THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



407 



PATENTED INVENTIONS RELATING TO AGRICULTURE. 



"THE MECHANISM OF STEAM CULTURE." 

 (Concluded from page 315J 



In continuation of our subject, we now come to de- 

 scribe the general arrangements and mode of operation 

 of Mr. Romaine's machine, so well known through the 

 exertions of Mr. Mechi, who, on its first introduction 

 into this country — for it is Canadian in its origin — 

 augured great things to agriculture from its use. It 

 has also attracted considerable attention, from the fact 

 that it is the machine which is aided by funds expressly 

 voted by the Canadian Legislature, anxious as it is 

 practically to promote cultivation by steam. It is as 

 well to note here, that although the expectations of the 

 inventor and his friends have not been fully realized, 

 still every effort is being made to perfect the details of 

 the apparatus ; and the inventor is sanguine, we believe, 

 of success. At the Agricultural Exhibition at Paris, 

 although not fully prepared to exhibit, Mr. J. Evelyn 

 Denison, M.P. (who drew up the Report of the Exhi- 

 bition at the request of our Government), reports to 

 have seen it in a field near Paris " carrying its own 

 boiler and engine, travel by its own locomotive power 

 TOO yards up the field, and break up and cultivate the 

 land in its course." 



Mr. Romaine's machine is secured by two patents, 

 one under date May 10th, 1853, No. 11.51 ; the other 

 Jan. 6th, 1855 (the price of the specification of the 

 first Is. 2^d., the second Is. Id.). In the first patented 

 machine, the steam-engine, as in Mr. Bethell's (described 

 in No. IV.), worked the diggers only, the progression 

 over the land being effected by borse-powcr. This 

 defect — for defect assuredly it is, for employing steam 

 as a mere auxiliary to horse-power is but half work — 

 was obviated in the second patent, in which means were 

 secured by which the steam-engine gave locomotive 

 powers to the apparatus. The arrangements of this 

 second improved machine we shall alone describe. 



The motive power consists of two horizontal engines, 

 between which a vertical boiler is placed, the digging 

 apparatus working in front of these engines, but at a 

 lower level than the framing on which they are sup- 

 ported, the framing branching downwards to afford a 

 bearing for it. The framework is supported at one end 

 by a drum working on a horizontal shaft, this drum 

 serving at once as a " land roller" and to support a por- 

 tion of the weight of the apparatus when at work. In 

 advance of the digging apparatus, and nearly in a line 

 with the centre of the verticil boiler, bearings are pro- 

 vided in the framework for two large loose wheels ; 

 these have very broad tires, in order to prevent them 

 sinking into and poaching the soil. Tlie whole frame- 

 work vibrates on the ax'es of these driving wheels ; and 

 a tipping apparatus is provided, by which the end can be 

 raised or lowered, thus adjusting the depth to which the 



cultivating cutters enter the ground. In contact with 

 tJiese main driving wheels, two rollers, a little longer 

 than the breadth of the tires, work : the peripheries of 

 these rollers are covered with india-rubber or other 

 elastic material. These rollers are made to revolve 

 by the action of the steam-engine ; and the friction 

 arising between these peripheries and those of the 

 main driving wheels causes the latter to revolve ; a pro- 

 gressive motion is thus given to the machine, and the 

 cutters of the cultivating part are kept up in the soil 

 on which they are to operate. By proper gearing the 

 rollers can be made to revolve in an opposite direction, 

 thus causing the main driving wheels to revolve back- 

 wards, and to release the cutters from operating on the 

 soil. 



The digging apparatus consists of a cylinder sup- 

 ported on a central shaft, working at right angles to the 

 length of the framework ; to the cylinder are bolted a 

 set of radiating arms, these cleansing the kaives or 

 cutters which act on the soil. The radiating arms are 

 set at equal distances in the cylinder, and the knives or 

 cutters are so arranged that in the revolution of the 

 cylinder they are most favourably disposed for entering 

 the earth — they are set either to run parallel with the 

 shaft or axle of the cylinder, or to run spirally or in- 

 clined thereto. The knives may be formed in double 

 irregular lengths, so as to present points and inclined 

 surfaces to the earth during working. The digging 

 cylinder is worked by the engine as follows — the bear- 

 ings which support the horizontal axis of the cylinder 

 affords space above for two " stops," in which the 

 lower ends of two vertical shafts revolve, the upper end 

 revolving in pedestals attached to the horizontal part of 

 the general framework. To the upper extremities of 

 these shafts cranks working horizontally are keyed in, 

 to the crank pins of which the connecting rods of the 

 two horizontal engines are jointed. Mitre or bevel 

 wheels are keyed into the lower extremities of the ver- 

 tical shafts, and locked into similarly pitched bevel or 

 face wheels, fixed to the extremities of the axle of the 

 cutting or digging cylinder. These latter wheels are con- 

 nected within the open ends of the digger cylinder, so that 

 the latter can work close to the ground without inter- 

 fering with the action of the gearing. The vertical shafts 

 also give motion to the rollers previously described, 

 which act upon the main driving wheels. This is effected 

 through the medium of mitre-wheels keyed on the 

 vertical shafts at a point near the middle of their length ; 

 these take into bevel-wheels of like diameter, l:eyed 

 on the end of horizontal shafts revolving in bear- 

 ings projecting from the sides of the frame-work. 

 These horizontal shafts have clutches and double-bevel 



