 Section 27 of THE ROMANCE OF MOTORN MECHANISM by Archibald Williams Chapter 24 Agricultural Machinery Nature is at once the oldest and most important of all national industries. Man, being a graminivorous animal, witness his molar or grinding double teeth, has, since the earliest times, been obliged to observe the seasons, planting as crops when the ground is moist, and reaping them when the weather is warm and dry. Apart from the nomad races of the deserts and steppes, who find their chief subsistence in the products of the date palm and of their flocks and herds, all nations cultivate a large portion of the country which they inhabit. Ancient monuments, the oldest inscriptions and writings, bear witness to the prime importance of the plow and reaping-hook, and it may be reasonably assumed that the progress of civilization is proved by the increased use of cereal foods and better methods of garnering and preparing them. For thousands of years the sickle, which Greek and Roman artists placed in the hands of their goddess of the harvest, and the rude plow, consisting of, perhaps, only a crooked bow with a pointed end, were practically the only implements known to the husbandmen besides his spade and matic. Where labor is abundant and each householder has time to cultivate the little plot which suffices for the maintenance of his own family, and while there is little inducement to take part in other than agricultural industries, tedious and time-wasting methods have held their own. But in highly civilized communities, carrying on manufacturers of all sorts, it is difficult for the farmer to secure an abundance of human help, and yet it is recognized that a speedy preparation and sowing of the land, and a prompt gathering and threshing of the harvest, is all in favor of producing a successful and well-conditioned crop. In England, eighty years ago, three men lived in the country for everyone who lived in the town. Now the proportion has been reversed, and that not in the British Isles alone. The world does not mean to starve, but civilization demands that as few people as possible should be devoted to procuring the staff of life for both man and beast. We should reasonably expect, therefore, that the immense advance made in mechanical science during the last century should have left a deep mark on agricultural appliances. Such an expectation is more than justified, for are there not many among us who have seen the sickle and the flail at work, where now the self-binder and threshing machine perform the same duties and a fraction of the time formerly required? The plowman, plotting sturdily down the furrow behind his clever team, is indeed still a common sight. But in the tilling season, do we not hear the snort of the steam engine, as its steel rope tears a six furrow plow through the mellow earth? When the harvest comes, we realize even more clearly how largely machinery has supplanted man. While in the processes of separating the grain from its straw, the human element plays an even smaller part. It would not be too much to say that, were we to revert next year to the practices of our grandfathers, we should starve in the year following. This chapter will be confined to a consideration of machinery operated by horse, steam, or other power, which falls under four main headings, plows, drills, reapers, and threshers. Plows. The firm of Messour's John Fowler and company, of Leeds, is most intimately connected with the introduction of the steam plow and cultivator. Their first type of outfit included one engine only, the traversing of the plow across the field, being affected by means of cables, passing round a pulley on a low four-wheeled truck, moved along the opposite edge of the field, by ropes dragging on an anchor. Another method was to have the engine stationary at one corner of the field and an anchor at each of the three other corners, the two at the ends of the furrow being moved for every journey of the plow. In or about the year 1865, this arrangement succumbed to the simple and, as it now seems to us, obvious improvement of introducing a second engine to progress vis-a-vis with the first, and do its share of the pulling. The modern eight furrow steam plow will turn ten acres a day quite easily, at a much lower cost than that of horse labor. For tearing up land after a crop, cultivators are sometimes used. They have arrowhead-shaped coltors, which cut very deep and bring large quantities of fresh earth to the surface. The ground is now pulverized by heros of various shapes. According to the nature of the crop to be sown, English farmers generally employ the spike-hero, but Yankee agriculturists make great use of the spring-tooth form, which may be best described as an arrangement of very strong springs, much resembling in outline the springs of house-bells. The shorter arm is attached to the frame, while the longer and pointed arm tears the earth. Drills and Seeders In highly civilized countries, the man carrying a basket from which he flings seeds broadcast is a very rare sight indeed. The primitive method may have been effective. A good sower could cover an acre evenly, with half a pint of turnip seed, but very slow. We now use a long bin mounted on wheels, which revolves discs inside the bin, furnished with tiny spoons round the periphery to scoop small quantities of seed into tubes terminating in a colter. The farmer is thus certain of having evenly planted and parallel rows of grain, which in the early spring, when the sprouting begins, make so pleasant an addition to the landscape. The corn, or maize crop of the United States, is so important that it demands special sowing machinery, which plants single grains at intervals of about 18 inches. A somewhat similar device is used for planting potatoes. Passing over the weeding machines, which offer no features of particular interest, we come to the reaping machines, on which a vast amount of ingenuity has been expended. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Royal Agricultural Society of Great Britain offered a prize for the introduction of a really useful machine, which should replace the scythe and sickle. Several machines were brought out, but they did not prove practical enough to attract much attention. Cyrus H. McCormick invented in 1831 the reaper, which, with very many improvements added, is today employed in all parts of the world. The most noticeable point of this machine was the bar furnished with a row of triangular blades, which passed very rapidly to and fro through slots in an equal number of sharp steel points, against which they cut the grain. The to and fro action of the cutter blade was produced by a connecting rod working on a crank rotated by the wheels carrying the machine. The first McCormick reaper did wonders on a Virginian farm. Other inventors were stimulated, and in 1833 there appeared the Hussie reaper, built on somewhat similar lines. For twelve years or so, these two machines competed against one another, all over the United States, and then McCormick added a raker attachment, which, when sufficient grain had accumulated on the platform, enabled a second man on the machine to sweep it off to be tied up into a sheaf. At the great exhibition held in London in 1851, the judges awarded a special medal to the inventor, reporting that the whole expense of the exhibition would have been well recouped if only the reaper were introduced into England. From France McCormick