The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-05 00:00:00

NEW. AGRARIAN SYSTE.3.I.

It has long been a matter of surprise, and Oen
of reproach, that the great mechanical powers
which are now the servants of mankind are so
little employed in cultivating the ground. Tile
great use of all machinery is to save human la-
hour. There is more labour employed in
agri-
culture than in any other art. Whatever poets
and young gentlemen who have assisted once in
their lives at hay-making may say, this is ill',
some labour, as the bent bodies and shrivelled
limbs,, as the rheumatic pains and weather-beaten
forms of the agricultural labourers sufficientlf.
prove. It very generally implies exposure to all
seasons, and if that be wholesome and pleas"ti
why do the opulent take so much care, and incur
so much expense, to avoid it? There is no delu-
sion about the matter in the country, and rural
labours are not voluntarily undertaken except
those who are compelled to earn their brea
Why is it, then, that the powerful and pa 7
tient servants who never complain, and who
have been found so eminently useful in weaving
and working iron, in spinning, and impelling
ships, have not been much employed as cube for the irksome labours of the field
think this a very curious problem, and a gentle-
man, by the name of Pink us, already known
amongst engineers, has undertaken practically'
to demonstrate that it does not arise from o
nature of the art itself, but from the backward-
ness of the agriculturists in applying to their own
uses the inventions which are the common pro'
perty of the world.
His contrivances are exhibited at the Colos-
seum, and they consist of two distinct and veil
different species of inventions; first, of some Pe a",
culler agricultural instruments; and, next, 01
power, different from animal power, to set thee"
in motion. Of the former, it is not
pecessary to salt
much, because there is, as is well known, a
number of agricultural instruments in use, whi,e",
by slight adaptation, may be worked by a livens: •
meal power, and because those which Mr. Pinks,:
exhibits appear to us in their infancy susceptibide
of great improvement, and requiring much ga
varied improvements to suit them to the labours
of the farm. Indeed, it is hardly to be expected
that the same man should have the sonieWit
opposite talents of the eminent engineer and the
practical agriculturist—that he should both find
out a moving power and invent the nice instru-
ments, it is to set in motion. We think Mr'
Pinkus's plough, and his machine for perforni;
ing spade labour, or gathering up stones Out
acting as a harrow, though very ingenious, 1)11„
important t
very secondary parts of his scheme. The gre,"
and suggestion, if it can be practically
worked out, is the application of a cheap 'Ile;
chanical power as a substitute for animal pope
at every part of the farm. We shall, therefore;
confine our description to it, leaving it to th
reader to fancy the-ploughs and the harrow's'
and the self-filling and self-emptying dung cart
it may set in motion.
At Hyde-lane Colliery near Manchester there
is a pneumatic machine attached to the stews"
engine which draws the coals up from the wine•
The engine works an air pump, with which 81
air-tight receiver and air-tight main are
L.e°,ll/:
fleeted. At the end of this main, 500 yards ir,°,",
the steam-engine, a vibrating pneumatic
der is placed, which is worked by the rarefuetTe
produced in the main, and by the pressure of t
atmosphere. Now, this machine working at
,e
distance of 500 yards from the seat of the nie,—r„lea
power, draws coal-waggons up a steep ine,ef
plane, and is a demonstration that a power t
that kind can be conveyed or made to operate
least at the distance of 500 yards. Mr. Pin,,
has taken up this idea, and proposes to llPPt's,
such a machine to agriculture. He is to eree
steam-engine in the middle of the farm, ,e
where water power can be obtained he
employs a water-wheel, and he sets it sit
work on an air pump, to exhaust the ,er
from a contiguous receiver. With this reeei,' itt
are connected a series of air-tight mains, 'at
down under the ground, as may be conveniesso'
in different directions from the central sPot,rl be
as to extend to the extremities of the farm- 7 „g•
,he
mains are supplied with valves, so as to shat
or or open the communication at pleasure with fras
exhausted receiver. At Various distances,
d°*to
may be convenient, branch pipes are laid 0.1
from the mains, and at different parts of the.,..
also, where convenient, there are apexes oroP%",
ings, by which a communication can be alder
tamed between a vibrating pneumatic cyllithe
placed on an ordinary locomotive engine, and der
11
exhausted receiver. It is clear that the eYl'
which, being stationary at Hyde-lane Collieqi
