548 The Trials of Sheep Shearing Machines at Chester, 
Class III . — Sheep Shearing Machine ( other than ordinary Shears ), 
worked by hand or foot. 
369 5251 Newall-Cuningham Sheep Shearing Machine Syndicate, 
Ltd., 73, Cheapside, London, E.C. Price 15/. 
The shearing arrangement in each case is a reproduction, on 
a small scale, of the cutting apparatus in the mowing and 
reaping machines; the fingers, however, look like a coarse comb, 
and occupy a length of some three inches only, and the cutters 
or shears travel in the arc of a circle instead of in a straight 
line- 
in both exhibits there are contrivances for pressing the 
cutters against the fingers with readily adjustable tension, and 
the reciprocating lever, which gives the to-and-fro motion, is 
pivoted on counter cone ball beai’ings, and has adjustments 
whereby the pressure is brought evenly over the whole surface 
of the cutters. Motion is given by a crank, worked on the end 
of the internal flexible shaft, hereafter described, the crank pin 
of which moves in a slot formed at right angles to the plane 
of the fingers in the rear end of the reciprocating lever. 
The whole of the cutting apparatus is enclosed in a light 
metal box fitted with a handle which the operator grasps, and 
by means of which he guides the implement over the body of 
the sheep. 
The flexible shafts in the two exhibits are of identical con- 
struction. They are external and internal. The former are 
composed of tubes about -ff-inch external diameter, and are in 
three lengths. The first piece, about four feet long, hangs 
vertically from the driving gear ; the second, two feet long, is 
more or less horizontal ; and the third forms the actual shearing 
apparatus. 
The driving power is transmitted through §-inch diameter 
steel spindles, which pass down and revolve inside the tubular 
shafts above mentioned : these, at the two lower joints, are 
hinged together, so as to be capable of bending from a straight 
line to an angle of about 60°, and at the same time one of the 
hinges is made to revolve round the shaft it is attached to, and by 
that means gives additional mobility. The internal shafts are 
coupled and connected by peculiarly formed bevel wheels, the 
teeth of which lock into each other when the shafts are in a 
straight line, but act as bevel wheels when they are at an angle 
to each other. 
The second length of shaft is connected to the shears by 
means of a bayonet joint protected by a brass sheath which 
slides over the outer shaft : the articulations here also are 
