Trials of Self-binding Reapers at Aigburth. 145 
when ordinary shears are used. Captain Turquand's machine 
has a very ingenious platform on which the sheep is laid and 
bound down, so as to allow the man to guide the machine 
without obstruction and without the labour and the strength 
rccjuired to control an unruly sheep. When half shorn, a re- 
versal of the platform turns the sheep so as to bring the unshorn 
side under the operation of the shears. This mode of securing 
the sheep saves, I am convinced, half the power used in manipu- 
lating the machine. At the trial, the man engaged in using 
Xewton Wilson's machine consumed as much power in hold- 
ing the struggling sheep as he did in guiding the shearer 
and taking off the wool. In point of construction, Turquand's 
machine has a great advantage in its platform and in the clever 
manner in which the power is applied. Having a heavy fly- 
wheel, the power required after motion was produced was very 
little, a man keeping the shears going with perfect ease. This 
point I personally tested. In point of working capabilities, 
Turquand's machine has considerable advantage, cutting more 
I freely and with larger grasp. Newton Wilson's shears seemed 
to nibble at the wool to some extent, and to linger as they 
passed over the sheep. They also left a quantity of waste 
wool in short lengths. This opinion seemed justified by the 
result, as Turquand finished his sheep in good style in 11 minutes, 
, the Newton machine taking 17 minutes to complete the de- 
jnuding of the other animal. In neither case was the sheep cut in 
any part of the skin, and the workmanship of the operation was 
first class, more wool being got off than by the ordinary mode 
of "clipping." These excellences do not by any means counter- 
balance the disadvantage of the cost of the operation by either 
machine, as compared with hand-shearing. The same number 
of hands are required by the new as well as the old mode ; but 
a better man is required at the wheel, and to bring sheep to the 
machine, than is required to bring the sheep to the ordinary 
shearer, as he has no wheel to turn. Indeed, this help may be- 
dispensed with by penning the sheep close at hand. Assuming, 
however, the manual power to be equal to both modes, we still 
have the cost and the interest of the machine in excess, and 
inferior results by the new mode. The sheep operated on were 
lambs, and it required 11 minutes to remove the wool by the 
fastest of the machines, a time more than double what a first- 
rate clipper would require to clip a similar sheep in. Certainly, 
in a trial on a single sheep, the fleece could be taken off by 
band-shears in less than half the time taken by the machine ; 
while in ordinary practice, by ordinary shepherds, not more 
:han 7 minutes would be required to strip a small sheep. The 
VOL. XIV. — S. S. L 
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