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EXCELSIOR 
41 I'nrli How, i\ow York 
HtilTnlo St., Kocliettlcr. 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, NOV. ID, 1870 
I i .n» rod acc ord ing to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by I). D. T . Moouk. in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.) 
hour. Plowing it strip seven feet wide at. 
that rate would make over an acre and a-half 
an hour. As the fuel necessary to keep 
up steam in these tubular boilers is very lit¬ 
tle, probably not. over si* hundred pounds 
of beat coal per day, and as only two or 
three men, with a horse and water curt, 
would he required to run the engine with a 
gang of plows, the expense of plowing with 
it in the large fields of the WesL and South 
is estimated to be not far from fifty cents 
an acre. 
The tender carries a tank holding two 
barrels of water. On it is the seat, from 
which the engineer can reach ami manage 
all parts of the engine and the steering, and 
even the draft of the fire-box in front. 
The machine here represented is five feet 
ten inches wide from outside to outside of 
wheels, and it is designed to attach six 
upniu or uown. We are torn that a pressure 
of twenty pounds of steam has been found 
sufficient for its own locomotion. 
It can bo adapted to the purpose of station¬ 
ary farm work, as thrashing, sawing, etc., or 
as the motive power for reaping and 
mowing. 
We have given above the description of 
and claims Ibr this plow as found in tlm 
Scientific American. We are not prepared 
to say that all will be realized that is hoped 
from this Rochester invention; for it is 
owned by C. C. Mkkkiman ami Owen Red¬ 
mond, Rochester, N. Y. We give the illus¬ 
tration and description as a matter of current 
industrial information and ns illustrating the 
tendency of thinkers who are seeking to 
solve the problem of plowing by steam. That 
land will be so plowed we, have no doubt; 
that the above plow voffig to do it econo- 
$Utc0rcrl0(jinil 
r0st0tnit 
REDMOND’S STEAM PLOW, 
AERIAL CURRENT WEATHER 
THEORY. 
We give herewith an illustration of Red¬ 
mond’s Steam Plow, from a photograph of 
the machine when at work in the field draw¬ 
ing six plows, turning furrows ten inches 
deep and twelve wide This trial was made 
before the construction of a gang designed 
to he operated by one man. 
it, will be seen by reference to the illustra¬ 
tion that the traction power of this engine 
is secured by the protrusion of a series of 
twelvo anchors through the rim of each 
wheel, which penetrate the ground ns the 
wheel advances, and their withdrawal again 
into the wheel soon after the next forward 
anchor receives the 
strain. The pressure of 
the weight ot the engine 
on the soil around each 
anchor is relied upon to •' § | 
prevent slip. As these 
anchors may be made of 
any required width and 
length, the traction of - . J_IL=i 
this machine is theoreti¬ 
cally limited only by the 
power of the engine. 
The anchors, as shown in 
the engraving, are fluke- 
shaped, five inches at the \ - % -. 7 
widest point and seven . -f 
inches long. They are 
pressed into the ground 
roller on the stem of the ■■ 
anchor; the cam is held ii 
by a coil spring which ' •? dr 
gives if the anchor meets itt : voJI 
with any unusual ob- ‘ .. v -r 
struction. The draft 4 
cobies immediately upon 
it when pushed into the r 
ground, while another PtsHpl 
fixed cam withdraws.the " ~ 
next a 11 c h o r behind, 
which, by the peculiar i 
motion given to it IfiiTm! 
through its arm in the - |j| j| 
wheel, lifts away from l| 
the ground it has been 
pressing against, produc- 
mg no hack strain or 
tearing up of the earth. - 
Whatever force it, takes 
to push in the anchors is 
a lifting one on the ' ' 
wheels, acting measura- .-** 
bly to prevent them from 
sinking into the soil. 
The turning is accomplished by a clutch 
on either side, which reduces the revolutions 
of one of the intermediate gear wheels by a 
third. It may he constructed so as to re¬ 
duce speed by any other fraction if it should 
be desired. A very slight turning can thus 
be given either way, or a full turn may be 
In a recent article (page 284) on Indian 
summer is given briefly the main-points of 
my theory of aerial currents, their lateral 
movement, and their influence upon the 
temperaturo of the weather, by which I ac¬ 
count for those extreme changes, both hot 
ami cold, which from their long duration 
might Recalled interludes to I he seasons, and 
by which every season is both retarded and 
promoted in turn. Herein i give in brief 
sumo further explanations and ideas drawn 
from many years close observation of mete¬ 
orological phenomena; and will in the first 
place mentiou two other 
evidences referred to in 
my last, and which should 
have been then given. 
1st. As the polar cur- 
rent moves at the surface 
. ;-V-of the earth we are well 
aware that this current 
7 accompanies and causes 
the extreme cold term. 
