92 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



trifugal force; but the beater is inclined, so as to follow the grain and exert 

 upon it a hard friction. The grain is thus thrown into a corrugation of the 

 outside envelop, and in falling down along the lower portion of this corru- 

 gation, which acts as an inclined plane, it is brought back toward the centre 

 of the machine, and is caught by the second row of beaters, and by all in 

 succession. The dust which is detached from the grain is carried up by a 

 strong current of air blowing upward between the drum and its envelop. 

 After reaching the bottom of the machine, the grain enters the central pipe, 

 and falls on an inverted cone placed in it, and the last particles of dust 

 remaining are carried away through the outside pipe already mentioned. 

 Machines of this kind are built of different sizes. A two-horse power ma- 

 chine can clean fifty bushels of wheat per hour, and is sold for $150. Those 

 of a larger size cost proportionately less, and do more work for the same 

 power. After a time, the surface of the beaters wears out, and they become 

 perfectly flat ; but they are easily replaced by others, at a cost of $3 for the 

 whole set. This machine does its work cheaply and effectually, and, slightly 

 modified, may eventually serve for cleaning cocoa and coffee in Equatorial 

 America and elsewhere. The cleaning of cocoa is at present actually done 

 by hand, in the most primitive manner, at a cost equal to forty per cent, 

 of the price of the grain ready for shipping. N. Y. Tribune. 



SELF-INDICATOR BEE-HIVES. 



The careful bee-fancier has long desired to possess some method of meas- 

 uring the daily increase or decrease in the weight of his hive. A recent 

 German authority states that a bee-grower there took the trouble to weigh 

 one of his hives twice a day before the bees left in the morning and after 

 their return at night and thus he determined the nightly loss by consump- 

 tion and evaporation. These observations were continued from May 5 to 

 August 2, a period of ninety -one days, and the results are very interesting. 

 On the 5th of May the hive weighed sixty-four pounds ; it lost two s wanna 

 weighing twelve pounds; yet on August 2, it weighed 120* pounds. There 

 was no increase in weight from June 28 to July 21 , except of one-quarter 

 pound on one day, and three-quarters on another; and from July 17 to 

 August 2, the whole increase was only three pounds. The work of each 

 day is minutely recorded, and the results go to prove that the bee-keeper 

 should have some means of ascertaining the weight of his hives daily through- 

 out the season. A method of doing this has been invented by Mr. Shirley 

 Hibbard, of Tottenham, England. It consists of a turned pillar, made after 

 the fashion of a telescope, working like a piston in a brass or iron cylinder. 

 Beneath the pillar is a spiral spring, on which the pillar rests. Two slots 

 run down the side or front of the cylinder, and between them an index is 

 marked. A finger is attached to the base of the pillar, and the hive adjusted 

 on top of the latter, so that as it presses down on the spring the finger marks 

 the gross weight of the whole. A thumb-screw passes through the cylinder, 

 and, by pressing against the pillar, holds it in a fixed position whenever it 

 may be desirable. The whole affair is exceedingly simple, and must be 

 readily understood. To the intelligent bee-keeper it will be a very acceptable 

 acquisition. 



