Kihm for Drying Corn.—lf air and moisture be carefully excluded from grain, it may be kept uninjured for an indefinite length of time. This is proved by an extraordinary experiment made with some Indian corn found in the graves of the ancient Peruvians, buried more than 300 years ago. Some of this corn being sown, it vegetated and came to maturity : we believe a similar fact is recorded respecting some grain found in the ruins of Herculaneum. But to preserve corn, even for a short period, it should be perfectly dry when housed, and carefully protected from dampness ; but it not unfrequently happens, during a wet harvest season, that the corn is necessarily carried from the field in a damp state; and as few farmers have the means of properly and speedily dry ing it, large quantities are irrecoverably spoiled after all the labour and cost of production. The method of drying on the perforated floor of a kiln, (which is usually resorted to where II ran be obtained,) is a very tedious, defective, and expensive mode, and is attended with great labour,- owing to the grain requiring to be continually turned over and spread by a workman, whose utmost care is insufficient to cause every part to receive an equal degree of heat; it there fore becomes a matter of considerable importance to devise a simple, efficacious, and economical method of drying grain under these circumstances, and we think Mr. Jones's aaratus for this purpose (shown in the engraving on the next page) is well adapted to the end proposed. Fig. 1 is a vertical section of the apparatus, which is formed of two iron cylinders a b, placed one within the other, each being closed at the upper and lower end by two concentric cones C D. The annular space between the cylinders, as also between the cones, is an inch and a quarter in width, for the reception of the grain, to be dried by its passing through the machine ; both the internal and external bodies are perforated throughout with about 2300 holes to the square foot. The kiln is supported on five cut-iron columns or legs, three of which are shown in the section as at E , these are attached to a strong iron ring which surrounds the base of the cylin der. From the heads of these columns descend, along the sides or the cone, Eva long bolts, as at G, which are paned through the same number of legs in the casb4ron ring surrounding the neek of the lower cone : from this :ring proceed fire stays, as at I, which are fastened to the middle of the columns by a nut on each side. The body is sustained, both externally and internally, by iron hoops, as at lc and the distance between the cylinders is preserved by a number of short stays. In the front of the kiln a passage is cut out, as at 0, in which is fixed the fire place, through which are passages for the heated air to pass into the cylinder. These passages, as well as the fines, which proceed circuitously from the fire to the chimney, are best shown in the horizontal sec tion, 11g. 2; and in the vertical section of the detached fire-place, .Fig. 3, Q is the fire-hole, S the ash-hole, T the fire-bars, and U the chimney, which passes up nearly in the middle of the kiln. The wheat is admitted into the kiln from above through a hopper and through the tube W, and falling upon the apex of the cone is distributed equally on all sides between the cylinders, the little asperities in which, not only slightly retard the descent of the grain, but like wise impart to the particles, a constant, slow, rolling motion, whereby every individual grain is extosed to the same degree of temperature ; the grain from thence converges mto the lower cone, and ultimately escapee through the spout at bottom into sacks or on to the ground as may be required. The P of the through the machine may be either accelerated or retarded, accord kg to its peculiar condition, by enlarging or contracting the aperture through which it is discharged. The moisture is carried off by evaporation through the perforations of the plates with great rapidity. The kilns may of course be made of any dimensions; one of six feet internal diameter, and twelve feet in length, between the apexes of the upper and lower cones, has been said to be capable of perfectly drying more than 100 quarters of wheat in 24 hours.
The following contrivance for drying grain has been noticed in several French papers, and announced as having been successfully adopted in one of the departments; the plan, origi nated with a correspondent in the kegssier of Arts. The apparatus consists of a long spiral tube a a liike a distiller's worm, reaching from the basement to the upper floor and through the roof of the granary, which forms a passage for the heated air from a close stove below. Externally round this tube is placed another tube b b, winding like the interior one in a spiral direction, and at about an inch and a half from it ; this external tube receives the corn from above through a hopper c, and it is punched throughout with numerous small holes, through which the vapour escapes, as it is formed by the damp corn coming In contact with the inclosed heated chimney ; the corn in consequence becomes thoroughly dried before being discharged at the bottom, and that without the intervention of any manual labour.
