OLD MARYLAND. 



527 



of the pp-eat lenclh of tlio film! over wliid) it i 

 scraping, which in found to wear the hLinf) in 

 practice so as to render it unnierciiantiible ; it 

 has also been attempted to break ami clean ilie 

 hemp between a revolving break and a station- 

 ary concave, but this nielliod is liable to the 

 Hame objections. In fact, the licinp never can 

 be broken and cleaned by the same roller that 

 breaks it, without subjecting it to injurious wear. 

 Consequently, the niacliin<;s have been aban- 

 doned as useless; for if the hemp is broken by 

 a stationary break, against which the revolving 

 break acts, and thence passes to another wheel, 

 placed ii* contact with said revolving break, to 

 be scutched, the break scrapes over the hemp 

 the whole distance from the bed-break to the 

 point where the scutcher acts, aud wears the 

 surface into tow. 



My invention is for the purpose of obviating 

 these difficulties, and is of the following nature : 

 I employ a large revolving break, with the 

 swords set at a tangent (this is necessary to the 

 well-working of the machine, as a small one 

 would present the swords at too great an angle), 

 which acts auainst a stationary bed-plate, and 

 there breaks the hemp as it is presented by the 

 hand. The ends of the hemp, as soon as they 

 pass down below the edge where they are 

 broken, arc thrown of!" by the centrifugal action 

 of the revolving blades, and they do not come in 

 aontact with it any more, but, as the hemp is fed 

 in the ends aforesaid, pass down and are caught 

 between the scutchers at the angle of their junc- 

 tion, without laying against either so as to be 

 rubbed, and is thus cleaned. The scutchers are 

 very small cylinders, with blades projecting 

 from them radially, that only mesh slightly (if at 

 all) past their pitch-lines; the.se only act on that 

 part of the hemp immediately between them, or 

 at the junction of their curves, to clean it, and it 

 passes through them without injury — which is 

 not the case where the breaking and cleaning 

 are done by the same wheel or roller on the dif- 

 ferent parts of its circumference. 



The construction of my apparatus is as fol- 

 lows : On the cap-pieces of a suitable frame (wi) 

 1 suspend a .shaft («) in suitable bearings, on 

 whicli I afK.v tuo cylinder heads (/j), to which I 

 attach any suitable number of slats or beaters (c); 

 these are placed diagonally, aud are made to act 

 on a straight, horizontal, stationary bed-piece (d), 

 which is armed with iron and attached k> the 

 frame! iiu); back of this bed-piece, and a little 

 below its surface, there is a feed-board (o), over 

 which the hemp is fed into the machine ; just 

 below the bedpie<'e, two small scutcher cylin- 

 ders (/) arc so placed as to receive the hemp 

 between them without wrap|)ing on either, the 

 blades (i') of which may work into each other 

 more or less, according to the material to be act- 

 ed on. The hemp is held in the hand of the 

 workman to be ideancd, and is presented over 

 tiie bed-piece (il), (as clearly sliown in figure 2,) 

 where it is gradually broken as it is pushed in, 

 and the ends are thrown down in between the 

 scutchers, where the shieves or hurds are thrown 

 out. The hemp in this way is fed in, cleaned 

 half its length, and then turned and the other 

 half finished, and the hemp comes from the 

 machine in a [lerfect and merchantable state. 



Having thus fully described my machine, 

 what I claim as my invention, and desire to se- 

 cure by letters patent, is the combination of the 

 stationary bod break and the rotary break, and 

 small .scutchers arranged in the manner de- 

 scribed, .so that the hemp can be fed in bj- hand, 

 broken and cleaned with but one handling and 

 at one operation — the breaking and cleaning 

 being done on separate cylinders, but the parts 

 so arranged <is that they are brought close to- 

 gether, and so adjusted as to only allow the ma- 

 chine to touch that part of the fibre that is to be 

 acted on, thereby preventing its wear in the- 

 machine. 



F. P. HOLCOMB. 



Witnesses *> ■'^- ^- ^^^wyK, 

 witnesses. ^ j j_ gkeenough. 



OLD MARYLAND— HARD TO BEAT, AFTER ALL. 



We miich doubt if any portion of the United States has been so much misrep- 

 resented, not to say abused, or if any is so much undervalued, as Maryland south 

 and east of the great Mail road. Nothing but the most unfounded and incorrigi- 

 ble prejudice, together with its location, withdrawn as it is from public view, 

 could have prevented it from realizing the prodigious advantages prepared for 

 it by the hand of Nature, and making it at this day the most populous, instead 

 of being one among the most thinly settled parts of the United States. 



If we held the political power of the State, we would do for Maryland what 

 every State, and, if not every State, every County, should do for itself. We 

 would cause an actual survey to be made, and all its features and sources of in- 

 dustry and fruitfulness to be mapped and otherwise portrayed, so that all its ca- 

 pabilities, whether agricultural, mineral, commercial, geographical and hygeian, 

 should be fully and honestly displayed to the view of every impartial inquirer. 



Communities rarely reflect how mucli they may bo prejudiced, collectively and 

 individually, by the ignorance, sometimes by the malicious perversions, of statis- 



(1047) 



