728 
Meport on Implements at Preston. 
The silage being planked over, two cross-beams are provided, which carry 
the bracket (d p), on which the press gear is mounted. The press gear 
consists of two segniental-castings (e f), which 
Fig. 26. — Messrs. Moore engage into each other by means of serrations 
d Co.'s Silo Press. 
on their curved face. The lower segment (f) 
is pivoted on a pin fixed in the lower casting, 
which rests on the timber across the silo ; the 
upper segment (e) is pivoted on a bridle-casting 
surrounding the vertical bar, about which it is 
free to move. A loose paul (g), mounted on 
this bridle-casting, engages in the serrated cheeks- 
of the vertical bar; a similar one (h) is also 
mounted on the lower casting. One of the sides 
of each of the segments is ^th of an inch longer 
than the other. A long lever handle actuates 
the upper segment. AVhen the lever handle is 
raised, the shorter sides of the segments are in 
gear; in descending, the longer sides come into 
gear, which give a travel of i of an inch. The 
paul engaging in the serrated cheeks prevents 
the upper casting rising, and the tension on the 
vertical bar is transmitted through the bottom 
casting to the cross-beams. On the upward 
stroke of the lever the shorter sides of the seg- 
ments engage each other, and the pressure is 
relieved, any tendency of spring in the silage 
being taken up by two eccentric pauls, mounted 
on the bottom casting, which prevent it rising; 
consequently the ui)per casting det^cends just to 
the same extent as during the previous travel by 
the time the lever handle is fully raised, and is 
in i)osition for giving another i in. travel on the 
down stroke of the lever. 
The total weight of the apparatus (exclusive of the vertical bar) is only 
1 cwt., and it is very easy of removal to another silo or second vertical bar in 
the same silo. The pressure obtained by this apparatus on one bar is said to 
be sufficient for silos up to 12 feet square ; beyond that size a second vertical 
bar is advisable. The cost of the ap^xiratus without the bars is il. 4s. 
No silo presses at all are required in the system shown ir> 
model by Messrs. J. and F. Howard, of Bedford, and executed 
by them on a large scale for Mr. R. Whitehead, the inventor of 
the well-known torpedo. The silos are built of brick and 
covered by an iron bell, the edge of which stands in an annular 
trough filled with water. Thus instead of excluding air by 
means of heavy pressure, the silage is filled into a silo made 
air-tight by the water joint. If this method of bottling silage 
on a large scale should be successful, it will be an innovation of 
much importance ; but in bottling fruit or vegetables for domestic 
use, is not the application of artificial heat, in some form, 
necessary to success ? The ordinary methods of preserving silage 
may be described as a combined effort to express and exclude 
the air. Messrs. Howard's plan relies upon exclusion alone ; 
