262 The Development of Agricultural Machinery. 
H. S. Thompson. Norwich (1849) followed, and Mr. Thomp- 
son again, fortunately, reported ; then the tide turned. In the 
Report of the York Show (1848) this excellent critic and 
admirable writer recorded his conviction that the trials to 
which implements were subjected at York were, on the whole, 
more decisive of merit than at any former Show, which he 
partly attributes to the regulations adopted by the Council 
establishing a fixed proportion between the length of the crank 
and the number of revolutions per minute in all hand machinery, 
and also to the use of a machine for testing the working power 
of steam-engines and the draught of threshing-machines, chaff- 
cutters, &c. " The use of this instrument, and the enforcement 
of the regulations alluded to, have both assisted in placing the 
machines under trial in precisely similar conditions, and conse- 
quently rendering the decision of the Judges more conclusive." 
From Derby (1843) downwards the "increasing extent and 
importance of the exhibitions of implements were beginning to 
be felt, but, as yet, there was such a want of system, especially 
in the trial of those machines which took place out of the 
show-yard, that the public, the exhibitors, and even the Judges, 
were at a loss to know where to go or what was expected from 
them." No one was to blame for all this confusion, for the 
greatest anxiety was shown to carry out the objects of the 
Society, but it " arose from the rapid development of this de- 
partment of the Show, which far exceeded any anticipations 
that had been formed respecting it, and thus, year after year, 
rendered inefficient all previous arrangements " (H. S. Thomp- 
son, York Report, 1848). 
Weighing and measuring, the bases of all science, had, how- 
ever, come to the aid of agriculture at last, and it remained 
to be seen how the, hitherto, belated Judges of the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England would exploit their new allies. 
The eight years immediately following upon 1847, when first 
the despot "Dynamometer" took sceptre in hand, record the 
efforts of Titans. Nothing less than a yearly test of every 
machine, great and small, would satisfy the newly and terribly 
equipped Judges. When one bears in mind that during those 
awful years 1848-55 (after which the rack and thumb-screw 
were slackened) tho average number of machines exhibited 
annually was about 1,500, and that (saving duplicates) all had 
to go under the yoke, astonishment is lost in admiration of 
the men who bore the heat and burden of such a day. But, 
having taken up their cross in the shape of the " power- 
resister," they followed it like heroes, with the usual result of 
heroism. Tumultuous, hurried, and insufficient as were many 
