SHEEP-SHEARING BY MACHINERY.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1039, 20 February 1879, Page 2

SHEEP-SHEARING BY MACHINERY.

A Boston inventor (Mr J. C. Wightman, son of ex-Mayor Wightman), seems to have discovered the longsought for solution of the problem of shearing sheep by machinery, as his device has been practically tested with the most satisfactory resulnd Sheep-shearing- by hand is a work requiring especially skilled labor, but with this machine any farmer or herdsman becomes an expert shearer at once, as the machines requires no previously acquired skill to use ifc. It consists of a small implement which can be handled as readily as a pair of sheep-shears, but which takes off the fleece so much more rapidly and economically than those articles as to ca so a saving of half a cent to one cent a pound on the wool clip. It also does its work without cutting the sheep, and possesses one feature that enables it to overcome the main obstacle that has heretofore stood in the "<vay of the practical success of all previously devised machines foi sheering sheep. The use of the sheep - shearing machines heretofore invented has been rendered itnpr<tetieable by their inability fco clip wool containing sand or dirt ; a few grains of sa&i would turn their edge completely and render them useless, and the time and labor required to put them in condition again would more than offset any possible gain which could be derived from their use. This machine, however, is self, sharpening the cutting is done by a rapidly, revolving circlular knife, working behind blunt teeth, which are pushed through the wool ahead of the knife, thus preventing any danger to the sheep. The knife is sharpened by an emery wheel forming Ipavt of the machine, which the operator can apply whenever desirable, without pausing in his shearing operations, by merely pressing a oouvenient spring attached to the machine. The minute details of tho machine, that perfect the results, it is hardly necessary to describe here. The motive power is applied to the machine by means of a flexible attachment to the handle. The method of introducing this invention to the public has not yet been determined upon, but the suggestion has been made that a company should be organised, and the machines leased to sheep-farmers, under a system of royalties similar to those of the McKay Sewing Machine Association. As the number of sheep in America and Australia is estimated at 1 '15,000,000, and the annual wool clip at 580,000,000 pounds, a reduction of a single half a cent per lb. in the oost of securing it would cause an aggregate savin» of 2,900000 dollars per annum. The fact that Mr Whitman's invention obviates any danger of cutting the sheep during shearing is a point iu its favor, whose importance will be appreciated by all who have ever, had an opportunity of seeing tha barbarous manner in which a sheep is sometimes mutilated by tli6shears, Anifcricau pa^r.