66 
Report on the Agricultural Implements at 
absence of traction power. Why should not a traction farm- 
engine be designed less cumbersome and costly than Aveling s 
engines and yet capable of hauling loads, threshing grain, and 
eventually drawing or driving the reaping-machine, and being 
utilised for steam cultivation when the time arrives, as assuredly 
it will for such work. The Americans have the best materials 
at command ; they can unite strength with lightness, and by 
using steel for fire-box and boiler, the difficulty as to weight 
might be overcome. A trial was organised and carried out at 
Schencks Station on the 19th to 22nd of July, but only a few 
engines were sent. A blower (known as Baker's) and made by 
Wilbraham Brothers, of Philadelphia, was used as the testing 
power. Each engine drove the blower with a given quantity 
of coal and wood. The water consumed, time of experiment, 
pressure of steam, revolutions of blower, and force exerted, as 
shown by a mercury pressure gauge, were carefully noted and 
formed the elements of comparison, which were not designed to 
be absolute but only comparative. A brief description of some 
of the more noticeable inventions may be interesting. 
Messrs. Frick and Co., Waynesboro, Pa., headed the list with their Eclipse 
Engine, a strong well-made machine, mounted on powerful wheels. The 
boiter is suspended on springs for travelling, which are let down for work. 
It has thirty-three 2-inch tubes six feet long : a brake on the hind wheels is 
not only useful for travelling, but helps to stay the hind wheels when the 
engine is at work. The engine lies on the top of the boiler, supported on a 
powerful bed-plate, with a receptacle for waste oil. It is so constructed that 
it can be readily detached from the brackets, and used as a fixed horizontal 
engine. The governor has three speeds, and the crank-shaft is counter- 
bafanced, all journals are self-oiling. The saddle has provision for varying 
expansion. The water-heater is large, of the ordinary diaphragm form, and 
the pump with air chamber, has a double valve returning any excess of water 
to the supply. The cylinder has balanced slide-valves, and the safety-valve 
works by a spring, which is a good arrangement, particularly for rough roads. 
The Best Steam Engine and Boiler Works Co., of Lancashire, Pa., showed a 
useful farmer's engine with some novel and desirable features. The pillar 
blocks are on one saddle, which is bolted on one side to the bed-plate. The 
feed-water pipe of the pumps passes through the pillar block journals, and so 
prevents or checks heating. The pump has a double valve, so that when water 
is shut out from the boiler, it can go into the ash-pan. The eccentric is 
reversed without a link motion. The connecting-rod has solid ends. The 
boxes are set up by a key adjusted by set screws. The water-heater consists 
of a long narrow tube, with a coil of pipes inside, the steam passing through 
the centre of the coil. 
Lilpop, Raw, and Lowenstein, of Warsaw, exhibited a threshing-machine and 
portable engine with vertical boiler. The Judges expressed a strong wish to 
see both machines tested, and, accordingly, after some diplomatic delay, an 
order was given for their removal to Schencks Station. The engine is very 
strongly made, a superfluity of iron being used in the frame. It is intended 
for a country where roads are bad, and skilled mechanics scarce. The 
arrangement of parts is anything but convenient. Thus the vertical boiler 
is carried immediately over the front wheels. The cylinder, which occupies an 
