Report on Sheaf-Binding Machinery at Shrewsbury. 55 
handful of grain lying below it loose. The horses often stopped, 
very many sheaves were not tied at all, and a bundle of string 
was picked up, which had been delivered instead of a sheai. 
This machine was worked with shafts for the horses instead of 
a pole ; the draught was evidently great. Time, 42 minutes. 
Plot 17. Wood, No. 409. — This plot had rather a steep 
inclination, but the horses did not appear to be distressed with 
their work. Several stoppages were caused by the string being 
pulled out of the gripper. The sheaves were rather big, four 
were unbound, but the cut was fairly good. Time, 37^ minutes. 
The binding mechanism of this machine has not been fully described yet. 
It is distinguished, in the first place, by being all arranged above the deck 
or platform on which the binding takes place, so that it is very accessible. 
The packing is done between a packing-finger secured to a narrow ledge, 
against which the corn drops, and which is held up by a rocking-shaft 
actuated by a lever connected by a rod to a cam arrangement, which permits 
the ledge and finger to turn back at the moment that the sheaf is ready for 
being discharged. The packers, which are above the deck, consist of a pair 
of revolving discs, each containing in their opposite faces three L-shaped 
fingers, which shoot out beyond the discs and gather in the corn towards the 
fixed packer-finger, and are withdrawn from the grain within the circum- 
ference of the discs as they revolve on the side facing the delivery edge of 
the deck. When sufficient grain has been packed, the pressure of the sheaf 
against a trip lever, the tension of which is adjustable, throws the needle-arm 
into motion, and at the same time stops the packers, thereby relieving the 
machine from the work of compressing the sheaf at the time when the 
binding and discharge are going on. The needle-arm is keyed on to a 
roeking-shaft under the deck, and is actuated by a crank and pitman. The 
string is rove through a tension regulator through the hollow needle-arm, and 
is delivered to the gripper on its upper side. This gripper consists of a 
horizontal rocking-frame or slide, pivoted at one end and caused to oscUlate by 
a lever and cam, the object being to give slack twine for forming the knot. 
Sliding longitudinally in this frame is a hooked gripper, which has a 
longitudinal motion produced by a 4-cam wheel and roller, which makes one- 
fourth of a revolution for every sheaf that is bound. The cam-roller actuates 
a spring lever, which has sufficient power to hold the string, and range of 
elasticity enough to compensate for the irregularity of the string. The twine is 
carried by the needle-arm under the gripper, which is protruded to receive it, 
and is held by its hooked end against the frame it slides in, the grip being 
increased by a projecting rib which engages into a recess in the head of the 
gripper. The knife for cutting the string is well protected, and is also fitted 
close to the gripper. 
The knotter itself has a hollow spindle, the outer one worked by a cam 
lever and roller actuating a bevel segment, which engages into a bevel pinion 
on the outer spindle of the knotter. At the bottom of this spindle is a 
horizontal spiral hook composed of two parts, the upper one formed with a 
sudden rise on its upper part tailing off to nothing, and with a barbed 
projection at the extreme tip of its lower part ; the other part of the spiral hook 
fits close under the upper portion, but is capable of sliding round a short way 
relatively to the same. It is connected to the central spindle, round the upper 
part of which is wound a spiral spring strong enough to keep the lower portion 
of the hook firmly against the barb of the upper one ; when, however, the outer 
hollow spindle revolves, a projection on the inner spindle catches against the 
fixed body of the apparatus and causes the lower portion of the hook to lag 
