WOLSELEY SHEEP-SHEARING MACHINE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6161, 14 February 1888, Page 3

WOLSELEY SHEEP-SHEARING MACHINE.

Public Trial. A public trial of the Wolseley SheepShearing Machine was made to-day at the Loan and Mercantile Company's large stores in Durham street south. The exact locality chosen for the exhibition was the wool-shed facing the South Town belt. Here some three hundred or more persons interested in matters pertaining to the sheep congregated by 11 a.m., the hour named in the advertisements. Mr Fred. Williams, the agent in New Zealand for Mr Wolseley, had a space roped off on one side of the shed, to serve as a shearing-board, and close to this a small gas engine, by Croseley, of Manchester, whs erected to supply the motive power. The engine was capable of developing three horse-power, but only one was necessary to drive the two machines in use this morning. Tho full details of the construction of the machine are difficult to give without a plan, but those who are conversant with the lately introduced method of hair-cutting by machinery in use with barbers, or with a horse-clipper, will be able to imagine what sort of a machine Mr Wolseley has invented. A knife with a forked blado, moving over a comb, forms the cutting portion. An exceedingly rapid lateral motion iß._imp* v tocl to this c&miSe^fn"a-tubeTf lMß^fnteneordinary pair of shears, and which can be grasped with ease by the shearer. A patent joint within the handle permits of turning the toothed point in any direction, and driving force ia given to the whole by a flexible shaft, working from friction pear overhead, which latter is belted up tothe engine. The smallness of the uiachine, and the elo ■ ler gear which is i v niisite to drive it are striking features of the whole affair. At mall pen of sheep had been provided to operate upon. Thoy were merino wethers end ewes in anything but good condition. Like Mark Twain's celebrated horse, several of them were points all over. The experts declared them to be just the kind of animal that would test the capabilities of the machine most thoroughly, for besides their low condition, the fleeces were sandy, and in some cases matted. Sheep after sheep, however, was shorn with rapidity and success; the points and the matting appearing to afford no real obstacle to the working of the clipper. The "clean shave" p,iven to some of the animals, in fact, was put down by some of the bystanders as a drawback, the assumption being that the sheep would catch cold after such a very thorough shearing. Mr Williams, however, met this objection by showing thab the combs knife could be so set as to leave any depth of wool required behind. Great ease was apparent when the leg and neck came under the knives, and very i little double - cutting was necessary, i though not altogether obviated. Cuts, too, although they did take place occasionally, [ were never deeper than the skin — indeed, the very construction of the machine, in wbicn the Knife acts as a guard, precludes the possibility of any deep gashes. Snch as were made were mere ! scratches, and hardly drew the blood. I In order to demonstrate the powers of | the roaohine ageinst the shears, a sheep i shora in the ordinary way by an onlooker, I was ehorn again by the Wolseley invention. M r Deans and other well known flockmasters j who were present declared the shorn pheep to be a fair average specimen of shearers' work. In spite of this the machine succeeded in stripping the animal of another j B^ols of wool. The manifest advantages of this to the squatter calls for no further comment.