received the decoration of the Legion of Honor, for having done more for the cause of agriculture than any man then living. It would be reasonable to expect that, after this public recognition, the mechanical reaper would have been immediately valued at its true worth, yet no man had more difficulty in introducing his machines than the pioneer inventor of agricultural implements. Farmers everywhere were slow to accept it, and manufacturers were unwilling to undertake its manufacture. Even after the value of the machine had been demonstrated, everyone seemed to fear that it would break down on rocky and uneven fields, and the inventor had to demonstrate in person to the farmers the practicability of the reapers, and then even guarantee them before the money could be obtained. Through all these trying discouragements, the persistent inventor passed before he saw any reward for the work that he had spent half a lifetime in perfecting. The ultimate triumph of the inventor may be sufficient reward for his labours and discouragements, but those who would begrudge him the wealth that he subsequently made from his invention should consider some of the difficulties and obstacles he had to overcome in the beginning. In 1858 an attachment was fitted to replace the second passenger on the machine. Four men followed behind to tie up the grain as it was shot off the machine. Inventors tried to abolish the need for these extra hands by means of a self-binding device. A practical method, employing wire, appeared in 1860, but so great was the trouble caused by stray pieces of the wire getting into threshing and other machinery through which the grain subsequently passed that farmers went back to handwork, until the appleby patent of 1873 replaced wire by twine. Words alone would convey little idea of how the corn is collected and encircled with twine, how the knot is tied by an ingenious shuttle mechanism, and how it is thrown out into a set of arms which collect sufficient sheaves to form a stook before it lets them fall. So we would advise our readers to take the next chance of examining a modern self-binder and to persuade the man in charge to give as lucid an explanation as he can of the way in which things are done. Popular prejudice having once been conquered, the success of the reapers was assured. The year 1870 saw 60,000 in use. By 1885 the output had increased to 250,000, and today the manufacture of agricultural labor-saving machines gives employment to over 200,000 people, an equal number being occupied in their transport and sale in all parts of the globe. In California, perhaps more than in any other country, power agricultural machinery is seen at its best. Great traction engines here take the place of human labor to an extraordinary extent. The largest of 50 horsepower and upwards, with driving wheels 60 inches in diameter and flanges of generous width, travel over the uneven surface of the grain fields, crossing ditches and low places, and descending the sides of steep hills, with as much apparent ease as a locomotive rolls along its steel rails. Such powerful traction engines or automobiles, as they are commonly called by the American farmers, are capable of dragging behind them sixteen ten-inch plows, four six-foot heros, and a drill and cedar. The land is thus plowed, drilled, and ceded all at one time. From fifty to seventy-five acres of virgin soil can thus be plowed and planted in a single day. When the harvest comes the engines are again brought into service, and the fields that would ordinarily defy the best efforts of an army of workmen are garnered quickly and easily. The giant harvester is hitched to the traction engine in place of the plows and heros, and cuts, binds, and stacks the golden wheat from seventy-five acres in a single day. The cutters are twenty-six feet wide, and they make a clear swath across the field. Some of them thresh, clean, and sack the wheat as fast as it is cut and bound. Other traction engines follow to gather up the sacked wheat, and hold train loads of it thus move across the field, to the granaries or railways of the seaboard or interior. For dead ripe crops the header is often used in California, instead of being pulled it is pushed by mules, and merely cuts off the heads, leaving the straw to be trampled down by the animals, since it has no value. Swaths as wide as fifty feet are thus treated. The grain being threshed out while the machine moves. One of the most beautiful, and at the same time useful, crops in the world, is that of maize, which feeds not only vast numbers of human beings, but also countless flocks and herds, the latter eating the green stalks as well as the ripened grain. The United States alone produced no less than two billion five hundred twenty three million six hundred forty eight thousand three hundred and twelve bushels of this cereal in nineteen oh two as against nine hundred eighty seven million bushels of wheat and six hundred seventy million bushels of barley. Now maize has a very tough stalk, often ten feet high, and an inch thick, which cannot be cut with the ease of wheat or barley, so a special machine has been devised to handle it. The row of corn is picked up, if fallen, by chains furnished with projecting spikes, working at an angle to the perpendicular, so as to lift and simultaneously pull back the stalks, which pass into a horizontal V shaped frame. This has a broad opening in front, but narrows towards its rear end, where stationary sickles fixed on either side give the stalk a drawing cut before it reaches the single knife moving to right and left in the angle of the V, which severs the stalk completely. The McCormick machine gathers the corn in vertical bundles and ties them up ready for the shockers. Threshing machines. In principle these are simple enough. The straw and grain is fed into a slot and pulled down between a toothed rotating drum and a fixed toothed concave. These tear out the grain from the ear. The former falls into the hopper of a winnowing and riddling machine, which clears it from dust and husks, and allows it to pass to a hopper. An endless chain of buckets carries it to the delivery bins, holding just one sack full each, which, when full, discharge the grain through spouts into the receptacles waiting below their mouths. An automatic counter records the number of sackfuls of corn that have been discharged, so that dishonesty on the part of employees becomes practically an impossibility. While the grain is thus treated, oscillating rakes have arranged the straw and shaken it out behind in a form convenient for binding, and the chaff has passed to its proper heap. To be used as fuel for the engine or as food for cattle. Petrol-driven field machinery. On water, rail, and road, the petrol engine has entered into rivalry with steam, very successfully too, and now it bids fair to challenge both steam engine and horse as the motive power for agricultural operations. Probably the best-known English petrol-driven farmers' help is that made by Mr. Dan Albin of Biggleswade, who in past times did much to introduce the safety bicycle to the public. The Ival motor is not beautiful to look upon. Its sides are slab, its outlines rather suggestive of an inverted punt, but it is a willing and powerful worker requires no feeding in the early hours of the morning, no careful brush down after the day's work, no halts to ease wearied muscles. In one tank is petrol, in another lubricating