PEDESTRIAN BROADSIDE DIGGER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 289, 14 October 1879, Page 2

PEDESTRIAN BROADSIDE DIGGER.

, One of the newest machines for perr forming the work of tillage is a steam . dm en implement, known by the name of the patent Pedestrian Broadside DiW It consists of a 10-liorse power engine, laving its fire-box in the centre of the boiler It is intended when digging to 1 travel oroadside on over a breadth of 19ft i 6m each round. It is supported partly I sixfeet, which conJ l Bute to the locomotion when it is at work. ■ On the digger side of the engine, in front ot the feet, are attached bearings carrvine i a horizontal shaft extending the whole ■ len Ptth of the machine. Upon the shaft [ are six eccentrics, by means of which motion is conveyed to the legs and feet working alternately by pairs. To the legs I aie attached six forks, by means of which ' digging is effected; these, together vith the legs and feet, take the weight of e , machine evenly and equally. The coal hunkers and water tanks, footplate, tne n re-door, and steerage-wheel (which can be managed by the driver from his pjace at the fire-box), are fitted on the other side of the engine. The digging shaft is in three 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 iixecl to the back of the fire-box, aiul Vv. . moving the eccentrics to their position the feet and forks are raSl clear off the ground. At each end of the boiler are two large studs, round each of • which works a frame carrying on one side the digger shaft with two legs, 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 simplo arrangement tho act of turning raises the feet and forks clear off the land? In turning at the headlands one of the outside legs marks time, and the others step round like soldiers wheeling The digger requires the attendance of onlv ona man and a lad, by whom its movements can bo regulated. When at work it travels over the land at the rate of half a mile per hour. The principle observed in 'hei digging forks is that the greater part otthe power is applied to the tillage of e soil close to the point where °it is generated, and it is expended to the best advantage (like a man" in the act of row-

ing), thus securing the benefit of steam cultivation with an engine of lower power, and claimed to work at less cost than any other known system, The machine is estimated to dig ten acres in a day, the digger working to a depth of ten inches. It can be adjusted to dig from four to twolvo inches in depth, Beyond the mere fact of completely turning over the soil and leaving it rough or broken small, a better tilth is obtained by (his machine in comparison with the plough, in the fact that it leaves no pan, but breaks up tho ' subsoil. By an alteration in the machinery the land can bo broken up without being turned over, or it can be turned on t suitable for fallow. A comparison j relative cost of machine and horse hing is favorable to the former, while >st 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.