202 Report on Miscellaneous Implements at Newcastle. 
in a trough-like bed-plate. Each receiver is ahout the same width as the 
thrashing machine, and its limits of length are defined by vertical boards, of 
■which one occupies the centre, and other two the ends of the trusser. Of 
the three U's forming each receiver, two are plain forks, while the third, or 
central U, is provided with compressing levers operated by the foot, and 
armed with about two hundred strings, lying each in a groove of its own, for 
the purpose of tying. ~\Vhen in action, one of the two receivers, say A, is 
slid underneath the straw shalcer, whence it receives the issuing straw, a 
boy packing this, as it falls, neatly in the U's. "When sufliciently full, 
receiver A is slid to one side, and receiver B, taking its place, begins to 
receive straw from the machine. The truss already gathered in A is, first, 
slightly compressed by the levers provided for that purpose, and then tied 
with one of the strings with which, as already described, the centre U is 
furnished. For the sake of saving time, each string is provided with a 
button at one end and a loop at tlie other, so that " tying " should properly 
be called " buttoning." After the truss has been removed by the pitch-fork, 
receiver A is ready to take the place of B for another load. Matters are so 
arranged that the boy attending A has ample time to tie and get rid of one 
truss before receiver B is full, and vice versa. 
The Judges remark tliat the trusses were not neatly enough 
made or tied for purposes of sale, while it would be difficult to 
insure their being of uniform weight. 
Novelties. 
Among the novelties exhibited at Newcastle, the following 
are those of chief interest : — 
Messrs. Clayton & Shuttleworth, of Lincoln, showed a small 
but not unimportant novelt}'- (Art. 15) in the shape of a con- 
trivance for preventing the escape from the mouth of a thrashing 
machine of such grain as is thrown out by the action of the 
drum ; a quantity always appreciable and, in the case of some 
wheats, considerable. 
A flat sliding-plate, furnished with slots and set screws for 
fixing in any position, and placed opposite the feeder, covers a 
portion of the drum-mouth. A second plate is hinged to the 
front edge of the first, and depends vertically, or nearly so, from 
it. Upon the slight inclination of this quasi-vertical plate it 
depends whether grain, flying from the drum, is arrested or not, 
and very slight changes in the angle it makes with the vertical 
are sufficient to bring about the required results with grain of 
various specific gravities. 
To compass these changes, the short end of a lever, whose 
farther extremity is pivoted to the framework of the thrasher, is 
fastened to the hanging plate, while its fulcrum is formed on 
the flat sliding-plate itself. When the latter is slid back or 
forth, therefore, the hanging plate moves through a small arc, 
the relative amounts of the two movements depending upon the 
relation of the lever arm and I'ulcriim, which is about 4 to 1. 
After a little trial and error, the angle of the hanging plate best 