oil, in a third water to keep the cylinders cool. A double-cylinder motor of 18 horsepower transmits its energy through a large clutch and train of cogs to the road wheels, made extra wide and well corrugated, so that they shall not sink into soft ground or slip on hard. There is a broad pulley wheel peeping out from one side of the machine, which is ready to drive chaff cutters or threshers, pump, grind corn, or turn a dynamo at a moment's notice. Hitch the Ival onto a couple of reapers or a three furrow plow, and it soon shows its superiority to man's friend. Here are some records. Eleven acres, one rude, thirteen poles of wet loam land plowed in seventeen and a half hours, at a cost per acre of five shillings. Nineteen acres of wheat reaped and bound in ten hours, at a cost of one shilling nine pence per acre. Fifteen acres, three rudes of heavy grass cut in three and a half hours, cost one shilling per acre. With horses the average cost of plowing is about ten shillings an acre, of reaping five shillings, so that the motor does at least twice the work for the same money. We may quote a paragraph from the pen of Home Counties, a well-known and perspicacious writer on agricultural topics. It is because motor farming is likely to result in a more thorough cultivation of the land, and a more skillful and more enlightened practice of agriculture, and not in a further extension of those deplorable land scratching and acre grasping methods, of which so many pitiful examples may be seen on our clay soils, that its beginnings are being sympathetically watched by many people, who have the best interests of the rural districts and the prosperity of agriculture at heart. Will our farmers give the same welcome to the agricultural motor that was formerly accorded to the mechanical reaper? Prophecy is risky, but if, before a decade has elapsed, the horse has not been largely replaced by petrol on large farms and light land, the rider of these lines will be much surprised. Electrical Farming Machinery In France, Germany, Austria, and the United States, the electric motor has been turned to agricultural uses. Where water power is available, it is peculiarly suitable for stationary work, such as threshing, chaff cutting, root slicing, grinding, etc. The current can be easily distributed all over a large farm and harnessed to portable motors. Even plowing has been done with electricity, the energy being derived either from a steam engine placed nearby or from an overhead supply passing to the plow through trolley arms, similar to those used on electric trams. The great advances made recently in electrical power transmission and in the efficiency of the electric motor bring the day in sight, when on large properties, the fields will be girt about by cables and poles as permanent fixtures. All the usual agricultural operations of plowing, drilling, and reaping will then be independent of horses or of steam engines panting laboriously on the headlands. In fact, the experiment has been tried with success in the United States. Whichever way we look, giant steam is bowing before a superior power. End of Section 27 Recording by Andy Glover The Romance of Modern Mechanism by Archibald Williams Chapter 25 Dairy Machinery Milking Machines The farm laborer, perched on a three-legged stool, his head leaning against the soft flank of a cow as he squirts the milk and snowy jets into the frothing pail, is like the blacksmith's forge, throwing out its fiery spark-shower. One of those sites which from childhood up exercise a mild fascination over the onlooker. Possibly he or she may be an interested person in more senses than one, if the contents of the pail are ultimately to provide a refreshing drink, for milk never looks so tempting as when it carries its natural froth. Modern methods of daring demand the most scrupulous cleanliness in all processes. Pails, pans, and churns should be scoured until their shining surfaces suggest that on them the tiniest microbe could not find footing. Buildings must be well aired, scrubbed, and treated occasionally with disinfectants. Even the danger may lurk unseen, and the milk is therefore for certain purposes sterilized by heating it to a temperature approaching boiling point, and simultaneously agitating it mechanically to prevent the formation of scum on the surface. It is then poured into sealed bottles which bid defiance to exterior noxious germs. The human hand, even if washed frequently, is a difficult thing to keep scientifically clean. The milkman has to put his hand now on the cow's side, now on his stool. In short, he is constantly touching surfaces which cannot be guaranteed germless. He may therefore infect the teats, which in turn infect the milk. So that, for health's sake as well as to minimize the labor and expense of milking, various devices have been tried for mechanically extracting the fluid from the udder. Many of these have died quick deaths on account of their practical imperfections, but one, at least, may be pronounced a success. The Lawrence Kennedy Cow Milker, which is worked by Electricity, and supplies another proof of the adaptability of the mysterious fluid to the service of man. On the Isle de la Loche, in the Seine, is a dairy farm which is most up to date in its employment of labor-saving appliances, including that just mentioned. Here, a turbine generates power to work vacuum pumps of large capacity. The pumps are connected to tubes terminating in cone-shaped rubber caps that can be easily slipped onto the teat, four caps branching out from a single suction chamber. As soon as they have been adjusted, the milkman, now shorn of a great part of his rights to that title, turns on the vacuum cock, and the pulsator, a device to imitate the periodic action of hand milking, commences to work. The number of pulsations per minute can be regulated to a nicety by adjusting screws. On its way to the pail, the milk passes through a glass tube, so that the operator may see when the milking is completed. This method eliminates the danger of hand contamination. It also protects the milk entirely from the air, and it has been stated that, when thus extracted, milk keeps sweet for a much longer time than under the old system. The cows apparently do not object to machinery replacing man, not even the jersey breed, which are the most fidgety of all the tribe. Under the heading of economy, the user scores heavily, for a single attendant can adjust and watch a number of mechanical milkers, whereas one man, one cow, must be the rule where the hand is used. From the point of romance, the world may lose. The vacuum pump cannot vie with the pretty milkmaid of the songs. Practical people will, however, rest content with pure milk minus the beauty, in preference to milk plus the microbe and the milkmaid, who, especially when she is a man, is not always so very beautiful after all. Cream separators. In the matter of separating the fatty from the watery elements of milk, machinery also plays a part. The custom of allowing the cream to rise in open pans suffices for small dairies, where speed and thoroughness of separation are not of primary importance. But when cream is required in wholesale quantities for the markets of large towns, or for conversion into butter, much greater expedition is needed. The mechanical cream separator takes advantage of the laws of centrifugal force. Milk is poured into a bowl rotating at high speed on a vertical axis. The