The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-29 00:00:00

CORN AND MAL? DRYING.

It was noticed in the report of the recent show
at Hartlepool of the Castle Eden District Agricul-
tural Society that among the " implements" exhi-
bited was one that had the merits of being new in
principle, exhibited for a first time, and the produc-
tion both of a local inventor and a local artificer.
Whatever modifications time may introduce into
the details of this design, to adapt it more perfectly
to the accomplishment of its work, there can be
no doubt whatever as to the necessity for such an
invention, nor as to the boldness and originality
with which that necessity has been met. Those
who are acquainted with the present process of
kiln-drying of grain need not be informed of the
enormous amount of labour, delay, and inconveni-
ence with which it is attended. After loading,
carting to the kiln, and unlowling again, the wheat
has to be thrown on a heated floor, while one or
more attendants require to constantly turn over the
grain until it has been sufficiently dried, if it
escapes being scorched, it seldom escapes being
affected by the gases escaping from the fires with
which the kiln is heated ; and the slowness of
the process renders it unavoidably expensiye.
Mr. Williamson's attention appears to have been
directed to this subject by- the great losses
consequent upon a wet season some ten years
ago, when his sutstitute for the present dilatory
method made some progress in his mind ;
but the extremely damp autumn of last year stimu-
lated him to the completion of an undertaking which,
step by step, he had, during the intervening years,
gradually matured and improved. The kilo which
he has invented is a machine so simple in structure
that it may be easily supplied to every separate farm
in the kingdom, and at a cost which a very short
period of use will amply repay. All loss of time
by carriage is thus at once secured ; and kilning is
made, as it ought to be, one of the ordinary expe-
ditious processes of farm-labour. On a strong four-
wheeled frame, in a form at once compact and neat
in appearance, and as portable as any wheeled im-
plement used on field or farm, the whole apparatus
occupies but little space. To describe it in detail,
without the help of a diagram, is not easy ; but
we may mention some principal features. On the
framework of the vehicle, which is of iron, lies an
arched tube, having a plane bottom, two feet six
inches in diameter inside, and some seven feet in
length. Tho bottom is an inclined plane. Sur-
rounding the whole of this tube is a hot-air cham-
ber, communicated with from a small furnace which
is fed below, and also with a funnel, which carries
off the smoke, &c., above. The whole of the heat
of this furnace thus passes through the chambered
' and partitioned enclosing walls of the tube
without the slightest possibility of smoke or gas
coming near its contents. Through this tube the
grain is passed in an atmosphere the temperature
of which can be regulated to the greatest nicety,
and at a rate of speed that can also be regulated to
suit the state of the grain as admitted ; a self-act-
ing apparatus receives it at the other end, and car-
ries it back in the open air, cooled and ready for the
bag, into which the self-acting belts on which it is
carried finally deliver it. The process is not only
quick, but efficient, and is thoroughly under the
control of the operator ; and, as tried on the
Hartlepool show-ground, it appeared that, for an
expenditure of one hundred-weight of coal, from
fifteen to twenty quarters of wheat, of the average
humidity of wheat that requires to be kiln drie
could thus be effectually dried in a period of twelve
hours.--111ark-lane Express.

TRADES' UNION INQUIRY AT MANCIIESTER.—Mr.
Pickering, Q.C., together with Mr. Barstow and Mr.
Chance, have been appointed examiners to inquiro into
any acts of intimidation, outrage, or wrong alleged to
have been promoted, encouraged, or connived at by trades'
unions or associations, whether of workmen or employors,
in Manchester and the neighbourhood, and as to the causes
of such acts and the complicity of such trades' unions or
associations. The examiners will hold a public inquiry
which will commence at the Assize Court, Manchester, on
the 4th of next month. They have appointed Mr. Jam('
Shell, barrister, to be their secretary, and any conimunica
tious on the subject of the inquiry are to be sent to him
at 115, Bury Nov-road, lkituidae.,,4er.

tiff rt
etrallbre

JIER MAJESTY.

BALMORAL, Aug. 27.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the birth of his
Royal Highness the Prince Consort.
The Queen went out accompanied by the Royal
family.

CHARGES ON THE CO NSOLIDA7 ED
FUND.

