PEDESTRIAN BROADSIDE DIGGER.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1755, 4 October 1879, Page 4

PEDESTRIAN BROADSIDE DIGGER.

One of tho newest machines for performing the work of tillage is a steam driven implement, known us the pitont Pedestrian Broadaide Digger. It consists of a 10-horse power engine, having itj firebox in the centre of the boiler. It is intended when digging to travel broadsido on over a breidth of 19ft. 6in. each round. It ia supported partly on its wheels and six feet, which contribute to the locomotion when it is at work. On the digger side of the engine, in front of tho feet, are attached bearirgi carrying a horizontal shaft cxtonding the wholo length of the machine. Upon the shaft are six eccentrics, by means of which motion is conveyod to tho legs and feet, working alternately by pairs. To the legs are attached six forks, by means of which the digging is effected ; theso, togother with the legs and feet take the weight of the machine evenly and equally. The coal bunkers and water tanks, footplate, the fire-door, and steerage wheel (which can be managed by the driver from his place at the fire-box), are fitted on the other side of the engine. The digging shaft is in threo lengths capable of being connected when at work digging, and disconnected when travelling from field to field, the middle section of the shaft, with two legs and forks, is fixed to tho back of the fire box, and by moving the eccentrics to their highest position the foot and forks are raised clear off the ground. At each end of the boiler are two large studs, round each of which works a frame carrying on one tide tho digger shaft with two logs, and on the other side two travelling wheels. For travelling from field to field those frames are turned a quarter round, bringing the wheels into proper position, and by a simple arrangement the act of turning raisss the feet aid forks clear off the land. In turning at tho headlands one of the outside lege marks time, and the others stop round liko soldiers wheeling. The digger requires the attendance of only one man and a lad, by whom its movements can be regulated. When at work it travels over the land at the rate of half a mile per hour. The principle observed in the digging forks is that the greater part of the power is applied to the tillage of the soil close to the point where it is generated, and is expended to the best advantage (liko a man in tho act of rowing), thus securing the benefit of Bteam cultivation with an engin9 of lower power, and claimed to work at loss cost than any other known system. The machine is estimated to dig ten acres in a day, tho digger working to a depth of ton inches. It can be adjusted to dig from four to twelve inehes in depth. Beyond the mere fact of completely turning over the soil and leaving it rough or broken small, a better tilth ia obtained by this machine in comparison with the plough, in the fact that it leaves no pan, but breaks up the subsoil. By an alteration in the machinery the land can bo broken up without being turned over, or it can be turned on edge suitable for fallow. A comparison of the relative cost of machine and horse ploughing is favorable to tho former, while the cost of digging by machinery is fully one-third less, and the engine when not used for tilling operations can be applied to threshing, grinding, sowing, or other work.