heavier, watery portions climb up the sides of the bowl in their endeavor to get as far away as possible from the center of motion, while the lighter particles of cream, not having so much momentum, are compelled to remain at the bottom. By a simple mechanical arrangement, the very skim milk is forced out of one tube, and the cream out of another. An efficient separator removes up to 99% of the butter fat. Small sizes, worked by hand, treat from 10 to 100 gallons of milk per hour, while the large machines, extensively used in creameries, and turned by horse, steam, electric, or other power, have a capacity of 450 gallons per hour. The saving affected by mechanical methods of separation is so great that dairy farmers can now make a good profit on butter, which formerly scarcely covered out-of-pocket expenses incurred in its manufacture. A Machine for Drying Milk Milk contains 87% of water, and about 12% of nutritive matter. Milk which has had the water evaporated from it becomes a highly concentrated food, very valuable for many purposes, which could not be served by the natural fluid. Until lately, the process of separating the solid and liquid constituents was too costly to render the manufacture of dried milk a profitable industry. But now there is, on the market, a drying apparatus, manufactured by Monsieur's James Milnes and son of Ettenberg, which almost instantaneously drives off the water. The machine used for this, the Just Hat Maker, process is simple. It consists of two large metal drums, 28 inches in diameter, and 5 feet long, mounted horizontally in a framework with a space of about 1 eighth of an inch between them. High pressure steam, admitted to the drums through axial pipes, raises their surface to a temperature of 220 degrees Fahrenheit. The milk is allowed to flow in thin streams over the revolving drums, the heat of which quickly evaporates the water. A coating of solid matter gradually forms, and this is scraped off by a knife and falls into a receptacle. The milk is not boiled nor chemically altered in any way, though completely sterilized by the heat. This machine promises to revolutionize the milk trade, as farmers will now be able to convert the very perishable product of their dairies into an easily handled and imperishable powder of great use for cooking and the manufacture of sweet meats. Explorers and soldiers can have their milk supply reduced to tabloid form, and a pound ten of the lozenges will temper their tea or coffee over many a campfire far removed from the domestic cow. End of Section 28 Laboriously scratched rude figures on the walls of his cave dwelling did the best he was capable of to express the emotions which affect the splendidly equipped sculptor of today. He wished to record permanently some shape in which for the time he was interested, religiously or otherwise. The sun, moon, and stars figure largely in primitive religions as objects of worship. They could be easily suggested by a few strokes of a tool. But when mortals turned from celestial to terrestrial bodies, and to the worship of human or animal forms, the graven images of the Bible, a much higher level of art was reached by the sculptor, who endeavored to give faithful representations in marble of the great men of the time and of the gods which his nation acknowledged. The Egyptians, whose colossal monuments strew the banks of the Nile, worked in the most stubborn materials, basalt, periphery, and granite, which would turn the edge of highly tempered steel, and therefore raise wonder in our minds as to the nature of the tools which the subjects of the pharaohs must have possessed. Only one chisel of a bronze so soft that its edge turned at the first stroke against the rock under which it was found, has so far come to light. Of steel tools there is no trace, and we are left to the surmise that the ancients possessed some forgotten method of hardening other metals, including bronze, to a pitch quite unattainable to-day. Whatever were their implements they did magnificent work, witness the splendid sculptures of vast proportions to be found in the British Museum, and the yet huge statues such as those of Memnon and those at Karnak which attract tourists yearly to Egypt. The Egyptians admired magnitude, the Greeks' perfection of outline, the human form in its most ideal development, so often found among a nation with whom athleticism was almost a religion, inspired many of the great classical sculptors, whose work never has been, and probably never will be, surpassed. Great honour awaited the winner in the Olympian Games, but the most coveted prize of all was the permission given him, this after a succession of victories only, to erect a statue of himself in the sacred grove under the Shrine of Olympian Jove. Happy the man who knew that succeeding generations would gaze upon a marble representation of some characteristic attitude assumed by him during his struggle for the laurel crown. Until recently the methods of sculpture have remained practically unaltered for thousands of years. The artist first models his idea in clay or wax on a small scale. He then, if he designs a life-size or colossal statue, erects a kind of iron skeleton to carry the clay of the full-sized model copied proportionately from the smaller one. When this is finished, a piece mold is formed from it by applying wet lumps of plaster of Paris all over the surface in such a manner that they can be removed piecemeal and fitted together to form a complete mold. Into this liquid plaster is run for a hollow cast of the whole figure, which is smoothed and given its finishing touches by the master hand. This cast has next to be reproduced in marble. Both the cast and the block of marble are set up on scale stones revolving on vertical pivots. An ingenious instrument called a pointing machine now comes into play. It has two arms ending in fine metal points, movable in ball and socket joints. These arms are first applied to the model, the lower being adjusted to touch a mark on the scale stone, the upper to just reach a mark on the figure. The operator then clamps the arms and revolves the machine towards the block of marble, the scale stone of which has been marked similarly to its fellow. The bottom arm is now set to rest on the corresponding mark of the scale stone, but the upper, which can slide back telescopically, is prevented from assuming its relative position by the unremove portions of the block. The workman therefore merely notices the point on the block at which the needle is directed and drills a hole into the marble on the line of the needle's axis to a depth sufficient to allow the arm to be fully extended. This process is repeated, in some cases many thousands of times, until the block has been honeycombed with small holes. The carver can now strike off the superfluous marble, never going beyond the depth of a hole, and a rough outline of the statue appears. A more skilled workman follows him to shape the material to a close copy of the cast, and the sculptor himself adds the finishing touches which stamp his personality on the completed work. Only a select few of the world's greatest sculptors have ventured to strike their statues direct from the marble without recourse to a preliminary model. Such a one was Michelangelo, who, as though seized by a creative frenzy, would hue and hack a block so furiously that the chips flew off like a shower, continuing his attack for hours, yet never making the