Book IV. 



HAND IvI A CHINES. 



381 



out their corn expeditiously and perfectly clean. The steam engine is not intended to 

 be confined to threshing, as, by particular arrange- 

 ments, it may be applied to the drawing of waggons, 

 pumping of water, breaking of stones, &c. 



2549. The maisx-sheller (Jig. 259.) is composed 

 of a thin vertical wheel covered with iron on one 

 side, made rough by punctures ; which wheel works 

 in a trough, and separates the grains from the 

 stalks by rubbing. The ears or spikes of corn are 

 thrown in by hand one at a time ; and while the 

 separated grains pass through a funnel below, the 

 naked stalk is brought up at the end of the wheel 

 opposite to that at which it was put in. The wheel 

 may either be made rough on both sides, or on one 

 side, according to the quantity of work required to be done, and the force to be applied* 



2550. Mariutt's improved maize separator (Jig' 260.) is the most perfect machine 

 of this kind at present in use ; it has not hitherto been much used in England, but a 

 good many have been exported to America and the colonies. A machine for the same 

 purpose, by Cobbett, will be figured and described in Part III. Book VI. 



2551. A hand flour-mill (Jig 261.), for grinding Indian com, consists of one wheel 

 and pinion, a fixed French burstone, and a similar stone in motion over it. The corn 

 passes through a hopper in the usual manner, and comes out from the stones fit for the 

 bolting machine. The hand flour-mill is chiefly used for Indian com ; but it will also 

 grind wheat and other 

 corns into meals of tole- 

 rable fineness. It re- 

 quires two men to work 

 it, and the price in Lon- 

 don is from ten to six- 

 teen guineas. 



2552. A hand bolting- 

 machine (Jig. 262. ), con- 

 sists of a half cylinder of 

 wire with cross brushes 

 (a), enclosed in a box (b) 

 about four feet long by 

 twenty inches on the sides. 

 It may be considered a 

 necessary appendage to 

 the hand flour-mill, and costs in London from three to five guineas. 



