CHAP. II. RENNIE'S MASTER ANDREW MEIKLE. Ill 



upon springs, pressing with less force upon the corn in 

 the process of rubbing it out. This model was shown 

 to Meikle, with whom Mr. Kinloch had many conversa- 

 tions on the subject ; and at the millwright's suggestion 

 several improvements were made in it, one of which was 

 the substitution of smooth feeding rollers for fluted ones. 

 When the model had been completed, Mr. Kinloch sent 

 it to Houston Mill to be tried by the power of Meikle's 

 water-wheel. On being set to work, however, it was 

 driven in pieces in a few minutes ; and the same fate 

 befell a larger machine after the same model, which Mr. 

 Kinloch got made for one of his tenants a few years 

 later. 



The best result of Mr. Kinloch' s experiments was, that 

 they had the effect of directing the inventive mind of 

 Andrew Meikle to the subject. After several years' 

 thinking and planning, about the year 1776 he con- 

 structed a thrashing-machine, consisting of a number of 

 flails fixed in a strong beam moved by a crank, which 

 beat out the corn on two platforms, one on each side of 

 the beam. Although the performance of this machine 

 before some East Lothian farmers who went to see it 

 at work was on the whole satisfactory, it did not come 

 up to Meikle's expectations ; and on one of the gen- 

 tlemen observing that the flails and platforms probably 

 would not bear the force of the stroke, the inventor 

 replied, that in case the machine did not answer, he 

 intended to try a method of beating out the corn by 

 means of fixed scutchers or beaters. 1 Accordingly he 

 proceeded to work out this idea in practice, and after a 

 few years he succeeded in perfecting his invention on 

 this principle, which was entirely new. These scutchers, 

 shod with iron, were fixed upon a strong beam or cylinder, 

 which revolved with great velocity, and in the process 



' A Reply to an Address to the I Ireland, on the subject of the Thrash- 

 Public, but more particularly to the ing Machine.' By John ShirrerY. 

 Landed Interest of Great Britain and | Edinburgh, 1811. 



