104 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



to break the apples, and then deliver them to the lower cylinders to 

 be reduced to pomace. By this arrangnient the work is performed 

 faster and with much less labor. The press is arranged with a much 

 larger screw than formerly, and by a very ingenious device the use of 

 the bag is dispensed with and the tub made to open at will to deliver 

 the pomace, while at the same time the cider is left clear and the 

 work can be done with much less labor than by the old method. The 

 cylinders are covered with heavy sheet zinc, both on their peripher- 

 ies and ends. The machine is made to run by horse, steam, or hand- 

 power, and when the apples are ground, a small boy can press the 

 pomace with all ease. 



In former times it was supposed that a large quantity of cider 

 could only be made by using a ponderous machine, that slowly crush- 

 ed the apples without grinding them fine. They were then made 

 into a massive cheese in straw, and a most severe and long pressure 

 was required to extract a portion of the cider, a considerable quanti- 

 ty being absorbed by the straw and the mass of pomace, and to obtain 

 this unsatisfactory result the farmer had to take all his hands, and 

 perhaps his six horse team, and devote a whole day that could have 

 been more profitably employed, to make from six to eight barrels of 

 cider. To obviate the difficulty the farmers have heretofore labored 

 under, this machine has been invented. The apples are grated up 

 into a fine pulp, so that it requires but a comparatively light pressure, 

 and that but a minute or two, to extract all the cider ; it being ascer- 

 tained by practical experiment that one-fourth more juice can be 

 obtained, than by the old process. Besides this, it only requires two 

 hands to grind up and make into cider a larger quantity of apples, 

 than can be possibly done on the old fashioned machines. On this 

 press, owing to the compactness of the pomace in the tub, and the 

 complete manner in which it is ground, a pressure of from 3 to 5 tons 

 that can easily be obtained will produce a more favorable result 

 than fifty tons pressure on the ordinary cider press, even if the ap- 

 ples were ground as finely. 



NEW TUNNEL EXCAVATOR. 



A new machine for the boring or excavation of tunnels in rock, has 

 been invented by Mr. E. Talbot, of Hartford, Ct. It is intended to 

 be operated by an engine of sixty horse power, which is to drive four 

 piston rods, horizontally, and these turn four half-circle plates, of stout 

 proportions, on which circular revolving blades are set. These four 

 plates are turned with exactness about one-fourth of a circle and back, 

 and are all set upon a revolving plate, of about ten feet in diameter, 

 and as thus set, cut a circle of 17 feet in diameter. The machine 

 weighs about 80 tons, and is of stout proportions throughout. The 

 motion obtained by this invention is novel entirely new. By it, the 

 revolving knives, each running its quarter circles, cut completely from 

 the center to the circumference, and they do their work surely, cut- 

 ting a round hole as they are turned by the large or center plate. 



