TOMLINSON'S INCUBATOR. 



79 



the water in which is never renewed, beyond filling up now 

 and then the trifling loss from evaporation. Finally, however, 

 manufacturers and the public have returned to the old system 

 of employing the constant heat of a lamp. The first really 

 successful machine on this principle was the " Patent 

 Automatic Incubator," brought out in 1880 by Mr. Henry 

 Tornlinson, the well-known Cochin breeder of Birmingham, 



IT-SI 



Fig. 17. Tomlinson's Incubator. 



and like all efficient machines, employs an automatic regulator, 

 the latter being in its proper place the egg-draAver. But an 

 all-important lesson had now been learnt, Mr. Tomlinson 

 having experimented with a water machine of the " Reliance " 

 make, and he therefore still employed a large body of water, 

 which " holds the heat so well and steadily, that if the lamp 

 should accidentally be put out for twelve or fourteen hours, 

 the working of the machine would not be dangerously affected." 

 Such was, in fact, the grand secret, which can only be 

 ignored by a machine that possesses a perfect regulator. With 

 large tanks, any passable regulators work well and easily, 

 and the rest is a question of common sense and practical 