single false stroke that in the case of other masters has ruined the work of months. He truly was a genius, and he must have possessed an almost supernatural faculty of knowing when he had reached the exact depth at any point in the great block of marble from which his design gradually emerged. The formation of artistic models will always require the master's hand, but the reproduction of the cast in marble or stone can now be performed much more expeditiously than is possible with the pointing machine. We have already two successful mechanisms, which in an almost incredibly short time will eat a statue out of a block in faithful obedience to the movement of a pointer over the surface of a finished design. They are the Wenzel machine sculptor and Signore Augusto Bon Tempese, Mechane Glofo. In the basement of a large London business-house we found, one dark November afternoon, two men at work with curious-looking frameworks, which they swayed backwards and forwards up and down to the accompaniment of a continuous clattering of metal upon stone. Approaching nearer, we saw, lying horizontally in the center of the machine, a small marble statue, its feet clamped to a plate with deep notches in the circumference. On either side, at equal distances, were two horizontal blocks of marble similarly attached to similar plates. The workman had his eyes glued on a blunt-nosed pointer projecting from the middle of a balanced frame. This he passed slowly over the surface of the statue, and simultaneously two whirring drills also attached to the frame ate into the stone blocks just so far as the movement of the frame would permit. The drills were driven by electric power and made some thousands of revolutions per minute, throwing off the stone they bit away in the form of an exceedingly fine white dust. It was most fascinating to watch the almost sentient performance of the drills, just as a pencil in an artist's hands weaves line into line until they all suddenly spring into life and show their meaning. So did the drills chase apparently arbitrary grooves which united, spread, and finally revealed the rough hewn limb. Every now and then, the machinists twisted the foot plates round one notch and snicked the retaining bolts into them. This exposed a fresh area of the statue and of the blocks to the pointer and the drills. The large coarse drills used to clear away the superfluous material during the earlier stages of the work were replaced by finer points. The low relief was scooped out, the limbs molded, the delicate curves of cheek and the penciling of eyebrows and lips traced, and in a few hours the copies were ready for the usual smoothing and finishing at the hands of the human sculptor. According to the capacity of the machine, two, four, or six duplicates can be made at the cost of a little more power and time, nor is it necessary to confine operations to stone and marble, for we were shown some admirable examples of wooden statues copied from a delicate little bronze, and, were special drills provided, the relations could be reversed, bronze becoming passive to motions controlled by the wooden original. Sculpturing made easy would be attempting legend to write over the Wenzel machine, but it would not represent the truth. After all, the mechanism only copies, it cannot originate, which is the function of the sculptor. It stands to sculpturing in the same relation as the printer's process block to the artist's original sketch, or the lithographic plates to the painter's colored picture. Therefore, prejudice against machine-made statues is as unreasonable as objection to the carefully executed replica of a celebrated painting. The sculptor himself has not produced it at first hand, yet his personality has been stamped even on the copy, for the machine can do nothing except what has already been done for it. The machine merely displaces the old and imperfect pointing by hand, substituting a method which is cheaper, quicker, and more accurate in its interpretation of the model. It is obvious that, apart from sculpture proper, the industrial arts afford a wide field for this invention. In architecture, for instance, carved wood and stonework for interiors and exteriors of buildings have been regarded hitherto as expensive luxuries, yet in spite of their cost they are increasingly indulged in. The architect now has at his disposal an economical method of carving which will enable him to utilize ornamental stonework to almost any degree. Sculptured freezes, cornices, and capitals, which under the old regime would represent months of highly paid hand labor, may now be reproduced rapidly and in any quantity by the machine which could be adapted to work on the scaffolding itself. What will become of the stone masons? Won't they all be thrown out of work, or at least a large number of them? The best answer to these questions will be found in a consideration of industries in which machinery has replaced handwork. As England, as a cotton-spinning nation, benefited because the power loom was introduced, does she employ more operatives than she would otherwise have done, and are these better paid than the old hand weavers? All these queries must have, yes, written against them. In like manner, if statuary and decoration becomes inexpensive, twenty people will be able to afford what hitherto was within the reach of but one, and an industry will arise beside which the output of the present-day monumental mason will appear very insignificant. The sculpturing machine undoubtedly brings us one step nearer the universal, house-beautiful. A complete list of the things which the versatile wenzel can perform would be tediously long. Let it therefore suffice to mention bootlasts, gunstocks, molds, engineering patterns, numeral letters, and other articles of irregular shape as some of the more prosaic productions which grow under the buzzing metal points. Some readers may be glad to hear that the wenzel promises another hobby for the individual who likes to use his hands, since miniature machines are purchasable which treat subjects of a size not exceeding six inches in diameter. No previous knowledge of carving is necessary, and as soon as the elementary principles have been mastered, the possessor of a small copier can take advantage of wet days to turn out statuettes, busts, and ornamental patterns for his own or friends' mantelpieces. And surely a carefully finished copy in white marble of some dainty classic figure or group will be a gift well worth receiving. The amateur photographer, the fret-soyer, and the chip-carver will have to write Ichabod over their workshops. The wenzel has left its experimental stage far behind. The German emperor, after watching the creation of a miniature bust of Beethoven, expressed his delight in a machine that could call a musician from lifeless stone. The whole of the interior decoration of the magnificent Rathaus, Charlottenburg, offers a splendid example of mechanical wood carving which tourists would do well to inspect. We pass now to the Bantempi sculpturing machine, for such is the translation of the formidable word Meccana Golofo. This machine is the invention of senior Augusto Bantempi, a native of Parma, who commenced life as a soldier in the Italian army, and while still young, has won distinction as a clever engineer. His machine differs in most constructional details from the wenzel. To begin with, the pressure of the drills on the marble is imparted