576 
Report on the Trials of 
two in tying. Baling takes jDlace against a resistance which, 
as will presently appear, involves a loss of energy; while the 
stoppage of two minutes in every five for the purpose of wiriug 
constitutes a supplementary loss of time. The number of men 
tending the press was two; the output was relatively small, 
but the density obtained very great. Straw was crushed a good 
deal in the process of baling, while the power absorbed was 
considerable. When the compressing screw was put into gear, 
the engine was, momentarily, asked for some four times the 
power required during the rest of the operation. The press 
worked supported on its own travelling wheels, and is easily 
transported from place to place. 
Article No. 3,7G2 (Fig. 3, p. G03), exhibited by /. & F. 
Howard, Britannia Works, Bedford, was the next machine tried. 
This was, strictly speaking, a " continuous " press, for the pro- 
cess of baling, although intermittent, was not stopped for the 
purpose of wiring. 
Hay, or straw, the latter as it comes from the thrashinj^ machine, was 
fed into a capacious receiver, whence it passed into a compressor, consistin-^ 
of two endless bands, inclined to each other, and constructed of stronj^ 
■wooden slats, hinged to<?ether, and travelling over vertical rollers. These 
" aprons" are 6 ft. long, 4 ft. apart where the hay or straw enters, and ]4 in. 
apart at the mouth of the press, which is 18 in. deep. A crank and ratchet 
arrangement gives an intermittent rotating movement to the forward rollers 
around which the endless bands turn, the latter advancing 4 inches for every 
movement of the ratchet, or 3 feet per minute, at the speed adopted by the 
exhibitors. 
The bale, issuing from the mouth of the press, is temporarily held together 
by means of U-shaped steel cramps, or " retainers," which are slipped over 
it until wire ties can be substituted for them. These, which are usually 
placed 1 foot apart in strav,^, and 8 in. apart in bay, are passed by needles 
through grooves in a table which receives the rectangular "sausage" of hay 
or straw, and then twisted up by a pair of pliers. 
A man, armed with a " Lightning " hay-knife, cuts the " sausage " oft' to 
any required length while it is still issuing from the press, being assisted in 
this operation by a downward inclination given to the path of the truss at 
the point where he stands, an inclination which encourages the bale to open 
under the action of the knife, and assists the operator in the same way as 
does a sawyer's wedge. 
One man feeds, and another, standing in the receiver, tramples the material 
into the mouth of the compressor, while four juon are required at the mouth 
of the press for the purpose of cramping, Aviriug, and cutting oil' the bales. 
The output of this machine was good, while it could evi- 
dently have done much more work if its speed had not been 
limited by the inability of four men to cramp and tie as fast as 
the " sausage" issued. In the particulars of trampling, cramping, 
wiring, and cutting off the truss, the eludges felt that this 
])res8 was a compromise between manual labour and machiner}-, 
and the fact that six men, in all, were required for one or other 
