MACHINE FOR DRAINING LAND. 
603 
by horses and other cattle employed in the 
cultivation. 
It will be obvious, as the principal car- 
riage hereinbefore described is capable of 
locomotion, and contains a steam or other 
engine of power, that it may be placed in 
convenient situations, where the power of 
such engines may be advantageously used 
for the working of corn mills, thi'ashing 
machines, chaff cutters, pumps, or other 
machinery . — {Inrolled in the Rolls Chapel 
Office, November, 1833.*] 
Specification drawn by Messrs. Newton and 
Berry. 
“ During the Whitsuntide recess of Par- 
liament, a numerous assemblage of gentle- 
men from different parts of the country at- 
tended to witness an exhibition of this novel 
and interesting invention ; amongst whom 
were Mr. M. L. Chapman, M. P., Mr. T. 
Chapman, Mr. H. Handley, M. P., Mr. 
J. Featherstone, of Griffinstown-house, 
Westmeath (an enterprising and successful 
bog-reclaimer), Mr. F. Brown, of Welbourn, 
Lincolnshire, Mr. James Smith, of Dean- 
ston, near Stirling (well known to the me- 
chanical world by his ingenious inventions, 
applied both to agriculture and manufac- 
tures), Mr. B. Hick, and Mr. P. Rothwell, 
engineers, with other experienced judges of 
mechanical contrivances. These gentlemen 
were unanimous in pronouncing the inven- 
tion to be the germ of great improvements 
in the science and practice of agriculture, 
as well as eminently fitted for the particular 
purpose to which it has, in the first instance, 
been applied, •'fwo ploughs of different 
construction w^ere put in action, to the 
admiration of the spectators ; particularly 
the one last invented, which is houbie-act- 
ing, or made with two shares in the same 
plane, so that it returns at the end of a 
‘ bout,’ taking a new furrow, without loss 
of time. The perfect mechanism of this 
plough — the action of the working coulters 
and under-cutting knives, which divide 
every opposing fibre of the moss — the 
breadth and depth of the furrow turned 
over — the application of a new and admirable 
means of traction, instead of chains or ropes 
— together with the facility with which the 
machine is managed, and the power applied 
to the plough, especially interested and 
surprised all present. The speed at which 
the plough travelled was two miles and a 
half per hour, tuiming furrows eighteen 
inches broad by nine inches in depth, and 
completely reversing the surface. Each 
furrow of two hundred and twenty yards in 
• In this instance, eighteen months have 
teen allowed for inroUing- the specification. 
length was performed in somewhat less than 
three minutes ; so that in a working day of 
twelve hours this single machine would, with 
two ploughs, turn over ten acres of bog 
land. 
The machine which bears the steam- 
engines is itself locomotive ; but as the 
ploughs are moved at right angles to its line 
of progress, not dragged after it, the ma- 
chine has to advance only the width of a 
furrow, viz. eighteen inches, whilst the 
ploughs have travelled a quarter of a mile ; 
in other words, the machine has to be mov- 
ed only eleven yards in the time that the 
ploughs have travelled five and a half miles, 
and turned over a statute acre of land. 
This is, in truth, the prime distinguishing 
feature of the invention ; it is the contriv- 
ance on which the genius of its author is 
more particularly stamped, and which seems 
to be essential to the economical application 
of steam to husbandry ; for it is evident, 
that were it requisite to impel the machine 
with a velocity equal to that of the ploughs, 
by dragging them wuth it, a great propor- 
tion of the engines would be uselessly ex- 
pended. 
Another valuable property appertaining 
to the machine, and which conduces great- 
ly to its economy as a bogcuitivator, is, that 
it requires no previous outlay in the forma- 
tion of roads, no preparation of any kind, 
further than a drain on each side of it. That 
a locomotive machine of such great dimen- 
sions and power could be so constructed as 
to travel on mere raw bog, was an excellence 
the more appreciated, as it was unexpected, 
by those persons who are conversant with 
the soft, unstable nature of bog. The Irish 
gentlemen present also pronounced Red 
Moss to be a fair specimen of the great mass 
of the flat, red, fibrous bogs of Ireland, and 
that neither the machine nor the ploughs 
would have any difficulties to encounter in 
that country, which had not been already 
overcome on Red Moss, the field of experi- 
ment. The engines are capable of working 
up to fifty horses power ; but the operations 
subsequent to ploughing wdll require a small 
force compared with that necessary for 
breaking up the surface of the bogs, to the 
depth and at the speed effected by these 
ploughs. The power consumed by each 
plough is estimated at about twelve horses ; 
and the weight of the sod operated upon 
by the plough, from point to heel, is not 
less than thi’ee hundred |30uads. The boil- 
er is of unusually large dimensions for lo- 
comotive engines, being suited to the use of 
peat as fuel, so that the culture of a bog will 
be effected by the produce of its drains. At 
Red Moss, however, coals are so cheap, be- 
ing found contiguous to and even undel: it, 
