SUPPLEMENT. 



2789 a and 7790 o. Threshing machines. One of the most complete in England 

 has been erected at the Duke of Gloucester's farmery at Bagshot Park ; for the following 

 description and drawings of which we are indebted to Mr. Anderson, an experienced 

 agricultural engineer. This machine threshes the corn, hummels 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 

 difl^erent 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 tlu-eshing 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 one is obliged to pay higher wages to his servants. This 

 fact is well authenticated by a correspondent in the Examiner newspaper of February 1 3. 

 1831. See the examination of Joseph Forster in No. 1. of The Working Mans Com- 

 panion, and also in Mech. Mag. vol. xiv. p. 323. 



The mechanical part of the machinery was executed and erected chiefly by Mr. George 

 Miller, now residing near Bagshot. Fig. 1139. is partly a section, and partly a side 

 view ; Jig. 1 140. is partly a cross section, and partly an end view ; and^. 114 1, is partly 

 a vertical section, and partly a vertical profile. The same letters are applied to the same 

 parts in all the figures. 



Description of the machinery. (Jigs. 1139. 1140. 1141.) a is an overshot water wheel 

 15 feet diameter, which makes from six to eight revolutions per minute according to the 

 supply of water; on the arms of the water wheel is fixed a bevel wheel 6 of 128 cogs 

 (seven feet four inches diameter), working into the pinion c of 26 cogs (twenty inches 

 diameter), on the upright shaft d: these wheels are below the ground floor, and entirely 

 hid from the view. 



On the shaft d are two driving wheels g and f: g is a spur wheel of 119 cogs (six 

 feet two inches diameter), driving the pinion e of 22 cogs (14 inches diameter) on the 

 shaft h, which leads to the floor above, and turns the upper millstone ; y is a mitre 

 wheel of 40 cogs (two feet diameter), working into two wheels i and k of the same 

 dimensions. 



On the same shaft as the mitre wheel i is a spur wheel I of 200 cogs (six feet eight 

 inches diameter) working into the threshing machine drum pinion w of 20 cogs ^eleven 

 inches diameter) ; the spur wheel / also drives a wheel n of 39 cogs (22 inches 

 diameter), on the same axis of which is a small wheel o of 26 cogs (ten inches diameter), 

 working into the wheel jt? of 121 cogs (three feet four inches diameter), on the axis of 

 the first rake or shaker : the wheel p gives motion to the intermediate wheel q of 72 

 cogs (two feet diameter), which works into the second shaker wheel of the same 

 dimensions as the first shaker wheel ;;. 



On the spindle on which the wheel n is mounted is a small shifting pinion r of 17 

 cogs (seven inches diameter), working into the faced wheel s, on which are two rows of 

 cogs, one of 20 and the other of 30 cogs each. On the same axis as the faced wheel $ 

 is a bevel wheel t of 20 cogs (eight inches diameter), working into the wheels u and [r 

 of 40 cogs (sixteen inches diameter), on the lower feeding roller spindle ; these two 

 wheels are not fixed on the spindle, but revolve freely on turned parts of the shaft, and 

 give motion to it by means of the clutch and handle w. When the machine is at work 

 the clutch is in the wheel v, giving to the feeding rollers the required motion ; should it 

 be necessary to stop the rollers, the handle w is moved from the feeding board, and the 

 clutch disengaged from the wheel v. Should the handle be moved farther from the 

 feeding board, the clutch is thrown into the wheel u, and the rollers turn the reverse way. 

 The winnowing machine under the shakers is driven by a sheave on the drum axis, and 

 a rope leading to a sheave on the fanner spindle ; to dress the grain thoroughly, it is 

 conveyed from this machine, and passes through two winnowing machines, one placed 

 above the other : this is effected by means of a canvass cloth on which are strips of 

 wood half an inch in thickness ; the cloth revolves on two rollers, and is set in motion 

 by a rope leading from a sheave on the shaft t to a sheave on the upper roller spindle. ^ 



