556 
Implement Show at Manchester. 
tiying; high wages as well as much stimulant would be required ; and, lastly, 
the hay itself must, we think, become more or less impregnated with the 
vapours, and thus be rendered unpalatable for food. On this latter point, 
however, we have no experience or conclusive evidence, and therefore our 
opinion will be taken for what it is worth. If heated air could be substituted 
for the foul products of combustion, without a too serious loss of power, w& 
should entertain a more favourable opinion of the apparatus. The cost of the 
fan, chamber-stove, and self-acting fork amounts to 85?., according to the 
catalogued jjrices. To this must be added the expense of steam or horse- 
power. Calculating roughly, we believe the expense, including labour, of drying 
corn by Mr. Gibbs's apparatus in its present fomi, will vary from 12s. 6^. to 
15s. an acre, figures which are by no means prohibitive. 
There are, we are convinced, the germs of future success in Mr. Gibbs's praise- 
worthy efforts, and it is with sincere regret that we felt ourselves precluded 
from bestowing on him the Society's Gold Medal. 
Daniel Adamson and Co., of Hyde, near Manchester, the other exhibitors, 
showed a jjlan for driving a current of air through sheaves of com. This 
consists of a vertical fan, driven at a high velocity, which sucks in the air 
both above and below, and forces it out through the com which is stacked all 
round on a wii e frame. In the apparatus as exhibited there was only room 
for 12 sheaves. These, after an exposure of 15 minutes, were relieved of 
about ^Ib. of water on the average, this principally on the side most exposed 
to the current of air, and the moisture about the band was not removed. The 
atmosphere at the time of our trial was in a very dry condition, and therefore 
highly favourable. In the event of the atmosphere being loaded with moisture 
it is proposed to draw the air through a heated surface, and thus dry and 
warm it. Further alterations may develope this idea into some practical 
form, but at present it is in far too crude a state to require further notice. 
Davy, Paxman, and Davy, of Colchester, exhibited an arrangement for 
drying grain after it is separated from the straw, by means of steam-heated 
cylinders ; though clearly not eligible for competition w'ith the above, its con- 
nection with the subject entitled it to consideration. It will be remembered 
by those who visited the meeting at Bury St. Edmunds, that the same firm 
showed a steam-jacketed cylinder attached to a threshing machine, through 
which the corn was propelled, and during its passage was subjected to a double. 
€iction, namely, that of the steam in the jacket, and that of a blast of hot dry air 
generated in a small furnace on the opposite side of the machine and exhausted 
by a fan. The tube was too short to allow of success, there was danger and 
inconvenience in the furnace, only a portion of the moisture was removed, 
and the corn came out clammy and wet. The present an'angement, though 
still imiJerfect in some details, is a great advance, and may be regarded as a 
practical invention. The apparatus consists of four cylinders, 12 feet long. 
The centre cylinder, which revolves, is 12 inches diameter, and acts as a steam 
chamber, being supplied with steam from the boiler of the engine by a small, 
galvanized india-rubber tube. This cylinder is furnished on its external 
Ijeriphery with four screw arms, by which the corn is not only propelled 
forwards, but, owing to jjerforatious in the blades, made to fall frequently from 
the top to the bottom of the cylinder, and thus becomes exposed as much as 
possible to the drying agencies presently to be described. The steam is conducted 
by a tube from the end of the inner cylinder to the third cylinder or steam- 
jacket. The corn is thus between two steam chambers, fed in according to its 
condition by a regulated hopper. Outside of all is a cylinder communicating 
with the air by a number of holes (63) at the end where the steam enters. 
This cylinder is exhausted by a fan, and the air rushing in is heated in its 
progress, and then driven through the corn chamber, meeting the grain aud 
drying it materially. Thus the corn during its progress through a 12-fect 
