and Miscellaneous Implements at Bristol. 
93 
guide on the side of the lever, and is led to a spi iiig clamp or catch in the 
twisting box, where it is firmly held. 
The two sections of the inclined platform, which have been described as 
hinged at their lower ends, have their ujiper extremities connected by links 
to a rocking-shaft, round which is wormed a spiral spring, which always tends 
to keep the sections raised up so as to consolidate the straw being tied. When 
the straw is first delivered these have to be depressed, and that is done by a 
crank at the forward end of the rocking-shaft, wliich is operated on by a cam 
keyed on the shaft, and which forms, in fact, the crank-disc oi)erating the 
rakes. The same cam, by means of tooth-segments, operates simultaneously a 
second rocking-shaft, also enveloped by a spiral spring, and which carries two 
hooked prongs, which serve to compress the straw against the binder-arm, 
and a third prong on the opposite side, the office of which is to throw ofi" the 
finished sheaf. 
1'he box containing the twisting mechanism stands vertically over that 
portion of the platform where the sheaf is formed, but it is pivoted so that it 
can turn down through about 45° to a horizontal position still at right angles 
to the sheaf, and this movement is communicated by a lever on one end of 
a rocking-shaft enveloped by a spiral spring, and actuated from its other end 
by a rack-segment lever, the lower end of which is brought into action by a cam 
disc keyed on the middle of the shaft. The upright or vertical shaft, by means 
of bevel gear, drives a pulley, which actuates by friction a smaller wheel keyed 
on a light shaft not quite horizontal, the other end of which passes into the 
twisting box and sets the twister in motion. The shaft is arranged so as to 
fall over with the box, keeping always in gear with its driving-pulley, so that 
the operation of twisting can continue in all positions of the box. On the 
opposite side of the cam disc wjjich works the box is fixed a catch which 
engages into a lever connected by a pair of links to one end of an upper 
rocking-shaft enveloped in a spiral spring, the other end of wliich carries a 
peculiar shaped lever or cam, the office of which is to raise the spring knife 
which cuts the string, to hold or release the box, and to guide the head of 
the twister spindle so as to make it assume the proper position at the end 
of each operation. The twister spindle, which is vertical in the box at the 
commencement of the tying, is furnished at its lower end with two spring- 
clamps or jaws, with V-shaped guides leading to and from them ; these guides 
are entered by the wedge-shaped pieces through which the string passes on 
the end of the binder-arm, and are thus forced open to allow the string to 
be drawn through and clamped. The spring knife acts vertically, is placed 
close beside the twister, and is released by a ])in on the binder -arm as soon as 
the string is passed through the clamp aud secured, when it is immediately 
cut before the twisting begins. 
The wedge-shaped string-guide in the end of the binder-arm has a short 
l)lay along the arm ; it is kept up by a spring, and on its rear end has a 
wedge-shaped pin which works through a slot in a portion of the framing 
opposite the box. In this slot there is a shunt piece which makes the string- 
guide pass towards the platform at a lower level than when advancing to the 
binder, so as to make it pass through the lower clamp. 
The process of making the sheaf is as follows : — The string projects a couple 
of inches through the string-guide in the binder-arm. The arm moves over 
towards the platform and sinks below it. The box is vertically over the jilat- 
form, and in passing it the string-guide on the binder-arm has passed through 
the lower clamp and left the end of the string fiist in it, and the string 
stretched between the box and the ])latlbrm. The corn is now raked u|i the 
inclined platform, pressed against the string, the binder-arm rises and clasps 
the corn between itself and the two holding prongs and the rising platform ; in 
doing so the string-guide jtasses between the clamp in the twister, and 
