JcsE 19, 1886.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



627 



cotton thus accumulates in the brush-liox against tlie foot 

 of a revolving toothed-apron, by which it is carried up and 

 thrown into a removable receptacle, where it remains until 

 iinloaded by hand. The brushes and apron are revolved 

 by suitable traius of gears connected with the main driving- 

 wheels. 



The forward end of the machine is supported upon two 

 caster-wiieels, in front of which are placed sheet-iron 

 guards to turn the limbs of the plants out of their paths, 

 the guards converging towards the passage between the 

 two portions of the machine to bring the cotton to the 

 pickers. When the machine is provided with more than 

 one pair of pickers, the second jiair is placed above the 

 first, so as to adapt the machine to cotton of any height ; 

 the plates of the lower pair are intended to approach 

 within about four inches of each other. The i>lates of the 

 upper pair ai-e intended to touch a central vertical plane, 

 in order that they may reach entirelj' across through the 

 row of plants. The picker-plates of the upper pair in each 

 instance pass between the plates of the next lower pair, to 

 a distance of about four inches, to prevent the branches 

 being drawn in among them. 



The tongue of the machine is attached to the frame at 

 the centre of the forward cross-bar, and extends forward 

 over the tops of the plants, and carries a yoke above the 

 necks of the team. The traces are secured to single trees 

 attached to a double tree pivoted to the frame, and which 

 bends down to the proper level for attaching the team. 

 The receptacle is made of wire cloth supported on a frame, 

 to allow sand and dirt to be jarred out of the picked cotton. 



The principal point in this machine consists in the use 

 of the gibbous plates, the teeth of which being thickly set 

 — card-like — on the front side at an angle of 30^, and pro- 

 tected on the outer edge by a rim exactly abutting with 

 the plane of the teeth, which are perfectly true, prevents 

 the possibility of the teeth taking anything but liut. A 

 leaf, or limb, or even the hand, w-ill pass freely- over the 

 surface of the teeth. The two tiers of plates extend 

 up about five feet, and if desirable to reach higher, 

 other tiers can be added. As the machine passes 

 over the row, the picker - plates come in contact 

 with every one half - inch of the entire plants 

 firom top to bottom, and gather every boll of 

 open cotton, which is delivered to the receptacle absolutely 

 free from dirt of every description. The capacity of the 

 machine is measured by the number of acres it can be 

 drawn over in a given time, and the amount of open cotton 

 it encounters. For instance, if there were half a bale to 

 the acre, and it were drawn over eight acres a day, this 

 would not be an excessive load for two horses. The 

 machine weighs about 800 IVj., and would pick out four bales 

 per day, thus doing the work of sixty hands. At this 

 rate this machine could gather cotton at a cost of less than 

 1 dol. per bale. 



The machine is simple in construction, the parts are few, 

 and not liable to derangement, and it removes the cotton, 

 whether from high or low plants, efficiently and rapidly, 

 and leaves the plants in as uninjured a condition as 

 possible. — Scientific American. 



Ax " Ammoxiaphoxe " Concert. — That Dr. Carter Moffat's 

 Ammoniaphone ranks high in public favour was amply evidenced 

 by the presence of a distinguished company, which assembled in 

 St. James's Hall, on Friday evening last, in response to invitations 

 issued by Mr. C. B. Harness, of the Medical Battery Company, 

 the proprietors of Dr. Moffat's invention, who signaliRcd the 

 opening of the Company's new and spacioas premises, 52, Oxford- 

 street, W., by giving his second "Ammoniaphone" invitation 

 concert. All the artistes testified, by volunteering their eervicee, 

 their appreciation of the benefits they have derived from Dr. 

 Moffat's remarkable invention. 



® III to II a I (gossip. 



NOTE FROM MR. PROCTOIt. 



I HAVE much pleasure in announcing that 1 hope to 

 return to England — after an unexpectedly long absence — 

 in July. On or soon after my return, series of papers on 

 the f(.l!owing stibjects will be commenced or continued : — 

 Descriptive astronomy ; double stars and other telescopic 

 objects; light-sifting; and mapping. Seaside readings are also 

 in preparation ; and the Whist Coluiiiii, whicli has liei n 

 intermittent during my absence, will appear weekly. Several 

 other additions or ini])rovements are in conti mplation. 

 Only those articles will be discontinued which have not 

 seemed to me altogether consistent with the original p'aii 

 and purpose of Kxowledok. — Richaku A. Puoctor. 



The fire at the Indian Museum at South Kensington, 

 which was within an aco of involving the Inventions 

 Exhibition itself, had its origin apparently in the Hue of a 

 cooking-stove. " These things are an allegory." The fact 

 is, that a prominence has been given to mere eating and 

 drinking at the shows there during the last two or three 

 years which is enough to disgust any one and every one 

 who has gone thither with the mere view of instruction. 

 It is simply impossible to attempt a short cut fr<im one 

 court to another without tumbling over a lot of people 

 sitting at little tables eating cold meat and salad and drink- 

 ing Guiuness's stout or coU'ee, and the like. Let it not be 

 supposed that I am so foolish as to imagine that }(eople can 

 drag all the way to Brompton and spend a weary and 

 fatiguing day iu wandering through the buildings there 

 without requiring anything to eat or drink. What I pro- 

 test against is the prominence given to eating and drinking, 

 and its obtrusiveness all over the place. Presumably, 

 though, the Royal, noble, and right honourable showmt n 

 find that it pays to turn the Exhibition into a kind of 

 glorified tavern or tea-garden, or they would cease to do so. 



The irony of fate has seldom been more conspicuously 

 exhibited than it was on Tuesday week, in the presence of 

 the Archbishop of Canterbury, at the ceremony of unveil- 

 ing the statue of one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, 

 naturalists the world has ever seen. Men who have nor, 

 yet arrived at middle age can recollect how Charles Darwin's 

 first immortal works were shrieked at and denounced as 

 atheistical and worse, from almost every pulpit in the 

 Kingdom ; from that of the Cathedral down to the rostrum 

 of the veriest little Bethel ; and how the highest dignitaries 

 of the Church united with Messrs. Chadband it Co. in their 

 frantic howls at a theory now held by practically every 

 competent living naturalist. How forcibly this recalla 

 the whilom dictum of Sir Charles Lyell. " Every 

 scientific truth passes through three stages. In the 

 first it is decried as absurd. Then it is said to 

 be opposed to revealed religion. Finally, everybody 

 knew it before." That Darwin should have a statue is 

 perhaps right at a time when so many dummies and non- 

 entities have their memories perpetuated in bronze and 

 marble that it might have seemed almost an intentional 

 slight had he been denied one. He will, however, live in 

 the results of his imperishabls discoveries and investiga- 

 tions when time shall even have left its trace on the very 

 material of his monument itself, for surely no one in this 

 generation could with greater truth have adopted for his 

 own the familiar words of Ovid- — " Jamqiie o^jns exegi, 

 fpwd ner .lovis ira, ner iynis, nee ■poleritjrrrvm, nee edax 



