THE EXHIBITION OP 1862. 
411 
his purpose, so that he had only to invent a plough. A glance at 
the diagram (PI. XXII., fig. 1) will show the windlass, which 
consisted of two drums on vertical axes, in a frame, set half- 
way down one side of the field, and driven by a portable engine. 
The two wire ropes led off from the drums in an angular direc- 
tion to the anchorages, as represented, meeting in the plough. 
Each anchorage consisted of a low truck with fom- sharp disks 
instead of wheels, which cutting deeply into the ground, offered 
great resistance sideways, whilst they were easily pulled forward 
through the soil. A large sheave or grooved wheel was placed 
underneath, round which the wire rope passed, and the truck 
was weighted with, earth to hold it firmly down. The ropes 
attached to the anchorages and passing round the pulleys at the 
comers of the field were so commanded by the men at the 
engine that the anchorages could be pulled forward by means 
of them, so as to be always opposite the work. 
The “ balance” plough, exhibited in 1856, continues pretty 
much as it was. It consisted of two sets of four plough-bodies 
rigidly fixed at opposite ends of a long beam-frame, which was 
balanced in the middle upon the axle of a pair of carriage- 
wheels (fig. 2). The hauling-rope, in this case attached a 
little below the centre, exerts force on the set of ploughs, on 
which the man is seated, in the direction of the arrow, while 
the slack rope dangles in the wake of those ploughs in order to 
pull the implement back and draw the opposite set the reverse 
way. The steerage was simply effected by a man riding on 
the implement, who was enabled to lock the axletree of the 
wheel. The anchorages in 1856 were made self-moving, so as 
to work without any dependence upon the men at the engine. 
Not many months after this, in 1857, an ordinary engine was 
placed upon the strengthened frame of the windlass, and the 
whole was made to traverse the field-headland by winding up 
a rope anchored forward. The machinery as it then was is 
represented in fig. 3. Let the engine be supposed to be 
entering one end of an oblong field with its train of apparatus. 
It makes its way to the opposite end. In one corner it leaves 
the anchor, and then proceeds to take up its own position in the 
other. The rope spans the distance between, and when steam 
is up, hauls the plough to and fro, the engine and anchor draw- 
ing themselves forward by the ropes anchored forward along 
the opposing headlands as the plough requires a new bite. Thus 
we see the matter simplified, and rope and power economized. 
The advance was certainly great, so much so as to merit the 
£200 prize offered by the Highland Society • but still the ma- 
chinery was too ponderous and expensive for ordinary farm use. 
Mr. Fowler in 1858 made another important step. His 
machinery underwent a complete revision. A new windlass 
