Wolseley's Patent Sheep Shearing Machine.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 213, 30 July 1887, Page 8

Wolseley's Patent Sheep Shearing Machine.

Vi'n ha* o from time to time given our readcis whatever infoiraation we could collect concerning the above invention. We now give an illustration of the shearer •»n a scale half its actual size. Its merits rtiave beou publicly and privately tested most carefully, and the general verdict is that it is a really valuable invention and ono that will materially benefit Australasian

\vool q i <-"-ei3. The inventor, as we have informed our readers betoie, is Mr F. Y. , of Euroka Station, near Walgett. Many have worked to perfect an instrument >wfrich >houH do awny v ith the neco c sifcy of 'skilled labour for removing the fleece from the bad: of the sheep. But all ha\u practically failed until Mr Wolseley, afte.yeais of patient and persevei ing trials, lias at last succeeded in producing a mechanical shearer of which the tii/dmy Mail thus writes : — H$ places before the public a machine simple in construction, the entire eo->t of whi.'h i? not moie than £10, with which any man or woman of oidinary intelligence, without =pecial training, may shear a &hcep in a better and more humane way than can the mo-t evpert All gashing and second cui^ aie minimised by the use of the machine which take y off the ileece evenly, and can be made lo cut much more closely than the oidhruy shears There is a great pa\ ing i i p!r> pow er. For instance, seven houi -=' woik with the shears should be inoieti^i'ig than 1 "2 hours with the machine. In thoe point* th<3 machine is undoubtedly s a pei 'u 'i' to the oidinary shears, but w hen it come-- to the important question, speed, the rkiiful sheatercan made a better tally than can the ir-er ot the machine. [As v. c stated in ki-t month's Faummi lr.oio lucent ttia,'s have thovui that even a^ regards .-peed tho machine can beat band &!iLaun fc '. — Hi). N".Z F ] "YVgl-c!g\ 'cheating machine i-not a t:>y, but a -olid piactieal tool, such as would be beneficial t:> have on any shearing floor. It occupies no moie sr,ac3 than docs an ordinal y pair of sheais, being in length only 9V inches, and in e:;tieme width only 2^ iuchci, and in weight only l^lbs. Its principle of cutting resembles to some extent that of the horse-clipper and tiio mowing machine. In the clipper a plate works on a plate, both having teeth. In the mow er a serrated knife works speedily backwards and forwards through fingers or teeth. In the wool-shearing machine there are 10 teeth, over vihich a small three prong cutter moves backwards and forwaids veiy speedi\y, as do the knives of the mowing machines '' A recent nuTber of the Australasian, from "which we l^c taken our engraving, thus de-cubes the mechanical con^ti action and woi king of the machine : — A length of bhafting diiven by a small engine faces tho shearing floor. On this shafting, and oft. apart, are cast iron wheels 2ffc. in diameter ; each wheel has one side of its flange slightly bevelled. Six feet six inches above the shearing floor, and attached to each post by bark and sft. ap,ut, h a cast iion biackct, w ith an extension of Sfr. of licht angle iion ; on eoch bracket is a small leather wheel 4in. in diameter, with a be^el of i^in., cot responding to tha bevel of the iion wheol above This vUieel is foiled by compie.s-ing several layers of leather between bras? plates. It rotate.-, on a fpindle. On the end of tho spindle i« a steel hook, and ouhado the bearing i.i screwed a brags coupling, which is attached to a iicxible tubo (>ft. Gin. lon^. Inside this tube its a piece of round gut, half an inch in diameter, with a hook at one end and an eye at the other ; the eye is placed in the hook at tho end of the spindle, earning the .-mall leather fiiction wheel ; the hook is placed iv the eye at the end of the universal joint forming pait of the shearing machine. Tho connection is inadc complete by a thin biass coupling, slipping over a light brass ferule on the end of the flexible tube, and sciowed to tho end ot tho univuusal joint. ]>y pulling a small coid hanging fiom the bracket a spring liberates tho catch, and instantly the bevel leather wheel is pushed into position of contact with tho bevel of the iron -wheel revolving on the shaft, and thus it communicated a rotary motion to the core inside the llexiblo tube, and po to the small rorls working the crank inside !he casing of the machine. This crank moves from side to side of the cylinder, and thus causes the lorfc with cutter attached at end

to reciprocate over the comb, and aa the comb is pushed into the wool so does the small cutter cut. The illustration of the pliearor is half the actual size. An eight horse-power engine will drive 100 shears, one man attending each, and their construction is not so complex but that a shearer of ordinary intelligence could learn how to work them in a few hours.