WINNOWING. 
impel themselves through the air ; others merely 
have the skin so loose on the sides as to be 
spread out when the limbs are extended, and, 
being buoyed up in this manner, they are able to 
make surprising leaps. 
WINNOWING. The cleaning of thrashed 
grain from chaff and dust. In rude states of 
society, this is done simply by exposing the grain 
to the currents of the atmosphere, either super- 
ficially or by tossing according to the strength 
of the wind; but in better states of society, even 
from remote times, it has always been done with 
more or less of implemental aid,—and in the 
improved husbandry of Britain and other highly 
civilized countries of the present day, it is done 
by means of special machinery, either attached 
to the thrashing machinery as in the case of the 
Scottish thrashing-mill, or used separately as in 
the case both of small Scottish farms and of all 
the English farms which use travelling or ordi- 
nary English thrashing-machines. See the arti- 
cles Barn-Manacement, THrasHine -MacuHine, 
and Wrnnowine-MacHIne. 
WINNOWING-MACHINE. Implements si- 
milar to modern shovels, but differing from one 
another in different ages and in different coun- 
tries, were used by ancient Orientals, Greeks, 
and Romans for tossing thrashed corn upon 
their out-of-door thrashing-floors so as fully to 
expose it to gently-blowing winds; for if corn, 
in the open air, is thrown several times across 
the wind, and well scattered in throwing, the 
chaff, being light, not only falls short, but also is 
blown away. ‘Two other implements seem also 
to have early come into general use,—the one of 
the nature of a large fan for wafting off the 
chaff when no sufficient natural wind was blow- 
ing, and the other similar to a modern sieve for 
freeing the grain from adherent and intermixed 
earth and dust. “The oxen likewise and the 
young asses that ear the ground,” says the pro- 
phet Isaiah, “shall eat clean provender, which 
hath been winnowed with the shovel and with 
the fan.” “ JI will command, and I will sift the 
house of Israel among all nations,” says the Most 
High by the prophet Amos, “like as corn is 
sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain 
fall upon the earth.” The fan also is alluded to 
in a passage of the New Testament which meta- 
phorically describes the ministry of the Re- 
deemer; and the sieve in another which foretold 
the terrible trial of the apostle Peter’s faith at 
the time when the Redeemer was betrayed; and 
both, as well as two winnowing kinds of shovel, 
are mentioned in numerous extant passages of 
Greek and Roman authors. “ When the corn is 
mixed with the chaff,” says Columella, “this 
ought to be separated in the wind. The west 
wind is reckoned the best for this purpose, be- 
cause it blows soft and equal during the summer 
months. Yet, to wait for this wind is the sign 
of a slothful husbandman; for, while he is ex- 
pecting it, he may be overtaken by a severe 
WINNOWING MACHINE. 
139 
storm. In the thrashing-floor, therefore, the 
corn that is thrashed should be so heaped up, that 
it may be cleaned with any wind. But if for 
several days the weather should continue quite 
calm, the corn must be cleaned with fans; lest, 
after a calm, a severe tempest should destroy the 
labours of the whole year.” The fan, conjointly 
with the shovel, continued in use throughout all 
the middle ages, and has even been perpetuated, 
in the least improved districts, to the present 
day. An esteemed form of it in comparatively 
late times consisted of four pieces of wood, placed 
longitudinally in the direction of an axis, each 
having fastened upon it a piece of cloth or can- 
vas ; and this was made to revolve by means of 
a handle or winch, so as to produce a steady and 
somewhat strong current of air,—and the corn 
was tossed into the current, or scattered across 
it, with the shovel. 
The first fanning apparatus, turned by ma- 
chinery for driving off chaff and dust, was in- 
vented by the Chinese, and applied to the clean- 
ing of rice. It was thence introduced to Hol- 
land, and attached to mills for making pot or 
pearl barley; and, in the early part of last cen- 
tury, it was introduced from Holland to Scot- 
land, through the patriotism of Andrew Fletcher 
of Salton, and the ingenuity of James Meikle, 
father of the inventor of the thrashing-mill. A 
large and improved form of it, applicable to all 
sorts of grain, yet requiring the corn to be twice 
or thrice passed through it before complete 
cleaning could be effected, began to be manu- 
factured about the year 1733 by Rogers of Ca- 
vers in Roxburghshire. Another form, also of 
general applicability, and probably somewhat 
better than Rogers’, yet likewise requiring the 
corn to be twice or thrice passed through it, was 
patented in 1768, by A. and R. Meikle. An im- 
provement, “so combining the properties of va- 
rious machines, that the grain at one operation 
could be both separated from the chaff and 
lighter seeds and completely riddled of all sorts 
of refuse,” was afterwards made by Moodie of 
Lilliesleaf. A highly improved machine—which 
continues in use and is eminently approved to 
the present day, and which obtained a prize 
from the Royal Agricultural Society of England 
so recently as the year 1841—was patented in 
1800 by Mr. Cooch of Northampton. “ This ma- 
chine,” says Mr. Ransome, “ dresses all kinds of | 
seeds; and its work is performed in a perfect 
manner. Its principle involved more mechanical 
combinations than were at that time generally 
understood by the class for whose use it was in- 
tended ; and this, together with its then cost, 
long retarded its more general adoption.” Ano- 
ther eminently efficient implement, quite as use- 
ful as Cooch’s, but simpler in the arrangement 
of its parts, easy to be worked, and apt to keep 
long and steadily in order, was patented in 1812 
by John Elmey; and this, under various modifi- 
cations adapting it to hand-work or to the thrash- 
