ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION I67 



whether he turned the eggs and cooled them, and if he 

 did, we do not know the process. Reaumur patterned 

 after the Egyptians, but in a much smaller way. 

 Another Frenchman, M. Cantelo, is really the inventor 

 of our modern incubators. He studied the philosophy 

 of upper heat, and constructed an incubator with a hot 

 water tank above the eggs. Incubators were attempted 

 in England later on, but no machine was produced 

 that caused a sensation, or which gave promise to be 

 an improvement over the manure method of M. Reau- 

 mur. 



America, is, perhaps, the real birthplace of the 

 successful incubator. About 1870, Jacob Graves & 

 Co. of Boston invented an incubator which was a suc- 

 cess, and many machines were sent to England, where 

 they did good work. The Graves incubator was 

 ■exhibited at the Boston poultry show of 1873, ^"d did 

 such good work that it at once stimulated inventors 

 and breeders to make other machines. We cannot say 

 positively that Mr. Graves' incubator was the first 

 made in America, but upon investigation and inquiry 

 can find account of no other. At least none were suc- 

 cessful before that period. 



The Start — Purchase a good machine. There are 

 many of them. In fact, good incubators are the rule 

 now; poor incubators the exception. An incubator to 

 sell in this age must possess merit ; must hatch. Time 

 was, in the early days, when the rage for incubators 

 was at fever heat, that any kind of a machine would 

 sell, and there were some flimsy ones made by persons 

 who knew nothing at all of artificial incubation. 

 Happily, however, these wildcat machines have nearly 

 all disappeared or been made better. It is no trouble 

 now to get a good machine that will hatch a fair per 

 cent of the eggs. Do not get one below 100 &gg 

 capacity, and double that is better. It is no more work 