by water instead of by the hand. Secondly, the block to be cut is arranged vertically instead of horizontally. Thirdly, the index pointer is not rigidly connected to the drill frame, but merely controls the valves of hydraulic mechanism which guides the drills in any required direction. The drills are rotated by electricity, but all their other movements come from the pressure of water. Undoubtedly, the most ingenious feature of the Bantempi apparatus is the pointer's hydraulic valve, which gives the drills a forward, lateral, or upward movement, or a compound of two or three movements. When the pointer is not touched, all the valve orifices remain closed, and the machine ceases to work. Should the operator pull the pointer forwards, a waterway is opened, and the liquid passes under great pressure to a cylinder which pushes the drill frame forward. If the pointer be also pressed sideways, a second channel opens and brings a second cylinder into action, and the frame as a whole is moved correspondingly, while an upward twist operates yet a third set of cylinders, and the workman himself rises with the drills. As soon as the sensitive tip of the pointer touches an object, it telescopes and immediately closes the valves so that the drills bore no further in that direction. The original and copies are turned about from time to time on their bases in a manner similar to that already described in treating the Wenzel, as many as 20 copies can be made on the largest machines. Quite recently, there has been installed in Southwick, London, a gigantic bone tempi which stands 27 feet high and handles blocks 5 feet 6 inches square by 10 feet high and some 20 tons in weight. Owing to the huge masses to be worked, only one copy can be made at a time, though doubtless if circumstances warranted the expense, a machine could be built to do double, triple, or quadruple duty. The proprietors have discovered an abrasive to grind granite. Ordinary steel chisels would be useless, and they expect a great demand for columns and monumental work in this stubborn material as their machines turn out finished stuff a dozen times faster than the mason. An interesting story is told about the early days of Senior Bone Tempi's invention. When he set up his experimental machine at Florence, the workmen, following the example of the Luddites, rose in a body and threatened both him and his apparatus with destruction. The police had to be called in to protect the inventor, who thought it prudent to move his workshop to Naples, where the populace had broader minded views. The Florentines are now sorry that they drove Senior Bone Tempi away, for they find that, instead of depressing the labour market, the mechanical sculptor is a very good friend to both proprietor and employee. Note, for information and illustrations, the author has to thank Mr. W. Hansen-Born of the Machine Sculpture Company, Aldermary House London, E.C., and Mr. E.W. Gazz, Secretary of the Automatic Sculpture Syndicate, Sumner Street, Southerg. Section 30 The Romance of Modern Mechanism by Archibald Williams Chapter 27 An Automatic Rifle While science works ceaselessly to cure the ills that human flesh is heir to, invention as persistently devises weapons for man's destruction. Yesterday it was the discoveries of Pasteur and the Maxim Gun. Today it is the Fincen-Rays and the Rexer Automatic Rifle. The one cannot restrain a scy on examining a new contrivance, the sole function of which is to deal out death and desolation. Sadly wondering why such ingenuity might not have been directed to the perfecting of a machine, which would render life more easy and more pleasant. Yet from a book which deals with modern mechanisms we may not entirely exclude reference to a class of engines on which man has expended so much thought ever since gunpowder first entered the arena of human strife. We therefore choose as our subject for this chapter, a weapon hailing from Denmark, a country which, though small in area, contains many inventors of no mean repute. In a London office within side of the monument raised to England's great sailor hero, the writer first made acquaintance with the Rexer Gun, which, venomous device that it is, can spit forth death three hundred times a minute, though it weighs only about eighteen pounds. Its form is that of an ordinary rifle, of somewhat clumsy build. The eye at once picks out a pair of supports, which project from a ring encircling it near the muzzle. Even a strong man would find eighteen pounds too much to hold to his shoulder for any length of time, so the Rexer is primarily intended for stationary work. The user lies prone, rests the muzzle on its supports, presses the butt to his shoulder, and blazes away. History repeats itself in the chronicles of firearms, though it is a very long way from the old matchlock supported on a forked stick to the latest thing in rifles propped up by two steel legs. Machine guns, such as the Maxim and Hodgkis, weigh sixty pounds and upwards, and have to be carried on a wheeled carriage, drawn either by horses or by a number of men. In very rough country they must be loaded on pack horses or mules. When required for action, the gun, its supports and appliances, separated for packing, must be hurriedly reassembled. This means loss of valuable time. The Rexer rifle can be carried almost as easily as a Lee Metford or Mauser, and fires the ordinary small-bore ammunition. Wherever infantry or cavalry can go, it can go too, without entailing any appreciable amount of extra haulage. Before dealing with its actual use as a fighting arm, we will notice the leading features of its construction. The gun comprises the stock, the casing, and trigger plate, which enclose the breech mechanism, the barrel, and the perforated barrel cover, to which are attached the forked legs on which the muzzle end is supported when firing, and which fold up under the cover when not in use. The power for working the mechanism is obtained from the recoil, which, when the gun is fired, drives the barrel, together with the breech and the other moving parts, some two inches backwards, thus compressing the powerful recoil spring, which lies behind the breech, enclosed in the front part of the stock, and which, after the force of the recoil is spent, expands, and thus drives the barrel forward again into the firing position. The recoil and return of the breech operate a set of levers, and other working parts within the casing, which, by their combined actions, following one another in fixed order, open the breech, eject the empty cartridge case, insert a new cartridge into the chamber, and close the breech. And when the gun is set for automatic action, and the gunner keeps his finger pressed on the trigger, the percussion arm strikes the hammer and the cartridge is fired. The round of operations repeating itself till the magazine is emptied, or until the gunner releases the trigger and thereby interrupts the firing. A noticeable feature is the steel tube surrounding the barrel. It is pierced with a number of openings to permit a circulation of air to cool the barrel, which is furnished with fins similar to those on the cylinder of an air-cooled petrol motor to help dissipate the heat caused by the frequent explosions. Near the ends of the cover are the guides, in which the barrel moves backwards and forwards under the influence of the recoil, and the recoil spring. The supports are attached to the casing in such a way