Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1875-09-07
THE GAZETTE.
TUESDAY EVENING, SEPT. !.
HAY MAKING BY ARTIFICIAL HEAT.

uh1 MAhlNG By ARElFlClAL HEAL.
The London Times OF the 7th instant, in an
account of hay making by artificial heat, says
mo apparatus for the purpose appears 10 COM
petition at the Royal Agricultural Society 3
trials of hay making machinery now being con
Quoted at Taunton, but on Saturday We wit
messed the operation Of bay drying by artificial
heat at Gilwel Park, near Chingtord, Essex, the
residence of the inventor, Mr.. VIM. A. Gibbs.
After some years of practical experimentlng,
Mr.. Gibbs has brought his invention ioto the
following form: A portable stove constructed
OF plate iron is surmounted by fan, which is
driven by belt from three horse. power port
able steam engine; the fan draws all the beat
ed air and gases from the coke FIRE, together
with volume of warmed air, which passes
through cha nber surrounding the inner
chamber of the stove and blows the hot current,
at temperature of four hundred degrees Fab
renheit or more, into the drier. This resem
bles 10 general shape straw elevator, consist
log of sheet-iron trough six feet in breadth,
twenty feet long if mounted on wheels as port
able carriage, or forty or fifty feet long if fix.
ture. The trough is raised on one eud at low
angle, 80 that the hay fed at the upper end
furthest from the stove shall! slowly travel to
the lower end near the stove-this being assist
ed by slow reclprocatlDg motion given to the
bottom of the trough. a ridge of triangular
section running along the middle of the trough
divides 1t into two almost semi circular chan
Des, so that the hay passes down in the TWO
streams; the hot air issues through two slit
apertures, one % each side the base of the mid.
die ridge, and for the entire length of the ma
chine; and the bay is kept CONTINUALLY stirred
and llghtened up over the hot blast by nun
Der of small iron stirrers cleverly contrived to
initiate the action of forks worked by hand.
I'VE saw partly made but wet hay passed
through the machine and converted al once into
thoroughly dry condition for the stack; we saw
spollt and musty bay dried into hay of fair ap.
parent quality and pleasant fragrance; and We
saw freshly cut grass saturated With rain from
avery heavy thunder shower which poured down
at the time, dried into hay of first class color and
possessing the rich malt odor peculiar to we'll
made hay. With single twenty feet machine
the operation is too slow to employ fully enc
man feeding off cart and another man remov-
ing the dried product; but with two such ma.
chimes side by side, or with one fixed machiue
Of forty feet or fifty feet length probably one
set of carriers aud stackers could be kept going.
From the experiments made under our super
vision it appears that while fresh and wet grass
loses seventy to seventy-6 five per Ct Of its origi
nal weight 10 being made into hay, the quantity
of moisture 10 excess 10 partially made hay, or
hay caught by heavy rain, may be from ten
to twenty per ct. To expe this water from
partially made hay requires consumption of
coke in the stove and Of coal for he engine not
exceeding cost of one shilling and three pence
per ton of hay dried. Preserving fresh-cut grass
may cost 10 fuel six or seven times more With
outlay for labor and wear and tear of apparatus,
the total expense; according to Mr.. Gibbs cal.
culations does not exceed seven or eight shings
per ton, which is, indeed, very moderate dis
bursemeot for saving loss of perhaps ponds
per ton. To make fresh-cut grass ioto the finest
hay at one stoke costs about 92 per ton of the
dried hay"