124 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



(2) Oil Mills. — Oil is usually extracted in wooden rotary 

 mills, of a very primitive type worked by cattle, or in large 

 screw presses worked by men. Both systems are naturally 

 expensive ; attempts have been and are still being made to 

 apply oil engines to do the work. The mill or press has yet 

 to be designed which will displace those now in use. The 

 home consumption of oil in India is very considerable and 

 it only requires the application of some of the ingenuity which 

 has been devoted to large extraction plants to the production 

 of a small plant which can be driven by a small engine to 

 effect a considerable saving in the cost of producing a prime 

 necessity of life. Oil seeds are very widely grown and as 

 the primitive methods of extraction easily hold their own 

 against the big mills, the improvement of the small mills and 

 the substitution of oil engines for animal power in driving 

 them is obviously the direction in which to work. If the 

 problem be solved, the demand for such mills will be very 

 large, as the labour costs are now very heavy and for years 

 past have been steadily rising. 



(3) Rice-Hiilling Machines. — Almost all the rice consumed 

 in India is still cleaned by hand, only that portion of the crop 

 which is exported being treated in mills driven by power. There 

 are a number of rice-huUers on the market, but those that are 

 satisfactory are too large to suit the restricted scale on which 

 village rice merchants deal, and a really good huller that would 

 not require more than four or five horse-power to drive it would 

 be in good demand. Many ryots who have an engine and pump 

 would like to employ the engine to drive either an oil mill or a 

 rice-huller when there is no necessity to lift water for irrigation. 



(4) Saw Mills. — There are but few steam saw mills in the 

 country, nearly all the timber being reduced to scantlings by 

 hand-cutting. Not only is the cost of labour for such work 

 high but there is also a considerable waste of wood, owing to 

 the irregularity of hand-sawing. Circular saws or large band 

 saws require too much power but a simple type of frame saw, 

 with a single blade, can be constructed to do a great variety of 

 work and take not more than three or four horse-power. There 

 is sufficient work for a plant on this scale in almost every 

 town in the country and it only requires that the advantages 

 to be obtained from their employment should be demonstrated 

 for a demand for them to spring up. 



