THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



207 



anchors, 4 guide-pulleys, 20 small sheaves, 2 twitch- 

 screws, 6 coupling chains, 12 rollers, 2 screw-jacks, 1 

 waggon for conveying windlass, rope, anchors, &c., with 

 portable crane, 1 frame with four plough-beads, fitted with 

 raising and lowering gear. Price £380." Here, at any 

 rate, would be plenty for the money. It is much to be 

 regretted that this apparatus diil not appear, as it seems 

 to be of a similar character to Mr. Fisken's simple and 

 admirable machinery, which was shown at Carlisle. 

 However, we can only guess at its character ; and if it 

 works four ploughs at once, and costs only i£380 with the 

 engine, it must be amazingly cheap. 



Mr. W. Bray, of Folkstone, did not get to his place 

 with the traction-engine, having Barron's patent boiler. 

 The wheels, it is said, " have teeth or blades, which enter 

 the ground, and obtain a firm hold ; and these are made 

 to slide in and out, so that they clear themselves of the 

 soil ; they are also capable of adjustment to run well on 

 hard ground, for carting, and for general farm work. 

 To the engine is attached a set of pumps for filling the 

 tank, which may be used for distributing liquid manure, 

 or employed as an efficient fire-engine. Price £^550." 

 A plough-frame of the same inventor ought also to have 

 been present. It is " made to carry a number of ploughs, 

 and is so arranged that when turning the furrows to the 

 right or left, half the ploughs are raised from the ground 

 by means of a lever ; this arrangement being necessary, 

 as the implement is intended to turn with the traction- 

 engine at the headlands. It is supported on two wheels 

 behind, and connected, by a beam in front, to the engine. 

 Price i?150." 



But there is also another steam plough which was 

 promised us as among the models, but could not be found. 

 This is the locomotive steam plough of J. Austin, of 

 Millisle, near Donaghadu, County Down, manufactured 

 by Chaplin and Co., Glasgow. It is to be " so constructed 

 as to plough three to six acres per day, requiring only 

 from 4 to 8 cwt. of coals, according to the power of the 

 engine. Being locomotive, it draws itself and plough to 

 and from the field, and all its work can be done by the 

 superintendence of owe man. The engine is also ap- 

 plicable to all other usual purposes. Price ^£'250." If 

 this be a true statement of the capabilities of this inven- 

 tion, we can only say, let us have it manufactured at 

 once ; and there will be an immense and immediate 

 sale for so cheap and economical a machine. 



Whatever maybe the merits of these ten inventions, 

 entered but not exhibited — and we include them in our 

 notices only because of the general importance of tho 

 subject — we have several traction engines, ploughs, and 

 cultivators subjected to an actual though unfortunate 

 trial. 



Mr. Cambridge exhibited in the yard an eight-horse 

 power engine, made self-propelling, so as to serve for 

 drawing implements on arable land, as well as taking 

 machines or heavy loads along common roads. The 

 hindmost travelling-wheels are both driven by means of 

 gpurwheels affixed to them, gearing with pinions actuated 

 by the engine crank-shaft, the fore- wheels turning on a 

 transom, and being steered by a wheel like that of a 

 ship. For traversing soft or rough ground, or up and 

 downhill, "a portable railway" is employed 3 this did 

 not appear, but we believe it consists of an endles rail 

 somewhat resembling Boydell's, with the shoes or rails 

 hinged together. Price £500. 



Mr. Lee, of Wolverhampton, has a portable engine, 

 which by means of two riggers, and a pinion gearing into 

 a spur wheel on the axle-tree of the hind-wheels, propels 

 itself along. It will draw behind it a weight equal to 

 6 tons up an incline of I in 17, and is guided by a fore- 

 carriage steerage. It is fitted with reversing motion 

 and tank. Price £^235, or without the self-acting move- 

 ment £210. 



Mr. Burrell, of Thetford, has patented a remarkably 

 simple method of making ordinary portable engines 

 locomotive by means of Boydell's endless railway. The 

 seven-horse engine shown has the rails attached to the 

 wheels, and the propulsion is effected by a pinion on one 

 end of the crank-shaft driving a chain-wheel affixed to 

 one of the hind travelling-wheels by means of an endless 

 pitch-chain. At a very reasonable expense, this simple 

 contrivance may be added to any portable engine now in 

 use, and so enable it to travel of its own accord from place 

 to place, dragging a thrashing machine after it, or the 

 same engine might drag two or three ploughs or carts, 

 &c. However, except in a very level district, we should 

 prefer having a locomotive purposely manufactured, as 

 there must be considerable danger in working common 

 boilers up and down hill, which have but little water- 

 space above their tubes. 



Mr. Boydell's traction engine or steam-horse is ma- 

 nufactured by Mr. Burrell, and is similar to the one ex- 

 hibited last year, only better constructed. Descriptions 

 of this invention have repeatedly appeared in our 

 columns ; but we say, in a word, that it consists of a 

 portable engine, with tubular 10-horse boiler, two 

 7-inch cylinders, each of 1 foot stroke, reversing mo- 

 tion, 4 feet fly-wheel, water tanks, steerage, and gear 

 work for driving (with two speeds) one of the hind 

 carriage-wheels ; weighing, with water, about 10 tons, 

 and being nearly 30 feet long from end to end. The 

 hind wheels are of 6 feet diameter, the fore wheels 

 smaller, all fitted with the endless rails ; and the steer- 

 age is effected by altering the " lock" of the front 

 wheels with a short coach-pole, worked by chains and a 

 wheel, like the rudder of a ship. There is also a screw 

 for further adjusting the level of the boiler to different 

 gradients. The rails are not only laid down before each 

 wheel, and taken up behind it, but being loose and dis- 

 connected with each other, allow the wheel to alter its 

 direction with facility ; and being jointed, so as to admit 

 of angular motion sideways, can accommodate them- 

 selves to a transverse as well as longitudinal inclination 

 of ground. We saw this engine ascend an incline of 1 

 in 7, drawing up a water-tank, &c., weighing many 

 tons. It pulled three 2-furrow ploughs at the pace of 

 two miles per hour, working six inches deep in difficult 

 stony ground ; it dragged with still greater ease a culti- 

 vator 8 feet 6 inches wide with 11 tines (manufactured 

 by Coleman), making deep and effective work; and 

 passed over soft, stirred land, scarcely sinking in at all, 

 and not unduly pressing it. The price is £630. 



Mr. Burrell's plough, constructed with two shares 

 and mouldboards in one frame, and with levers for 

 raising and depressing the wheels at the front end of the 

 beams, are not quite manageable, and are at great dis- 

 advantage from having no steering apparatus, by which 

 the ploughman might direct the width of the furrow. 

 Even with single ploughs, the operation of turning is 

 very awkward ; indeed, we cannot believe that steam- 

 ploughing ought to depend on manual labour for hold- 

 ing the implements, and feel no doubt that a ploughing 

 machine will soon be found successfully coupled with 

 the traction engine. As it was, five men were needed to 

 work the engine and double ploughs. 



Messrs. Burgess and Key are the exhibiters of the 

 traction engine invented and manufactured by Mr. 

 CoUinson Hall and Mr. T. Charlton, of Navestock, 

 Essex. This novel-looking locomotive has the appear- 

 ance of two horizontal cylindrical boilers of small 

 diameter, placed one a short distance above the other, 

 with the engines and machinery between them ; these 

 boilers being united at one end by an upright cylinder 

 containing the fire-box, and also having communication 

 by upright pipes at two other points along their length. 

 The tubes are in the lower boiler, and the water level is 



