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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1880)
46 THE WEST SHORE. February, 1880. THK TWKNTY THOUSAND DOLLAR PRIZE FOR HARVESTERS. The lust mail from Australia brought ui files of Adelaide exchengei which contein report of the contest for the prizo of $20,000 offered by lUe government ol routh Australia lor a OOB' billed reaping and thrcahing machine It is somewhat disheartening to auuouncoat the out set that the contest was only a partial success, so far as bringing to view a full-fledged and well-working combined inachiuo is concerned. The magnificent prize lias failed to secure the objects aimed at in its offering. There had been 27 entries for tho government prize o! ,0)0, but at the roll call only 14 responded and brought forward thuir machines. Of these there was one from the United States, entered by H. L. (iaines, of Oregon; the others ware of colonial invention. Mr. (Iaines was obliged to retire from tho field soon after shirt ing up. His excuse was that ho had lost a nullov from his maohino on the voyage, and the smaller ona with which he attempted to work would not serve tho purpose. The colonial machines did batter, and after making their rounds, the grain waa poured upon a tarpaulin and exam ined by experts. One machine was found to orack the wheat, but otherwise to yield it cleau and in marketable eoudition ; but thoso follow ing the machine fouud so much wheat on tho f round that its "saving" qualities were rated uw. Another machiue, which the npofttl de scribe as having tho apiearance of an "infantine dredger," yielded wheat not so badly cracked as the preceding, but it was not so cleau, The third machine to linish its round produced "very clean grain, with little waste. Tho fourth ma. lime, which is pronounced by the (tlmrrrrr to "stand a olianco of distancing its competitors," waa entered by Mr. Phillipaon. It reaped, threshed and bagged tho grain, and in "all re spools did its work better than any other exhib ited." We shall select, from the list of machines exhibited, olio on aooount of ita American origin, and others because they succeeded in turning ont threshed wheat on the trial field. Mr. Oaipee' machiue waa an adaptation of tho Cali forniaa header, with a threading and winuowing attachment From the header the grain is thrown back upon a "draper," or rather threo "drapers." These are revolving oudleea bands of canvas ; one at oach side carries the heads, which are cut oir to a ceutrul diaper, which in ita turn conveys them baok to a thresher, which afterwards forwards tho chaff and wheat into a winnowing arrangement, where they are sepa rated, the chaff, straw and other rubbish lieing scattered over the Held. The machine whieh is spoken of above as wasting gram was planned iu this way: On the "off" side of the arraiigemeiit is a Ridley reaper contrivance for stripping the grain and chaff off the atraw, from whence it ia thrown up into a chute, which conveya it to a winnowiug ma chine, carried upon the "near" side, one uur of wheels and a very long and atrong axle sup porting both winnower aud reaer. The driver occupies a place with respect to the reap, r por tion of the machine similar to what he would were the winnower abaent; but on the platform, to the left of him, stands a man with a sooop, Who continually gathers up the .leaned wheat from a receptacle in the platform beneath his feet, and deposits it in a bag hung up in front of him. This labor appeared to be very heavy, sod the continual bobbing up and down seemed mi. mted for very hot weather. Tho wheat and chad ia passed through a number of sieves until it ia separated into line wheat and refuse, and St the sod of the round the wheat begged by toe seoood man ia laid upon the ground, whilst the chsff, chogi and other waste ia cleared out of the body of the winnower. The machine which did the beat work at the trial was made by Mr. rhillipeoo, of Victoria The local report says: The grain passes into the machine the same as in the ordinary stripper. After passing through the beaters it falls on to an apron which elevates it to the top of the machine, and whilst it is being car ried up it ia acted upon by the wind from tho front tan, which blows a portion of the chaff out of chimney at top of machiue. The grain and atraw then fall on to a straw-carrier which carries away all the rough straw and discharges it at the back, i no grain then tails through a hopper on to the riddles, and while falling ia acted on by the wind from the second fan, leav ing nothing but white heads and drake to bo taken out of the wheat, which is effected by the riddles, the white heads passing out on the off side into a set of elevators which convey them back to the beaters to be rethreshed. The clean wheat pasBes out on the near side into a set of elevators, and is then elevated and discharged into bags which stand on a platform on nearside of machine. The drake falls from tho riddles into a box placed to receive it. The bags when full are sewn up and tipped on to the ground. The machine requires two men to work it. Of tho machines which wero brought upon the ground, but for some reason or other did not start, there wero various styles, and they are described as "liko a dredger, "a threshing machine mounted on the back of an ordinary reaper," "like a smutter in a Hour mill," "like an emigrant wagon, ' etc. Thero was to be an other trial in the week following the one we have mentioned, and tho next Australian mail will doubtless bring the resultB of it, and it is to bo hoped that something more definite may lie attained than was brought out at tho first trial. I'adjir Rural Prmn, BLECTEIC LIGHT. American inventors are in tho advance in dis oovoring appliances by which electricity can bo