General Notices. 301 



two axles, the less space will the machine require to turn upon. In turnino- 

 the machine, however, attention must always be given to disengage the 

 large wheels b b from the main axle d : this is done by shifting the coupling 

 boxes E E by means of the handles h h. The apparatus 11, or collector, is 

 placed exactly above the cutters : it is 2| ft. in diameter, made of wood as 

 slight as may be. The supports k k, in the original machine, were made of 

 iron ; but now the two side-beams of the machine are made of a piece of 

 wood, with a natural cast upon it, similar to the beam of a plough, but rising 

 with a much greater angle, as near the form of the iron supports in the plate 

 as possible, and continued horizontally till their points are exactly above 

 the movable bar o o. The points pp are made of iron, bent as in the plate, 

 to allow the collector 1 1 to turn round. At qqqq are strong iron screws, 

 working in nuts placed in the wooden part of the supports, which serve the 

 double purpose of uniting the iron part to the wood, and allowing it to be 

 drawn forward, or pushed backward, as occasion may be, by either shifting 

 to another hole, or, which is better, by long slips in the middle of the bar. 

 Long corn requires the collector to be placed forward, and short corn 

 requires it to be taken back. At o o are two perpendicular rods, which slip 

 in holes in the points of the supports ; by the moving of which, upwards or 

 downwards, the collector //, which turns in sockets in the lower ends of 

 these rods, is lowered or heightened, according to the length of the corn 

 to be cut. The rods are fixed in their places by screws in the end of the 

 supports. The collector is turned by a cross belt, or chain, passing over the 

 two pulleys m n. A piece of slight canvass is put round the rollers y z, fixed 

 to the chains a a, as before described. The lower ends of the rollers have 

 a shield of plate iron round their gudgeons, to prevent the cut corn from 

 warping, which it does effectually. The bushes of the roller z are made to 

 shift by screws, to tighten the chains a little, to prevent them from slipping 

 the pulleys, as they lengthen a little by using, especially when new. 



Fig. 56. is a representation of the machine in full operation. About six 

 or eight yards of the field require to be cut at the ends to allow the machine 

 to turn without injuring the corn, which may be. done by the machine itself. 

 If the corn is standing nearly upright, a convenient number of ridges may be 

 taken in and cut by going round them ; but if the corn is standing, and the 

 field free from deep furrows, it may be cut by going round and round it till 

 it is finished in the middle. One man, as seen in the plate, is sufficient to 

 manage the whole operation. 



The cutting, collecting, and laying are the three principal parts of this ma- 

 chine, which have been all more or less explained in the general description 

 given above. But as they are particular, a few words on each of these heads 

 may still be necessary, that the machine may be completely understood in all 

 its bearings. First, then, with regard to the cutting : it is desirable that the 

 machine should do its work, and nothing more. If the motion of the cut- 

 ters were too slow, it would not clear the ground ; and if it were too 

 quick, there would be a useless expenditure of power and machinery. Let 

 it be remembered that the large outer wheels b b are 3| ft. diameter ; that 

 the beveled wheel I has 60 teeth, and that the crank-rod pinion has 10; 

 and that the cutters have 12 in. of a cutting edge. The diameter of the 

 wheels b b being 3§ ft. or 42 in., their circumferences are 13 1*94678 in. ; every 

 revolution of them will pass over nearly 132 in. of the ground's surface; but 

 there being 10 teeth in the crank-rod pinion, and 60 in the beveled wheel I, 

 every revolution of the wheels b b will turn the crank-pinion 6 times, and, 

 of course, the crank as often. But every turn of the crank-pinion gives two 

 cuts, and each stroke of the cutters clears 12 in. of the ground, because they 

 have 12 in. of a cutting edge : therefore, one revolution of the wheels b b 

 gives 12 strokes of the cutters, and clears 12 times 12 or 144 in. of the sur- 

 face of the ground. But one revolution of b b passes only over 132 in. of 

 surface ; therefore, the cutters are calculated to cut, in one revolution of b b, 



