MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 83 



The mill mentioned has drawn water from a well twenty-eight feet deep, 

 one hundred feet distant, and forced it into a small reservoir in the upper 

 part of the barn, sufficient for all farm purposes, garden irrigation, and 

 " lots to spare." The cost of such a mill will be $50, and the pumps and 

 pipes about $25. It is elevated on a single oak post a foot square, the 

 turn circle being supported by iron braces. The wings are made of one 

 longitudinal iron bar, through which run small rods : upon these rods, 

 narrow boards half an inch thick are fitted, holes being bored through 

 from edge to edge, and screwed together by nuts on the ends of the rods. 

 This makes strong light sails, but, as will be seen, are fixtures not to be 

 furled or clewed up ; but they are thrown up edge to the wind by a very 

 ingenious arid simple arrangement of the machinery, which obviates the 

 great objection to wind-mills for farm use the necessity of constant 

 supervision of the sails to suit the strength of the wind. 



Wind is undoubtedly the cheapest power that a farmer can use ; and, 

 notwithstanding its inconstancy, if this improvement operates as well as it 

 bids fair to in the single mill erected, it will be applied to many valuable 

 uses. 



WELLMAN'S SELF-STRIPPING TOP CARDS. 



An improvement of no inconsiderable importance, considered by many 

 second to none which has appeared since Arkwright's invention of the 

 rotary cylinder, has been lately introduced in the carding department of 

 the cotton manufacture by Mr. George "Wcllrnan, of Lowell. Mr. Well- 

 man appears to have accomplished what several others have repeatedly 

 attempted ; he has attached to the top cards of an ordinary carding 

 machine an automatic stripper, which carefully lifts each card from its 

 place, strips it by a movement closely resembling that of the hand stripper, 

 but much more gentle, equable and effective, and returns it to its place, 

 accomplishing the work with any necessary degree of rapidity, and at a 

 considerably less expense for cards than in the present destructive method. 

 Mr. Wellrnan's invention dispenses with a great part, if not the whole, of 

 the gang of strippers heretofore indispensable, and the expense of stripping 

 is reduced to that of a much less frequent stripping even of the cylinder. 

 It has been adjudged desirable to make the carding machine larger than 

 usual in cases where this invention is to be applied, not from any necessity, 

 but as a matter of economy, the attachment, which by the way may be 

 applied to any cards now in use, costing no more for a large than for a small 

 card, and the presence of large cards adding considerably to the amount 

 of. work done on a given area of floor. Mr. Wellman's machine has been 

 set in practical operation but in one case, a single machine in the works 

 of the Merrimack Company, Lowell, where it has succeeded so completely 

 during a trial of a little more than eleven months as to secure the favor of 

 cotton manufacturers from all portions of the country. The Merrimack 

 Company have now in course of construction three more machines from 



