South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), Saturday 9 September 1843, page 2


The South Australian Register. ADELAIDE: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1843.

"NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION."

The above adage is likely to meet with ample ve-rification in the stale of our labour market, and in the means which are about to be employed for ga-thering in the present season's crop.

No less than five or six different parties are en-gaged at this moment in the contrivance or con-struction of machines, by which the present har-vest is to be safely housed, if not indeed thrashed and winnowed as it is taken from the ground. Of these parties. Mr Ridley, of Hindmarsh, de-serves to be placed at the head of the list, inas-much as he proposes, not only to reap by machi-nery, but to thrash the corn out, and winnow it at the same time. Of Mr Ridley's plan, we know enough to enable us to pronounce favourably upon it, the only obstacle to its practicability and uni-versal application, as it appears to us, being its great expence. Mr Robinson, of Leigh-street, is a second com-petitor in this race of invention, and proposes by his machine to cut the corn, and lay it in sheaves, ready to be bound up by hand, but, as Mr Robinson's plan has neither been shown, nor explained to us, we know but little of his mode of proceeding, further than that he proposes to cut the crop close to the ground at the rate of two acres per hour, and at the same time to save not only the grain, but the straw. In Lyndoch Valley, Mr Emmett and others, looking upon the straw as but of little value, pro-pose to take off the ears only, which they intend to do by means of a row of sharp knives or spikes at a certain height from the ground, and operated upon by a gatherer very similar in its construction to the beaters of a thrashing-machine, with which the heads of grain are to be driven from the knives or spikes into the cart. Of neither of the above, as far as we are aware, however, has any model at present been construc-ted, but Mr James Allen, of North Adelaide, has, we understand, a model constructed, similar in its principle to the latter one, but differing greatly in its mode of gathering in the ears, and upon which parties very competent to judge, have pronounced a favourable opinion. Mr Allen, we are au-thorised to state, will not only be prepared to exhibit this working model to any one having an interest in such matters after Monday next, but will present it to any one, who, on being satisfied of its practicability, will engage to construct a machine on that principle. Two or three letters upon this, and kindred subjects, will be found in another part of our columns, and to these the attention of our readers is respectfully and earnestly invited. Since writing the above, a meeting has been called for Tuesday evening next, at which all parties having plans or models of this kind are invited to submit them for inspection, and are pro-mised facilities for bringing their inventions to the test of experiment, supposing their plans or models to be approved. Under what circumstances, or by what autho-rity this meeting has been called, we have not heard.