THRESHING BY ELECTRICITY

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14642, 21 February 1918, Page 3

THRESHING BY ELECTRICITY

IN FULL SWING AT LINCOLN

! With the cooperation of Mr L. Birks lof the Public Works Department, Mr R. E. Alexander, the director of Canterbury Agricultural-/ College, Lincoln, has been enabled to give farmers in the district a glimpse into the future. Close by the college, on the Prebble-ton-Grreanpark road, an electric threshing plant has beeii running for some days (22 acres were threshed last week) the power for the motor being taken from the high tension line that passes close by the college itself. This is the first time that threshing by electricity has ever been < accorn^ plished in the Dominion, and Mr Alexander expresses entiro satisfaction with' the result of the work done. j

The current is taken from the 11,000 volt high teusion line, which runs by | the roadsidp, to a small substation oh ■wheels, which is drawn up alongside the college hedge. This apparatus, which ''breaks doAvn" the high-tension i current to~ the. pressure of 400 volts, iooks very much like an ordinary whare on wheels—except for the Avord ' Dangerous" painted on it. From this transformer the cable is carried across the road, hung to the trees that are handy, and on .to, the motor -wMcfa. dnyes the combine.". This is a lo h.p. motor, and it is such a compact httle affair that it could be easily carried—sledge arid all—by two men. It requires no attention at all Once placed in position and the belt put on, all that is necessary is to move a switch over, and off it goes. So far as cost goes, an engineer of the Public Works Department informed a Ghnstchurch "Press" representative that, presuming the machine ran at 12 h.p. for S hours, the cost of the current consumed would be 18s. As the average load is under that tho probability rs that the cost would be under that also. Therefore to say it j compares favourably with steam is putting it mildly.

Though this plant is not a full sired one, there is no reason whatever why full-size-d plants should not be run and after seeing the plant at the college working, it does not require the exercise of a very powerful imagination to visualise the near.future, Avhen from a '•power point"' com-emently situated at the junction of three or four properties the owners will be ablo to run out their cables, and carry the current to handy portable motors,-which will thresh, run shearing, dairy, and seed-cleaning machinery, saw Avood, pump water, and do most of the work Avhich now has to to dono by manual labour or horse labour, by oil or steam engine. The' demonstration at the college, modest as it is, may be said to mark an epoch in the agricultural history of Canterbury and of New Zealand, and both the college authorities and the Public Works Electrical Department are to be congratulated on their progressiveness.