A NEW DRAIN CUTTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6967, 17 March 1884, Page 3

A NEW DRAIN CUTTER.

Messrs. A. and G. Price, engineers, have just completed a dredge for cutting drains. It is constructed from designs furnished by Mr. McLaughliD, of Papa toe toe, and is intended to be nsed on the Waikato Association's estate, the famous Piako Swamp. The new swamp dredge will simply be the marine bucket-dredge, modified so as to apply to drain cutting. In the first instance, there is a strong frame, about 25 feet x 15 feet, resembling somewhat the preliminary frame of a house. This frame ia mounted on four broad wheels about two feet in diameter. At one end, which may be termed the front, is the dredge, that is twelve buckets, esch about a cubic foot, which are carried round on a revolving i" i_ * n re . vo ' v ' n ß they will of course out, and then bring np, the turf or dirt from the drain, which will be conveyed to the by means of a shoot. The bucket belt ia not altogether a fixture, but can be raised or lowered to the desired point of adjustment by means of a pulley. But that ia not all, for to keep the buckets going in simpy their own width would mean a very narrow drain indeed, and as the drains are intended to be twelve feet deep by a like width, it is clear that would not serve ths purpose. Provision has therefore been made for excavating • wide drain by steering apparatus. «w»IU r to a ship's wheel, and as a matter of course the dredge—i.e. the bucket belt—may readily be turned in an oblique direotion to either side at will, just as the steers* man guides his helm by the wheel. At the back of the fr&me on a platform is the motive power for driving the backets, a little vertical steam engine, of about 6 horseIteelf will have to bo shifted by hand, but ttu» of little difficulty, as its broad wheels wow£ run earily on boards, and there is a lsver or crank action to facilitate the operation. It 's estimated the machine can be worked by two men, and will effect a great aaving in both time and expense.