482 Report on the Trials of Implements at Wolverhampton. 
about and self-moving anchor tackle. On riots 2, 3, and 4, Messrs. J. and F. 
Howard, of ]5edford, executed some good digging and cultivating with their 
transverse boiler-engines, and a beautiful piece of ploughing with their 12- 
horse engine set. Their new water-tube boiler-engines were unable to work 
owing to an accident, one engine having stripped several cogs out of a spur- 
wheel of her road-gear in extricating herself from a deep hole. Messrs. John 
Fowler and Co., of Leeds, worked onFlot 5 their clip-drum engine and anchor 
set ; on Plot G their double-drum engine and anchor set, with a balance 
plough and digger ; on Plot 7 their roundabout tackle with turning cultivator; 
on Plot 8 their pair of 12-liorse single-drum engines, with cultivator and new 
subsoil plough ; and on Plot 9 their pair of 20-horse single-drum engines, with 
cultivator and deep Flemish mouldboard-plough. On plots 10 and 11 was 
arranged the endless-rope machinery of the llavcnsthorpe Engineering Com- 
pany, of Mirlield, Yorkshire, which, however, was unable to proceed beyoud 
a first start owing to the iilougli accidentally catching and breaking off one of 
the windlass travelling-wheels. Plot 12 was allotted to the roundabout set 
of Messrs. Barrows and Stewart, of Cherwell Works, Banbury. 
Class I. 
For " the best combination of Machinery for the Cultivation of the Soil by 
Steam-power " there were eight entries. Messrs. Eobey and Co. (Limited), 
of the Perseverance Iron Works, Lincoln, entered for trial an 8-horse-power 
patent road-steamer, with indiarubber tires, invented by Mr. R. W. Thomson, 
of Edinburgh, and improved and manufactured by the Exhibitors. It is 
described in the Catalogue as " a modern traction-engine for direct steam- 
ploughing, driving, threshing, and other farm-machinery, as well as for con- 
veying corn and other farm i^roduce to market. Price 7001." To be hauled 
by this field locomotive was a G-furrow plough, invented and manufactured 
by Messrs. Piobey and Co. But as neither the engine nor the implement put 
in an appearance, and no other comj^etitor came forward on the travelling- 
engine principle, the Judges had no opportunity of putting to the test the 
alleged cheapness and facility of this system of steam-cultivation. However, 
the behaviour of other traction-engines in transporting themselves or in haul- 
ing loads over the Barnhurst fields was not calculated to confirm any great 
expectations of their possible performances in tillage; and setting aside the 
question of loss of power in continuously caiTying a weight of several tons 
over an arable surface, — a loss very seriously increased upon even slight 
gradients, — the general impracticability of the system was illustrated by the 
dents or depressions, two to three inches in depth, left in the moist land by 
the 15-inch wide wheels of traction-engines, whether indiarubber-tired or not. 
For, plainly, it must be an imperfect and insufficient form of steam-cultivating 
apparatus which can be available without injury to a heavy soil only whenth.at 
soil is liard and dry, and which prohibits the farmer from " crossing " a piece 
once broken up by the cultivator. It remains for experiment to deter- 
mine whether or not, in certain situations, as upon farms having specially 
level fields, the travelling-engine sj'stcm (with its avoidance of windlasses, 
anchors, ropes, pulleys, and its minimum use of manual labour) may be 
applicable for the smashing up of stubbles in the commonly dry season after 
harvest. But we consider it very unlikely that such an application of steam- 
power would be found successful. 
Messrs. J. and F. Howard, of the Britannia Works, Bedford, entered a pair 
of patent self-propelling engines, fitted with winding drums for working a 
to-and-fro or double-action implement, on what is called the "double-engine" 
system. These engines, of remarkably novel construction, are the first attempts 
of Messrs. Howard to introduce upon wheels the water-tube or safety-boiler, of 
which they have successfully erected about ten thousand horse-power in mills, 