that the stock of the gun can be elevated or depressed and traversed through considerable angles without altering the position of the supports on the ground. The rear end of the barrel cover is firmly fixed to the casing of the breech mechanism, and forms with this and the stock the rigid part of the gun, in which the moving portions work. Their motions being guided and controlled by cams and studs, working in grooves and notches, and on blocks attached to the rigid parts. Without the aid of special diagrams, it is rather hard to explain the working of even a simple mechanism, but the writer hopes that the following verbal description, for which he has to thank the rexer company, will at least go some way towards elucidating the action of the breech components. Inside the casing is the breech, the front end of which is attached rigidly to the barrel, the rear end being in contact with the recoil arm, which is directly operated by the recoil spring, lying in a recess in the stock. In the breech is the breech block, which has three functions. First to guide the new cartridges from the distributor, which passes them from the magazine one by one into the casing, to the firing position in the chamber, i.e. the expanded part of the bore at the rear end of the barrel. Secondly, to hold the cartridge firmly fixed in the chamber, and to act as an abutment or support to the back of the cartridge when it is fired, and thus transmit the backward force of the explosion to the recoil spring. Thirdly, to allow the spent cartridges to be discharged from the chamber by the extractor, and to direct them by means of a guide curved downwards from the chamber, so that they may be flung through an opening provided for that purpose in the trigger plate in front of the trigger, and out of the way of the gunner. This opening is closed by a cover when the gun is not in use, and opens automatically before the shot can be fired. In order to affect this threefold object, the breech block is pivoted in the rear to the rear of the breech, and has a vertical angular motion within it, so that the fore end of the block can move into three different positions in relation to the chamber, one below the chamber to guide the cartridge into it, one directly in line with the chamber to back the cartridge, and one above the chamber to allow the ejection of the spent cartridge case by the extractor. The cartridge is fired by a long pin through the breech block, struck behind by a hammer operated by a special spring. The first function of the breech block is, as we have said, to act as a guide for the cartridge into the chamber ready for firing, after the fashion of the old Martini-Henry breech block. The actual pushing forward of the cartridge is performed by a lever sliding on the top of the block. After the explosion, a small vertical lever jerks out the cartridge case against the block, and causes it to cannon downwards through the aperture in the trigger plate already mentioned. On the left hand side of the breech casing is a small chamber, open at the top and on the side next to the breech. To the top is clipped the magazine, filled with 25 cartridges. The magazine is shaped somewhat like a slice of melon, only that the curved back and front are parallel. The sides converge towards the inner edge. It is closed at the lower end by a spring secured by a catch. When a magazine is attached to the open top of the chamber, the catch is released so as to put chamber and magazine in direct communication. The cartridges would then be able to drop straight into the breech chamber, through the side slot, where the latter not protected by a curved horizontal shutter, called the distributor. Its action is such that when a cartridge is being passed through into the breech casing, the shutter closes, and holds the remaining cartridges in the magazine, and when the cartridge is passed it opens and lets the next into position in the side casing. As soon as a cartridge enters the breech, it is pushed forward into the chamber, ready for firing by the feeder lever. The magazine and the holder are so arranged that when the last cartridge has passed from the magazine to the distributor, the motion of the moving parts of the gun is arrested till the magazine is removed. When the motion is resumed so far as to push the remaining cartridge into the chamber, and bring the breech block into the firing position. When another magazine has been fixed in the holder, firing can be resumed by pulling the trigger. But if another magazine is not fixed in the holder, the last cartridge cannot be fired by pulling the trigger, and only by pulling a handle which will be presently described. This arrangement secures the continuance of the automatic firing being interrupted only by the very brief interval required for charging the apparatus. The gun is fired as usual by pulling a trigger. If a steady pull be kept on the trigger, the whole contents of the magazine will be fired automatically, the last cartridge accepted. But if such continuous firing is not desired, a few shots at a time may be fired automatically by alternately pulling and releasing the trigger. If it is desired to fire shot by shot from the magazine, a small swivel on the trigger guard is moved so as to limit the movement of the trigger. By moving this swivel out of the way, automatic firing is resumed. The gun may also be fired without a magazine by simply feeding cartridges by hand into the magazine holder. In front of the trigger guard is a safety catch, and if this is set to safe, the gun cannot be fired until the catch is moved to fire. It is obvious that the recoil cannot come into action until a shot has been fired. A handle is therefore provided on the right hand side outside the casing, by means of which the bolt forming the axis of the recoil and percussion arms may be turned so as to imitate the action of the recoil. This handle must be turned to bring the first cartridge into the chamber, but this having been done, the handle returns to its normal position and need not be moved again. We may now watch a gunner at work. He chooses his position, opens out the supports, and pushes them into the ground so as to give the muzzle end a firm bearing. He then takes a magazine from the box he carries with him, and fixes it by rapid motion into the magazine holder. Then, resting his left hand on the stock to study it, he pulls over the handle with his right so as to bring the barrel and all the moving mechanism into the backward position. He then releases the handle, and the recoil spring comes into action and drives the breech forward. When the controlling gear brings the front end of the breech block into its downward position, admits the first cartridge into the breech, and pushes it forward by the cartridge feeder into the barrel chamber. The breech block then rises to its central position at the back of the cartridge, and the gun is ready for firing. If automatic firing is required, the gunner sets the swivel at the back of the trigger in the right position, sights the object at which he has to fire, and pulls the trigger, thereby exploding the first cartridge. The recoil then drives back the barrel and the breech. The breech block is moved into its highest position, making room for the ejection of the empty cartridge case, which is then ejected by the extractor. At the end of the recoil, the block falls into its lowest position, the cartridge feeder having then arrived at