M'CORMICK'S NEW REPAING MACHINE.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1742, 15 November 1862, Page 5

M'CORMICK'S NEW REPAING MACHINE.

(From "Lloyd* Weekly London Newspaper,’’ August 17.) Iu 1851 M'Cormick’s American reaping machine, at the Exhibition, created a greater sensation in its way than either Power’s statue or Hobb’s locks. Its fame at once, of coarse, raised up for it a host of antagonists and imitators, and it was not till the golden fruits of many autumns in the fields of England, France, Belgium, and Germany had been saved by this machine, that its superiority was tacitly acknowledged, and even competent agricultural implement makers were compelled to own that, if not the Lest, it was certainly the most popular and tlio most generally used. The manufacture of the machine for this country was after 1851 entrusted to the very able agency of Messrs. Burgess and Key, and since that time as many as 3000 machines have been made and supplied to the farmers of the united kingdom, and probably as many more exported to the continent. Since 1851, however, Mr. M'Corinick’s patent for these machines has expired in America, and, of course, the attempt to renew it was violently opposed by all who had, or fancied they had a better reaper themselves. In the course of the investigation it came out in evidence that Mr. M‘Cormick had sold no less than 40,000 of his reapers in the United States alone, when the patent authorities at Washington, thinking that out ot such a largo transae-

tion the inventor of the machine must himself have reaped a golden harvest of nocommon weight, declined to renew the patent. Hence Mr. M'Cormick was driven to invent another and a better machine, and it was this which was tried on Thursday, and the performance of which wo commend to the notice of our country readers. The old machine, as wo may term it now, was one which cut the corn, and as it dropped back upon the platform behind the cutters turned it off in the “swathe” — i.e., left it in a continuous roll alongside the track of the machine. In very moist countries this swathe delivery is rather an evil, and during wet seasons the machine has been often left unused altogether. In addition to this drawback a great amount of manual labour is, of course, necessitated, to collect the swathe into sheathes, and this too must in some cases ho done before the return of the machine over the same track. The object, therefore, has always been to invent a machine which will deliver* on the ground the cut corn in sheaves ready for binding, aigl such a machine Mr. M’Connick has nowinvented. Visitors to the Exhibition will see a similar one in the rather empty court at ihe (late) United Slates. The exhibition, however, does not abort a proper field for the display of its really great and most important uses, so that, beyond the fact of its being a reaping machine, it appears to have attracted no very decided amount of attention. The new machine is entirely founded upon M’Cormick’s old machine as made by Burgess and Key, the new patent consisting simply In the introduction of an automaton rake, which at regular intervals, by one rapid sweep, draws the corn on the platform together, and, with a quick turn, throws it aside in a loose sheaf out of the way okthe machine. The mechanism by which this is effected is simple in the extreme, though, from its very simplicity, it is difficult to give a clear idea to the reader. Putting it in its briefest form, wc may say that the wheels on which the old machine was drawn along the ground set in motion a mechanism by which the corn was cut close off at the ground, and at the same time revolved n light four-armed wooden fan or gleaner, which as fast as the corn fell pushed it on to the platform.

This, in substance, is the old machine. The new one consists in addition of the automaton rake, which has two actions. During one part of the revolution of the gathering fans it acts with and as one of them till its wooden teeth arc level with the platform, where the cut corn lies, It then ceases to revolve, and by a most ingenious piece ot mechanism makes a sudden horizontal movement, throwing aside on the ground the entire sheaf, and instantly alter resuming its motion as one of the revolving fans. This machine has been tried once before in England among some of the heavy crops in Essex, when its performances exceeded the most sanguine expectations. On Thursday, it was publicly tried again in the presence of a number of gentlemen fanners, about three miles beyond Hemel Hampstead. This trial was made under the most unfavourable circumstances; in fact, under circumstances which the farmers present contended should have . ,prevented the machine being tried at all The night morning had been wet, and the rain was still falling sharply when the machine, drawn by two horses, and wielding its fans and rake in the most aggressive manner, was brought to a field of twenty-one acres, covered with a heavy crop of red lammas wheat, completely saturated and bent down by the rain. Along the edge of this field where the ground was very rough, and the corn straggling and beaten down, the machine was turned. Much misgiving was expressed before starting as to the power of the rake to act on such ground against wind and rain, anti to remove the soddened crop from the platform into regular sheaves. A very few moments, however, sufficed to put these fears at rest. The reaper went to its work about three miles an hour, making a clear cut broad track of oft. 6in. wide, and turning out neat and remarkably large loose sheaves at intervals of about 15 feet apart. The movements of the reaper were exact and perfectly noiseless, anti it was easily turned in any direction. An ordinary agricultural labourer at first drove it. Afterwards Mr. Dixon took the place of driver; but the results were the same. The bunches were well laid, the cu» was clean and close to the earth, and the spacing between the sheaves as clear and accurate as if every foot had been measured. At one part the corn was tangled and badly flattened, —badly enough to nave offered difficulties to the ordinary reaper ; but the machine

went through it with the same ease anil regularity as through all the rest. The horses were then turned direct into and across the thickest part of the crop from corner to corner of the field, and though, as a matter of course, tiro passage of the animals drawing the machine trampled down a large portion of the stalks before its track, the reaper still worked as clearly and as efficiently ns ever. First came one of the fans, pushing its quantum, when cut, on to the platform; then a second, third, and fourth, when the rake swept round in a semi-curve and turned the whole mass out in a thick sheaf on to the ground. The horses appeared to draw it easily—more easily, in fact, than the old machine, while, from the strength and simplicity of the improved mechanism, it was evident that, even in the most inexperienced hands, nothing but wilful damage could derange its slight but strong machinery. On Thursday the trial was brought to a sudden close by perfect floods of rain, which though in no way interfering with the perfect action of the reaper, had, at least, an effect on the gentlemen who assembled to witness its performances. Work was therefore discontinued. It is estimated that the new reaper can reap and stack in sheaves from 16 to 18 acres of wheat per day, at a cost, including wear and tear of plant, food of horses, &c., of Is. 6d. per acre. Manual labour costs from 7s. 6d. to 10s. per acre, and a good reaper only averages from half to a little over half-an-acre a-day. The new machine effects a saving of at least one-third of the manual labour that was still necessary with the old reaper, and the price at which Messrs. Burgess and Key will he able to sell it will he lower than that which has hitherto been given. The price will probably he ■£•34 for the new machine, as against £36 and £3B for the old. Farmers and others interested in agriculture should go and see it in work for themselves. No amount of description can ever recommend it as strongly as it docs itself when quietly at its work.