New Shearing Machine.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 10 December 1891, Page 3

New Shearing Machine.

An English contemporary says : — 11 A new apparatus for shearing sheep by machinery was shown on October 6th, by Mr John W. Newall, on his estate, Forest Hall, Ongar. The chief claim for Mr Newall's patent is that it is the only machine yet made which can be worked easily by handpower. The result is due to the combination of driving frame, shaft and shear, each of which is superior pattern. The hand-power driving f vauxe consists of a heavy base from which rises a vertical pillar carrying a fly-wheel, to whioh is attached a driving-handle. This wheel drives, by means ot a chain, a small pinion fixed at one end of a horizontal shaft whioh is journalied in a casting at the top of the pillar. The oasting overhangs the pillar to some extent at the other side, so as to give plenty of room to handle the sheep, and at the outer end of the horizontal spindle is a bevel wheel which gears with a pinion, from the spindle of whioh the flexible driving shaft hangs down. A speed of thirty revolutions of the handle gives a speed at the cutter of 2000, and the machine runs so lightly that a boy can drive it In addition to this advantage, the shears at the end of the shaft can be held in the hand and worked in any direction with a perfectly even motion and without jailing. A regularity and evenea-t of cutting is thus obtained with a. minimum amount of friction. The time taken to shear a sheep by this process is about 4 A- minutes., and an engin6 of one horse- power oan drive sixteen machines, whereas most machines each require one horse-power engine. Illustrations were given on Tuesday of shearing horse*clipping by electricily, when the knives of the tool worked at a rate of 4000 revolutions per minute, with the result that both horse and sheep were clipped quite evenly, neither animal showing marks of the passage of the clipper. Other advantages arc that the wool is clipped in its full length, and about Mb more can be

i cut off each shet^ than by hand, while the shears are so constrncted that it is impossible for the shearers to cut the hide. The company of experts, farmers, and others who accepted the invitation of Messrs J. B. Crosby, and admitted the superiority of the machine both a3 regai'ds its easy manipulation and economic working.