Let me first repeat that evaporation increases with increased air
currents and with decreased vapor pressure. Now, the vapor pressure
undergoes all manner of changes with the passing of storm centers
and the changes of prevailing winds. But there is a general tendency
for vapor pressure to increase with increase in outside temperature.
Now, the movement of air in all common incubators depends upon the
draft principle and the greater the difference in machine
temperature and outside temperature the greater will be this draft.
Thus, we have two factors combining to cause variation in the rate
of evaporation. The tendency for the rate of airflow to vary is
diminished when a cellar is used for an incubator room, but the
cellar does not materially remedy the climatic variation in vapor
pressure.
The general tendency of incubators as ordinarily constructed, is to
dry out the eggs too rapidly. With a view of counteracting this,
water is placed in pans in the egg room. A surface of water exposed
to quiet air does not evaporate as fast as one might think, as is
easily shown by the fact that air above rivers, lakes and even seas
is frequently far from the saturation point. The result of the
moisture pan with a given current of air is that the vapor pressure
is increased a definite amount, but by no means is it regulated or
made uniform. Inasmuch as too much shrinking is the most prevalent
fault in box incubators, the use of moisture is on the whole
beneficial, but in hot, murky weather, with less circulation and
higher outside vapor pressure, the moisture is overdone and the
operator condemns the system.
The subject not being clearly understood and no means being
available for vapor pressure determinations, the system results in
confusion and disputes. When the felt diaphragm machine was brought
into the market it was advertised as a no-moisture machine. The
result of the diaphragm is that of choking off air movement and
consequently reducing evaporation. This gives exactly the same
results as the use of moisture, but the machine is easier to operate
and seemed to do away with the vexatious moisture problem which,
together perhaps, with some fancied resemblance of felt diaphragms
to hen feathers, has resulted in the widespread use of this type of
machine.
The latest effort along the lines of reducing evaporation is the
sand tray machine that followed in the wake of the Ontario
investigation. This device simply gives a greater evaporating
surface to the water and hence a greater addition to the vapor
pressure. The results in practice I had given me by a man who last
year hatched sixty-five thousand chicks and as many more ducklings.
He said: "The sand tray early in the season gave the best hatches
and most vigorous chicks we had, but later on things got too wet and
the chickens drowned." No nicer demonstration of science in practice
could be desired.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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