562 



THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



The New Centennial Incubator, manufactured by A. M. Halsted of Rye, N. Y., is in 

 two parts; an inner case of galvanized sheet iron, covered by an outer casing of wood; 

 with a dead air space between the two cases. It has double doors an inner and outer one 

 the inner one being provided with a glass window through which to examine the thermome 

 ter and the eggs. There is no electricity, no clock-work, no weights, pulleys, or double 

 levers. A simple rock-shaft passes through the side of the machine, with a lever on each 

 end of the shaft; one of which is connected with the regulator, and the other with the lamp. 

 A simple thumb-screw in the back of the machine, on the outside, adjusts the regulator to 

 any required degree of heat. 



The regulator is placed above the eggs, out of the reach of the young chicks. It is sen 

 sitive to the least change of heat, and very powerful ; and instead of changing the flame from 

 one extreme to the other either very high or very low as is the case in all other machines, 

 it regulates the lamp to give the required heat. The action is regular and graduated to the 

 needs of the machine: if in a very warm room, a low flame is produced: if the room grows 



colder the flame increases; and if the temperature 

 of the room continues to fall, the flame grows 

 larger until the full power of the lamp is turned on. 

 Ventilation is provided for, by taking in a 

 current of pure air, which passing close to the tank, 

 is heated before it comes in contact with the eggs. 

 It is then drawn to the four corners of the egg 

 chamber, and thence carried by tubes outside of 

 the machine. By this device the sides of the egg 

 chamber receive the same amount of heat as the 

 centre, and there are no cold corners. The moist 

 ure or evaporating pan is so placed that it receives 

 a gentle heat from the return flue, and thus sup 

 plies a moderate amount of vapor constantly under 

 the eggs. 



In the Reliance Incubator, by James Dennis, 

 East Providence, Rhode Island,, a soapstone radia 

 tor, which is heated by hot water pipes imbedded in it, is used for heating instead a hot 

 water tank. 



There are several incubators of greater or less merit now in use in this country. Mons. 

 Boucheraux, a French writer who has experimented quite extensively in hatching chickens 

 by artificial means, gives the results of his investigations, which have been translated from 

 the Monthly Bulletin, a French journal of the Society of Acclimation, as follows: &quot; Having tried 

 several kinds of artificial hatchers, I have quite frequently noticed that many of the young die 

 in the shell at the end of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth days, and that the greater 

 part of those that survive until the twenty-first day, would die at the time of hatching. Perhaps, 

 they were not sufficiently strong, or it may have been that the pellicle which envelopes them 

 became so dry that it was impossible for the young chick to come out of his prison. In order 

 to furnish more moisture I made, some two or three years since, a new artificial sitter, the 

 hot water receptacle of which is made of terra cotta enameled on the inside; this allows a suf 

 ficient quantity of moisture to transpire on account of its porosity. I have, with this arrange 

 ment, obtained much better results. The hatching gave a much larger per cent., and I 

 observed that the pellicle, of which I spoke just now, was exactly similar to that of eggs 

 hatched under the hen. But in spite of the success obtained by this method, I have not as 

 yet found a wonder, for I find it impossible to preserve for more than ten or twelve days the 

 chicks hatched in this manner. One of my friends, whom 1 had make an autopsy for me, found 



RELIANCE INCUBATOR. 



