Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/340

Rh 314 AGRICULTURE [MACHINES AND their name. The late Mr John Fowler s first efforts were directed to the production of a draining apparatus, and it was after succeeding in this apparently more arduous effort that he adapted his tackle to the hauling of tillage imple ments. After various tentative changes, Mr Fowler settled on the form which is still in extensive use. It consists of a single locomotive engine, usually of 12 or 14 horse-power, with a windlass attached to it under the boiler. Around this windlass an endless steel wire-rope passes with a single turn in a groove, which, by means of hinged clips, lays hold of nearly the entire circumference of the rope, and that with a force proportioned to the strain upon the rope, which thus obtains sufficient grip to convey the necessary hauling power without risk of slipping upon the drum. This wire- rope, which requires to be just twice as long as the field to be tilled is wide, passes round a sheave upon a self-acting anchor placed at the farther side of the field opposite to the engine. This anchor is a prominent feature in Mr Fowler s apparatus. It consists of a low truck on four wheels, with sharp disc edges, which cut deeply into the soil, and thus obtain a hold sufficient to resist the strain of the wire rope. A box, loaded with stones, is fixed on the outer side of this truck to hinder it from canting over. The sheave mounted upon this truck, besides serving its primary use, gives motion when required to a drum, which winds up a rope, the other end of which is fixed well a-head in the direction in which the truck is required to move. Thus the apparatus warps itself along the headland as the ploughing progresses, and is kept always vis-a -vis to the engine, which moves itself forward by its own locomotive power at every bout of the ploughs, and keeps abreast of them. That the ro;:e may not drag upon the ground, friction rollers or rope-^ orters, as they are called, are placed at suitable intervals. These beingmounted on wheels and strung upon the rope, are now in a good measure self-acting, as the tautness of the rope keeps them in its own line. The ploughs are fixed to a balance frame carried on two wheels, and are in duplicate, pointing to each other, so that when the set at one end of the frame is in work, the opposite set is carried aloft in the air. The plough frame is thus hauled to and fro across the field, between the engine and movable anchor, 1 y reversing the action of the windlass; and it is adapted for taking from two to eight furrows at once, according to the power of the engine em ployed, or the nature of the soil that is operated upon. Messrs Fowler have made this form of their apparatus more generally available by adapting ic for attachment to the ordinary 8-horse power thrashing-engine. When thus used the clip-drum is mounted on a separate frame and connected with the engine, which being stationed in a corner of the field to be ploughed, the rope is carried to two self- acting anchors, one at each side of the field, and thus encloses a triangle. The plough is drawn to and fro betwixt these anchors, and as it gradually approaches the engine at each successive bout, the gearing on the plough-frame tightens up the rope and accommodates it to the diminishing length required. To work Fowler s apparatus there is required one engine- driver, one ploughman, a stout lad to attend to the anchor, two boys to shift the rope-porters, and a horse and boy to supply the engine with water and fuel. Fowler s Steam-Plough as at work. About 1805 Messrs Fowler made an important addition to their apparatus by substituting a second engine for their movable anchor. In this arrangement, now well known as the &quot; Double Engine system,&quot; a pair of locomotive engines, each having a plain winding drum instead of the clip-drum, are placed opposite to each other at the ends of the field to be operated upon ; the rope of each of the engines is attached to the plough, or other tillage implement, which is drawn to and fro betwixt them by each working in turn. While the engine in gear is coiling in its rope and drawing the plough towards itself, the rope of the other engine is paid out with merely so much drag on it as to keep it from kinking or getting ravelled on the drum. The advantages claimed for this system are, economy of power from the direct pull of tho engines on the implement ; the facility and rapidity with which the engines move themselves and the whole apparatus from field to field, or farm to farm, and take up their positions and get to work without the aid of horses ; and the few hands required to work it. Its drawbacks are the large first cost, and corresponding charge for wear and tear, depreciation, and interest ; its unsuitableness for working in small and irregularly shaped fields ; and the injury done to headlands in wet weather. Its special adaptation is for large farms, and for working for hire; and for these it is undoubtedly without a rival. Mr William Smith of Woolston, Bedfordshire, may fairly be regarded as the pioneer of cultivation by steam power. At the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England at Carlisle in 1855, he witnessed the performance of the late John Fowler s steam draining-plough, and then contracted