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Agrirnotors at the Paris Show.

26th February 1914
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Page 16, 26th February 1914 — Agrirnotors at the Paris Show.
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A Great Deal More Attention is Being Given to This Branch a the Industry in France than in England at the Present Time.

By Our Own Correspondent in Paris.

France being essentially an agricultural country, and in view of its unvarying enterprise in automobile matters, it was fully to be expected that applications of the motor to the culture of the land would before long show important developments. Nevertheless, the progress made during the past twelve months, as revealed in the National Agricultural Show which is now in progress in Paris, is nothing less than astonishing.

Only three or four years ago, the number of successful agricultural motors could be counted on the fingers Qf one hand, and only two years ago, at the Bourges competition, there were very few machines which were not open to serious criticism. The present French Show occupies a large portion of the Grand Palais as well as the whole of the huge Esplanade des Invalides. The Palais is given up to live stoek, whilst the Esplanade is covered with Machinery or every conceivable kind.

Stationary motors for driving all kinds of agricultural machinery are the strongest feature, and it is in this department that the greatest reforms have been carried out on French farms. Motor and agricultural societies have instructed the agricultural populations to such good purpose that there is hardly a farm of any importance, at the present day, which does not employ some kind of a motor.

A Number of Motor Ploughs.

The greatest interest at the National Show lies in the motor ploughs. Practically all the older firms are represented by improved machines and their numbers have been reinforced by new manufacturers. With hardly an exception these new machines are valuable productions, evidently preduced by men practical in both mechanics and agriculture. It is worth noting that in the eases of most of the engine exhibits, emphasis is laid on the ability of the engines to consume petrol or benzole alternatively. Frequently tire slight extra. cost of a paraffin carburetter is recommended on account of the reduction of the fuel bill. Alcohol is frequently suggested as an alternative fuel, but not a• great deal of importance seems to be attached to it. There is also the question of its being used with standard engines.

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The Amiot, a New Self-contained Plough.

One of the new machines which attracts particular attention is the Amiot, produced in the town of Rheims. It is a combined tractor-plough of very light but sufficiently solid construction, having a steel chassis carried on large diameter metal wheels and a normal type of four-cylinder Abeille motor in front. The engine is well protected ; the radiator is at the front of it and the fuel tank at the rear, the two being united by the bonnet. There is only one speed, either ahead or reverse, the drive to the 70-inch rear wheels being by side chains. One feature of the Amiot is the reverse gear of the plough. This is attached to the rear of the m.a.chine, at a point under the. main frame members, and is pivoted from this point.

The entire frame supporting the plough shares can be raised or lowered by hand-operated worm gearing. To the rear of the plough frame is a cable brought from a heavy cantilever bracket built out from the back of the main chassis, thus enabling the ploughs to be raised when not in use. The entire plough frame is pivoted on a horizontal axis and by means of gearing driven from the motor it can be rotated so as to bring a second set of plough shares into operation. The plough-frame can be withdrawn by the removal of two bolts, and on attaching a yoke the machine bkicomes a tractor. The greater the resistance of the ploughs, the better the adhesion of the rear wheels and the less the weight on the front portion of the machine

A Motor-driven Rotary Plough.

The Tourand-Derguesse, the combined production of a French engineer and an agricnItunst, although shown for the first time, has been at work and under practical tests for more than a year, with very good results. The machine is of the tractor rotary-plough type, of low weight, and distinctive by reason of the nature of the rotary picks. Everything has been specially designed for this machine; thus the motor is a, very modern type of four-cylinder monohloc of mm. by 180 mm. bore and stroke with enclosed valves on one side and therrno-syphon cooling. It is carried under a bonnet with big hinged side doors And is mounted on a sub-frame from the I-section frame members.

Effect of Commercial-Vehicle Design.

It is significant of the growing importance of motor culture in France that the La Buire Co., an important. motorcar and commercial-vehiele firm, should have taken over the construction of the Motoculture machine. The adoption hes not made any material difference in the design of the machine, but the construction is on a decidedly highee plane than when we last saw this machine in the French competitions. The La Buire is of the rotary-plough type with the use of flexible hooks, the motor being set across the frame, the radiator thus being on one side, and the drive taken to both the rear wheels and the rotary plough by means of enclosed chains.

An entirely new La Buire model on the same general principle has been built for small holdings. It is a rotary plough of hardly more than $0 ins. tvidth, driven by a four-cylinder monobloe motor of distinctly car design. Behind the engine is a cone clutch, a gearset with gate change, transverse shaft. drive to the main wheels and a, propeller shaft with overhead worm gearing for the rotary plough. The shaft is carried within a torque tube having forked arms in a manner revealing the work of the ear do signer. The machine is eearried on three wheels, the front one being a castor wheel with the operator's seat immediately above it.

The Paddles on an Italian Plough.

Another new machine, at any rate so far as France is concerned, is the Moto-Aratriete an Italian production of the direct-ploughing type, it is a threewheeler with a single steerer, one driving wheel and one loose wheel, the ploughs being mounted diagonally between the front and the rear wheels. The feature of this machine is the special type of paddles set in the driving wheel and so designed that they always enter the ground vertically. The motor is a twincylinder monobloc set across the frame and driving the rear wheel by means of a chain. This firm also produces a four-wheel tractor, both rear wheels being positively driven and both having the patented type of paddles entering the ground vertically. The only other paddle-wheel ma.chine in the Show is the Landrin, this being a tractor which has been before the public for several years, and is now shown in a. modified form.

One of the compact little Bauche motor hoes is staged. This machine, it will be recalled, is being handled in England by the Ivel concern.

Other Well-known Makers are Staged.

In the winding-drum class there was one new machine fitted with a twin-cylinder De thorn Bouton long-stroke vertical motor. The maker of the machine could not be discovered on the opening day of the show, The driving pinion on the end of the motor shaft. engages with either a right-hand or left-ha.nd bevel pinion, and by means of spur gearing can drive the winding drum in either direction.

All the better known machines which have been on the market for some time, find a. place in the exhibition. They comprise the well-known German threewheel direct-ploughing machine the Stock, which has recently been introduced into England; the Bajac tractor with winding drum mounted on a vertical axis under the platform body ; the Filtz tractor which hauls itself along a fixed cable ; the International Harvester Co.'s petrol tractor, and the Lefebvre caterpillar -machine.

Fodens Show a Steam Wagon.

While there is plenty of material in the stationary engine department, there is not much that is new. One engine ea3ling for attention is the Dubois-Rous scan, with a rotary valve. This was seen at last year's Show, and was described fully on that occasion. The only English commercial-vehicle manufacturer exhibiting in The Show appears to be Fodens. Ltd., with one of its well-known steam wagons. In the purely agricultural instrument class, English firms are fairly well represented.

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Locations: Rheims, Paris

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