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April, 1889. 
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Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
About the Riley or Cyclone Nozzle. 
A new principle in spraying nozzles was 
discovered by Proi. Riley and his assistants 
in the cotton worm investigation in Septem- 
ber, 1880, while engaged in field work at 
Selma, Alabama. It was in brief that a 
stream of water entering a cylindrical cham- 
ber tangentially and consequently rotating, 
wall emerge through an orifice at right an- 
gles in a spray the fineness of which depends 
on the size of the orifice. This principle 
was immediately utilized and the outcome 
has been the so-called Eddy-chamber system 
of nozzles, adaptations and modifications of 
which are now in constant use all over Eu 
rope and in Australia and New Zealand. 
The simplest and typical form of this sys- 
tem was originally known in this coun- 
try as the “Cyclone/’ while in Europe and 
particularly in France and Italy it has been 
dubbed the “Riley 1 ’ nozzle. 
Inasmuch as this nozzle has 
been developed in the course 
of government work it is 
not and cannot be patented, 
and is therefore less readily 
to be obtained perhaps than 
a patent nozzle which is 
manufactured and pushed 
in the market by its private 
owners. It has been Prof. 
Riley’s aim to figure and de- 
scribe the apparatus devised 
in the course of his government work so 
fully that any good mechanic can make it 
to order, and it is with this view also that 
we reproduce here an illustration of this ex- 
ceedingly useful nozzle and give a brief de- 
scription of it. It is particularly well adapted 
to under-spraying lo.\ plants w her 3 it is nec- 
essary to reach the under sides of the leaves, 
for its face can be set at any angle to the di- 
rection of the stream. The nozzle shown at 
A of the cut is arranged for thespray to issue 
at a right angle, while that atCis arranged for 
a greater angle. If the screw-cap in C were re- 
versed and fitted on below instead of above, 
the angle would be less than a right angle and 
so on. The stem of the nozzle is preferably 
made to fit a five-sixteenths or a one-fourth 
inch rubber tubing. The screw -cap, c, is fitted 
with a thread and screwsdown into the cham- 
ber, a, so fitting that when screwed down 
tightly the orifice d will be exactly against the 
orifice e. The stream of water passing through 
the stem, b, enters tangentially thechamber 
a, through the orifice e, and immediately 
through the orifice d, enters tangentially also 
the cap, c. Within the cap which of course 
is chambered out, it rotates violently, giving 
off the spray through the orifice in the cen- 
ter of the face of the cap as shown at c in 
the lower right hand corner of the figure. 
The proper size of this orifice varies with 
the substance sprayed. An exceedingly 
fine spray can be obtained with a one-sixty- 
fourth inch orifice, but this will clog readily 
with most mixtures. A one-sixteenth inch 
orifice has been found best adapted to spray- 
ing with arsenical mixtures while for the 
fungicide mixtures of sulphate of copper 
and quicklime a still larger opening is neces- 
sary, unless some method of mechanical 
cleansing is adopted as has been done in cer- 
tain French modifications. 
The figures are natural size and as before 
stated any good worker in brass or iron is at 
perfect liberty to construct these nozzles 
from the illustrations and descriptions. 
They can be purchased I believe from 
Thomas Somerville &Sons, Brass Founders, 
of Washington, D. C., and from Woodin & 
Little, 509 Market St. , San Francisco, Cal. 
The price charged by the former is 50c., but 
I am not familiar with the amount which 
the latter firm asks. 
The Bookson ln»e<t* which one should 
buy. 
Doubtless the majority of the readers of 
Orchard and Garden are fruit-growers. I 
judge this from the title of the journal and 
The Riley or Cyclone Nozzle (Aetek Riley.) 
from the fact that in outlining the char- 
acter of the articles in this Deparment the 
publisher informed me that my notes should 
be fitted more particularly to fruit-growers’ 
wants. To such there can be no hesitation 
in saying “if you have not Saunders’ Insects 
injurious to Fruit and Fruit Trees, purchase 
it by all means.” It is a handy volume 
with abundant illustrations, and although 
in the main a compilation, it is a good and 
judicious one It costs $2 and is published 
by J. B. Lippincott & Co., of Philadelphia. 
The purchasing of Riley’s Reports on the 
Insects of Missouri will doubtless be consid- 
ered too great a drain on the pocket by many 
as they have been long out of print, and a 
full set will cost at least $30 and will even 
then be difficult to obtain, but they are by 
all odds the most valuable of any of the 
State Reports ever published. Fortunately 
a fair compilation from these reports has 
been made by Mrs. Treat and under the ti- 
tle of “Injurious Insects of the Farm and 
Garden” has been published by the Orange 
Judd Co., of N. Y., and sells at $2. Both 
these books are within the range of every- 
one’s means and should be possessed by all 
who feel the need of some book knowlegeof 
insect pests. The aim of each of these books 
is practical. 
There is another series of works readily 
commanded by every one, and which al- 
though sometimes adversely criticised, all 
contain much information worth acquiring. 
I refer to the annual reports of the U.S. En- 
tomologist, contained each year in the re- 
port of the Department of Agriculture. 
These reports since and including that for 
1878 every one interested should have. A 
large share of the enormous edition of these 
reports (between three and four hundred 
thousand copies are printed of each) is dis- 
tributed at the order of Members of Con- 
gress. A small share is distributed by the 
Department of Agriculture. This latter por- 
tion is soon exhausted and indeed nc copies 
of any of these reports except the last(1887) 
can now be obtained through the Depart- 
ment. Fortunately however many Mem- 
bers of Congress have no farming constitu- 
ency and these where they cannot exchange 
their quotas with Members from farming 
districts sell them to the dealers in second- 
hand books. The result is that there is not 
a second-hand book store in Washington 
which is not able to sell as many of these re- 
ports as may be needed at from ten to fifty 
cents each. 
If, as has often happened, the practical 
reader of these books is lead 
to study more closely the 
habits of insects and desires 
to follow the study farther 
than these works will lead 
him, he should begin by fa- 
miliarizing himself with the 
classification, and gain a 
general idea of the different 
orders and families. In order 
to do this he should buy 
either Packard’s “Entomol- 
ogy for Beginners” (H. 
Holt &Co., N. Y. $1.75) or Comstock's “In- 
troduction to Entomology,” (published by 
the author — Prof. J. H. Comstock — Ithaca, 
N.Y., $2). Of these two works the latter is 
the better but unfortunately but half of it 
is yet published. After a study of one of 
these two works, one who wishes to make a 
study of the science should send lo the De- 
partment of Agriculture for Bulletin 19 of 
the Division of Entomology —“An Enumer- 
ation of the pub’ished Synopses, Catalogues 
and Lists of N. A. Insects together with oth- 
er information for the student, etc.,” — when 
he can see at a glance what has been pub- 
lished upon any group of insects of which 
he may decide to make a special study. 
Tlie Foort-liabits of Ihe Toad. 
Toads have always been lauded as exclu- 
sively beneficial animals and they are stated 
to have a cash value with European garden- 
ers. It is probably true that the balanre of 
evidence is in favor of the toad, yet certain 
dissections made by Mr. Tyler Townsend 
and reported to the Entomological Society 
of Washington, show that a large proportion 
of the insects captured by toads are benefi- 
cial, including Ichneumon flies and carniv- 
orous beetles. 
