446 Report on the Trials of Implements at Cardiff. 
Class IV. — Steaw-Elevators worked m Conjunction 
WITH A Theeshing- Machine. 
Althon^la tLis is the first orcasion on which a prize has been 
ofTered for this class of machines by the Society, the straw- 
elevator has already become a most familiar, as well as valuable, 
appendage to the threshing-machine. The increasing difficulty 
of obtaining hands has secured a ready reception for all true 
labour-saving inventions, and among the most important of such 
recent inventions must be reckoned the elevator, which takes the 
place of at least two men, while adding considerably less than 
1-horse power to the woik performed by the engine threshing. 
The labour of raising straw from the threshing-machine to the 
stack increases with the height of the stack, and will employ 
from two to four men at work that is rendered specially un- 
pleasant by the dust that commonly envelopes the workers, and 
produces a craving for beer that makes it as bad for the morals 
of the labourer as it is costly to the farmer; it is, therefore, 
very desirable that no steam threshing-machine on hire should be 
sent out without the elevator. 
By beginning their work in the yard each morning at 7 a.m., 
and continuing it until 7 P.M., the Judges had been able to com- 
plete the actual trials in Classes II. and 111. by Saturday after- 
noon ; they then commenced the trial of Class IV., but had only 
time to test one elevator (Wallis and Steevens, No. 4978) before 
the rain put a stop to all work in the yard, and afforded them an 
opportunity for continuing the comparison of notes, and taking 
the averages of their separate awards of points of merit, — a work 
that was in arrear in spite of conferences, continued every 
evening till ten, and sometimes until twelve o'clock. The rest of 
the machines in Class IV. were tried on Monday, the 13th, in 
the order given in Table VI. This table is not so full as we 
could wish ; but, in the short time that could be given to these 
trials, and in the absence of the consulting engineers, who were 
unable to remain beyond the one week that had been intended 
for the trials, it was not possible to collect satisfactory^ informa- 
tion on every point. 
Each elevator was brought into position, lowered as for tra- 
velling; a belt from the outer pulley on the shaker-crank of 
the threshing-machine, passing over the guide-pulleys, was then 
passed over the driving-pulley of the elevator; the elevator- 
trough was next raised for work to half its full height, the engine 
was then started, and the threshing and straw-elevating continued 
for as long a time as the Judges thought necessary^ At a given 
signal the engine was stopped, the elevator was raised to its full 
height, and again set to work. As soon as this second run was 
finished, the machine was lowered and packed for travelling. 
