Thomas A. Janvier

“ The entry of a hen into any one of the spring-balanced nests—by disturbing the nest's nicely adjusted equilibrium—released a spring that operated a simple clutch which coupled up the motive power with the extensible wooden arm and the double-action plunger. Thereafter the egg—being laid, and necessarily dropping through the orifice at the bottom of the nest provided for its exit—fell into the padded cup, and by its weight so depressed the lever to which the cup was attached that another spring was released that moved a crank by which the machinery was set in motion. ”

“ Beverly's constant effort was toward the economical utilization of conserved forces—that its surplus energy heated the poultry-house in cold weather, turned a grindstone as occasion demanded, and drove an ingenious little machine in his kitchen (one of his by-inventions) that at one operation cleaned the table-knives and polished the family shoes. In addition to these several simple appliances, a tank of suitable capacity—its faucet governed by a simple connection with the appropriate plunger—was placed over each nest ”

“ You have hit it exactly, Bishop. Investigation on Mr. Beverly's part led to the discovery that the annoying emergence of three or four different sorts of chicks from the same setting was due to the vagrant disposition of the hens to lay their eggs in any nest that happened to come handy, with a resultant uncertainty as to their genesis when they were put to set; and to the farther discovery that the surprise eggs at breakfast had been laid in such out-of-the-way places that they had not been found and collected until long after their period of edible usefulness was past. ”