The peanuts and broken shells drop through (the) bottom and (are) separated by hand.The machine can also shell coffee, dry truff (jatropha), chestnuts and Nimenuts (neem nuts).
This novel was writen in his later lifePip, a boy of the marshes, is being "raised by hand" by his shrieking harridan of an older sister and her seemingly doltish husband, the blacksmith Joe Gargery.