FANNING MACHINE

A machine for separating the chaff, husks, dust, or other light matters from seeds which are to be preserved for sowing, or for some other purpose in general or domestic economy. The air is put in motion by a wheel, commonly driven by hand with leaves or fans instead of spokes, directed in a stream against the seeds to be fanned; which seeds are placed in a hopper, so regulated as to proportion their descent through the stream of air to the force of the current created by the fan wheel. Before fanners were invented the proce was performed by hand in a manner the reverse of what it is now by machinery; that is, the seeds and refuse to be separated from them were taken up in shovelfuUs, and thrown to as great a distance as po ible through the calm air; when the full-bodied seeds, being the heaviest, were found at the greatest distance, and the chaff and other matters nearer, according to their degree of lightne . With the progre of the arts a system of screens and sieves was added to the fanning machine; in consequence of which, as it separated the seed from every kind of refuse, it is called a winnowing machine; and in that case, it not only separates the chaff and other light matters generally from the heavy matters, but it parts both according to their bulk and weight; so that the seed comes from the winnowing machine fit for being measured up for the market or store room, and the various kinds of inferior products in a state fit for immediate use. [s. 452]