358 
The late Thomas Aveling. 
straw-elevator by ^lessrs. Clayton and Shuttleworth. He thus 
appears for the first time as a manufacturer of his own engine. 
The following year, at Battersea, he exhibited in conjunction 
with ^Ir. Porter, under the style and title of " Aveling and 
Porter," one of his locomotive engines under the now well- 
known designation of "Patent Agricultural Locomotive Engine 
for Threshing, Ploughing, and General Traction Purposes, in- 
A"ented and improved by Thomas Aveling, Rochester, and 
manufactured by the Exhibitors." ISo other implement was 
exhibited by the new firm, and from this year may be dated the 
commencement of the prosperity of the firm of Aveling and 
Porter, and the recognition of the value of the invention of the 
" Father of Traction Engines." INIr. Crosskill remarks that 
" The assistance which he with his Traction engines rendered 
to the Judges of Steam-enjjines at the Oxford ^leetinsr in 1870 
will not soon be forjrotten bv those who were witnesses of it : 
and it was specially recognised in their Report (see ' Journal ' 
for 1870, Part 2, p. 462). It was, however, always a congenial 
occupation with him to show the superiority of a Traction 
engine over Horse-power, in any operation requiring combined 
strength, docility, and easy management." 
The Royal Agricultural Society of England cannot lay claim 
to having encouraged the use of Traction engines for agricultural 
purposes, either by offering prizes, or by awarding medals for 
them until long after their merits had been acknowledged by 
other public bodies. In 1862, Mr. Aveling, or rather his firm, 
exhibited their agricultural locomotive engine at the Inter- 
national Exhibition at South Kensington and received a medal 
for it, but it was not until the year 1871, at Wolverhampton, 
that the Society publicly recognised the value of an Agricultural 
Locomotive Engine as a farming implement. At Manchester, 
in 1869, Messrs. Aveling and Porter first exhibited their Steam 
Road Roller, which had been invented by Mr. Aveling, and 
they were awarded a Silver Medal for it as a New Implement. 
At the present time these rollers are in use in almost every large 
town in the kingdom, and they are not unfrcquently to be seen 
in continental cities. In 1871, the Society offered a Prize of 
50/. for the best Agricultural Locomotive Engine, and Messrs. 
Aveling and Porter carried it off with a Ten Horse-power 
Engine invented by Mr. Aveling, being Highly Commended in 
the same Class for their Six Horse-power Engine, and winning 
a Silver Medal with another Six Horse-power fitted with internal 
India-rubber Tyres, which were rather the fashion just then. 
The first-prize engine, although nominally of 10 horse-power, 
indicated ,55 horse-power with a consumption of o! lbs. of coal 
per horse-power per hour. At the same Meeting they obtained 
