected to rotate the central arm drive gear;
• and
• the means causing the bucket arm to rotate with respect to the central arm comprises a central gear fixedly secured with respect to the tare mechanism support means coaxially with the central drive shaft, a bucket arm gear mounted fixedly to the bucket arm drive shaft, and drive shaft means connecting the central fixed gear and the bucket arm gear causing the latter to rotate oppositely to the direction of rotation of the central arm.