No. 124.J 39 



the bottom of the sides before described, are two puUies, one on 

 each side ; and on the upper edge of the sides, about three feet be 

 hind the others, are two more more pullies, over w^hich two endless 

 chains revolve when the machine is in motion. These chains are 

 connected by small iron rods, about two or two and a half inches 

 apart, and parallel to each other. When this machine is put in mo- 

 tion, the earth with the potatoes is passed over the plate on to the 

 parallel iron rods, through which the chief part of the earth first 

 falls, and then follow the potatoes. It is clear that this machine will 

 not act advantageously in a tough, rigid, or very wet soil. Your 

 committee witnessed its operation in such a soil, and were not disap- 

 pointed at its partial success. Nevertheless they are unanimously 

 convinced, that the principles developed in this machine are such as 

 to merit the encouragement of the Institute, on the ground that 

 it will answer an excellent purpose in a light dry soil ; of which 

 Mr. Ketchum presented a satisfactory certificate ; and they have no 

 doubt it may be improved so as to operate in other soils. They 

 therefore recommend that he be rewarded by a diploma of the Ameri- 

 can Institute. 



EDWARD CLARK, 

 HENRY MEIGS, 

 MARTIN ELLSWORTH, 

 WILLIAM J. TOWN SEND, 



Committee. 

 Kew-York, Oct. 20, 1843. 



Extract from the Report of the Committee on India Rubber Goods. 



To THE Premium Committee of the 16th Annual Fair: 



Your letter of the 5th of October, inst., advising us of our appoint- 

 ment as judges on India rubber goods, requested that we would give 

 you any information as to the general state of the manufacture of that 

 branch of domestic product submitted to our notice^ such as its 

 origin, progress, aggregate annual amount, &c. We therefore most 

 cheerfully give you such information as we are in possession of. 



First. The manufacture of India rubber is supposed to have origi- 

 nated with the French, as early 1790, and on a very limited scale. 

 The article first manufactured was mostly for the use of their hospitals- 

 such as injection-tubes, bandages, cushions, water-beds, life-preserver 

 or bathing-belts, as they were then called, and used only by hospital 

 patients for bathing, when in a state of convalescence. The aogreoate 

 amount manufactured at that time would not have exceeded Iwo 

 thousand dollars. 



About the year 1795, it became an article of manufacture in Eng- 

 land, under the control and management of a Mr. Mcintosh, who 

 discovered the art of dissolving India rubber with naptha, for which 

 he obtained letters patent, and enjoyed a complete monopoly of the 



