202 
The  Trials  of  Hop-Drying  Plant,  1909. 
The  price  of  the  plant  fixed  complete,  but  exclusive  of 
engine  and  builder’s  work,  was  quoted  at  252Z. 
Mr.  Partridge’s  plant  at  Wharton  Court,  Leominster,  was 
likewise  adapted  to  three  kilns,  two  of  which  were  circular  and 
the  third  rectangular,  shown  in  Fig.  3. 
It  consists  of  a furnace  with  a multitubular  heater,  with 
fifty  3 in.  wrought-iron  tubes,  6 ft.  long,  and  a sirocco  fan  50 
in.  in  diameter  by  30  in.  wide,  driven  by  a fixed  horizontal  oil 
engine. 
The  fan  is  placed  between  the  heater  and  the  kiln  ; in  this 
way  the  outside  air  is  drawn  through  the  heating  tubes,  the  hot 
fiue  gases  traversing  round  them,  and  the  air  thus  heated  is 
then  delivered  under  about  one-eighth  of  an  inch  water  pres- 
sure through  a delivery  culvert  into  the  lower  portion  of  the 
rectangular  kiln,  part  finding  its  way  through  the  door  openings 
to  the  two  circular  kilns. 
The  method  adopted  in  working  this  particular  plant 
differed  from  that  of  the  other  plants,  in  that  instead  of  doing 
two  oastings  in  the  twenty-four  hours,  the  whole  of  one  day’s 
picking  is  treated  in  one  ousting  at  night.  This  method  of 
working  certainly  necessitates  a larger  plant  than  would  be 
required  if  the  drying  was  done  in  two  oastings,  but  there  is 
nothing  inherent  in  the  system  to  prevent  the  drying  being 
so  done. 
Trials. 
In  order  that  the  records  should  be  as  uniform  as  possible, 
each  observer  was  equipped  with  a series  of  log-sheets,  on 
which  were  tabulated  all  the  observations  taken  during  each 
ousting. 
The  weight  of  green  hops  at  each  casting  was  recorded,  as 
also  the  weight  of  fuel,  the  variation  of  temperature  every 
three  hours,  as  well  as  the  maximum  tempei’atures  at  different 
positions  on  the  hair  for  each  ousting.  The  dried  hops  were 
subsequently  weighed,  but  it  was  found  impracticable,  without 
unduly  inconveniencing  the  operators,  to  keep  the  exact  weight 
of  each  ousting  separate,  as  it  frequently  occurred  that  there 
was  a shortage  of  hops  to  completely  fill  the  last  pocket,  or  that 
there  might  be  a small  quantity  of  hops  in  excess  which 
would  be  carried  on  to  the  next  ousting.  The  total  quantity 
for  each  trial  is,  however,  correct. 
The  figures  given  in  the  Table  on  p.  203  are  the  mean  figures 
recorded  during  the  whole  period  of  trial  ; at  the  end  of  the  table 
is  given  the  maximum  outputs  for  any  one  ousting  of  the  com- 
peting plants,  and  these  readings  may  be  taken  as  the  correct 
record  of  the  capacity  of  the  plant  rather  than  the  mean 
readings,  which,  to  some  extent,  were  affected  by  irregularity 
in  the  quantity  of  green  hops  in  an  ousting. 
