378 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



it was decided to make the road several miles longer by constructing such 

 grades at each end as the ordinary locomotive could overcome. 



The pneumatic tulie for tlie conveyance of packages is the invention of 

 Mr. Richardson, of Boston. It is now used in London for the transpf)rta- 

 tion of mail«». over a sliort route, and is said to be a success. But when 

 passengers are substituted for packages, and brick tunnels for iron tubes, 

 the problem is so changed as to require a new solution. 



After selecting " The Manufacture and Use of Furs," as the next topic 

 for discussion, the Association adjourned to next Thursday evening. 



American Institute Polytkchnig Associ.\tion, 

 October 20, 18t)4. 

 Chairman, Prof. S. J). Tillman; Secretary, Mr. B. Garvey. 

 The first subject presented was the 



Steam Plow. 



Mr. Anson P. Thayer, of Syracuse, exhibited a beautiful brass model of 

 his patented steam plow, and explained its operation. The novel feature 

 in this plow is the mode of turning the soil by means of spades placed ob- 

 liquely across a (-ylinder, which, in entering the ground, tend to move the 

 machine forward. The cylinder, by being elevated or lowered, regulates 

 the depth of the cut. It makes several revolutions to one revolution of the 

 driving wheels. The boiler is similar to that of the ordinary locomotive, 

 its front end being inclined downward and resting between the steering 

 wheels. The driving wheels are made very broad, and move slowly so as 

 to carry the machine forward at the rate of about one mile an hour, while 

 the pistons of the two steam cylinders move five or six hundred feet per 

 minute. The inventor believes he has by this method remedied the diffi- 

 culties which have attended other locomotive steam plows. Mr. J. K. 

 Fisher thought this machine the best of the five or six which have been 

 exhibited at this Institute. The Fawkes steam plow which was put in 

 practical operation at Hamilton paik, in this city, and received the great 

 premium of the Institute, several years ago, was so geared that the piston 

 moved considerably faster than the periphery of the driving wheels. 



Plowing by Steam in England. 



Mr. W. Lee remarked that he had spent the last year and a half in ex- 

 amining and witnessing the trials of steam plows in England. A great 

 many experiments have been made in that country with locomotive plows, 

 in which more than $500,000 have been expended. There are two difScul- 

 ties to be met; one is the power required to move the machine over the soft 

 ground, and the other is the pressure of the wheels on the soil owing to the 

 great weight of tlie machine. The lightest he saw weighed ten tons, and 

 the heaviest fifteen. He had seen a field plowed by steam four years before 

 that retained the impression made by the wheels, and the crop was lightest 

 on these tracks. The English method now used is traction — that is, the 

 engine is stationary, and the plows are moved across the field by means of 

 wire ropes passing around drums on opposite sides of the field. Sometimes 



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