HEATHCOAT’S IMPORTANT INVENTIONS. 
602 
principal carriage, or auxiliary carriage or 
carriages, or to the distances at which such 
carriages are placed asunder, as shown in 
these di'awings ; nor to the manner in 
which the engine is combined with them. 
I propose, in some cases, to make use of a 
carriage having only one endless flexible 
floor, rail-road, or v/ay ; and to place the 
engine on such carriage, instead of placing 
it between tv^ro endless flexible floors, as 
hereinbefore described ; in which case, it 
will be necessary to pass the chimney in a 
horizontal direction, in order to clear the 
edge of the upper part of the endless flexible 
floor, whence it may be raised vertically to 
the required height. 
I propose also to employ a modification 
of the carriage mounted on broad rollers or 
drums, and impelled by a steam or other 
engine, and serving as a heavy rolling 
machine, in order to consolidate the soil, or 
to break down lumps or clods. 
I sometimes employ a cai-riage mounted 
cn three broad rollers or drums, furnished 
with a steam-engine of small dimensions and 
compact form, as represented in figs. 9, and 
10. The power is to be communicated by 
suitable gearing to the two drums, and the 
machine may be directed into a new path, 
and be made to travel over fresh ground, 
after having reached the end of an enclosure 
or field, by turning the axis of the single 
drum at an angle to the axis of the two rol- 
lers or drums, by means of a rack and pinion 
acting on the bearing of one end of the axis, 
the other end being mounted in an adjust- 
able bearing, as shown at fig. 10. The motion 
of the engine must then be reversed, and one 
of the two rollers or drums be disengaged 
from the engine, and allowed to turn freely 
upon its axis ; while the other is locked into 
the gearing of the engine, and turned round 
by it. In this manner the machine may be 
made to take up fresh ground, without being 
tm-ned completely round. This machine 
may also be employed to drag ploughs or 
other agricultural implements, in connexion 
with auxiliary carriages, by adapting to it 
barrels fixed and worked in a manner similar 
to those already described : for this purpose, 
it may be necessary to apply a wheel in 
each side of the single roller, in order to 
give suflicient stability to the carriag'e. 
These wheels are shown, dotted in fig. 10, 
as also the barrels. The v/heels are mounted 
upon temporary axles bolted to the framing, 
so as to be removed at pleasure. 
The wheels, a, a, a, of the principal car- 
riage, are represented as formed of wooden 
spokes and fellies, with naves of cast iron ; 
but I propose to make them stronger, in 
cases where the weight of the carriage and 
©ngines may require it, by filling in between 
the spokes with wood, so as to form com- 
plete discs ; or it may be still more advan- 
tageous to employ wheels of cast or wrought 
iron. 
In case the wheels should have a tend- 
ency to slip round within the endless floor 
without carrying it with them, then the 
two inner straps of iron e, e, may be made 
with teeth or cogs fastened upon them at 
proper intervals, which shall take into the 
spaces of the wheels m, n. 
I have now described my new or improv- 
ed methods of draining or cultivating land, 
and have shown the manner in which 
the machinery and apparatus are to be ap- 
plied to the culture of various soils. I have 
before stated this invention to be especially 
serviceable on lands which cannot he so 
conveniently worked and tilled in the ordi- 
nary manner by the agency of horses and 
other cattle. The cultivation of bogs or 
messes, require more numerous drains than 
drier and firmer ground ; and, when horses 
or other cattle are employed, it is necessary 
that most of the drains should be covered, 
in order to enable the horses or other cattle 
to pass over them ; but by the system of 
cultivation by traction obtained from motive 
power, combined with the arrangement of 
the pi’incipal and auxiliary carriages herein- 
before explained, I am enabled not only to 
drain, plough, roll, and work the soil by 
suitable implements, without its being 
poached or injured by the feet of horses or 
other cattle ; and also to leave the drains 
open, by which they may be cleansed and 
deepened, as the water shall subside and the 
land consolidate. 
If, in the progress of these soils, boggy 
grounds become consolidated, all the original 
drains, which I propose to make very nume- 
rous, should no longer be necessary, a por- 
tion of them may be filled up ; and of the 
remainder, such may be left open, and such 
covered, as circumstances of cultivation 
may require. 
As regards the utility of this invention in 
a national point of view, I anticipate also 
that several advantages will result from 
the substitution of steam power for horses 
and other cattle, and from the use of peat 
as fuel for the steam-engines to be employed 
in the culture of mosses or bog lands : 
amongst the advantages, will he the abund- 
ant and profitable engagement of an unem- 
ployed population in the raising and pre- 
paring of peat for feeding the steam-engines, 
and as labourers in reclaiming and cultivat- 
ing lands which are at present utterly un- 
productive ; and further, that the produce 
of the soil will be available as food for 
human beings, instead of being consumed 
