Inventions in the Century

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Doolittle William Henry. Inventions in the Century

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY – INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES – THEIR DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER II. AGRICULTURE AND ITS IMPLEMENTS

CHAPTER III. AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS

CHAPTER IV. AGRICULTURAL INVENTIONS

CHAPTER V. AGRICULTURAL INVENTIONS (continued)

CHAPTER VI. CHEMISTRY, MEDICINES, SURGERY, DENTISTRY

CHAPTER VII. STEAM AND STEAM ENGINES

CHAPTER VIII. ENGINEERING AND TRANSPORTATION

CHAPTER IX. ELECTRICITY

CHAPTER X. HOISTING, CONVEYING AND STORING

CHAPTER XI. HYDRAULICS

CHAPTER XII. PNEUMATICS AND PNEUMATIC MACHINES

CHAPTER XIII. ART OF HEATING, VENTILATING, COOKING, REFRIGERATION AND LIGHTING

CHAPTER XIV. METALLURGY

CHAPTER XV. METAL WORKING

CHAPTER XVI. ORDNANCE, ARMS AND EXPLOSIVES

CHAPTER XVII. PAPER AND PRINTING

CHAPTER XVIII. TEXTILES

CHAPTER XIX. GARMENTS

CHAPTER XX. INDUSTRIAL MACHINES

CHAPTER XXI. WOOD-WORKING

CHAPTER XXII. FURNITURE

CHAPTER XXIII. LEATHER

CHAPTER XXIV. MINERALS – WELLS

CHAPTER XXV. HOROLOGY AND INSTRUMENTS OF PRECISION

CHAPTER XXVI. MUSIC, ACOUSTICS, OPTICS, FINE ARTS

CHAPTER XXVII. SAFES AND LOCKS

CHAPTER XXVIII. CARRYING MACHINES

CHAPTER XXIX. SHIPS AND SHIP-BUILDING

CHAPTER XXX. ILLUMINATING GAS

CHAPTER XXXI. BRICK, POTTERY, GLASS, PLASTICS

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The Egyptians were the earliest and greatest agriculturists, and from them the art was learned by the Greeks. Greece in the days of her glory greatly improved the art, and some of her ablest men wrote valuable treatises on its different topics. Its farmers thoroughly ploughed and fertilised the soil, used various implements for its cultivation, paid great attention to the raising of fruits, – the apple, pear, cherry, plum, quince, peach, lemon, fig and many other varieties suitable to their climate, and improved the breeds of cattle, horse and sheep. When, however, social pride and luxurious city life became the dominant passions, agriculture was left to menials, and the art gradually faded with the State. Rome in her best days placed farming in high regard. Her best writers wrote voluminously on agricultural subjects, a tract of land was allotted to every citizen, which was carefully cultivated, and these citizen farmers were her worthiest and most honoured sons. The condition and needs of the soil were studied, its strength replenished by careful fertilisation, and it was worked with care. There were ploughs which were made heavy or light as the different soils required, and there were a variety of farm implements, such as spades, hoes, harrows and rakes. Grains, such as wheat, barley, rye and oats, were raised, a variety of fruits and vegetables, and great attention paid to the breeding of stock. Cato and Varro, Virgil and Columella, Pliny and Palladius delighted to instruct the farmer and praise his occupation.

But as the Roman Empire grew, its armies absorbed its intelligent farmers, the tilling of the soil was left to the menial and the slave, and the Empire and agriculture declined together.

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The threshing-floor still resounds to the flail as the grain is beaten from the heads of the stalks. Men and horses still tread it out, the wooden drag and the heavy wain with its gang of wheels, and all the old methods of threshing familiar to the Egyptians and later among the Romans may still be found in use in different portions of the world.

Menzies of Scotland, about the middle of the eighteenth century, was the first to invent a threshing machine. It was unsuccessful. Then came Leckie, of Stirlingshire, who improved it. But the type of the modern threshing machine was the invention of a Scotchman, one Meikle, of Tyningham, East Lothian, in 1786. Meikle threw the grain on to an inclined board, from whence it was fed between two fluted rollers to a cylinder armed with blades which beat it, thence to a second beating cylinder operating over a concave grating through which the loosened grain fell to a receptacle beneath; thence the straw was carried over a third beating cylinder which loosened the straw and shook out the remaining grain to the same receptacle, and the beaten straw was then carried out of the machine. Meikle added many improvements, among which was a fan-mill by which the grain was separated and cleaned from both straw and chaff. This machine, completed and perfected about the year 1800, has seen no departure in principle in England, and in the United States the principal change has been the substitution of a spiked drum running at a higher speed for Meikle's beater drum armed with blades.

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