108 Report on the Miscellaneous Implements 
The apparatus is extremely simple, consisting of a closed 
iron stove, surrounded by a hot-air jacket, and capped by two 
inclined wooden flues, through which the heated air from the 
jacket passes upwai-ds and away into the atmosphere. These 
flues are furnished with slides, upon which trays of wire netting 
containing the fruit are placed. The trays, as they are filled, 
are slid in at the lower end of the flues, one after the other, and 
the charge remains in the apparatus from three to ten hours, 
according to the character of the material operated on. Plums 
and apples are dried, at a temperature of 140° to 190°, in from 
eight to ten hours, while apple rings, cherries, and the smaller 
fruit generally, take about four or five hours to dry. 
It is claimed that by concentrating the direct heat of the 
stove upon the chai'ge during the first stage of the process, an 
artificial skin is developed upon the fruit (just as a quick fire 
seals the outer surfaces of a roasting joint), which serves to 
retain the volatile essential oils, giving its distinctive flavour to 
every fruit. After this cuticle has been formed, the trays are 
slid gradually upwards, and their remaining moisture driven off 
more slowly. 
The Judges would like to have made some trials of this 
apparatus, if only with a view of guiding agriculturists in a 
matter of some importance, but the exhibitor was ill prepared 
for trial, having no fruit or vegetables handy, and his stove-pipe 
imperfectly fixed. This failure is, however, less to be regretted 
in view of the fact that the Society have since offered prizes for 
Fruit Evaporators, to be competed for at the Windsor Meeting, 
where, it may be hoped, Eider's apparatus will be again forth- 
coming. 
Messrs. J. L. Balcer & Co., of Hargrave, near Kimbolton, 
showed a Sinking Platform (Art. 1454), which is a simple 
apparatus for the purpose of cooling wheel-tires. The drawing 
shows at a glance how this operation is accomplished. The 
wheel-plate proper is supported upon three cast-iron balls, 
which roll up or down three appropriate inclines : when the 
handle is pulled round in one direction, the wheel-plate sinks, 
and when pulled round in the other, it rises. The wheel-jDlate 
is kept in position at its highest point by the three balls drop- 
ping each into a slight depression formed at the top of the 
inclines. The water-tank is composed of cast-iron segments, 
having a bottom of thick elm plank. The whole is very strong, 
and there is nothing to get out of order even with the roughest 
usage (see fig. 13, on next page). 
Messrs. Garrett & Sons, of Leiston, Suffolk, showed a so- 
called "Endless Railway" (Art. 1866), patented by Mr. Gillermo 
