38 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



about the point where the twine is generally stitched through, and the 

 broom is done. One handle will last for years, and is not very expen- 

 sive. There is a very decided advantage in these brooms in this, that 

 the handle does not project down into the broom, but the steel spring 

 gives it a pleasant elasticity, until it is completely worn out. 



Humma's Corn Sheller. This corn sheller is a box, some 2 feet 

 long, 1^- feet wide, and 2 feet high. In the bottom is a concave-shaped 

 cylinder, 10 inches by 17, of wood, faced with iron staves, teethed. 

 The ears thrown in upon a board ^serving as a hopper, are held up to 

 the cylinder by wood springs, so that the butt and points have 

 equal bearing as they pass out, the cobs one side, and the grains drop- 

 ing below ; it is doubled-geared for hand, with a fly-wheel and pully 

 for horse-power. 



Center Balanced Gate. This gate is made to open by shoving back 

 alongside of the fence, somewhat as a railroad gate works on rollers. 

 It is not, however, provided w r ith rollers, but is sustained on a new 

 principle of most singular construction. Suppose it is half o^cn, 

 between two posts, then the four supporters are seen upright, two of 

 which are attached to work on a pin inside of the posts, one on each 

 side, and two on pins at the bottom of the center batten of the gate. 

 Each of these last is fastened by another pin in the center to the slat 

 attached to the posts. The upper part of the two slats on the gate 

 are fastened together by a guide-pin, which works in a slat attached 

 to the posts, so that as the gate is shoved forward or back, the support- 

 ers take the form of braces, opening and shutting like a pair of 

 shears, and reversing position, the weight of the gate being all the 

 time equally sustained. It is said to work well. 



Seeleifs Improved Straw Cutter. This straw cutter, invented by C. 

 W. Seeley, of Albany, is a frame 3 feet high and 1 foot wide, support- 

 ing a box to hold the straw to be cut, 3^- feet long, 5 inches deep, 13 

 inches wide at one end, and 8 inches at the other. At the narrow 

 end is a pair of fluted feed-rollers, which are driven by ratchets and 

 pinions moved by a crank on the fly-wheel shaft under the box. The 

 fly-wheel is of iron, 2^- feet across, the rim an inch and a quarter in 

 diameter, weighing perhaps 40lbs., and is driven by a spur-wheel 8 

 inches across, on the end of the crank-shaft; the crank, which is 13 

 inches long, is on the right-hand side of the box, the fly-wheel on the 

 left. From the fly-wheel crank a rod 8 inches long extends down to 

 a lever 16 inches long, hung by the center to the bottom pieces of the 

 frame. From the other end of this lever another rod extends up to 

 the cutting-knife frame, which is of cast-iron, and supports a knife 

 which is of the shape of letter W inverted. As the crank is turned, 

 the straw or corn-stalks are drawn forward by the rollers, and held 

 over a square iron edge, when the knife comes down with its shearing 

 cut, and with power enough to cut a good-sized walking-stick in two. 

 The point in the center of the knife is the great feature of the im- 

 provement. The straw being crowded into a compact mass by a tri- 

 angular knife, not having that point, would perhaps cut hard. In 

 this shape the point begins to enter and cut with but little effort at 

 the precise spot where, without it, the machine would require the 



