M. ScHRODERS Incubator. 



53 



extent self-regulated. This valve was by no means perfect in its action, but the idea wab - .- 

 valuable, and has been adopted in all the best incubators of the present day, especially by 

 Mr. Brindley in England, Mr. Halsted and the Messrs. Graves in America. A few of the best and 

 most modern contrivances for hatching we shall now proceed to describe. 



In Mr. Brindley 's incubator, a series of pipes are led from a copper boiler, which is heated by a 

 lamp carefully constructed to burn steadily, through a space bounded at the top and bottom by 

 two horizontal plates of glass, which thus form a hot-air chamber heated by the pipes. The eggs 

 are not however placed in this chamber, but in a drawer lined with felt which slides under it. The 

 hot chamber is provided, as before remarked, with a valve, which can be balanced so as to open at 

 any temperature desired, and within reasonable limits appears to perform its office pretty fairly. 

 Receptacles are also provided to contain the chicks for the first day or two, after which they 

 must be accommodated independent of the apparatus. In a few cases we have known this 

 incubator give fair results, and it is within our own knowledge that Mr. Brindley himself hatched 

 very successfully with it occasionally ; but it was not generally acceptable, and nearly all those we 

 are acquainted with who do possess it now use it chiefly to hatch out finally chicks which are 

 nearly due, and thus save them from being crushed by the hens, to whom they are afterwards 

 returned. Mr. Jones, the well-known Spanish breeder of Bristol, nearly always hatches his chicks in 

 this way, which is well worth the attention of any amateurs who may lose chickens from such a cause. 



More successful upon the whole than the last described was the incubator invented by 

 Mr. F. Schroder, manager of the now defunct National Poultry Company, and which is illustrated 

 in Fig. 29. This incubator is circular in plan, and very compact ; indeed its general arrangements 



WHITE 



Fig. 29. 



"are worthy of study, in spite of the imperfection of several details. The hot-water tank, c, is 

 connected with a separate boiler not shown in the figure, by two pipes, B and D, one being the 

 inlet pipe and the other the outlet ; and is furnished with an open pipe, I, in which is immersed a 

 thermometer to show the temperature. Under the tank slide the egg-drawers, E E, each of them the 

 quadrant of a circle, all being open at the top, and the bottoms being formed of perforated zinc. 

 A tube, H, which passes through the tank affords ventilation to all the drawers, the corners of which 

 meet under it. Under all again is a circular tank, F, of cold water; and over the hot-water tank is a 

 circular receptacle bounded by perforated zinc all round the apparatus, and floored with sand, both 

 to confine the heat and furnish a home for the chickens till strong enough for removal. Curtains are 

 provided all round to preserve the heat and guard in some measure against changes of temperature. 



