104 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



TRIALS OF REAPERS. 



A trial for a premium of $1,500 offered by the State Agricultural Society 

 of Illinois took place during the past season at Belvidere, in that State, 

 between Manney's Reaper, and Atkin's Self- Raking Reaper, to test their 

 respective merits. The last-named reaper is distinguished in the report as 

 Wright's, the name of the manufacturer. The trial lasted several days, 

 and the report of the timpires gives the following as some of the results : 

 Wright cut 20 22-100 acres, in 12 hours and 55 minutes. 

 Maiiney cut 20 22-100 acres, in 10 hours and 3 minutes. 

 Time consiimed in reaping, binding, and shocking : 

 Wright's first field, 3 37-100 acres, bound in 18 hours and 25 minutes 

 Wright's second field, 4 31-100 acres, bound in 25 hours and 30 minutes. 

 Shocked in 4 hours 38^ minutes. 



Manney's first field, 3 89-100 acres. Raked and bound in 25 hours and 

 47 minutes. (This included the time of the raker who stands on the ma- 

 chine.) Shocked in 4 hours and 40 minutes. 



The umpires refused to decide between the two reapers, declaring the 

 contest so close as to render it impossible to say which was the best. 



Russet's Mowing Machine. In this machine the cutting bar is attached 

 to the frame of a pair of small cart wheels, and the motion given to the 

 cutters by a cam. driven by cogs on the driving wheel, working into a small 

 pinion, so that the machinery has the smallest possible amount of friction. 

 The cutting is different from any other : without crank motion, the bar 

 that holds the knives only sliding 2| inches, and yet the knives each have 

 a drawing cut of 1^ inch, and are so fixed that, when one end is dull, they 

 can be changed end for end in five minutes. 



ARTIFICIAL RESPIRATION. 



Among recent English inventions, Dr. Marcet's apparatus for artificial 

 respiration promises to be useful, as it has the advantage over other con- 

 trivances of the same kind, of being self-acting. It has a double cylinder 

 into which air is compressed ; and each by an alternate filling and dis- 

 charge, with the end of a slender tube inserted into one of the nostrils, 

 causes the lungs to go through the process of expiration and inspiration. 

 It has been tried on asphyxiated dogs with perfect success, and there re- 

 mains now to test its capabilities on human beings. 



PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 



The enormously increased consumption of rags and other materials 

 used in the manufacture of paper, with the consequent increased scarcity 

 of the raw material, and the enhancement of the price of paper, have 

 caused much attention to be given to this subject, both in England and 



