774 The Trials of Gider-making riant at Glastonbury. 
pressed upon it by the attendant, who was provided with a 
hand-tool for this special purpose. As a consequence, it was 
nearly as much as one man could do to get apples enough 
through the mill, although the rate of grinding was so slow 
(100 pounds per 5 - 22 minutes). On the other hand, the power 
absorbed was very small, but the machine w r as an amateurish affair, 
altogether inadequate to the wants either of farmer or cider 
merchant. 
It must farther be remarked that the mill with which Bamber 
competed at Glastonbury differed in certain important particulars 
from that which he entered for trial and showed at Plymouth ; 
so that, had not the trials been deferred, he would have competed 
with a machine obviously less fitted for its work than that which 
he used at Glastonbury. In the Plymouth machine, motion was 
given by one crushing roll to the other through a pair of pulleys 
of in. and 5| in. diameter respectively, coupled by a crossed 
gut belt, about f in. diameter ; whereas, in the Glastonbury 
mill, this arrangement had given way to toothed gearing, 
obviously because the gut had been found insufficient in actual 
work. 
Bamber's press has been already so fully described in the 
Report on the Nottingham trials of Hay presses, 1 where it took 
a first prize, that there is no need here of many words. To the 
hay press there figured he has added a channelled bed, while he 
has furnished the platen with a number of strong spiral springs, 
which continue to exert a pressure upon the matter in the press 
after the attendant has loosed hold of the screw lever. In this 
way, it is claimed, expressing goes on continuously, instead of 
intermittently, as in the ordinary press ; but it is doubtful whether 
in other presses the elasticity of the apple pulp does not itself 
ensure that continuity of pressure which the springs in question 
are designed to exert. 
The quick return of the platen, which has already been 
alluded to, and which, indeed, makes the " piecemeal " system 
of pressing possible, will be found fully described and figured 
in the Report already quoted, and need not, therefore, be re- 
described ; but it may be remarked, in passing away from 
Bamber's plant, that, slow as it was in action, and amateurish 
as was the mill in construction, its principles, new to the cider- 
making world, created great interest, and were not unfavourably 
discussed by the practical men present, who, it will easily be 
understood, were of a class and county not indisposed to " stand 
upon the old ways." 
1 Sec Journal, Vol. XXIV. (2nd Scries), 1883, p. 587. 
