The Trials of Self-binding Harvesters at Chester. 703 
Pusey first described with admiration and astonishment the 
machine which McCormick showed at the Great Exhibition of 
1851. There were trials in 1852, 1853, 1854, 1855, 1856, 
1857, 1860, 1861, 1865, 1869 (at Manchester, when there were 
98 entries, 84 of which were tried by the Judges), and 1876 
(at Birmingham) ; and it was in connection with the last of 
these that the Society added, at the foot of its prize list of 150L 
for four classes of Reaping Machines, the attractive offer of its 
Gold Medal “ for an efficient Sheaf-binding Machine, either 
attached to a Reaper or otherwise.” 
Mr. Walter A. Wood exhibited in the Birmingham Show- 
yard a “ Sheaf-binder,” which, in the opinion of the Steward, 
Mr. Jabez Turner, “ appeared on the stand equal to performing 
its duty ” (Vol. XII. p. 596) ; but it did not turn up at the 
trials of Reapers held in tropical weather on the Leamington 
Sewage Farm in the following August, and the reporting Judge, 
Mr. John Algernon Clarke, was relieved, therefore, from the 
necessity of reporting upon it. 
The display at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 
1876 of four different inventions for self-binding, “the realisa- 
tion,” as Mr. John Coleman observed in his admirable report in 
Vol. XIII. of the Journal, “ of a long cherished notion on which 
mechanics have been engaged for years,” appears to have 
encouraged the Society to repeat at Liverpool, in 1877, its offer 
of a Gold Medal — the highest distinction in its gift. There 
were originally eight entries for this Medal, but only five 
machines appeared in the Liverpool Showyard, and only three 
competed at the trials held in August 1877 at Aigburth. These 
three machines had all been exhibited at Philadelphia, and of 
two of them Mr. Coleman had already given a description in 
the Journal. Mr. Coleman and Mr. Henry Cantrell were the 
J udges, and after a long and careful investigation they reported 
that “ whilst great credit is due to the three inventions, viz. 
those of Walter A. Wood, D. M. Osborne & Co., and C. H. 
McCormick, for the considerable efficiency attained, none of 
them have, as regards the requirements of English farmers, 
attained that perfection which would justify the Judges in 
awarding the Gold Medal of the Society” (Vol. XIV. p. 133). 
, jg ( Liverpool, 1877, Vol. XIV. p. 106 (J. Hannam). 
S h 1 Bristol, 1878, Vol. XV. p. 73 (John Coleman). 
^ y, j Derby, 1881, Vol. XVIII. p. 2G4 (John Coleman). 
3 l Shrewsbury, 1884. Vol. XXI. p. 1 (Thomas Bell). 
See also Mr. John Coleman’s report on the Implements at the Philadelphia 
Centennial Exhibition of 1876, in Vol. XIII. (2nd Series), p. 4, and Mr. D d n 
Pidgeon's article on the “Evolution of Agricultural Implements”— section 
“ Harvesting Implements” — in Vol. III. (3rd Scries), p. 63. 
