1'RE 



PRE 



direct the cheeks and prevent their open- 

 ing unequally. Upon the cheeks the 

 plough moves, to which the cutting-knife 

 is fastened by a screw ; which has its key 

 to dismount it, on occasion, to be sharp- 

 ened. The plough consists of several 

 parts ; among the rest a wooden screw, 

 or worm, which, catching within the nuts 

 of the two feet that sustain it on the 

 cheeks, brings the knife to the hook or 

 paper which is fastened in the press be- 

 tween two boards. This screw, which is 

 pretty long, has two directories, whicli 

 resemble those of the screws of the press. 

 To make the plough slide square and 

 even on the cheeks, so that the knife may 

 make an equal paring, that foot of the 

 plough, where the knife is not fixed, 

 slides in a kind of groove, fastened along 

 one of the cheeks. Lastly, the knife is 

 a piece of steel, six or seven inches long, 

 flat, thin, and sharp, terminating at one 

 end in a point, like that of a sword, and 

 at the other in a square form, which 

 serves to fasten it to the plough. See 



As the long knives, used by us in the 

 cutting of books or papers, are apt to 

 jump in the cutting thick books, the 

 l)utch are said to use circular knives, 

 with an edge all round ; which not only 

 cut more steadily, but last longer with- 

 out grinding. Press, in the Woollen Ma- 

 nanufuctory, is a large wooden machine, 

 serving to press cloths, serges, rateens, 

 &c. thereby to render them smooth and 

 even, and to give them a gloss. This 

 machine consists of several members ; the 

 principal whereof are the cheeks, the 

 nut, and the worm or screw, accompa- 

 nied with its bar, which serves to turn it 

 round, and make it descend perpendicu- 

 larly on the middle of a thick wooden 

 plank, under which the stuffs to be press- 

 ed are placed. The Calender is also a 

 kind of press, serving to press, or calen- 

 der, linens, silks, Sec. 



We shall now give an account of some 

 presses much in use, and from which, as 

 they are not to be found in books, we 

 have taken original drawings. 



PRESS, hop, (Plate Press) a machine 

 used in breweries for compressing bags 

 of hops into a small compass, that they 

 may take less room for the stowage. In 

 the' plantation where the hops are grown, 

 (after being picked, dried, and made rea- 

 dy for sale) they are placed in an upper 

 room which has a hole in the floor, the bag 

 to receive them is hung in this hole, and 

 the hops filled into it ; a person gets into 

 the bag when nearly full, and by his 



weight treads down the hops, that the 

 bag may hold more than it otherwise 

 would ; the bag is then removed, and its 

 mouth is sewed up. In this state the 

 bags go to market, and are sold to the 

 brewer, who conveys them to the brew- 

 ery ready for use ; it is here the hops are 

 pressed into a much smaller compass, as 

 breweries are generally situated in large 

 towns, where warehouse-room is valu- 

 able, and where the saving of room am- 

 ply compensates for the trouble of press- 

 ing. 



Fig. 1 and 2 are upright elevations, at 

 right angles to each other, of a press for 

 packing hops into bags, made by Mr. Va- 

 lentine Gotlieb, Lambeth-marsh, South- 

 wark : a a is the bottom or fixed bed of 

 the press, firmly bolted to the two up- 

 right cheeks, b b, which support at their 

 upper end a strong 1 cross beam, B, called 

 the head ; the beam, B, is perforated in 

 the middle to receive an iron screw, D. 

 E is a contrate-wheel, of ninety-six teeth, 

 which has a female screw, to admit the 

 male screw, D ; the wheel is turned by a 

 pinion of ten teeth, upon the axis of a 

 large crank,/, which is turned round by 

 one or two men, according to the power 

 required : these men stand upon a stage, 

 H, fastened to the upright cheeks, b b. 

 The lower end of the screw, D, is square, 

 and is keyed into a three-legged iron 

 frame, h, bolted to the, swinging-bed of 

 the press, I ; this is formed of several pie- 

 ces of thick oak plank, strongly bolted 

 together ; the fixed bed, K, of the press 

 is framed in the same manner, and sup- 

 ported on the bottom bed : a a, k k, are 

 two upright beams, fastened at their low- 

 er ends to the fixed bed, the press, and at 

 the upper ends are fastened to the frame 

 of the stage, H, on which the men who 

 turn the handle, /, stand: one of these 

 beams, k, is fixed to the lower bed by a 

 moveable key-bolt ; at the upper end it 

 turns on a bolt as a centre, so as to rise 

 up, as shown in fig. 1 : /is a rope going 

 round a pulley, one end fastened to the 

 beam, the other to a weight which coun- 

 terbalances the beam. 



The operation of the machine is begun 

 by screwing the swinging bed of the press 

 up as high as it will go, and turning up 

 the bar, 'k : a bag, filled with hops, and 

 sewed up, as before described, is then 

 placed on the lower bed, K, and the bar, 

 k, brought down and keyed fast, to keep 

 the bag under the press ; the man upon 

 the stage, H, then turns the winch,/ and 

 by the action of the pinion fixed upon its 

 spindle, turns the wheel, E, and thus 



