llai/ and Straw Fresses at NottiiKjham, 
593 
seeing that justice was done to each press. Even so, it must be 
remembered that tlie tabulated outputs and densities in Class 1 
are not so exactly comparable as in classes where loose hay and 
straw were baled. 
Article No. 5G2 (Fig. 9, p. G07), exhibited by Jo.<ei>h Brad- 
hurn, Charles Street, Manchester, was a press in which a 
suspended platten, balanced by counterweights, is pulled down 
upon the stuff to be baled by the action of a long lever, acting 
through a ratchet and gearing upon a pair of chain-barrels 
situated beneath the floor of the press. 
The lever imparts an intermittent motion, by means of a pawl and 
ratchet-wheel, to the spindle of a pinion which gears, with a ratio of 4 to 1, 
into a wheel keyed on the chain-barrel shaft. A second (bevil) pinion, 
gearing into a second set of teeth cast on the same wheel, and operated by a 
winch, serves to give a quick motion to the chain-barrel shaft at the begin- 
ning of pressing ; the man in attendance then throws the quick motion out 
of gear, and completes the operation by some strokes of the lever, on which he 
finally hangs all his weight. The bale is tied with cord in the usual way, 
and the platten, on being released, is raised by counterweights, a simple but 
ingenious arrangement of " snail " pulley on the shaft forming the axis of the 
counterweight.s, lifting the platten higher in ft-ont than behind, and opening 
the press widely for the admission of a second charge of hay. 
The ratio of movement between the end of the lever and the 
platten at the moment of greatest pressure is 120 to 1. A 
man and a boy worked this machine, but the man only gave 
the pressure, so that, assuming his weight to be 140 lbs., this 
would equal 7'5 tons pressure on the platten. 
This machine worked extremely well ; it gave a good, though 
not relatively high, density, was easy work for a man and boy, 
and made a good output. The condition of the hay in the bales 
was, of course, unaltered from that of the stack, and this was the 
case with all the machines in this class. The cost of baling: 
was low, and the machine altogether a very satisfactory one. It 
was quickly and easily mounted for travelling, or dismounted for 
going to work, an operation which only occupied a few minutes. 
Perhaps there are more parts and more mechanical com- 
plexity than need be in the Bradbury Press, but it is one which 
would assuredly give satisfaction to any farmer employing it. 
The machine might have obtained more points, had Brad- 
bury cut his trusses larger ; and, indeed, it would have been 
better had each competitor been obliged to cut a given sized 
truss from the stack. But this was a matter manifestly outside 
the control of the Judges, who could only say to all the com- 
petitors, " Go as you please, and show your machine to the best 
advantage," while exercising their judgment as to whether any 
trusses were, or were not, too large to be practical. 
Article No. 557 (Fig. 6, p. 606), exhibited by Joseph Bamher, 
VOL. x.xiv. — s. S. Q Q 
