466 
Machine jor beating out Hemp seed . 
1. That vegetables find in pure water every thing necessary 
for them to assimilate. 
2. That vegetable mould in a state of compleat decay contains 
nothing soluble, and can only supply plants with water, which it 
retains abundantly in a certain state of division adapted to their 
nourishment. 
3. That vegetables can grow in any substance, provided it have 
no action on them, and be perfectly insoluble in water, 
4. That the organic powers assisted by the solar light, developes 
in plants substances that have been deemed simple, as earths, al- 
kalies, metals, sulphur, phosphorus, charcoal, and perhaps too 
nitrogen, that probably will no longer continue to be the limits 
at which chemical analysis will stop. 
5. Thatoxigen, hydrogen, and fire appear to be the only ele- 
mentary substances, that serve to constitute the universe. 
6. Lastly, that nature, in its simple course, produces the most 
various effects by the slightest modifications in the means it em- 
ploys. 
•Machine for beating out Hemp, seed and Flax seed , by Fzekiel 
Cleall. 23 Nich. Jour . 16. 
SIR, 
The machine of which a model was sent to the society some 
months ago, must be used with eight flails, two on each arm, for 
beating out hemp seed. 
When required to be used for beating out flax seed, the above 
eight flails must be taken out, and four beaters put in their place. 
The height of the machine from the floor to the top of the 
board on which the flax or hemp is laid, is two feet ; the breadth, 
two feet ten inches ; the length of the board, four feet four inches ; 
the length of each of the arms, from the axis of the machine, is 
three feet two inches ; the flails for the hemp seed, two feet two 
inches long ; the heights of the uprights, seven feet two inches ; 
the beaters for the flax seeds, are each one foot three inches long, 
and seven inches broad. 
The machine will thrash, in one day, as much hemp as grows 
on an acre of land, and other crops in proportion ; and the work is 