gives motion
n
to a umber of coal wage°s'ic
placed on the top of wheels, can be made to Witt'r.
them by cranks, and this is the power which r,
Pinkus proposes to substitute for animal Poi"..t
It is a pneumatic machine working by the weled
of the atmosphere and a partially exhaus-
receiver.
The ingenious part of the invention consist,
mainly, we think, in the method of communiefi,
ing this power to the locomotive engine. Ages
ible tube, composed of a combination of leatherby
and India rubber, kept in a cylindrical fore'
ir
strong. rings of spiral wire, and perfectly 3eh
tight, is connected by one end with the braille
pipe at one of the apexes we have 11,
fie.
tioned, and by the other with the vibrating 011 a
der which gives motion to the wheels, throng be
hollow axis, and a fixed stuffing box. The Work
is 100 yards long, so that the engine may 1:", is
that distance from the apex, to which the tud" $
fixed, out and home. On tie locoinotiv.e a
drum is fixed, which is made to revolve
.111 is
given time with the wheels, and around it of
coiled the flexible tube, the two ends,
which are fixed as described, and which
ways preserves the communication heto
the vibrating cylinder and the exhausted ins'o,
As the engine goes from the apex the druili.ti
winds the flexible tube and is winded on again
e$
to
the engine returns. It is scarcely necessar),
remark that it is easy to make the machine i‘ to'Eg
he
both ways. Nor is it necessary to dwell 641,4 e..
fact that to this engine different kinds of in
ments may be attached or removed. The Pinie
fact is, that Mr. Pinkus distributes a ineclia,,o,
power over or rather under the land in the 10;y
ner we have attempted to describe, which liver
be called into operation whenever and where
the farmer pleases.
o
As to the great benefits to be derived fro
apt
this invention, we are incompetent to , s„rtieo
without a much more extensive eXatil,'ll-fikiii
than we can bestow on it. Ofcourse, Mr. ,L 'n-„ert
is ready to demonstrate that it is much che'r of
and more convenient, than animal power*o.ig
that, practical men alone can judge, by bi.riAlttri-
it to the test of experience. The idea ot 'the
buting a mechanic power at command over be
land seems a happy one, and may firohablY
successfully worked out hereafter. Its advantl•
or 1-
in preference to generating the power on an ~ht
nary locomotive steam-engine, is, that the weIT i$
of the furnace, boiler, water, &c., of the larteoth
e 3
so great, that•the same engine, which moves snot
the rapidity of the wind on a railway,,,, At
move its own weight on a ploughed
the same time, we are by no means doll ecor,
that Mr. Pinkus has yet fallen on the Mr, the,
nomical method of generating or convenatli.
power. He has, however,-struck out a newrereeb
in which he or others may, by and bye,
great ends. tnOY.
We cordially wish that eminent success lie
attend his exertions. We understand °lowa
has been commissioned to erect and lay .ive
his apparatus by a Mr. Walker an exteit7le
agriculturist in Mid Lothian, which will Bother
the world to judge of its utility. For 11° after,
art are slaves now much required or soughtd to
but for field labour. They are not adaP,tte,,vete
the skilled labour of towns. It is to en'"„tfee
the sugar cane, or the tobacco weed, oreuvir,
plant, that the slave-owner of Cliba,ieh
ginia, or Brazil, commits the atrocities which
every humane and good man reprobates, Tory
destroy his own peace, and degrade the iweerba-
beings he condemns to toil for him.
A
nical motive power to be applied to agric:litteursavil
purposes, cheaper than slave labour, wetil".sbing
effectual and certain means of extinlubty
slavery, and the slave trade. It would no es in
too, be attended with many advantages It
temperate as well as in tropical
would probably add much to our means °f toil,
sistence, increase the property, spare The
and augment the happiness of all classes:_ and
object, therefore, is of great importance
worthy of the attention of inquiring 0.
an '`,ooed
ing men. this account we have inentisolo
climatofs•sob.
the scheme, considering that if some radar
apply themselves to the improvement an, best
tation of implements, and others to tile:d
means of creating the motive power, the ell
be more speedily attained.

-----
Mr. Joseph Pease, jun , M.P., has been 01'
of
fom his Parliamentary duties' in Lonon, in eonsevinven7
the death of his mother-in-law, Mrs. Gurney, of •-°-.
%kb.
Lord Northland, M.P., who has been making
No
first
tour in Egypt, Persia, &c.,
i 3 expected '
home the
in the ensuing month.
Baron and Baroness Dimsdale have left gill°
Hotel lor Devonshire,.
We hear that the Earl of Tankerville's sightfp:
much affeoted, the ouer:tion his Lordship underwentrl•
months back lia%ing completely failed. We belie
Lordship has nearly lust the sight o one eye.