WORLD CHAMPION SHEARERS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27065, 13 June 1953, Page 5

WORLD CHAMPION SHEARERS

Discovery Of The Long Blow

MR GEORGE GARDNER’S RECOLLECTIONS

Mr George Gardner, of Clyde road, in his younger days a shearer of note, adds a lot of historical material to the following comment on Mr Godfrey Bowen’s recent demonstration:— “I went along to Addington show grounds on May 27, to see a public demonstration of sheep shearing by Godfrey Bowen, who has been described in New Zealand as the world’s champion shearer. Even though an old hand, I took no captious mind with me, but was resolved, above all else, to note this shearer’s technique, for to me technique is not dissociated from speed, and the first should connote the second, in the best sense, to be of practical use. “The arrangements for the show were aj> crude and casual as, on the other hand, the idea of holding it for educational and training purposes was admirable. A ‘real’ up to date woolshed, a ‘real’ shearer, and a ‘real* broomie-picker up (as the only attendant on the shearing board) is a sine qya non for any demonstration. But I am sure this initial trial will lead to something .worth while in the very near future. For the 35,000,000 sheep of New Zealand are no tuppeny ha'penny affair. And from New Zealand’s hills and plains to the world’s woollen mills, capital and labour are allied to no mean extent in ‘real’ production; aqd in obtaining thia, there is a right and a wrong way of doing things, and shearing is no exception to the rule. And in its own way, it is just as important as anything taught in technical or University classes, if a man wants to ‘know how.’

“Skipping a lot of things, Godfrey Bowen had a competent and great style of shearing on the sheep provided for him—even if crutching was thrown in for good measure—for his handling of sheep and machine, could hardly be improved on. But that brings up the crucial test, when he is classed as the world’s champion shearer. There are sheep, and sheep! For instance, a big proportion of the world’s flocks are in Australia, and what are looked on as normal sheep, normal shearing, and a normal tally, on the Barcoo, Warrego, Darling, and Riverina—with a narrow-gauge comb and cutter —is a totally different affair among the Romneys, Cheviots, etc., of New Zealand—with a broad gauge comb and cutter. Scientific Shearer “Also, let it be known, Godfrey Bowen’s style, except in. one small particular, is no different from that originated by James Power, just on 62 years ago, at Dunlop Station, River Darling, Bourke, N.S.W. Taken all round, Jimmy was the most scientific and fastest machine shearer the world has yet seen. Of that 1 am positive. And also, the first anywhere to accommodate himself to the different technique, as between blade and machine shearing. He discovered the ‘long blow.’ I know this only too well, for I was his pen-mate at Dunlop, when it happened. (Incidentally, Dunlop and the adjoining station, were, I have always understood, the first to install shearing machines, and to put down bores in Australia). “We were shearing very big merino rams, with outsized spiralled horns. Finishing off trie fMrst shoulder, Jimmy’s sheep got out of control, banged its head down, and the horn smashed a hole through the floor. I up and took notice, for more reasons than one. But Jimmy’s brain acted as it always did, very qickly. In a peculiar manner, he just pinned the ram on its back, with his right knee on the crutch, and shore away from aft to fore in great style, despite the violent exertions of the animal’s hind legs in the air—which didn’t incommode Jimmy in the slightest. By the time the back ridge was reached, the ram decided to call It a day, and so, a revolutionary ' technique was evolved, and I was the first to follow suit.

“Among other things first put into practice by Jimmy was his method of shaping the points of the teeth of his combs in that peculiar manner which enables them to enter the fleece easily arid at the same time to ride the skin safely—an elementary but indispensable artifice to have at one’s command. Next was the particular attention he always paid to the ‘throw* of the cutter on the comb, so as to prevent and obviate ‘pulling* and ‘chewing’—in other words to ensure a complete cut. Also, he was the first machine shearer in Australia, in 1891, to discard the old-time hand shearers’ style of opening up the neck, viz. by starting away back on the last shoulder, and emerging by the off ear. He simply sailed straight up over the wind pipe, which kept the fleecebalanced, undamaged, and saved it from being broken down the back. Jimmy was always very proud of how compact his fleece finished on the floor. Utmost Credit “These various points may seem trite and commonplace now, even to those who realty ■do know good shearing, but all the same they were found out and practised before Godfrey Bowen was born. No detraction of any sort is meant to Godfrey Bowen; rather, he deserves the utmost credit for his spirited action in putting his special knowledge and ability at the disposal of others, even in this year 1953.

