20 



supplied with fingers, wliicli take hold of the stalks and lift them to a 

 vertical position as the machine advances. The jaws have such a 

 position relative to each other as will bring the fingers of the opposite 

 chains almost in touch with each other at or near the cutting ])lades. 

 The chains receive their motion from the main driving mechanism, 

 and are driven at such speed as will bring the stalks to the proper 

 position for cutting without shaking them too severelv. 



The cutting arrangement 

 consists of a serrated knife 

 which passes to and fro 

 across two stationary 

 blades, one of these being 

 attached to each jaw. This 

 serrated knife is driven by 

 a pitman attached to a 

 weighted wheel called a 

 ''fly wheel." The added 

 weight gives enough stored 

 energy to sever the toughest 

 stalks without shock to the 

 small gear wheels (fig. 13). 



Attached to the rear of 

 the dividers and extending 

 around the binding deck 

 several guide springs 



^ are 



(fig. 11) which keep the tall 

 corn from bending over and 

 becoming entangled in the 

 binding gear. 



BINDIXCr APPARATUS. 



Fig. 13. — Frame of com binder, showing mechanism for 

 driving cutter knife, gear shaft for driving chains and 

 binding device, and roller bearings. 



Just behind the knife and 

 thence extending back to 

 the bundle carrier, is the butt shoe, or butt carrier (fig. 12). This 

 device carries the weight of the stalks after the}^ are cut. It is 

 fastened to the frame just behind the knife, but tliru the rest of its 

 length it is adjustable vertically, so that the binding twine may be 

 placed at the proper place on both tall and short corn. 



As the stalks are cut they are carried back by the conveyor chain, 

 with their butts resting in the butt carrier until they reach' the bind- 

 ing deck, where they are pushed backward by the packers, which 

 have such a motion as will carry them perpendicularly tln-u the 

 binding deck and parallel to it while conveying the stalks to the 

 knotter. Their motion is more rapid than that of the chains, but 



