IN SCOTLAND.

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men, by several of whom attempts were made to construct amachine, that would perform the operation of threshing morecorrectly. The earliest attempt in Scotland to construct amachine for that purpose, was made by Mr Michael Menzies,brother to the then sheriff-depute of East Lothian . Themachinery was driven by a water-wheel, which put in motiona number of flails, of a similar kind with those used in thresh-ing by the hand. But, owing perhaps to the velocity requi-red for performing the work correctly, the flails were soonbroken in pieces, and the invention by this means went total-ly into disuse.

About the year 1758 , another attempt was made by MrStirling, farmer in the parish of Dunblane , Perthshire. Thismachine was constructed upon principles similar to that of theflax or lint mill, having a water-wheel and perpendicular shaftor axle, into which were fixed four arms, inclosed in a cylin-der about three feet six inches high, and eight feet jin diame-ter j within this cylinder, the shafts and its arms were drivenwith considerable velocity. The corn being presented by thehand, was let down through an opening in the top of the cy-linder, in order to receive the strokes from the arms orscutchers, by which the grain was beat out, the straw passingoutward, through an opening in one side of the cylinder, andthe corn falling down into the fanners, was separated fromthe chaff or refuse. Though it is evident, that this sort ofMachine does not separate the grain from the straw in thehost manner, yet, in some parts of the country, they are stillmade use of, and driven either by water or by cattle.

But those which chiefly engaged the public notice, were twothreshing-machines erected in Northumberland , about theyear 1772 ; the first by Mr Ilderton at Alnwick , and theother by Mr Oxley at Flodden. The machine invented byMr Ilderton acted upon the principle of pressing, or rubbingout the grain, and the work was very imperfectly perform-ed* But Mr Oxley’s attempt had the appearance of beingmore successful: indeed, some people have alleged, that the