474 
Implement Show at Leicester. 
The princi]nl novelty in Messrs. Tasker's system is tlieir windlass, Ti-liich 
consists of two rope drums, running loose upon a fixed axle, sujjported by the 
travelling-wlicels of the windlass. Motion is communicated to these drums in 
the following manner : — Running loose upon the axle already mentioned, and 
between the two drums, is a driving-pulley, which receives movement from a 
belt driven from the flj'-wheel of the engine. On each side of this pulley is 
a spur-pinion ; these pinions gear into small wheels carried on two short 
shafts, working in bearings fixed in the dnmis. These shaits have at their 
outer ends other toothed wheels, which work in internal spur-wheels, also 
loose upon the axle. The outsides of these spur-wheels are turned, to act as 
breaks, and are provided with break-bands, which can be tightened by levers 
in the ordinary manner. So long as these break-bands are both loose no effect 
is produced upon either of the drums, although the driving-pulley may bo 
revolving, because the shafts contained in, and carried by, the drums, find 
less resistance in making the loose internal cog-wheels revolve, than in making 
the drums themselves revolve ; but, so soon as one of the break-bands is tight- 
ened, so as to liold its internal geared wheel, then the wheel internal to the 
drnm, causes that drum to revolve. 
The other drum is at the same time delivering the slack-rope, and the ease 
with which it does so is regulated by the adjustment of the break on its 
internal geared wheel. Thus in this windlass the break is used both to set m 
motion the winding-drum, and to regulate the tension on the paying-out 
rope. There is no necessity whatever to stop the engine when changing the 
motion of the drums, the whole of that operation being performed by the slacking 
of that break-band which had been tight, and tightening that which had been 
slack. It may be noticed as a point of merit in this windlass that, as the 
driving is done through the intervention wholly of the friction of a break-band, 
there is thus ability for the machine to relieve itself in the event of the culti- 
vating implement being suddenly stopped by any obstacle. Although it has 
been stated above that there is no necessity to stop the engines when the 
drums are reversed, nevertheless in practice the engineer eases the steam 
during the time that operation is taking place. This ability of the windlass 
to yield, in event of an obstacle meeting the implement, is one which renders it 
peculiarly fitted (by a re-arrangement of the parts) to be driven from the 
engine by a shaft with universal joints, but (as already stated) the exhibitors 
have constructed it to be driven by a belt from the engine, which mode of 
driving is in itself a means of allowing a yielding to take place in the event 
of the cultivator meeting with a serious obstruction. This driving by means of 
a belt is attended by certain advantages : one is, the power of yielding men- 
tioned above ; another is, that the windlass and engine need not be very accu- 
rately placed in reference the one to the other. But there are objections to the 
use of the strap, the principal one being its liability to become loose, or even 
to run off in wet weather. To a certain extent this might be guarded against 
by providing a portable cover for the strap. 
We noticed a considerable improvement in the mode of anchoring the 
snatch-block pulley, which is attached by chains to two claw-anchors fixed at 
different angles on the headland. When the implement is being turned, the 
hinder anchor can be detached and brought forward without stopping the 
implement. 
The apparatus was drawn to the field by the traction-engine and 2 horses 
in 7 minutes, and was got to work in 37 minutes. 
The implement — one of W. Smith's cultivators, with 5 tines, furnished 
with broad feet — was not suitable for the hard and baked surface, and left a 
very irregular and ridgy bottom, disturbing a considerable depth at one ]iart, 
and Ixirely entering the soil at another ; the work altogether being inferior to 
any douc by Howard's or Fowler's tools. 
