Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-04-19
HATCHING CHICKENS.
Patent Incubators superseding Hens.

E8tonC lnCuOaJOrb Super10UlDS nohbs
Uatching eggs by artificial means is
nothing new. A great variety of incuba-
tors have been manufactured which have
beeD operated with more or less success,
and several parties in this city have used
them and experimental with thcm, but
without profitable result. The difficulty
has been to keep the beat at exactly the
right temperature during the three weeks
incubation. 1t has very frequently hap
pened that owing to some defect i'll the
incubator, or some neglect on the part of
the attendant, that the air became SO hot
in the incubator that the unmatched chick
was killed, or SO cold that the process of
incubation was checked, and the eggs
could not be hatched. In this way hun
dreds of eggs and much valuable time
have been lost, and swallowed up what
ever profit there may have been On sue
cessful hatches.
Frank Humphreyville, 43S South Queen
street, has invented an incubator that
appears to be SO nearly perfect as to
entirely avoid the evils complained of in
other similar machines. He has at tho
present time two of them in full blast in
his Matching house. The smaller one
holds 100 eggs and the larger ono $50. In
a recent Matching, no eggs were placed
in the small incubator and 95 chicks were
hatched. In tho large incubator, out of
225 eggs there were only half a dozen that
did not hatch. The chicks are moro
healthy and aro thriving better than if
they had been hatched by hen; for they
are perfectly free from vermin, which is
very apt to infest chicks that roost under
their mothers wings, and there is no pos
IL. ~ck kl,ns,, I,D.v loI 90 II
or dragged about through the wet grass,
as is sometimes done by tho hen when in
search of food for her brood.
Mr.. Humphreyville and Joseph White
have applied for patent and have every
prospect of getting one, as the incubator
contains several devices unlike any other
in existence. The boiler, the tank, tie
regulator and the slides on which the eggs
are placed for Matching are unlike any in
use and possess advantages that others do
not. The machine is SO nearly automatic
that it requires no attention from the
time the eggs are put in until they are
Matched, except to keep the lamp that
furnishes the heat burning, and
to turn once day the slides con-
tanning the trays. The regulator works
with such precision that it keeps the heat
almost exactly at 104 degrees. AS soon as
it reaches that point valve opens and lets
off enough hot air to reduce it to tho prop
er temperatue and then it closes. Should
tho machine be tampered with, or any ac-
cident happen it by which it's heat becomes
greater than 104 orless than 95, during
the absence of an attendant, an electric
battery connected with it rings a bell in
Mr.. Humphreyville's room, giving timely
notice that something is wrong.
The temperature is kept at 104 degrees
during the first two weeks of incubation,
and reduced to 9S or q little lower during
the third week-that being the tempera-
ture of the body of a healthy setting hen.
After the eggs have been in the incuba.
tor six days they arc examined, one by
one, by placing them against a piece of
pasteboard in which hole has been cut
a little smaller than the egg, and exposing
them to a bright light. If the eggs are
fertile they will distinctly show series
of veins and partial formation of the
chicks head. If they are sterile they will
remain clear. showing no veins or other
evidences of incubation. In that case
they are removed from the incubator to
make room for good eggs. The sterile
eggs are then boiled and used for chicken
feed.
It is the intention of Messrs. Humphrey
vile and White to manufacture and sell
their invention. A machine holding 100
eggs, with battery and everything CON-
plete, can be sold for about $50, and the
large machine, holding $50 eggs, for
about $50. There will probably be
lively demand for them, as their use will
give the hens rest," or at least give
them an opportunity of laying many more
eggs in the course of a year than they can
possibly lay when they have the care Of a
large family of chickens on their hands
or rather on their backs and under their
wings.