Heberta Patent Sat.—Under the article COIN is described an apparatus for washing and separating the impurities with which grain is always to a greater or less extent contami nated ; and, as a necessary concomitant to that machine, a kiln was devised for drying the washed grain; but all this luln is equally appli cable to the drying of malt, seeds, and all other matters of a similar kind and form, and by a mode that is as novel as it is efficaCious; we give a description of it in this place. In the engraving on the next page, .Fig. 1 exhibits a longitudinal section of the apparatus, and Fig. 2 a transverse section of a long air trough, shown at e in Foy. 1. is shown one of a series of five or six common iron gas tubes, placed side by side, and curved in the form represented to constitute a fire-place, the space between the tubes serving for the admission of air for combustion, which enters through the ash-pit door b at the side, pro vided with an air regrdator : the fire-place rs inclosed in front at c by a common door and frame. The heated air, and other products of combustion from the fuel, pass along the flue d to the funnel or chimney ; the bottom and two sides of the flue d are of brick, but the top is of iron, being formed of the bottom of a long shallow iron box or air-trough this box has no cover but one of extremely open wooed canvas, which forms a part of an endless cloth or If f, band that is continually made to travel lengthwise over,the whole area of the said trough ; the edges of the cloth gliding between grooves and over tie rods, (shown in the cross section, 14g. 2, where the dotted line f indicates the endless cloth,) that prevent the cloth from sagging. This cloth is made to travel by the revolution of three rollers or I, to either of which the moving power may be applied. The cloth is kept distended by a self-acting tightening roller, which is screwed against the hopper k ; this hopper receives the grain to be dried, and is provided with a shoe at 1, adapted to deliver a thin and uniform stratum of grain upon the endless cloth, whilst the same is made to pass under it, and over the trough. Another endless band es ay of a similar fabric to the other, passes round the drums h i only, and is likewise pro vided with a self-acting tightening roller, fixable to any convenient object. The lower ends of the six tubes a of the fire-place before mentioned have an open communication with a rotative blower o, by means of a broad channel p p; and the upper ends of the tubes a also open into another broad channel g, which conducts the air into the long e. The operation of this machine is as follows. A slow rotation, derived from any first mover, is to be given to either of the drums g, A, i, which will cause the endless clotlifto glide gradually over the top of the air-trough e ; at the same time the blower o has been put into action (by connexion with the first mover) at a high velocity, so as to pro duce a rapid current of air, which derives an increase of temperature on pass ing under the heated metallic bottom of the ash-pit ; hence proceeding through the tubes a it acquires, considerable beat, which is subsequently moderated by an extensive diffusion in the air-trough e, before it passes through the meshes of the endless cloth A above, carrying with it the moisture tiom the grain deposited thereon. The course taken by the endless cloth is shown by arrows in the figure ; upon its arriving at the drum A, the other endless cloth as ss comes in contact with the grain on the cloth f, and upon both the cloths passing round the said drum Is, the corn becomes inclosed between the two cloths, ana is thus carried up an inclined plane over the drum i, where the cloths separate, and discharge the grain back again into the hopper k, to undergo a repetition of the operation, should it not be perfectly dry. But when the grain is thoroughly dried, instead of allowing it to fall back into the hopper, a shoot, or the band of a creeper, (not shown in the drawing,) is brought under the roller i, which conducts it to the required place. A very little experience in the working of this apparatus enables a person so to regulate its operations as to complete the drying of damp grain by a single passage through it; such as varying the velocity of the air-forcer, the quantity of fuel in the stove, the supply of air through the ash-pit, the speed of the endless cloth, &c. the means of doing which are so well understood by mechanics as to render a description of them unnecessary in this place.