C H A 



707 



C H A 



Cutter. 



ment, in consequence ot ti income was great- 



ly aiign.. ntrd, while the f-xpmccs wen- I'.iminiahcd^as 

 appears from the following statemi-nr : 

 Income. nee*. 



In 1787, . . ' Florins. 



I7!'l, . 1,34-5 T'il 7 ( 'K75.> 



For some years after the Dutch possessions on this 

 island fell into the hands of the British, they were 

 plai-t d under 'he management of the East India Com- 

 pany ; but from the beginning of 1802, they became 

 a royal government, and xvere placed under the im- 

 mediari- direction of his majesty's ministers, who 

 now regulate the affairs of the settlement. The 

 Cingalese, who live under the British government, 

 are nuw subjected to our laws, and to our form of 

 administering justice, except in a few points in which 

 their aiu-irnt customs are retained. They are go- 

 verned by their native magistrates, but the supreme 

 controuling power always reside in the servants of 

 his majesty. According to the report of the Dutch 

 board of trade, the revenue of Ceylon was formerly able 

 to defray their expenditure on account of the inland ; 

 but of late years the expenditure had far exceeded the 

 produce of the revenue. In 1795 it amounted only 

 to 611,704 livres, while the charges of the establish- 

 ed government were upwards of double that sum, 

 amounting to 1 ,243,338 livres, or 57,934- sterling. 

 Though the revenues of Ceylon are now much great- 

 er than under the Dutch administration, yet they are 

 not sufficient to defray the expence of our various 

 establishments on the island. Captain Percival, in- 

 deed, estimates them at 1 ,200,000 ; but Mr Cor- 

 diner informs us that this must be a great mis- 

 take, and that at present they do not exceed je226,600, 

 while the ordinary expenditure of the island amounts 

 to 330,000, so that the loss to goverment amounts 

 to no less than jl03,400. In this state of the re- 

 venue, he says, every source is included, allowing 

 jff 60,000 from the East India Company on account 

 of cinnamon, and 4-0,000 as the average produce 

 of the pearl fisheries, though we apprehend the esti- 

 mate of the latter is too low. See Percival. Cordiner. 

 Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. vii. 

 p. 254, Fabricii lux Evangelii per totam or hem exor- 

 cens. Transactions of the Missionary Society, vol. ii. 

 and iii. Martyn's Christian India, a Sermon preach- 

 ed at Calcutta, January 1. 1811. (w. B.) 



CHAFF-CtJTTER, is a machine for cutting hay 

 and straw into short lengths for cattle. 



The machine for cutting chaff, which has been 

 long in use, consists of a plane box or trough, mount- 

 ed on four legs to support it, and across the end of 

 the box, a large knife or blade is worked by means 

 of a handle fixed to one end of it. The other end 

 of the knife is jointed to a lever, which moves on 

 a centre at the bottom of one of the legs, so that 

 when the knife is worked, one end describes the arch 

 of a circle, while the other is applied by the handle 

 to the end of the trough or box ; and the straw be- 

 ing placed in it, the end of the straw which projects 

 beyond the extremity of the box, is cut off by the 

 knife when worked in an inclined position, and with a 

 drawing or thrusting stroke, which causes it to cut 

 very clean. The workman depresses the knife with 

 his right hand, whilst his left is employed in making 

 the straw advance in the box, every time a cut has 

 been made. This he does by a fork with a wooden 



handle, and four or five prongs, which are ituck in. Mf- 

 to the straw. At the time when the cut u made, Cutter 

 a treadle is pressed down by the foot, which draws V > ~ 

 a piece of wood down upon the straw in the box, 

 and thus compresses it so closely, that ihc knife cuts 

 much better than if it had been loose. 



From the difficulty of using this implement with 

 any rapidity, the farmer employs a man who makes 

 a business of cutting straw, and travels from one 

 farm to the next with his chaff-box at his back. 



Mr R. Salmon of Woburn, Bedfordshire, has in- 

 vented the most complete chaff machine which has yet PLAT* 

 been produced : it is represented in Plate CXXXV. CXXXV. 

 Fig. 1. in which A A, BB are two cast-iron wheels, ?'{? > 

 connected together by bolts a, a, extending from the 

 rim of one wheel to that of the other. The wheels are 

 mounted on an axis C, which is supported on bearings 

 in a proper framing, as is evident from the figure. The 

 straw is put into a box or trough GF, and what 

 projects beyond the end thereof is cut off by two 

 knives b, b, attached to the insides of the rims of the 

 two wheels AA, BB, which are turned round by the 

 winch handle E ; or where there is a thrashing or flour- 

 mill, an endless rope may be conducted round the 

 pulley or rigger D, and thus give it motion without 

 any trouble. The knives 4,6 ire placed at an angle of 

 4-5 degrees to the direction of the wheels' motion. 

 They are attached to the wheels by iron rods or le- 

 vers C, moveable on a centre-pin, and capable of 

 being forced forwards towards the chaff- box by 

 springs, which are formed to adjust by screws h, 

 and act more or less as occasion may require, so as 

 to give the knife as much pressure against the end of 

 the box as may be requisite to cut the straw. The 

 knives are prevented from coming too far forward, 

 and occasion unnecessary friction, by the wedges un- 

 der the staples near C ; which wedges, as the knives 

 wear, must be drawn out so as to permit the knives 

 to come more forward. With the provision before- 

 mentioned, it wiil be found very easy at any time to 

 put in new knives, as the springs and levers will al- 

 ways adjust them to their work. 



On one side of the wheel is fixed a round block of 

 woody; in which there are four holes and a moveable 

 screw, acting as a crank, upon one end of the feeding 

 arm f. g, extending nearly horizontal to the cross 

 lever LM, Fig. 2, to which the end of g is attached 

 by a pin. The straw is brought forward by a pair 

 of rollers in the box E, the form of which is shewn 

 at mm, in Figs. 2, 4, and 5, which rollers are turned 

 from the outside by ratchet wheels H, on each side 

 of the box F. The ratchet wheels are provided with 

 clicks, as shewn in Fig. 2, which are actuated by 

 means of small rods rr, Fig. 3. extending from each 

 click, and jointed to the cross lever L M, which moves 

 upon a centre-pin e, fixed beneath in the bottomof the 

 box F; by this means, the rods r, in moving either way, 

 by actuating one or other of the clicks, turn the 

 ratchet wheels and rollers round a proper quantity, 

 to advance the straw forwards ; but this quantity can 

 be regulated at pleasure, according to the stroke 

 given to the cross lever LM, by the feeding arm 

 f g. and crank : The pin which attaches the end g 

 of the feeding arm to the cross lever L, is move- 

 able to five different holes iu L; by means of which, 

 and the four holes in the block ft before-described, 

 for the crank-pin, twenty changes in the length 



