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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



placed, this receiving motion from the fly-wheel shaft 

 through the medium of bevil gearing. This shaft car- 

 ries a sliding clutch, easily actuated by a lever within 

 reach of tlie attendant. To the clutch is given two 

 toothed wheels, one of which (e) is of smaller diameter 

 than the other (/). These can be made to engage, at 

 will, with the pinions i and c on the shaft (a). 

 Thus, by putting the wheel (/) in gearing with the 

 pinion {b) on the shaft (a), the machine cuts the long- 

 est lengths ; by gearing the pinion (e) with the wheel 

 (c), the machine cuts the shortest lengths. Change- 

 wheels—always cumbersome, and the fitting-on of 

 which is a loss of time — are thus avoided, and the change 

 of lengths instantaneously obtained. 



In the dairy department the principal novelties were 

 the churn of Mr. Comes, of High-street, Bow, London, 

 and the butter-maliing apparatus of Messrs. Hancock, 

 of Gloucester. The churn is on what Mr, Comes calls 

 the " concussion principle." It is made of a long box, 

 working between two uprights, on central pivots. By 

 means of a handle the box can be worked up and down, 

 like the beam of a steam-engine, one end up with the 

 other down, alternately. Our readers will easily per- 

 ceive that, as the mass of milk is suddenly arrested in 

 its progress by the end of the box, against which it 

 strikes, a very complete concussion will be the result, 

 and a kneading action also, which, as the butter forms, 

 will be advantageous. An improvement, we think, 

 would be in hanging or suspending the box by side- 

 links from centres above it. The box being thus 

 loosely hung, it could be very easily moved to and fro, 

 pendulum fashion. In the Journal of Agriculture 

 (No. 43, January, 1854), we described a swing-chum 

 as exhibited at the Dublin Great Industrial Exhibition ; 

 and, in same number, one on the same principle, which 

 was invented early in the present century by William 

 Horrocks, the inventor of the steam power-loom, and 

 was introduced by him to a farmer in Cheshire, and 

 who had one made. So easily was it worked, that the 

 farmer could churn with it, reading the paper or 

 smoking his pipe. This is simply the statement of a 

 fact. The inventor was led to the subject by observing 

 the " very complete agitation of a liquid placed in a 

 long bottle, moved from end to end by making the 

 bottle oscillate, as it were, on the centre of its length, 

 while held horizontally. The bottle siwuld be about 

 half -full. The liquid, as it dashes up against the end, 

 is turned over exactly as a wave dashing against an 

 embankment or a pier." To assist this wave-like action, 

 we recommend the corners at the bottom of the box to 

 be rounded off. We should like much to see this 

 swing-chum subjected to a complete series of trials. 

 Indeed, we think that a complete series of trials for all 

 churns would elicit a vast amount of valuable informa- 

 tion on a subject of which far too little is known— 

 namely, the peculiarities of the movements of liquids 

 confined as in chums, and subjected to different mo- 

 tions. We say, a complete series of trials — not short, 

 but long-continued workings, and these arranged with 

 reference to peculiarities of motion, &c., &c., power 

 taken, time consumed, &c., &c. No trial has as yet 



been carried out, worthy of the name, in this depart- 

 ment, so far as we are aware of. It would be a work 

 of time, involving much labour and some expense on the 

 part of the experimenters ; but the results would, we 

 feel assured, justify all these amply. 



Messrs. Hancock's butter-making machine has at- 

 tracted considerable attention wherever shown. It aims 

 at superseding hand-working of butter — that is, making 

 it up for market after being churned ; an operation not 

 always conducted satisfactorily with hot-handed dairy- 

 maids. In the apparatus now under notice, the butter 

 is placed in a vertical cylinder of white metal, at the 

 bottom of which there are several apertures. A piston 

 is passed into the cylinder above the butter, and pressed 

 down by means of a screw working in a cross-bar fixed 

 to the upper part of the cylinder ; this action forces 

 the butter through the apertures in the form of small 

 flakes, which fall into a water-vessel placed beneath. 

 By making the apertures of different forms, a pleasing 

 shape is easily given to the portion of butter forced 

 through. The action of the apparatus is precisely simi- 

 lar to that of a brick or tile-drain apparatus, with which, 

 doubtless, our readers are very familiar. 



In corn cleaning machines we have to notice those of 

 Messrs. Rankin, of Liverpool, and Messrs. Hughes, of 

 London. In the latter the object aimed at is not only 

 to give the wheat a good cleaning, but to prevent its 

 being damaged while being so cleaned; a point not 

 always secured in smut machines. The grain to be 

 cleaned in this apparatus is put into a hopper placed at 

 the summit of a vertical frame ; passing from this, it is 

 conducted through a circular revolving chamber, and 

 is made to fall upon the conical fluted surface of a re- 

 volving drum ; passing from this, it meets a blast from 

 a fan placed inside of the cone, and is delivered to a 

 second cone, and finally to a spout, which leads it to a 

 second spout, across which the grain spreads itself, and 

 is subjected to the action of a fan, which frees it from 

 all the remaining dust, chaff, &c. The wings of the fans 

 inside the rubbing cones are covered with square laced 

 wove wire ; this prevents the wings from giving direct 

 blows to the grain, and at the same time permits the air 

 to pass through the fans, leading of dust and chaff 

 through the meshes of the outer cylinder by which they 

 are enclosed. 



In Messrs. Rankin's machine, the grain, on entering, 

 is taken up by a rapidly revolving drum, and is dashed 

 against a solidly-fluted cylinder enclosing the drum. 

 This releases and loosens the dust, which is carried 

 upwards by a current of air produced by a fan placed 

 at the top of the machine. The lower part of the 

 fluted cylinder is formed of wire cloth ; the wheat 

 passing from the upper and fluted portion comes in 

 contact with the wire cloth, and as this portion is 

 enclosed within an air-tight cylinder, it allows all sand, 

 seed, and heavy extraneous substances to pass through, 

 the light dust, &c., being drawn upward by the current 

 created by the fan at the top. The refuse passed through J 

 the wire is kept separate from the lighter dust. | 



As stated at the commencement of our present series 



