20 Report on the Agricultural Implements at Philadelphia. 
driver, by foot-leverage at T, can stop the binder at any point, and thereby 
regulate the size of the sheaf if required ; for the action is automatic and con- 
tinuous. The lever U, also within reach, is useful for shifting the position of 
the binder according to the length of the straw, so as to have the bands 
in the proper place. V is a tilting-lever for altering the angle of the plat- 
form. The reel, which can be raised or lowered, placed forward or backward, 
according to the nature of the crop, is driven by chain-gear from the hub of 
driving-wheel. Like all harvesters, it left the stubble rather high, and my 
impression is that automatic binders in their present form are adapted only for 
light upstanding crops. During the experiment the wire broke once or twice, 
but, as a rule, it made capital work, and achieved a decided success. The 
crop at Schencks was some ten days over-ripe, consequently more corn was 
knocked out by the action of the elevator than would have been the case if 
the corn had been in proper condition for cutting. 
The next machine I shall endeavour to illustrate and describe is the inven- 
tion of Daniel McPherson, of Caledonia, New York. This failed under trial, 
not from defects of principle, but from imperfect construction ; indeed there 
were those who considered that, in better hands, much might be made of 
it. Fig. 13 is an elevation of the right-hand end of the harvester. The 
motion is communicated from the main axle of the driving-wheel by bevel 
gearing to the shaft S, which revolves continuously. The wire-carrier or 
needle, N, which is best seen in Fig. 15, showing an enlarged reversed drawing 
of the twister-frame, is attached to the horizontal bar B, to which an up-and- 
down motion is communicated from the shaft S by means of the pitmen 
and cranks P and 1. The feet of the twister-frame F rest upon journal- 
bearings on the shaft S, and the upper portion is secured to the bar or beam T 
of the frame. Between these bearings the mutilated or compound gear- 
wheel G, which is seen in Figs. 13, 15, 16, and 17, is keyed upon the shaft. 
I need not go into details in regard to the curious mechanism further than to 
state that one revolution of the shaft S gives several revolutions to the twister, 
one-half of a reversed turn, and then an interval of rest. This latter occurs 
while the needle N is completing its downward stroke, which movement places 
the second end of the wire across the two sets of jaws, which are seen in 
Figs. 15 and 16. The tongue b l , Fig. 16, closes upon and grasps between it 
and the head d both wires, and cuts them off between the grasp. At about 
the same instant the lower jaw A 1 , Fig. 15, is opened, to discharge the cuttings 
and grasp the end of the wire before the wire-carrier or needle N rises to 
receive the next sheaf. Fig. 14 shows a rear elevation of the right-hand 
portion of the reaper-frame with the binding apparatus attached. The 
collector is composed of two or more arms, C, Figs. 13, 14, and 17. They 
are fixed to the horizontal shaft S 1 , which is driven by the shaft S through S 2 , 
an intermittent rotary motion being given by means of the mutilated gear- 
wheels G 1 and J, Figs. 13 and 14. At the lower edge of the collector 
concave C 1 , shown in Figs. 13 and 14, is a binding-shelf or apron, M, Fig. 13, 
sufficiently depressed to allow the beam B to move below the sweep of the 
revolving anus C, and thus allow them to revolve over the bar ; directly 
after which the latter rises again to its upper or open position, preparatory to 
receiving the next sheaf from the revolving arms 0. A compresser, E, shown 
in Figs. 13 and 14, with a spindle, K, seen in Figs. 13 and 17, which is 
attached to the reciprocating bar B, gives the necessary amount of pressure to 
the needle or sheaf of grain. The wire passes from the reel K, Fig. 14, 
through loops I, I, and an eye in the wire-guide h 2 , thence down to and through 
the eye in the needle N, Fig. 15. The reader will understand the operation of 
the machinery from these details. It depends upon the combined motions 
produced from the shaft IS, by means of two sets of mutilated wheels, which 
operate on the collectors and the twister at such periods as ensure the col- 
