ANNUAL ADDRESS. XXXIX. 



by bullock drays, the trip often took three or four months, and 

 the bales were dumped at the Circular Quay in screw presses. 

 These presses had capstan heads generally worked by four men ; 

 at least half an hour was occupied in each operation. Forging 

 the heads to these wool screws was a big job for a blacksmith's 

 shop before the abvent of the steam hammer, and my mind reverts 

 to the consternation that once occurred when on handling one of 

 these big screws in the forge the head tumbled off through the iron 

 being burned. 



It was not until the sixties that the introduction of hydraulic 

 power enabled the operation of pressing to be performed in from 

 eight to ten minutes, instead of in thirty. With the continually 

 increased production of wool, a stage was reached about twenty 

 years ago which induced the author to submit a proposal to the 

 late Mr. Alfred Lamb to introduce an entirely new and more 

 rapid system of woolpressing under which water at two or more 

 different pressures should be laid on to the various presses, so that 

 the attendants had only to open and shut valves to perform the 

 operation. The proposal was approved by that enterprising 

 gentleman, a patent taken out, and the plant was manufactured 

 by the Atlas Engineering Company. The low pressure water 

 was under a head of 700 tt>s. to the inch, which enabled an 

 ordinary bale to be reduced to at least half of its original bulk. 

 The high pressure water which could be utilised up to 8,000 B6s. 

 to the inch had then only to be turned on, when the operation was 

 completed. Such a success attended this innovation that dumping 

 was reduced to about one-fourth of the time before required, or 

 to say two and a half minutes. Other large firms subsequently 

 adopted this system, and the original plant with the combination 

 valves is still in operation at the Central Wharf, where it has 

 often dumped over 1,200 bales a day. Later on, with increasing 

 competition in the wool business, still more rapidity was demanded 

 and studs took the place of rivets to save some of the time lost 

 in closing the hoop iron bands. In order to enable the secondary 

 or higher pressure to be obtained from one normal supply, the 



