Miscellaneous Implements Exhibited at Plymouth. 635 
Seed Drill. It is a ten-row drill, and two horses work it easily ; 
it is light and well constructed, having the general appearance 
of some of the American makes, due to the larger use of steel 
with malleable and wrought iron in its various parts. The 
weight of this drill is 740 lb. It has an indicator to show the 
acreage sown. The action of lowering or raising the coulters 
puts the drill in or out of gear at the same time. This is done 
by means of a wedge-shaped clutch-fork. The nose of the 
coulter is renewable, of hard steel, and of a good shape, which 
would tear rather than cut its way through the surface. The 
coulters have a release trip which enables them to " kick out 
behind," if I may so describe it, to free a stump, or fast stone, 
and prevent breakage. 
Mr. J. II. Carter, 82 Mark Lane, E.C. — Magnetic Separator 
(Art. 3405). For taking out old iron, horse-shoes, nails, &c, 
from among bones, before crushing, to avoid injury to the mill. 
This is done by passing them down a shoot at the foot of which 
is a revolving dram, studded with magnets, worked on an inter- 
mittent principle from a dynamo. By means of these magnets 
any pieces of iron are attracted on the upper side and dropped 
on the lower side of the drum, while the bones are delivered on 
to a platform beyond the drum. This principle of separating 
waste iron from other waste metals, such as brass and copper, 
has long been in use in engineering works, but is probably novel 
in its present application. The Magnetic Separator did its work 
well, and may be said to be indirectly an agricultural implement. 
Messrs. Barnard & Lake, Rayne Foundry, Braintree, 
Essex— Thatch-making Machine, " The Spider" (Art. 4122). 
It is satisfactory to the writer, as one of the Judges who awarded 
to this machine the special prize of 251. offered by the Society for 
the best "Apparatus for making thatch for the covering of 
stacks," at the Norwich Meeting, in 1886, to know that in the 
following year it was so greatly improved as to warrant the 
award of a Silver Medal, and to meet with it again at Plymouth, 
still " new " as ever, or at any rate so much improved as to 
warrant the term, within the meaning of Rule 26. The machine 
has been reduced both in weight and in price. Another improve- 
ment is in mounting and driving the feed rollers so as to admit 
of parallel adjustment. An important novelty, too, is a device 
for drawing the string from the supply, in such a way as to 
effect equalization of tension and prevent breaking. The stitch 
can now be made long or short as required. The use of steel 
tubes in the construction of the frame assists in reducing the 
weight and adding to the strength, though in this respect the 
machine has never been deficient. James Edwards. 
