144 Report on Implements at Liverpool, and on 
Mr. Coleman in his Report on the Agricultural Implements at 
the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition.* 
Considerable interest was excited by the two Sheep-shearing 
Machines exhibited by Messrs. Newton Wilson and Co., and 
by the Reading Iron Works for Captain Turquand. 
The former invention comprises an iron standard, on 
which the motive-power, a pulley-wheel turned by hand, is 
fixed, and from the end of which a flexible arm with ball-and- 
socket joint carries the shears. The operator holds the sheep 
with one hand, whilst he guides the shears with the other. 
Captain Turquand's machine has some special features which 
recommend it for favourable consideration. 
It consists of a double-hinged frame capable of securely 
holding two sheep, which are secured by the legs and by a 
strap across the neck, so completely that the operators have 
both hands at liberty to work the shears and manipulate the 
wool. The motive-power is derived from the revolutions of a 
large and easily rotated fly-wheel, which drives by means of 
a crossed strap and two rollers, above the platform where the 
sheep are secured. Catgut bands convey the required motion 
to the cutters. This is a very simple and efficient arrangement. 
It is necessary to begin one sheep first, and when shorn on one 
side he is transferred to the opposite frame, which, owing to the 
hinged apparatus, is readily accomplished. Thus two operators 
can work, and with moderately expert hands a dozen sheep can 
be shorn per hour, three men being employed. The price of 
the machine complete is 35/. As professed labour-savers, the 
Judges determined to put them to a competitive test. The ex- 
perimental trials of these on living sheep took place, and were 
watched with great interest by a large concourse of spectators, 
not the least interested among whom were the shepherds in 
charge of the sheep for exhibition, as the place in which the 
trials were held was only a few yards distant from the .sheds in 
which the sheep were housed, the Leicester sheep being nearest. 
There was, therefore, a gathering of the knowing ones round 
the ring, whose remarks were truly of a practical character, but, 
it must be admitted, more free than complimentary. Each 
competitor was allowed a sheep to practise on before the testing 
with animals took place. 
Newton Wilson's machine has no platform, the man who 
guides the machine holding the sheep on the ground exactly as 
• ' Journal of tlio Eoyal Agricultural Society,' 2nd Series, vol. xiii., Part I., 
p. 35. 
