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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AGRICULTURE. 



SLTPI.EMKNT. 



in diameter at the upper end, and a wooden roller at the lower. (J. Gladstone, Lead-works, Chester, 

 Oct. 89. 1881.) 



8202. Mr. J. Gladstone, civil engineer, Chester, to whom we are indebted for the foregoing plans and 

 description, with reference to the improved form of the threshing machine, says, " I have always under- 

 stood that it was to my 

 father we are indebted for 

 it in its improved state. 

 In 1788, Mr. Andrew 

 Meikle produced the first 

 machine of the kind, for 

 which he took out a pa- 

 tent. (See Repository nj 

 Arts,\o\ x. No. 58.) Tins 

 was simply a threshing 

 cylinder with the beaters 

 turning downwards, 



throwing straw and com 

 into a moving screen, 

 which separated them in 

 a very imperfect manner; 

 so much so, that 1 have 

 heard the machines were 

 given up, or going into 

 disuse, simply on account 

 of the beaters striking 

 downwards ; if the ears 

 escaped the beaters im- 

 mediately on passing 

 through the rollers, they 

 were bent under them, 

 and laid close to the in- 

 terior of the cylinder case, 

 and thereby evaded the 

 stroke of the beater. In 

 1793, my father made his 

 first machine, similar to 

 that of Mr. Meikle, w ith 

 this difference, that the 

 threshing cylinder turned 

 upwards, and as the corn 

 came through the roller, 

 it lay upon the cylinder, 

 and, being exposed to the 

 stroke of each beater, 

 none escaped being 

 threshed." (See The 

 Stewarlry of Kirkcud- 

 bright Agricultural Re- 

 port of 1810.) 



8203. The late Mr. 

 Gladstone, of Castle Dou- 

 glas, added the shaker to 

 the threshing machine 

 in 1794, and what he 

 called a fetterer, for 

 breaking off the awns of 

 barley, soon afterwards. 

 In 1798, he made a 

 threshing machine, to be 

 driven by windmill sails. 

 In 1799, he invented the 

 draught chains used in 

 threshing machines, to 



equalise the pressure of the draught on the horse's shoulder. In 1805, he added a travelling shaker 

 to the threshing machine, and soon after, a contrivance for conveying the corn from the fanners into 

 the granary, and weighing it at the same time. By another piece of machinery the corn may be 

 accurately measured. " On reviewing the whole," the writer, in the Report of the Stewarlry of Kirk- 

 cudbright Agricultural Society for 1810, observes, "it is impossible not to perceive how vastly superior 

 the machines of Mr. Gladstone are to those first contrived by Mr. Meikle, and what distinguished 

 services he has thus rendered to the interests of agriculture. The machine is now competent to the 

 threshing not only of one, but of every, species of grain. It is adapted of itself to separate the straw 

 from the corn, and convey it perfectly shaken into the straw-house; to clean the corn effectually; 

 to weigh and measure it accurately ; arid to lodge it securely in the granary. If driven by water, the 

 adoption of the chain bucket outer wheel saves an inner one, formerly deemed indispensably necessary, 

 and simplifies the machinery ; if by horses, the person feeding it can manage without a driver from 

 within, and assign to each horse an equal share of the draught, or such a proportion of it as may be sup- 

 posed adequate to his strength. Much diminution in the expense, as well as much improvement in the 

 mode, of farm management has thus taken place. What was the work of several months, can be per- 

 formed more perfectly, and with more ease, in as many weeks ; and the labour of the winter season can 

 now be devoted to more valuable purposes, to the collecting and formation of manures, and the better 

 preparation of the land for the reception of the seed." 



M204. One of the most complete thinking machines in England has been erected at the Duke of 

 Gloucester's farmery at liagshot Park ; for the following description and drawings of which we are 

 indebted to Mr. Anderson, an experienced agricultural engineer. This machine threshes the corn, 

 huminels barley, winnows, sifts, and cleans corn, grinds it into flour, cuts the straw into chaff, and 

 grinds bones for manure ; and any one of these operations can be performed without the other. The 

 different parts of this apparatus are chiefly taken from machines already in existence, but some also are 

 original. It may be mentioned as a singular and melancholy sign of the times, that the parties who have 

 the chief merit are afraid of giving their names to the public. The agriculturists of a future, and, we 

 trust, no distant day will hardly believe it possible that the destruction of threshing machines should 

 have been popular in England in 1830. It is worthy of notice as an argument in favour of the diffusion 

 of knowledge among the labouring classes, that, so far from threshing machines being destroyed in 

 Scotland, they are so much in repute among the labourers of that country, that a farmer who is without 



