742 
the grain, in descending, gets more time to de- 
posit its impurities. The coom K is by this ar- 
rangement placed a little more out of the way of 
the person’s head, who takes away the grain. The 
large wheel Lis also an improvement. The pinion 
N, upon which it operates, makes fully five revo- 
lutions for one of the large wheel; and as in or- 
dinary cases the latter only requires to make 
twenty-eight revolutions in a minute, the fans 
O will therefore make 144 in the same time. 
This easy motion to the driver of the wheel, for 
which a woman has sufficient strength, thus gen- 
erates an immense current of air by the rapid 
motion of the fans. This current, though amply 
filling the place from d to 7, 2 feet, is forced in 
the direction of the arrows, through the riddle, 
and of course between the grains of corn which 
are at the same time passing through it, and 
makes its escape by an aperture of only 10 
inches from f to g, the width of the machine be- 
tween the linings being only 1 foot 8 inches. To 
facilitate still farther the driving of the machine, 
it is necessary to make the shank of the handle 
M 93 inches long, and which, as a radius, will be 
found to describe a circle round the axle of the 
wheel, the most convenient in size for the easy 
motion of ‘the body of the driver. The slide s 
should only be elevated above the bottom of the 
hopper Linch, and in order to make the emission 
of the grain from it more complete, the hopper 
should always be amply supplied with corn. 
Many contrivances have been adopted by in- 
troducing pinions and shafts and rollers, pitch 
wheels and pitch chains, and sheaves and belts, 
to shake the riddle, and supply the corn regularly 
to it from the hopper, in order to supersede the 
use of the old spear and crank and shoe, as de- 
scribed above. These contrivances have no doubt 
to a certain degree succeeded. But none of them 
can supply the grain more regularly, or imitate 
the vibratory motion of the human hand in rid- 
dling so well, as the combined motion arising from 
the simultaneous action of the loose spear and 
crank, the quick oscillations of the long chains g, 
the sort of undulating vermicular motion of the 
shoe d at the pivot, and the five gentle beats of 
the riddle frame e f against the lining of the ma- 
chine, to one turn of the large wheel; while any 
set of these other contrivances imposes a consi- 
derable additional weight for the driver to over- 
come.” 
The machine, when attached to the thrashing- 
mill, is made comparatively heavy; and, when 
used separately, is made so light as to be easily 
removeable from one part of the barn to another. 
In different forms of it, a single sieve may be 
made to do all or nearly all the work of the two 
sieves,—the heavy corn may be made to fall out 
either at the end or through a spout at the side, 
—the light corn may be discharged either below 
the machine or through a spout,—and the part 
of the inclined plane through which the dust and 
sand fall may either be a fixture so as to act'as a 
WINNOWING MACHINE. 
mere screen or steady riddle, or be oscillatingly 
moveable so as to act as a shaking sieve. An 
improvement of the machine, by Mr. Docker of 
Findon in Banffshire, for better adapting it to 
conjoint working with the thrashing-mill, as- 
sumes that it is commonly too narrow for due 
efficiency in connexion with very powerful mills, 
and that it cannot be made broad enough in its 
ordinary construction without suffering dispro- 
portion between the strength of its blast and the 
increased width of its fan; and it provides for 
this defect by adopting a double-headed fanner 
or a conjunction of two comparatively narrow 
fans, and by admitting the air between the heads 
as well as on-the outsides, so that the two blasts 
become combined on leaving the fans. Another 
improvement or variety, invented by Mr. Com- 
mon of Denwick, has bands instead of wheels. 
A light supplementary implement, called a fan 
or a blowing machine, is used in some barns for 
dusting and cleaning grain which has not come 
clean enough out of the winnowing process, or 
which has acquired dust and impurities from ex- 
posure; and this is quite simple in construction, 
and has a straight vent for the blast, and has 
not any riddling or sifting apparatus. See the 
article THRAsHinc-Macuine. 
Parsons and Clyburn’s patent winnowing ma- 
chine, manufactured at the Earl of Ducie’s Iron 
Works in Gloucestershire, differs widely from all 
other winnowing machines. “ The fan or blower,” 
say the makers of it, “is about 3 feet in diame- 
ter at its greatest radii, and 2 feet 6 inches at 
the smallest. The fans are placed at an angle of 
45°, so that when put in motion, the wind enters 
at the smallest side and is driven out at the lar- 
gest, filling a space or chamber 3 feet square, 
with wind. The riddle is placed in the middle 
of the chamber, with a vibrating motion. As the 
grain with the chaff in it drops from the feed- 
roller to the riddle, it meets with the wind from 
the upper side of the fan, which blows out the 
chaff before it gets into the riddle; the grain 
after passing through the riddle, is concentrated 
in the small hopper; when it leaves the hopper, 
it meets with the wind from the lower side of the 
fan, which drives the light grain farthest from 
it into a spout provided for that purpose, leaving 
the best and heaviest to fall down into another 
spout nearer to the wind, thus completely sepa- 
rating the light from the heavy grain. One of 
the great improvements in this machine, is mak- 
ing the fan of such a form that it will give a 
greater degree of wind for the grain to fall 
through, than in the other machines; another 
is, its having one of Hornsby’s registered feeding 
apparatus attached to it.” | 
Salter’s winnowing machine, invented by T. 
KF. Salter, and patented in 1839, combines the 
apparatus for winnowing and dressing grain with 
the principles of a barley hummeller. “The un- 
dressed grain from the hopper,” says Mr. Ran- 
some, in his Implements of Agriculture, “ passes 
