Report on Implements at Preston. 
721 
machines. Messrs. Nalder and Nalder made the first important 
step in this direction, and obtained a medal for it at Reading 
in 1882. In 1883, Mr. E. Foden received a medal for attaining 
simplicity of parts by the introduction of an exhaust fan. 
Mr. Bell's Report on the Miscellaneous Implements at Shrews- 
bury contains a description of a threshing-machine exhibited 
by Messrs. Gibbons and Robinson, in which they had got rid 
of 18 bearings and joints requiring oil. 
When several makers are advancing in the same direction, it 
would be unfair to give any award of merit without a careful 
and exhaustive competitive trial. It is now fourteen years since 
such a trial was given by the Society at Cardiff ; and the Judges 
are of opinion that the comparative merits of recent improve- 
ments in threshing-machines cannot be fully ascertained without 
a fresh competition among them. 
In Article No. 4391, entered as a New Implement hy Messrs. 
F. Alchin, Linnell, and Co., the only feature of novelty is a con- 
trivance for increasing the efficiency of the finishing dressing- 
apparatus. The corn, after leaving the hummeller, falls into 
a hopper, in which a feed-roller and an adjustable slide regulate 
its flow, producing a thin, wide, and even stream of corn. In its 
fall, this is subjected to a strong blast of wind that sends the 
dust and chaff back into the top shoe, while the light corn, wild 
oats, 6cc., are blown over an adjustable tailboard on to a sheet- 
iron shoot, which brings it to the same spout that delivers the 
light corn that comes from the screen. The good corn descends 
on to sieves, and thence to the screen in the usual manner. 
The machine was fitted with a Rainforth's screen ; but the 
•exhibitor stated that this was only put in to meet the prejudices 
of purchasers, as the separation effected by the blast made 
screening unnecessary. 
The Judges were not able to test the accuracy of this opinion ; 
but it is obvious that, for a perfect separation, it is not enough 
to spread the corn out evenly to the blast, unless the force of 
the blast is maintained without variation. 
As evidence of the general advance in threshing-machines, 
we may notice two others which were not entered as " New 
Implements." In Mr. E. Hiimphries's New Improved Single 
Crank Machine, No. 1742, the shoes are connected with the 
shakers in a way very similar to that adopted by Messrs. Nalder 
and Nalder. 
Messrs. Clayton and Shuttleworth, who have been leading 
makers of threshing-machines for a longer time perhaps than 
any other firm, have marked their sense of the value of Foden's 
Exhaust Fan by using it in their No. 1776 machine, adhering 
in other respects to their usual design. 
