Implement Shoto at Leicester. 
467 
cnciines bcinf; placed on opiiosite headlands, one cultivator is set to work first, 
in order to leave room Ibr the other to pass without coniiiii; in contact. In 
finishing work, it follows tliat more work is done on one half the ground than 
on the other. 
Starting from the opposite ends at a given signal, each engine mnst be 
driven like clockwork, otherwise the cultivators do not reach the centre at the 
same time; the one nmst wait for the other, and in this way, even in the 
hands of Fowler's experienced workmen, fi-om 40 to 50 seconds were frequently 
lost. The cultivators were each fitted with 5 tines, the average depth worked was 
about 5'i inches, corresponding to a weight of soil moved per super yard of 
28 stones 9 lbs. The bottom was not particularly even. The hands employed 
were 2 engineers, 2 ilrivers, 2 porter boys, and several extra hands assisting. 
Aveling's travelling porters which were used, have been imjiroved since the 
Newcastle meeting. 
In these trials the sj-stem reallj- condemned itself, and wc have no hesitation 
in passing over in our award of prizes this complicated arrangement, which 
was clearly unmanageable, even by the most skUled hands. The area culti- 
vated in one hour was 1 acre 1 rod 31 perches, being at the rate of 14 acres 
1 rod 30 perches jter day of 10 hours, a poor result, considering the 
small depth to which the soil was moved, and that a double set of im- 
lilements, of porters, of implement men, and porter-boys were employed, 
that 1600 yards of rope were in use in lieu of 800, and that the apparatus, 
with the two implements, cost 19H. more than the pair of single-drum engines. 
No. 2482, and the one implement. Although we have thus most unhesita- 
tingly condemned the use of two engines, each having two drums, we think it 
right to call attention to the fiict that the emiiloyment of two such engines 
admits of means of utilizing in aid of the traction the strain on the tail-rope, 
while, as far as we know, no such means are applicable in the case of the two 
single-drum engines, but Messrs. Fowler had not a|iplied this means to their 
double-drum engines, and even had they done so, it would not have altered 
our award, because we consider the defects of the system too great to be 
counterbalanced by a saving in power ; we shall have, however, to revert to 
this question when describing Messrs. Fowler's fourth direct-acting system, 
viz., that in whicli the double-drum engine is used in conjunction with a 
travelling anchor. 
No. 24:85 consists of one 8-horse power traction engine, fitted with Fowler's 
patent clip-drum, working in connexion with a travelling disc-anchor, and 
drawing an implement fitted with slack gear. This is the old system, and it is 
the only one in which at present the strain upon the tail-rope is utilized in 
aid of the traction. 
A little consideration will make it obvious how, in the clip-drum, this 
advantage is obtained ; that side of the rope which passes from the cultivating 
implement to the drum, and which rope is hauling the implement, clearly has 
■upon it as much strain as is necessary to piill the impkment through the soil, 
and to pull out the tail-rope ; but the rope which is coming oft' the other side of 
the clip-drum is that very tail-rope itself, which has its own proper tension 
as tail-rope. Thus the power required on the one side of the drum to haul 
the implement and the tail-rope, is balanced by the strain on the other side 
of the drum, produced by the tail-rope itself, so far as that strain extends ; 
and, therefore, it is merely the difference betvpeen the strain of the tail-rope and 
the strain of the implement-rope which the engine has to work, instead of being 
the whole strain of the implement-rope imrednced by that of the tail-rope. 
This saving in power is probably fully equal to the difference between the power 
of the 10-horse power engine used in one case, and the 8-horse power engine 
used in this case. 
The clip-drum has so long been before the public, and is generally so well 
known, that a few brief words will sufSce to describe the apparatus. It is a 