“And now we size up a shearing champion. This is not a matter of five minutes’ trial, or of one day, either. The real test is only known by getting into the big shearing runs, where the big guns gravitate, where you meet all comers on normal sheep, and where more often than not, six weeks go by without a shower. Any man qualified to be a ringer, and starting in a fresh shed, will, in a matter of minutes, have his eye on his most dangerous opponent—and so to it. And when you hear shearers talking ringers and champions, believe me, it is on all fours with the verbosity and earnestness of ‘doggy’ men, when they get going about the ancient and modern Bruces, and Glens, and Laddies, only to be matched by ‘horsey’ men when it is a case of St. Simon, Carbine, Phar Lap, Dalray, and so on. The arguments are, generally, just as futile as interminable. But, despite everything, I always maintain that Jimmy Power, a New Zealander from Oamaru, was the campion of champions at machine shearing.

“Now as to the history of the shearing machine itself. A brother of Lord Wolseley (one-time Commander of the British Army) owned Eureka Station, situated, I believe, somewhere in New South Wales, and to him must go the credit of inventing a shearing machine —but not altogether. He was an irascible man, his superiority complex being probably not lessened by having such a famous brother, and his temper not improved by the incessant strain "connected with the invention, so it was hard to keep suitable men around him. But fortune favoured him. There came into his employ an Arab, who at once became intensely interested in the shearing machine, and who, happily in the cir'cumstances, was blessed with a most infectious laugh, no matter how much he was bullied and bounced around. He was the exact man to fill the bill. “As a race, Arabs are mathematically minded; as an instance, they were the first to use our presentday numerals. I shore with El Baddery (Hassan, we used to call him) at Northampton Downs, Queensland, shortly after all this. He shore nowhere else, because he had a scour by the Barcoo river for all the locks and waste wool he collected, gratis, all round the various stations. He was very shrewd in everything he either said or did. He confided to me a lot of the early struggles of Wolseley in trying to perfect his machine. He got as far as one that would shear as well as ever one could wish for, but only for a sheep and a half. .After that the hand-piece got unbearably hot Hassan used to demonstrate in the wool store of one of the Melbourne stock and station firms, but never further than one sheep at stated intervals, till the machine had cooled

down; but the onlookers didn’t know that. “Trouble was with the flat plate which put pressure on the oscillating fork, and until that drawback could be overcome, the machine was decidedly an impractical proposition. One Sunday morning Hassan went along to the Melbourne Zoo, not to see the animals especially, but to be out in the open, and by himself, only. He found a seat in a quiet spot, sat down on it, and; as usual, started furiously to think about the problem of the hot machine. Along came some boys who found a spot near him, with a hard surface that suited them, and at once got to work—for tops were in season. Hassan idly watched a spinning top, and noticed how little friction was caused in the whirling round of such a comparatively heavy toy on such an insignificant point. Then his eye roved to the upper part of the top and watched it wave to and fro. Suddenly, he stared with intense concentration, for he noticed that no matter how much the top swayed from side to side, /still, any part of the curvature, at some time, always reached a certain specific height. In a flash he knew he had solved the problem. And so, the tension pin and the tension nut was the complete answer to friction and overheating troubles in the shearing machine. “In conclusion, I really must mention that Jimmy Power was sadly deficient in one thing—showmanship—when the unprecedented number of sheep he shore each season is taken into consideration. Regarding a day’s tally. I quote from ‘This Century of Ours* in which it is stated ‘lt is generally accepted that the best day’s work on Merino sheep during the ‘roaring nineties’ was Jimmy Power's 315 in 7 hours 20 minutes, at Barenya, Queensland, in 1895, and if more sheep had been available, it was generally understood he would have put up a world’s record. Be it understood this would have been done on Merinos, not lambs, and not Cheviots. Under artificial circumstances, goodness only knows but that he might have walloped out a thousand a day, and a gold medal, and had a singlet named after him.”