648 Report on the Trials of Implements at Reading. 
damp hay is a^ritated, while a current of hot air is driven through it to dry- 
it. The machine is driven by an 8-horse portable engine bj' means of a belt. 
On the fan spindle is keyed a driving pulley, 23 inches in diameter by 9 inches 
■wide, and a fan 5 feet 4 inches in diameter by 21 inches wide, with four blades 
and inlets 24 inches in diameter. The fan is surrounded by a sheet-iron 
casing, and the inlets are enclosed with similar material, and formed on each 
side into a furnace about 8 feet long and 2 feet wide. On the grates of these 
furnaces coke is burned, and the products of combustion are forced by the fan 
through a sheet-iron trunk, 2 leet 2 inches by 2 feet, into the drying- 
machine, the supplj' being regulated by a throttle valve, and the temperature 
ascertained by a pyrometer. The whole apparatus is carried on a pair of 
iron wheels, 48 inches in diameter by 7 inches wide, and provision is made for 
attaching a pair of shafts to the furnace end of the fan case. A spark guard, 
made of sheet-iron, rests on the ground, and encloses completely the lower 
portion of the fan casing. On the side of the casing opposite to the driving- 
pulley a bevel pinion is keyed un to the fan-spindle, and this gears into a 
bevel wheel about three times its diameter, keyed on to a shaft at right angles 
to the fan-spindle, and connected to an inclined shaft by means of a universal 
joint; the other end of the shaft is connected by a similar joint to the 
driving-gear of the haymaking-machine. 
The haymaking-machine is about 27 feet long by 8 feet wide. It consists 
of a framing or skeleton trough, which, at about 6 feet from the gearing end, 
rests upon a pair of wooden wheels, 48 inches in diameter by 6 inches wide, 
while the other end is suspended from wrought-iron skeleton standards resting 
independently on the ground, and fitted at their upper ends with chain 
pulleys, and at their lower with chain-drums actuated by tangent gear. Bj' 
means of this arrangement anj^ desired inclination may be given to the frame. 
The trough or frame carries a sheet-iron screen, made like the ridge of a roof, 
with a rise of about 1 foot 9 inches, and capable of having a reciprocating 
motion communicated to it, by means of a crank having a 9-inch thiow. To 
facilitate this motion the screen is carried on three pairs of 8-inch rollers 
kej'ed on to shafts which cross the trough, and revolving on bearings secured 
to its sides. 
To each side of the trough is fixed a framework consisting of seven uprights 
connected together at their tops. These carry, on each side of the machine, a 
crank shaft of 18 throws, and each throw carries a prong 3 feet long, 
projecting down into the screen and close to its bottom. The prongs are 
projected 15 inches backwards, and these short ends are connected by chains 
to a bar which runs the whole length of each side of the machine and some 
22 inches outside the uprights. The bars are carried on outrigger brackets, 
and are capable of being moved longitudinally about 12 inches by means of 
adjusting screws and handles at one of the ends, the object being to give the 
prongs, which are very loose on their cranks, a kind of double motion which 
tends to makes the hay travel longitudinally. 
To the framing over the screen is attached on each side a longitudinal bar, 
to which are hinged cross-bars, seventeen in number, from which project 
downwards short two-pronged forks, so arranged that each crank-prong has a 
fork coming over it. The office of the prong is to clear the hay off the crank- 
prongs as they revolve. 
Over the ridge of the screen is a sheet-iron flue, divided longitudinally 
down the centre so as to make two jiarallel flues, and these are connected 
to the fan and fitted with regulaturs, so that the hot air may be dis- 
tributed uniformly on both sides of the screen. The flue is supported on 
adjusting screws, so arranged that the distance of its edge from the screen 
may be varied at pleasure. 
The inclined shaft from the fan-case gives motion, by means of a pinion 