the back of the breech block. The recoil spring now drives the breech forward, admits the new cartridge onto the breech block, and drives it forward by the feeder into the chamber. The breech block rises to its position behind the cartridge, and is locked in that position. The percussion arm is then released automatically, strikes the hammer, and fires the second cartridge. The cycle of operations repeating itself till the last cartridge but one has been fired. When the magazine is charged and the cycle of operations is again renewed, and continued till the second set of cartridges has been fired. The operations follow one another with such rapidity that the 25 cartridges contained in the magazine can be fired in less than two seconds. At the same time, the rate of firing remains under the control of the gunner, who can interrupt it at any moment by simply releasing the trigger. He can also alter his aim at any time and keep it directed on a moving object, and fire at any suitable moment. In service it is not intended that every man should be armed with a rexer, but only three to five percent, constituting a separate detachment which would act independently of the artillery and other machine guns. The latter would, as at present, cover the infantry's advance up to within some five hundred yards of the enemy, but at this point would have to cease firing for fear of hitting their own men. This period, when the artillery can neither shoot over the heads of their infantry, nor bring up the guns for fear of losing the teams, affords the golden opportunity for the rexer, which is advanced with the firing line. If the fire of the detachment were concentrated on a part of the enemy's line, that portion would be unable to reply while the attacking force rushed up to close quarters. One hundred men armed with rexers would be as valuable as several hundred carrying the ordinary service weapon, while they would be much more easily disposed, advanced, or withdrawn. A squadron of cavalry would be accompanied by three troopers armed with rexers, and by one leading a pack horse laden with extra magazines. Each gunner would have on his horse four hundred cartridges, and the pack horse twenty four hundred rounds, distributed in leather cases over a specially designed saddle. When a squadron, not provided with machine guns, has to open a heavy fire, a considerable proportion must remain behind the firing line to hold the horses of the firing party. When, on the other hand, rexers are present, only a few men would dismount, leaving the main body ready to charge at the opportune moment, and should the attack fail they could cover the retreat. A use will also be found for the rexer in fortresses and on war vessels. In fact, everywhere where the machine gun can take apart. After exhaustive trials the Danish government has adopted this weapon for both army and navy, and it doubtless will presently be included in the armament of other governments. There are signs that the most deadly arm of the future will be the automatic rifle. Perhaps a pattern even lighter than the rexer may appear. If every unit of a large force could fire three hundred rounds a minute, and ammunition were plentiful, we could hardly imagine an assault in which the attacking party would not be wiped out, even if similarly armed, for with the perfection of firearms the man behind cover gets an ever-increasing advantage over his adversary advancing across the open. A ball-bearing rifle. Repidity of fire is only one of the desirable features in a firearm. Its range, or perhaps we had better say its muzzle velocity, is of almost equal importance. The greater this is, the flatter is the trajectory or curve described by the bullet, and the more extended the point-blank range and the danger zone. Take the case of two rifles capable of flinging a bullet one mile and two miles respectively. Riflemen seldom fire at objects further off than, say, twelve hundred yards, so that you might think that, given correct sighting in the weapon and a positive knowledge of the range, both rifles would have equal chances of making a hit. This is not the fact, however, for the more powerful rifle sends its bullet on a course much more nearly parallel to the ground than does the other. Therefore, an object six feet high would evidently run greater risks of being hit somewhere by the two-mile rifle than by the one-mile. Thus, if at twelve hundred yards the bullet had fallen to within six feet of the ground, it might not actually strike earth till it had traveled fourteen hundred yards. Whereas, with a lesser velocity and higher curve, the point of impact might be only fifty yards behind. Evidently a six-foot man would be in danger anywhere in about two hundred yards broad were the high-velocity rifle in operation, though the danger zone with the other weapon would be contracted to fifty yards. At close quarters, a flat trajectory is even more valuable, since it diminishes the need for altering the sights. If a rifle's point-blank range is up to six hundred yards, you can fire at a man's head anywhere within that distance with a good chance of hitting him. The farther he is away, the lower he will be hit. A high trajectory would necessitate an alteration of the sights for every fifty yards beyond, say, two hundred. The velocity of a projectile is increased, one, by increasing the weight of the driving charge, two, by decreasing the friction between the barrel and the projectile. An American inventor, Mr. Orlin C. Cullen, has adopted a means already well tried in mechanical engineering to decrease friction. He has produced a rifle, the barrel of which has in its walls eight spiral grooves of almost circular section, a small arc of the circle being cut away so as to put the groove in continuous communication with the bore of the barrel. These grooves are filled with steel balls, one-tenth of an inch in diameter, which are a good fit, and on the slot side of the groove project a very tiny distance into the barrel. The bullet, of hard steel, as it is driven through the barrel, does not come into contact with the walls but runs over the balls, which grip it with sufficient force to give it a spinning motion. The inventor claims that there is no appreciable escape of gas around the bullet, as the space between it and the barrel is so minute. The ball races, or grooves, extend back to the powder chamber and forward to the muzzle. Their twist ceases a short distance from the muzzle to permit the insertion of recoil cushions, which break the forces of the balls as they are dragged forward by the bullet. Mr. Cullen holds that a rifle built on this principle gives 40% greater velocity than one with fixed rifling. To be exact, has a point blank range of 650 yards as compared with 480 yards of the Lee Metford and will penetrate 116 planks one inch thick each. The absence of friction brings absence of heat, which in the case of machine guns has always proved a difficulty. It also minimizes the recoil and reduces the weight of mountings for large guns. Whether these advantages sufficiently outweigh the disadvantages of complication and cleaning difficulties to render the weapon acceptable to military authorities remains to be seen. We can only say that if the ball bearing proves as valuable in ballistics as it has in machinery, then its adoption for firearms can be only a matter of time. End of section 30 End of the Romance of Modern Mechanism by Archibald Williams