In the national balance-sheet there appears
always an item of above £1,800,000 for ordinary
charges on the Consolidated Fund, consisting of
payments made by authority of Acts of Parliament,
and without being annually discussed and voted in
the House of Commons. The recent issue of the
yearly finance accounts presents an opportunity for
giving some account of this part of the fixed public
expenditure. First comes her Majesty's civil list,
£385,000, with which is classed the charge of about
£22,000 a year for pensions, being (we presume)
the pensions granted at the rate of £1,200 a year
for meritorious services. Next come the annuities
to the Royal family, now £lll,OOO a year. Then
follow pensions amounting to £42,360 a year, pay"
able to persons of distinction for naval and military
services. In these are included the £4,000 a year
payable to the present and next Duke of Welling-
ton, and seven perpetual pensions, £19,000 a year,
iu all, payable to the present and future Duke of
Marlborough, Earls Nelson, Amherst, and Bath,
Viscount Exmouth, Lord Rodney, and the heirs of
the Duke of Schomberg. Next come pensions for
civil services, £21,372, including the pension of
£4,000 a year to the heirs of William Penn for ever.
Under this head are included the pensions for ser-
vice in the high civil departments of the State. Four
of the first class of these pensions, at £2,000 a year,
are allowed to past Cabinet Ministers, but when the
finance accounts were made up in March, only twe
of these pensions were payable, one to Sir G. Grey
and one to Mr. M. Gibson, Mr. Walpole's being
marked -' suspended," owing to his being in office
again. Pensions for judicial services follow, amount'
ing to £48,200 a year. Among these are four
pensions of £5,000 a year each to the four ex'
Chancellors, pensions of £3,500 to six ex-judges of
the superior courts of law, a pension to a retired
Vice-Chancellor, and pensions of £BOO to four
retired County Court judges. There are also pea"
sions, amounting to £34,860 for civil and judicial
services in Ireland, including pensions to two ex"
Chancellors, to three ex-judges, £4,200 a year
to Viscount Avonmore, as late principal
registrar of the Court of Chancery, and £2,968
to the Earl of Roden, as late Auditor-General
of the Exchequer in Ireland. A charge fel'
lows of £30,523 for miscellaneous pensions, includ-
ing some still payable to servants of Queen Charlotte
to the housemaid of the Irish House of Lords, and
to persons who suffered by the rebellion in 1798'
Next comes a very miscellaneous list of salaries and
allowances amounting to £143,488. It includes
the Speaker's salary of £5,000 a year, that of the
Sergeant-at-Arms, £1,200 ; augmentation of sti-
pends to Scotch clergy, £17,040 a year ; the ecele'
siastical establishment in the West Indies, £20,300;
the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, £20,000 ;
nooth College, £26,300; the Queen's colleges,
£21,000 ; and a number of other annual payments,
great and small, coming down to £B3 a year to the
Right Hon. W. Beresford, as keeper of the tennis'
court. Next follows the charge for the diplomatic
service, limited by Act of Parliament to £lBO,OOO 5
year, of which sum £26,898 is applied in pensions,
and the rest in salaries and allowances for active
service. But this charge on the consolidated fund
is aided by a vote i i " supply " of above £30,000
a yer,r for extraordinary expenses. Of the charge
on the consolidated fund the embassy in France ah
sorbs £13,092 ; those in Turkey, Russia, and Aus-
tria nearly £ll,OOO each ; Prussia, £9,386 ; th°
United States, £7,011; Spain, £6,450 ;
£7,150. The next item is a very large one of
£673,828 for judicial salaries and compensations'
Here arc included the salaries of the Lord Chancel'
lor, the two Lords Justices, the Master of the Rolls,
and the three Vice-Chancellors, £39,000 a year in
all ; the 15 judges of the superior courts of commell
law and the judge of the Probate Court, £87,000 a
year ; the 23 London police magistrates, £28;000 3
year ; the judges of the English County Cour
£93,000 a year ; the Scotch and Irish judges, anci
the Irish chairmen of Quarter Sessions, compeass;
tions payable to proctors and persons filling office.
now abolished amount to £148,701 a year; there is
ofthe pension of Lord Ellenborough as chief clerk ve
the Court of Queen's Bench, £7,700, and that
big
the Rev. T. Thurlow as keeper and clerk of
llanaper (Chancery), £4,028 a year, besides 0
£7,352 a year as patentee of bankrupts. Last COII/
,0
some miscellaneous payments, amounting 't
£158,000, the chief being the liabilities in respect
of the Russian-Dutch loan and the Greek 1030.
cr
This completes the list of the payments, together
about £1,850,000, which are the ordinary charg
ly
upon the Consolidated Fund, placed permane
upon this fund by Act of Parliament ; there are
some which, if dependent upon annual vote, roc
bti
have a hard time of it.