2<!2 Report on the Trials of Reaping Machines at Leamington, 
every fourth rake, though one pile of three sheaf-bunches together, 
stubble-ends upward, appeared, from the man having carried the 
stuff too far in turning a corner. Running in a heavier part of 
the crop, this reaper could not produce a cut looking so well as 
on the former plots ; there was one badly-laid and twisted place, 
and some decapitation of ears went on along the north-east side. 
Next, on Plot No. 5, came the Self-delivery Reaper (379 Catalogue number) 
of The Johnston Harvester Company, John Spencer, Agent, 5, Euston Road, 
London. The main driving-wheel is of 3 feet diameter, with 6j-inch tire, 
and a scraper in the rear; and the off- wheel is unusually large, being of 
2 feet diameter. One great peculiarity is that a bevel-wheel affixed to, and 
forming a portion of the main wheel, drives by a bevel pinion at the highest 
point a vertical axis, and this, by multiplying spur-gear, actuates the crank- 
sha ft, which is also vertical. The stroke is 3 inches, the knife sections 3 inches 
broad, and the width of cut 4 feet 9 inches. The total breadth of the machine 
is 9 feet 7 inches. The finger-bar is made of cold rolled angle-iron, and is 
therefore very much stiffer than an ordinary flat bar; while wood framing is 
used for the platform ; the pole is set low, and the driver's seat is placed 
outside the main wheel a trifle behind the centre. The raising and lowering 
of the machine are effected by a lever operating on a chain passed over a 
pulley. The five rake-arms are hung by joints upon a revolving-wheel, or 
carrier, which is placed in a rather low position, and are supported and guided 
by small friction-rollers, one attached beneath each rake-arm very near to the 
joint ; these rollers traversing against a fixed cam so shaped as to guide the 
rakes over the platform, lift them after delivery, uphold them while returning 
to the front, and lower them in a curved sidelong path into the standing corn. 
By means of an outer and inner channel to the cam, and a shunt motion with 
a facing-point switch, the rakes are made to act as gatherers or deliverers at 
pleasure. The switch is worked by a rotating lug upon a short axis driven by 
spur-pinions from the main rake-motion axis ; and the rakes are controllable 
to this extent — that, by removing the small pinion from the lug axis, and 
replacing it by a pinion of a different size, the switch is opened for every 
second or third, or fourth rake ; that is, by stopping the machine, it can be 
set to deliver sbeaves at every 8, 12, 16, or 20 feet ; while, without stopping, 
the driver can, by pressing his foot on a treadle, slide up the pinion which 
drives the shunting motion so that the switch will not be worked, and all the 
rakes then act as gatherers, the machine carrying the sheaf as when cutting 
thin places in the crop, or when passing round corners. 
In the trial, this reaper delivered by every fourth rake ; some 
of the sheaf-bunches, at intervals of about 15 feet, were fairly 
laid, but others were fanned ; and it was noticed that the 
gatherers in their upward jerk occasionally whipped out grain. 
Owing to the sharp incline of the downward sweep of the rakes 
in entering the crop, there was a tendency to bring the ears 
down, instead of raising them up, as is the case when rakes 
enter the crop in a more sidelong direction ; the effect being 
that many ears were cut off short. The stubble was left 4 to 5 
inches long. It is to be noted that the Harvester Company 
had the disadvantage of working horses from London which had 
never seen a reaping machine before ; and a badly laid patch of 
the crop was encountered at the south-west corner of the plot. 
