The Country Gcntlemaiis Magazine 



When it is necessary to moderate the temperature of 

 the blast, a valve, opened in the supply tube of the 

 fanner, admits atmospheric air to mingle with the hot 

 gases from the furnace of the engine. In cases where 

 a high temperature is required, an additional furnace 

 is provided. Such was the apparatus with which the 

 following experiments were made. 



" First, a load of hay that had been wetted by four 

 hours' exposure to rain, was thrown by batches into 

 the shed. Each batch was turned over and over, 

 tossed up, and pulled about for a few minutes by a 

 couple of labourers armed with pitchforks. Every 

 part was thus exposed in its turn to the action of the 

 hot blast, and became dry, sweet hay ready for stack- 

 ing. The operation on the whole load occupied about 

 three-quarters of an hour. 



" Before seeing the experiment actually performed, 

 several objections to the system had presented them- 

 selves to our mind, as they did to the minds of others. 

 In the first place, we feared that sparks from the 

 furnace might be blown into the hay, and set the whole 

 batch into a blaze. And sparks were, indeed, blown 

 into it, and through it, but no blaze ensued, for be it 

 remembered that the gaseous products of combustion 

 consist chiefly of carbonic acid, an extinguisher of 

 flame as effectual as it is of animal life. In the next 

 place, we apprehended that these carbonic products 

 and the sulphurous and other noxious fumes which are 

 generally mingled with them, would certainly give the 

 hay an unpleasant flavour, if they do not entirely destroy 

 its nutritious qualities. Here also we were at fault, for we 

 forgot that in undergoing a drying process the hay 

 must give out vapour, not take any matter in. And 

 so, in fact, we found the desiccated hay sweet and 

 pleasant in smell, with a somewhat sugary flavour, 

 like that of sweet wort. On this point the cattle are 

 certainly better judges than we could pretend to be ; 

 and, as they exhibited a marked preference for the 

 desiccated hay — even over the sweetest samples of hay 

 dried by sun and wind — we could only bow to their 

 decision and admit that we had been egregiously mis- 

 taken. For a third difficulty raised on philanthropic 

 principles, we found that Mr Gibbs had amply pro- 

 vided. How, we asked ourselves, could human beings 

 stand, much less work, in a hot, foul atmosphere such 

 as that which is blown from the furnace of a steam- 

 engine? It may be all very well for wheels, and 

 cranks, and the strong steel arms through which steam 



gives out its strength, to labour in a hot and suffocat- 

 ing atmosphere ; but mere men must breathe, and 360" 

 of Fahrenheit imply a climate somewhat too tropical 

 for the most vigorous and seasoned constitution. We 

 had not observed that Mr Gibbs had placed a sub- 

 sidiary fanner at the end of his shed, and that this 

 sent a blast of pure and cool air along that zone 

 whence the workmen had to draw their breath. Thus, 

 while the hay beneath their hands was crackling and 

 baking in a torrid blast, they were enjoying a refresh- 

 ing breeze of balmy air, fragrant with the perfume of 

 the surrounding fields. 



"To shew the power of the apparatus, the inventor 

 had some grass cut in a plantation where it grew rank 

 and dank, and threw it into the desiccating chamber. 

 In a few minutes it became sweet, dry hay, with all 

 its bright green colour preserved, and with no flavour 

 that the most fastidious heifer could object to. 



" In another compartment of the shed, Mr Gibbs 

 had arranged apparatus for drying sheaves of corn. 

 As it was not harvest time, we had no opportunity of 

 testing this invention practically, but we could quite 

 understand the process, and could entertain little doubt 

 as to its success. In this case a chamber is formed 

 under the floor, and this chamber is supplied from the 

 hot blast of the fanner. Numerous conical tubes, per- 

 forated with many holes, stand up from the floor ; on 

 each of these tubes a sheaf is planted, and the hot 

 blast rising through it, and principally through the 

 full-eared head, in a few minutes expels every particle 

 of moisture. 



" Mr Gibbs has carried his contrivances a step 

 beyond mere drying, for he has devised a plan for 

 stacking the produce, as amusing as it is ingenious. 

 A fanner placed on the ground discharges a blast of 

 air along a tnink or square wooden tube A\hich rises 

 with a sharp slope to a level above that which the 

 stack has attained. In the lower part of this trunk 

 there is a wide opening fitted with an ingeniously con- 

 trived valve, which can be pressed down by hand, but 

 which opens under the pressure of the fan blast. A 

 man standing by the aperture throws in great bundles- 

 of hay or whole sheaves of com, which, almost before 

 one can turn his eyes to the upper extremity of the 

 tube, are shot from it by the blast, and deposited upon 

 the summit of the stack. It is the Pneumatic De- 

 spatch principle applied to slacking farm produce, and 

 right well does it do its work. " 



