A CLEVER INVENTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2153, 27 April 1886, Page 2

A CLEVER INVENTION.

Wk have been permitted to inspect a most ingenious and clever invention, the creation of Mr James Ronald Handyside, of Hamilton, which ought to prove not only a most Acceptable labour-saving machine, hut also very remunerative to the inventor himself. The subject is a portable firewood cutting and -s flitting machine, and consists of a poweiful, wo!l tempered knife, fixed ou the rim of a heavy c ist iron wheel, which is driven by a belt connected with a turning wheel revolved by hand. Hor»e, water or ateain power can al»o be used for working it. The machine is built on a heavy solid frame, which has rollers on wheels attached with a pair of shafts, by means of which it can be moved from place to place, wherever its services may bo required to reduce bulk firewood to any proportions fit for use. By means of this invention, a man and boy can easily cut in one day ten tons of firewood, varying from one inch to six inches in thickuess, into lengths of eight inches. It can go through wood nine inches thick, and lighter or heavier work can be performed on this principle by having machines fitted with smaller or heavier wheels and blades. By holding thick blocks in a particular way on the chopping board through which the knife passes, they can be simply and quickly split up. Fencing rails can also be pointed by this method. Mr Handyside has a large model constructed and in use, and though it has not the finished appearance of a properly manufactured machine, still it performed all the work it is claimed to do with a rapidity and facility really wonderful. It is safer, possesses greater simplicity, and is more cheaply and less costly worked than the circular saw and gas engine, and for working men in country dibtrict who deal in firewood, it it should prove as great a bles&ing as the sewing-machine to the seamstress. Mr Handyside has applied for a patent in tho usual manner.