A LOCAL INVENTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4474, 19 July 1893, Page 2

A LOCAL INVENTION.

».•' fir W. Hay's Patents, i ■ la patenting first a seed cleaner 3 and then an improved winnowing t machine, our townsman, Mr W, Hay is to be congratulated, and it is evit dent that bis labours will meet with ■ the support they deserve, For many t years the settlers—partioularly those ' in the Bush districts of the North ' island—have found great difficulty in c properly preparing their grass seeds for market. Hitherto, unless the 3 country from which tfao cocksfoot was t gathered, »as perfectly clean, the , settler has had the greatest difficulty in selling the seed, even at a price . that was altogether unprofitable. The i merchant has also in the past been • put to very considerable expense to t re-clean the seed before he has been ■ ablo to send out a satisfactory sample, and has lost a considerable amount of i really good seed for the want of a 1 properly constructed machine with which to dress it. This state of 1 things, fortunately, need no longor T exist, for by the application of the two machines under notice, the seed j will be cleaned in a most satisfactory manner, and a very considerable saving effected, not only in the quan--1 tity of the seed recovered (formerly j lost) but in the time taken to clean it. Mr Hay expects that eight sacks an f hour can be cleaned, thereby rednoing . the cost of dressing by at least one 1 half, We have already noticed the r machine just patented by Mr Hay, > which will be principally used to c separate soft meadow seed from cooks--1 foot by shelliDg the softer husk of the , meadow before it passes into the winB nowing machine, where the kernel will be saved separately, while the hull t will be driven away in the chaff and a refuse. Tlie latest patent taken out '< by Mr Hay, and for which the pro- ' povisionnl specifications have been s Hpproved, is an improved winnowing j machine, Among tho various im--1 provements on this winnower the - most noticeable are that three riddles 3 aio applied instead of two, and these ' will he driven by a orank(in preference to the old system of cog wheels) direct from a driving pulley, by this means B there will he much less friction and . consequently less power will be rer quired to perform the work, The r riddles will have an opposite motion, I except that of the third or bottom one which being worked direotly from the ' top riddle will have a uniform motion, j only it will deliver its seed at the b opposite end of th e machine, By the o use of three riddles, three qualities of > seed will be obtained, From tho first, the best, and heavy seed; from the ' second, the medium or second quality; 9 and from the third, all the light small „ seed that formerly had either to be i, blown away or left to reduce the value « of the better article. By moving i slides tho blast can be regulated ' according to the class of seed _' being put through without interfering j with the driving force. The machines j will be made in different sizes to suit s the requirements of settlers or seed r merchants, and will be put together e or made separate. In fact the 8 cleanor can be made to fit B on to the hopper of any winnower at present in use, Mr Hay deserves . the support of the settlers, for there ). is little doubt but that the result of ? his inventions will be for the mutual benefit to the whole community.