practically used for lighting, and the rapid progross made in this direction shows how inde fatigable they aro in such matters, and Imw capablo thoy are to effect tho purpose they have in view. They huvo ever evinced a wonderful degreo of ingenuity in mechanical constructions, anil their superiority has been acknowledged tnroiignout me world by the readiness with which their inventions aro adopted. It is truly said that "A uronhet is not without h. .,.. ...,. in his own country," and tho samo oxiom might bo justly applied to new inventions. In F.nglaud and in Kurone thev are far aiinn.1 of our own people iu applying our inventions to ineir own oenoht. Ihore are already three points on the Knglisb coast where tho electric light is used in lighthouses. Two lighthouses are uaing it in Franco, and Russia ha. nn at Odessa, and with all tho progress already made ... v...,u iiumuiauuii, me united .Mates have not yet placed it in any lighthouse In Knidantl at ('!..;.... M- . nn , : , ' " , " . i v -t horse engine sustains tit) electric lights, of which 10 I. icuiria station oi the llistrict rail way, 41) on the banks of the Thames, aud 10 on aterloo hridire. Thero ia a ..i two and a half milca between n ,,. , points. The longest radius from the .I-m-;., engine is a mile and a half, and this with thn number of lights in proportion to the power of the eliin,,,. demonai rat.. fit. i ..: i . . 7 .r r.T ious calcula tion! as to the capability of thu method of liobt mg have lieen greatly below what they should Tho electric liuht )a (.. i. . i j 7 ". .. , "-eenny intro duce, into some of the mines n this coast with very faverable results. It has given full Mtis faction m one of the leading gravel claim! in Nevada county in thia State. Now that a com inencement has been made in its application to dur nunc., and alao in a m.Klereto .legree in the illumination of tome of our public buildinira We bono thai ... v. .11 ....... MM brethren in putting into uae thia valuable lbe tree library in San Frsnsiaco uae three electric burners, which give a strong, white light sufficient to illuminate the large room, and at a cost of about one-third of the gas heretofore used, with a far greater volume of light. The cost would be still less if the charges for light were confined to the actual time it is used ; the Electric Light Co. charges for the whole time mat tiie electriuiLy iaguuuiuluJ. The lampa are used from about 5 P. M. to 9:30 r. M. , and the company charge the library for them until 12 midnight, which is two and one-half hours in which they are not used. CATALOGUE OF THE PACIFIC COAST FUNGI. Previous to the year 187G nothing had been accomplished in the study of the fungi of this coast, with the exception of a few species col lected by the Wilkes expedition, which were at that time referred to Professor Torrey for iden. tification. But four or five of these were deter mined and of these but one or two can now be traced. Since that period, although the flower ing plants have been moBt thoroughly studied, tho fungi of this coast have been entirely neg lected. Fully realizing the importance of the under taking, not only for its scientific value, but also from an economic standpoint, Dr. H. W. Darkness, of thia city, and Justin P. Moore, of San Rafael, some four years since determined to devote their leisure to making a collection of the l'acilic Coast fungi. These gentlemen have now published, under the auspices of the Cali fornia Academy of Sciences, a catalogue, of which we have seen the proof-sheets. The list is the first of the kind ever published on this coast, and will be of great service, no doubt inciting many others to a study of this most in teresting department of botanical research. The authors do not claim that the catalogue contains anything liko a full list of the fungi of this coast, or oven of their own collection. It is merely a catalogue such as they know to be found here, and Bticli as they have fully deter mined. A large maBs of material still remains in their hands for study and determination, as leisure will allow. In the oave fungi, or fungi of our mines, comparatively little has been done. Want of literature on this subject has been a great hindranco to them iu their work. Vhil thoy have not been able to visit every portion of tho coast, a glance at the catalogue will show that their explorations havo extended over quite a wide range of territory from Mt, Shasta on the north to Fort Yuma on the south from the seashore to the eastern limits of the Sierras. Iu reference to the geographical distribution of the fungi, it is noted that most of our species found upon the low landB are common to both Europe and America, whilst of those growing along the Sierras, many are the same as tho Al pine species of Europe; others are peculiar to our own coast. Again, it will be seen that the hot and arid desert at the south yields species common to Africa. The distribution, the authors have aimed to make clear by giving in every instance the locality where found. They have, in the case of the Hymenomycetes and other edible fungi, indicated the fact by ap pending an E. They have also added the habi. tat of our panuitk fungi, to aid the itudenr, and have indicated the new ipeciei. Meiers. Harkness and Moore have brought a great deal of intelligent labor to bear on their task. Both gentlemen are enthusiasts in their specialty, and the result of their work is s credit to themselves snd the looiety under whoso auspices the cetslogue i. published. They hsve followed in the tint part the sr raiigement of the genera as given by Fries, in his Hymenomycetes EuropioL For the rest they have adopted the order, as far as practi A con " g'Ven mCook,, Hnd,book. -Science in "the H ' E"0"- for fourteen y clerk HZSSfi 1PUtive., died st bit