2d. As there are uii- 
B doubted indications of 
the upper air being in an 
unusually rarefied state 
during the smoky or 
tropical ternj it denotes 
ical current—may not 
said term ho caused 
thereby ? As the direc¬ 
tion of those currents is 
more 
directly east, Florida is 
the part of the United 
States first reached by 
them and they are prob¬ 
ably as far north as Ar¬ 
kansas In the west before 
reaching the New Eng¬ 
land States. 
I have concluded there 
are twelve of these north- 
ward-moving or tropical 
currents, distributed at 
about equal distances 
from each other, each 
making the circuit of the 
earth, in their lateral 
movement, once in a 
year. There arc 
_ usually 
*^*wf 5 R««v. v hut six principal ones, 
which occur in alter¬ 
nate order with the 
others, hut they are liable to ho shifted from 
one to the other by disturbing causes as 
tornadoes and storms within or near the 
tropics, and it is a peculiarity of these changes 
that when one is thus transferred the two 
following principal currents are, in nearly 
all cases, shifted in like manner. They are 
also sometimes, though seldom, apparently 
diverted from their course by polar currents. 
It is undoubtedly these two causes in combi¬ 
nation that produce double currents which 
rarely occur. In two instances in my re¬ 
membrance double terms occurred three 
times in succession. I also noticed a tend¬ 
ency of these terms to occur again in just a 
year, from which 1 infer that tho same cur¬ 
rents are then returning, thus being one year 
in making the circuit of the earth. 
To admit the correctness of this theory is 
to suppose also that there is a similarity in 
tho average weather mutations that occur 
during a course of years, upon the same 
latitude in all parts of the globe, (hut not the 
same changes at the same time) with tho ex¬ 
ception of those countries whose climate is 
greatly influenced by their location, especial¬ 
ly in respect to their proximity to the sea, as 
for instance the western coasts of Europe 
plows, turning four teen-inch furrows, in two 
gangs behind and underneath the lender, the 
first furrow to he thrown mostly outside of 
the track of the wheels, in order that the 
machine may travel altogether on unplowed 
ground. In large fields aud in soils where 
there arc not many obstructions, it is claimed 
to ho practicable to attach a cultivator and 
a drill or planter behind the plows, thus 
finishing a field with once going over. 
This machine will plow uphill, the only 
increase of power necessary being that which 
is required to lift its own weight up the in¬ 
cline. 
The English system of steam plowing, 
which is in successful operation, consists of 
an engine on each side of the field, drawing 
a gang of plows hack and forth between them 
by means of wire ropes. The advantages 
which the Redmond Steam Plow is claimed 
to possess are that it does not cost nearly as 
much; that it requires less attendance and 
less expense in running; that it will plow 
closer to headlands, etc,, and will plow on 
rolling and uneven surfaces. The Redmond 
machine is light, and takes up but little more 
space than a team of horses before a plow, 
and moves itself on the road or in the field, 
life, a business man, and who is as honest and 
reliable us any man it has been our fortune 
to know, lie confirms our opinion that suc¬ 
cessful co-operative or union stores are the. 
exception rather than the rule; and that the 
best thing for a farmer to do, is to master 
and mind his own business. 
FARMERS’ CO-OPERATIVE STORE, 
Having started, and run one of said stores 
for six years, successfully, a few words on 
the subject may not be amiss. Our capital 
was $ 2 , 000 , in $20 shares, no farmer taking- 
over five shares. We kept all kind of goods, 
with the exception of “tangle leg”—ready 
pay, and one price the rule. Prompt cus¬ 
tomers, however, paid, sometimes, every 
thirty or sixty days. Outsiders had goods as 
low as stockholders, as every dollar from 
them helped pay the expenses of the concern. 
At the end of the year an account of stock 
was taken, a dividend was declared, and 
paid in goods out of the store, at cost. On 
winding up the concern, the original stock¬ 
holders had about doubled their stock, be¬ 
sides getting their goods at a low figure. 
How was this success attained V The agent 
(being a “ modest man ”) dislikes to speak of 
himself, but he brought into the concern an 
experience of fifteen years in selling goods; 
was an industrious, hardworking man, a 
strict teetotaler, and spent no time with the 
’Vlien lo I'm Timber for Fence Hosts. 
A correspondent of the Country Gentle¬ 
man says: —“J. T. Waiideii, Springfiold, 
O., had two fence posts at, the State Fair, 
which had been set for some years, giving a 
curious illustration of the durability of lim¬ 
ber in reference to the season of cutting. 
The posts were both of second-growth oak, 
cut in the same grove from trees standing 
near together; one cut in August, 183®, and 
set soon afterwards, and the other was cut 
in March, 18o2, and set in June following. 
Tho posts were both sot in black bottom 
land, one rod apart; both were the second 
log from the stump, and about equal In size. 
The post cut and set, thirty-seven years ago 
was sounder and in belter preservation than 
the one cut and set eighteen years ago. 
Both posts looked to be good l'or as much 
more service as they had already rendered.” 
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