Book IV. 



THRESHING MACHINES. 



439 



time down through a scarce or sparrjed rack into the hopper, which conveys it into the 

 fanners. By the fanners the corn is separated from the chaff, the clean grain running 

 out at the opening, and the chaff or any light refuse blowing out at the end by the 

 rapid motion of the fans, which are driven by a band or rope from a sheeve placed upon 

 the axle of the threshing-drum, and passing over the sheeve fixed upon the pivot of 

 the fans. 



2791. Meikle's threshing machine to be impelled by steam is the same arrangement of 

 interior machinery, with a steam engine outside of the bam connected by a shaft in the 

 manner of the wind and water machines. 



2792. Portable threshing-machines, to be fixed in any barn, or in the open field, for 

 threshing the crops of small farms, or for other purposes of convenience, are differently 

 contrived. Except the hand machine, already described ( 2546.), all of them work by 

 horses, and generally by one, or at most two. The most complete have a large frame of 

 separating beams, into which the gudgeons of the larger wheels work, and which retains 

 the whole of the machinery in place. In general there are no fanners ; but sometimes a 

 winnowing machine is driven by a rope from the threshing machinery. Such machines 

 are considerably more expensive, in proportion to their power, than fixed machines ; they 

 are, therefore, not much used, and indeed their place might often be profitably supplied 

 by the hand machine. Portable threshing machines are very common in Suffolk. It is 

 not unusual in that county, for an industrious labourer who may have saved 30/. or 40/. 

 to own one, which is moved from place to place on two wheels, and worked, when fixed, 

 by three or four horses. The horses and other labourers are supplied by the farmer ; 

 and the owner of the machine acts as feeder. The quantity threshed is from fifteen to 

 twenty quarters a day. Reaping machines, and steam ploughing-machines, will probably 

 in a few years be owned, and let out for hire in a similar manner. 



2793. Weir's portable two-horse power threshing machine is one of the best in England. 

 The corn is threshed on Meikle's skutching principle, and is sometimes supplied by fluted 

 rollers, and sometimes introduced through a hopper directly over the drum ; a mode which 

 is found not to break the straw so much as the common mode. 



2794. Lester s portable threshing-machine received the straw without the intervention 

 of rollers, and separated the corn entirely by rubbing. It was an ingenious, but very im- 

 perfect, machine, and never came into use. 



2795. Forrest of ShifnaVs portable threshing machines have been employed in several 

 parts of Warwickshire, Shropshire, and the adjoining counties. It combines the rubbing 

 and skutching methods, but does not perform either perfectly. Meikle's machines, in 

 fact, can alone be depended on, for completely separating the grain from the straw ; though 

 some others may render the straw less ineligible for thatch, or for gratifying the present 

 taste in litter of the London grooms. - . 



2796. The smut machine {Jig. 403.) is the invention of Hall, late of Ewel in Surrey, 



403 now of the Prairie in the United States. It re- 



seml)les that used for dressing flour, and consists 

 of a cylinder perforated with small holes, in the 

 inside of which are a number of brushes, which 

 are driven round with great rapidity. The wheat 

 infected with smut is put into the cylinder by a 

 hopper (a), and the constant friction occasioned 

 by the rapid motion of the brushes (b) effectually 

 separates the smutty grain, which is driven out by 

 the holes of the cylinder. Hall finds that it re- 

 quires much more power to clean wheat by this 

 machine, than to dress flour. A machine on this 

 construction might be a very useful appendage 

 to every threshing machine, for the purpose of 

 effectually cleaning all wheat intended for seed, 

 or such wheat, meant for the market, as had a 

 great proportion of smut in it. {Stevenson's Sur- 

 rey, p. 141.) 



2797. MitcheU's hummelling tnachine (/i'. 404.) is the invention of a millwright of 

 that name in the neighbourhood of Elgin, and it has been very generally added to 

 threshing machines, in the barley districts of Scotland, for the purpose of separating the 

 awns from the grains of barley. It operates on the scutching principle, and is composed 

 of a scutcher consisting of a spindle, at the top of which is fixed a wheel for putting it in 

 motion, and between this wheel and its lower extremity three tier of scutching arms (a) ; 

 each scutcher is composed of two pieces forming a cross (b), and bevelled at the edges to 

 prevent them from cutting the barley in the operation of hummelling (c). The scutcher 

 revolves in a cylinder (d), into which the barley passes through a spout (e e) from a hopper 

 placed over the machine. The cylinder may either be of wood or cast iron, and the frame- 



Ff 4 



4 feet 



