330 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
success. On account of the inequality of temper, or want of 
uniformity of quality of the steel, fractures were frequent. 
The welding of the two extremities which was necessary in 
forming the band, however carefully performed, presented al¬ 
ways a point of insecurity. Experience has, however, sug¬ 
gested means of overcoming these difficulties, and at present 
fractures are of rare occurrence. It is eonsidered, neverthe¬ 
less, to be a judicious precaution against injury from such pos¬ 
sible accidents, to surround the saw with a wooden box or 
shield, at least as high as the head of the workman. The pul¬ 
leys are covered on their circumferenees with leather, and the 
neeessary tension is produced by adjusting screws, by which 
the distance of the two pulleys from each other can be varied. 
Some constructors, however, employ springs, or even weights, 
to maintain the tension. 
In the British department the machine exhibited was pro¬ 
vided with a table or bed susceptible-of being inclined, so as 
to vary the angle at which the material is presented to the 
saw. The same object could be secured, of course, but less 
conveniently, by inclining the material upon a horizontal bed, 
and blocking it up in such a position. Some of the French 
constructors have even contrived to make the position of the 
saw itself variable, giving it at pleasure a vertieal or inclined 
position while the material remains undisturbed upon a hori¬ 
zontal bed. Either of these two expedients contributes very 
much to increase the usefulness of the machine. The velocity 
with which the saw runs is very great, being as high as fifty 
feet per second; yet its motion is so steady and silent that, to 
the spectator, especially in the case of the narrow scroll saws, 
it hardly seems to bo moving at all. It needs only to be added 
that the feed is not intermittent, as in the case of ordinary 
saws, but is uniform and smooth, like the motion of the saw 
itself. 
BARREL-MAKING MACHINERY. 
Another of the very original contributions of the United 
States to the machinery department of the exposition con- 
