36 COCONUTS, KERNELS, AND CACAO. 



and in invoicing the same to the buyer in this country, 

 16 Ibs. per cwt., or one-seventh of the whole, is deducted 

 as representing the weight of the cask. 



This is an agreed figure and applies only to such 

 casks as are termed " regular," and comply with a certain 

 measurement. In the case of palm kernels, if these are 

 shipped in bags, the actual weight of the bags is ascer- 

 tained by trial, and this weight is deducted from the 

 gross weight of the kernels. The usual tare is 13 Ibs. 

 for five bags ; when shipped in bulk there is no tare. 



An ingenious and simple nut-cracking machine has 

 been devised recently by J. O. Drews. It consists of 

 a pair of finely corrugated steel jaws, one of which is 

 fixed vertically to the frame of the machine, while the 

 other is moved by means of a specially constructed 

 cam. The moving jaw has its corrugated face formed 

 at a slight angle to the face of the fixed jaw ; the space 

 between the jaws is, therefore, wider at the top than 

 at the bottom, so that larger nuts dropped between the 

 jaws lodge near the top and small nuts near the bottom. 

 In working, the moving jaw takes up three consecutive 

 positions : (1) discharging, fully open, allowing the 

 broken nuts to fall through ; (2) feeding, partly closed ; 

 (3) cracking, a small auxiliary cam mounted on the main 

 cam engages with the operating rod of the moving jaw, 

 causing the latter to take a short, sharp movement and 

 to crack the nut-shells without breaking up the kernels. 

 The nuts are fed to the jaws by means of a sloping tray 

 ending in a series of J -shaped bars mounted at right 

 angles to and above the faces of the jaws. A series of 

 J -shaped bars mounted on a shaft rotate between the 

 bare on the feed tray, pick up a row of nuts, and throw 



