412 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
with two drums (fig. 4), each four feet in diameter, on vertical 
axles, and hearing upon them circumferences four grooves , had 
taken the place of the old one. Here was a fresh economy 
of rope and of power. In place of two long ropes which wound 
and crushed upon themselves in a manner which greatly injures 
metal cordage, there was established an endless rope, simply pass- 
ing from the moveable engine on one headland of the field to the 
moveable anchorage at the other, but with a sufficient surface- 
grip in the drum-grooves already mentioned to keep it from 
slipping. The rope was divided into lengths, joined by hooks 
and eyes, and could be accommodated to the fluctuating length 
of the furrow. This apparatus has peculiar interest attaching 
to it. It decided at Chester the important case Steam v. Horse- 
power. It established, in fact, for the first time, that steam is 
an economical substitute for lwrse-power, and in so doing won 
for its inventor the prize of £500. The horse and the steam- 
drawn plough were tested side by side; upon light land 
there was shown to be a saving of 2s. 9 \d. an acre, while upon 
heavy land the saving by the employment of the steam plough 
appeared to be 5s. 8 \d. an acre. In the latter part of the same 
year it was found possible to dispense with one of these two 
drums, and to introduce the arrangement shown in fig. 5. 
The propulsion of one in place of two drums, beneath the 
frame of the locomotive engine, again economized power, or, in 
other words, coal. 
At a subsequent period the implement was very much reduced 
both in size and price, and so lightened that whilst at the 
meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society at Canterbury, in 
1856, it seemed content to grapple with two-horse work at a 
maximum rate of seven acres a day, it now made hght of four- 
horse work at the rate of eleven acres, and executed that which 
was impracticable for horse-power at a maximum rate of six 
acres a day, drawing, at a much more rapid rate than horses 
could attain, three ploughs up hill and four down, and with a 
furrow that would require six horses to turn at them own pace. 
We will now describe Mr. Fowler’s apparatus as it per- 
formed last year at the Royal Agricultural Society’s meeting at 
Leeds, where it was again distinguished above all competitors 
on the prize-list. Upon one headland or side of the field (fig’. 6) 
is seen the engine ; on the other the anchorage ; the plough is be- 
tween them. As the engine is the point of resistance, towards 
which the plough is hauled one way, so the point of resistance 
the other way is the anchorage. These two points, always 
opposite, gradually shift, little by little, from end to end of the 
field, the land between them being left inverted. The engine 
is of an ordinary character, but beneath its boiler it bears a 
large drum or wheel of peculiar construction, actuated by a 
