“THRASHING MACHINES. 
applied at the lower end, and moving at a rather 
high velocity. 
The Scotch thrashing-machines in ordinary 
use throughout the country, when viewed in the 
aggregate, are far from being in a satisfactory or 
creditable condition, and do not by any means 
display the amount of excellence and efficiency 
which the history of Meikle’s invention and of 
the many subsequent improvements on it might 
lead us to expect. “ Most of the machines in 
present use,” said an account in 1832 which in- 
| structively points out some permanent and gene- 
ral causes of their defects, “are either ill-calcu- 
lated for a simultaneous action of their component 
parts, or they are so loaded with machinery that 
| the moving power has a difficulty in overcoming 
their weight. It is very easy to overload a horse- 
power thrashing-mill with a multiplicity of 
wheels and pinions; and it will be found that 
| the least failure of power under the ordinary 
thrashing-power leaves much of the straw un- 
thrashed; the short heavy portions, called in 
Scotland the roughs or shag, which should de- 
scend into the second hopper, will fall down 
among the good grain, and create a vast addi- 
tional labour in separating what the mill ought 
to have done. These heavily constructed ma- 
chines are great evils anywhere, but especially in 
the interior of the country, whence carriages are 
long and heavy to sea-port market-towns, and 
hence, where the obtaining of water-power to 
thrashing-mills is so very desirable on account 
of the horses. From what we have seen and ex- 
perienced in the matter, we have no hesitation 
in affirming, that numerous as thrashing-mills 
are in this country, few of them are constructed 
upon the correctest principles, and that much 
emendation may be made in this department of 
mechanical agriculture. Indeed, we have seen a 
mill constructed of a water-wheel belonging to 
ene mill, the shafts and drum to another, the 
rake to a third, and the winnowing part to a 
fourth. ‘This mill, when finished, cost a hundred 
guineas; it thrashed well; but how could a ma- 
chine constructed of such patch-work be expected 
to do all its work satisfactorily? It may suffice 
to mention, that it required repair twice or thrice 
every winter. That machines of this description 
will sometimes be erected, need not excite our 
surprise, when we reflect on the circumstance, 
that many of the country millwrights set up in 
business with very limited capitals. They can- 
not procure a sufficient stock of patterns, which 
are calculated to form parts of the same machine, 
but are obliged to borrow patterns from neigh- 
bouring millwrights or founders, Besides, many 
millwrights think, that if the thrashing part of 
the mill, the chara, and its immediate mover the 
spur-wheel, be good and substantial, and finely 
hung, that all the rest are of secondary consi- 
deration. They think they show their engineer- 
ing powers to the greatest degree in the con- 
struction of these parts. The overshot water- 
from a broader origin, and comprise a greater 
439 
wheel may move with the velocity of a fly one, 
or the horses be obliged to walk at the rate of 
five miles an hour before the drum can be brought 
up to the thrashing speed, or the shakers. and 
fanners may half choke and blow every thing 
before them; these may all occur from time to 
time without exciting much emotion, so that the 
drum perform its part with firmness and steadi- 
ness, at the true velocity. We are persuaded 
farmers just take such mills as are erected for 
them, for they generally do not possess sufficient 
knowledge of the matter to enable them to de- 
tect any error in the construction of them; and, 
after having got them erected, and paid for, Biase 
wounded pride will not allow them to say one 
word against their own machine. We do not 
remember of ever having heard a farmer confess 
that he had a bad thrashing machine, though an 
examination of all the parts when at work, the 
oppressive effects produced on the animals, and 
the quality of the work performed, might soon 
convince any one that the machine might be 
much better than it was. The ill-judged desire 
of the farmer to have a mill that will not cost 
much money, often leads the millwright to adopt 
expedients in its construction, which he is con- 
scious are not suited to work well together. This 
is one reason among many others to prove the 
propriety of landlords erecting thrashing ma- 
chines at their own expense upon the farm- 
steadings, and of giving the tenants the use of 
the mills, as well as the steadings, and of oblig- 
ing them to keep the mills in repair, as in the 
case of the buildings.” 
The thrashing-machines of England have risen 
diversity of structure, than those of Scotland. 
In 1795, a machine was patented by Mr. Wigfull 
of Lynn, which attempted to combine the impulse 
of the flail with that of revolving beaters, but 
which, though much extolled at the time, soon 
passed into neglect. Its beaters, instead of being 
fixed on the drum, were loosely attached by 
means of brief chains, so that, when the drum 
was in rapid motion, they were flung by the 
centrifugal force with great velocity against the 
corn, which passed between two rollers and was 
held long enough to be thrashed, and then, by 
means of a shaking screen and an endless web, 
was carried forward to the action of a winnow- 
ing apparatus.—At a later period, a machine was 
introduced by H. P. Lee, Esq. of Maidenhead- 
Thicket, which embodied the principle of feed- 
ing without the aid of rollers, and contained the 
germ of the whole plan on which many of the 
English thrashing-machines of the present day 
are formed; and during the succeeding forty 
years, inventions and improvements, too numer- 
ous and diversified to admit of being profitably 
enumerated, were flourished before the public 
view, and secured by patents, and, in several 
instances, rewarded by honorary medals of the 
Bath Society and the Society of Arts. 
5] 
