12 Report on Miscellaneous Implements at Shrewsbury, ^'c. 
The stuff being fed into the feeding-trough is not only carried forward 
between these two endless chain-bands, but is also compressed, so that rough 
irregular stuff is fed up evenl}' to the rolls, and the chain-wheels of the upper 
band being fixed in the same casting as the upper feed-rolls, the amount of 
vertical lift must correspond in each. It is mainly as an efficient guard that 
this arrangement commends itself, and as such it was awarded one of the 
Society's Silver Medals. 
The elevator was 24 feet long, and discliarged at a height of 
15 feet. The canvas belt of the elevator has a leather band 
1 inch in width on each side : the cutting-wheel was worked 
with five knives, concave-shaped, and cut of an inch lengths. 
When about half the ton of grass was got through, the case 
burst, and one of the knives broke. On taking off the case, it 
was found that another blade was displaced, and the wheel 
completely blocked by the cut material. The engineer stated 
that he saw it coming by the increasing strain on the dyna- 
mometer. 
The feeding guard, to which a silver medal was afterwards 
awarded, works admirably, materially assisting the feeder as 
well as regulating the feed. 
Mons. Albaret. — Art. Xo. 2193. — This machine differed from all the 
others, in that it was the only one which trusted alone to the fan-blast for 
elevating the cut fodder, and it was very much larger than other competing 
machines. 
The knives were convex, though not to such an extent as is general with 
our makers, and tlie fan-blades or paddles attached to the rim of the fly-wheel 
•were — as might be expected from the work they had to perform — larger than 
in other machines. The peripheral velocity was very much greater. 
In order to supply air to the fan-blades, sliding doors were arranged in the 
front of the case ; these also allowed an opportunity of seeing how the cutting 
and feeding were done. The cut stuff was blown up an incline funnel, and 
delivered at a height of about 15 feet, the stuff' issuing therefrom with a very 
considerable amount of energy. 
The great defect in the principle of such a machine is this: to cut a given 
material efficiently, the knives should run at a certain given speed ; the height 
to which the cut material has to be delivered will constantly vary, and there 
is no efficient means of reducing the power of the fan-blast, which must 
depend entirely upon the velocity of the knives. This is a serious drawback 
to, this principle, and was manifest during the trials, when to ensure the 
cutting of the stufi" the machine was driven rather fast, and as a consequence 
the cut stuff was blown with undue energy from the delivery mouth of the 
elevator. Had the knives been more curved they would have cut better; as it 
was, they chopped and bruised the stuff. 
The arrangements for stopping, reversing, &c., were exceedingly ingenious, 
and appeared to work well ; they were, however, very much more complicated 
than contrivances which seem to attain the required end with very much 
greater simplicity. 
The machine was larger than would be desired to meet the requirements' 
of the I'^nglish agriculturist, and in justice to the machine it is onlj' fair to 
state, in looking at the results of the trials, that the feeding was done in a 
most irregular lashion. This, however, should not affect the quality of the 
work done, which certainly was more bruised than that of any other machine. 
