A NEW OR IMPROVED CHAMBER OR STORE-ROOM FÖR STOWING ENSILAGE OR GREEN FODDER
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Osborne Reynolds at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 11th May.1883.
OSBORNE REYNOLDS of Rockland Saint-Mary in the County of Norfolk, Clerk
in Holy Orders, 'A NEW OR IMPROVED CHAMBER OR STORE-ROOM FÖR STOWING
ENSILAGE OR GREEN FODDER,'
'
The object of this invention is to produce a simply-constructed, cheap, and
efficient store-room (called a silo') for stowing green fodder or 'ensilage' therein,
for cattle and other domestic animals.
In attaining the said object, I sink in the earth a right-sided pit, of any suitable
depth, say six feet (more or less); forming its sides inclining outwards, so that if
the bottom be sixteen feet in width, the top, at the ground level, shall be seventeen
feet wide, or thereabouts, thus giving the ascending side an inclination outwards of
one inch to the foot rise. The earth thus excavated I use in forming the walls
upwards, from the ground level, giving the same inclination outwards as that
given to the sides of the excavation; the said walls should taper upwards from a
base of some six or eight feet, at the ground level, to a width of some three or four
feet at the top, which should be about twelve feet from the pit bottom. I form the
ends of the walls of the silo with square corners on the exterior face thereof,
but circular on the interior face. I give the wall-top a slight inclination outwards
to prevent the lodgment of water thereon.
A silo thus made, with a length of twelve or thirteen yards, will be found a
generally useful size, and will hold some 100 tons of ensilage, whether whole or
chaffed.
A pipe drain is sunk all round the bottom of the silo, about a foot in depth, the
trench filled with loose stones above the pipes, and carried therefrom, with a proper
fall for the water, to a well or other receptacle for the drainage.
At one of the circular ends of the silo, I make an entrance, through the earth-
wall, about eight feet in width, through which the horses and carts must enter and
leave the silo, along a sunk road-way of about 20 feet in length, with its walls
sloping upwards until they meet and join with the silo walls.
protect the sides of the silo and road-way by lining the same with a thin wall,
say brick-on-edge, set in good lime or cement mortar, about four or five inches
from the sides, and fill in the inter-closed space (course by course) with concrete,

page_text: composed of pebbles, sharp sand, and Roman cement, sufficiently fluid to freely enter
and fill all interstices and irregularities within such space. This work will doubtless
be done during summer, so that the bricks and soil will be sufficiently dry to
absorb the superfluous moisture from the cement which, if good, will at once set
hard and strong.
I cover the bottom of the silo with a six-inch layer of clean, dry straw, after
which the ensilage, either whole or chaffed, is carted in as quickly as possible.
Each load, on arrival, is led into the silo and so deposited that the carting floor is
constantly rising towards the further end, where the filling up' will be first
completed. As many horses as can be spared should be ridden or led over the
accumulating deposit, inasmuch as compression is the chief preserving principle.
It must be regarded as the main rule of the stowage, that no part of the silo is
full enough, so long as more ensilage can be crammed in, nor until the stuff is well
heaped, as well as compressed, along the middle. When this is effectually done,
no extra weights will be needed on the top; but the stuff is now 'topped up' with
clean straw, shaped into a sharp roof-shape, and immediately thatched. The thatch
is to be brought well over the masonry on the tops of the walls.
While the masonry of the sides is in progress, I make ducts for air, leading from
the base of the thatch into the straw carpet of the silo; a plug of straw will close
each duct whenever the master considers that sufficient air has been admitted. To
judge of this aright, a few pointed iron. rods should be kept deeply driven into the
ensilage, through the thatch, the examination of which will give the requisite
information as to the fermentation going on within.
To protect the ensilage from excessive rain while the filling of-the silo is in
progress, I fix a pair of spars, some 12 or 13 feet long, at or near each end of the
wall top, meeting at their upper ends thus A, which I securely fix together, and
further support each spar by a strut or struts leaning to it froin the wall top. I
strain a double coir-rope, of adequate size, between these pairs of rafters, and
tighten the same by twisting it with a hand-spike. Across this rope I throw a
cloth or cloths, to cover the whole sile, to shoot off the wet; it may be fastened by
pegs to the solid earth of the walls, or by any other suitable means.