The Trials of Self-binding Harvesters at Chester. 
713 
Dynamometer Trials. 
These trials took place on Friday, July 28, and although they 
had to be abandoned on the previous day owing to the wet, both 
the ground and the crop were in excellent condition. It would 
have been difficult to have selected a more uniform crop or a 
more favourable piece of ground. 
The machines selected by the Judges, as they finished their 
trial in the barley, were sent to be tested by the dynamometer 
in order to ascertain their comparative drafts. 
The dynamometer was the same as used in previous trials of 
reaping machines, with the addition of a self-registering 
arrangement, by which the range of variation of draft is recorded 
instead of being merely read off at sight as formerly. 
The several machines were attached to the dynamometer, 
which was hauled by three horses. As these horses had to be 
led, the speed at which the machines travelled was very con- 
siderably less than that at which they would ordinarily work ; 
and owing to unavoidable irregularity, due to leading three 
horses tandem, Mr. Courtney, the Society’s Engineer, thinks it 
more than probable that an appreciable increase of speed and of 
consequent “ work done ” might be obtained without appreciably 
increasing the mean draught. 
All the sheaves cut by each machine in these trials were 
collected and weighed ; in the other trials the sheaves were 
counted and the weight estimated upon the mean weight of some 
twenty sheaves collected promiscuously. 
This completes the history of the trials, and the Judges 
unanimously placed the successful machines in the following 
order : — 
Messrs. Hornsby, No. 5172 First Prize of 50/. 
Messrs. Hornsby, No. 6171 I The Second Prize of 30/. and Third Prize 
The Massey-TIarris Co., No. 4031 J of 20/., equally divided. 
Very little remains to be said. We consider that we had 
every opportunity of deciding as to the respective merits of the 
several machines, and that if we followed them for a thousand 
miles (instead of the hundred or so that we probably did follow 
them) it would not alter our opinion. 
The great lesson to be learnt from these trials is the para- 
mount importance of good separation. Bad separation means 
waste in every direction— waste of corn, and waste of labour in 
raking, with an inferior sample. Also the importance of the 
sectional outline of the finger-bar and cutting-platform. It will 
be noticed that the First Prize goes to the dosed and not the 
