1531

SUPPLEMENT.—FOREIGN STATES.

Luring the last sixty years, various attempts have beenhtoile in England - they have only been, however, conipara-llv ely successful. The most perfect previous to those intro-duced by Messrs. McCormick and llussey from America ,"ere those of Mr. Smith of Deauston, the HeV. Patrickof Carmyle, in the county of Forfar, and Josephorovn of liahy, Cumberland. Mr. Smith's was intro-duced in 1815, in competition for a premium of £500,offered for an implement of the kind by the HighlandSociety : the machine did not in the opinion of the judgesooinply with the conditions laid down, the award was there-fore not made, and, as may be supposed, it never becamea general favourite with the farmer. The cutting appa-hitus consisted of a plain smooth-edged annular knife, 6foot diameter and C> inches broad, attached by arms to ana xle with which it revolves ; the cutter was surmountedV a light sheet-iron drum, or frustum of a cone, 3 feet“£h, which served as a “gatherer,’’ and this was at-tached to and revolved along with the cutter and itsa xle; the motion was derived from a pair of carriage"’heels,

which earned a bevel-pillion and communicated^tiou to the knife. Mr. Smith after this time made^veml improvements upon it, and again exhibited it at■^ 5 ’r, in lg,') 7 , Hell’s machine acted upon the clippingP'liiciple, the cutter being a series of scissors, the upper, “ides of which w ere immoveable, and of the form of an| s osceles triangle, whose height is 10 feet, and base 4lll(, lies; adapted to cut on both edges. The lower blades"ffe of similar form, each jointed on a pin, in a positionCorresponding to the space between the upper blades ;'fir shanks, or handles, jointed to a traversing bar, weref'd in motion by a crank : the motion was communicateda * ‘>1 Smith’s, and the gathering of the grain was accom-*, ls ned by an endless web; it received the grain as it fell

°"i the cutter, and deposited it in the form of a con-hni

•lie

unus swathe. This machine wrought admirably where

corn stood upright: the objections to its use were the'"'"plicated construction of the cutter. This machine‘M'Peared in 1827 and 1828, and was rewarded by theighland-Society, in 1829, with a premium of 50/. Mr.ail n's machine was completed in 1820: it was morec °nipuct than the preceding, and more simple in its move-"'Cuts; it was drawn by one horse walking before the"chine, and by the side of the standing corn, cutting a’’cadth of ten acres in ten hours. The cutter was on the""‘living principle, hut not circular; it formed a polygontwelve sides, each side being a separate blade, easilyhioved and changed: the gatherer had a revolving^’»n with rakes, which made 28 revolutions in a minute,th " ditter made about 200; a comb was required to strip^^ corn from the rakes; the motion of the cutter and rakesobtained from one of the carriage,-wheels, as in theai a ' S ’ ' mt ' 1CTU they were communicated by pitch-chains,tvli " 1U * >TOnt l""' 1 °' 'be machine, supported by a castor-tji the stem of which the horse-shafts were attached,

c castor-wheel running by the side of the standing corn.c "rniiek’s, or that for which the Council Medal was1 , a '"c‘l in the Great Exhibition of 1851 , is distinguished

the

" st,-.

great simplicity of its cutting part, and resemblest Stllll g' ,t saw vibrating rapidly from right to left; theev 1 ‘“dining alternately in each direction, so that at, ) v ‘bration, half of them are inclined in the directionMotion, The Jury in their award point out that

of the

S ““l,

nj,]. C . !u " l! “dnient is required to lit them for cutting thein “ u “‘ber of straws in a given space. “ The yield

tii "early doubles that of America, ” they must

ha U>foro adapted to the superior farming they will

u h> encounter.

It may not he out of place here to remark, that in con-sequence of the exaggerated reports as to the capabilitiesof the American machines having reached the ears ofMr. Bell, he was induced to publish a statement of theperformance of his “ reaperby which it appears that hisbi-other, Bell of Inch Michael, in the Curse of Cowrie, hasdone all his harvest-work with it for the last fourteenyears. At the commencement of the season it is examinedto see that it is in working trim :’lie then gives it over toone of his ploughmen, who has never found any difficultyin its management. The principle of the American reaperis identical with those of English construction made pre-viously, several of which were imported to the UnitedStates . For the information contained in these two noteswe are indebted to “ The Book of the Farm,” by Stephens,and to the Lecture delivered by John AVilson, Esq., atthe Society of Arts, upon Agricultural Products and Im-plements.—IV. C. A.]

“As to the practical working of the reaper, two horsesdrew it at the trial very easily round the outside of thecrop until they finished in the centre, showing that theycould cut easily fifteen acres in ten hours. One mandrives sitting, and another stands on the machine to rake.It is hard work for him, and the men ought sometimes tochange places. The straw left behind at the trial wascut very regularly lower than by reaping, but higher Ilianby fagging. The inventor stated that lie had a machinewhich would cut it two inches lower. This is the point,

I should say, to attend to, especially for autumn clean-ing. Though it seems superfluous to bring this machineto the test of economy, we may estimate the present costof cutting fifteen acres of wheat, at an average of 9s. anacre, to lie 61. 15s. Deduct for horses and men 10s. 3d.,and for binding 2s. Gd. per acre, the account will standthus:—

£. s. d.

“Average cost of reaping fifteen acres, at

9 s. per acre. 6150

Horses and men for reaper . . £0 10 0

Binding fifteen acres, at 2s. Gd.

per acre.117 6

-2 7 6

Saving per acre, 5s. lOd.4 7 6

“The saving of wages, however, would of course he animperfect test of (he reaper’s merits, since, in bad seasonsand late districts, it may often enable (lie farmer to savethe crop.”— Juries’ Reports, Cl.. 9, pp. 231, 232.

321 Colt, Samuel, Hertford, Connecticut —Inventorand Manufacturer.

Specimens of repeating fire-arms.—Pp. 1454, 1455.

[These arms are constructed on the principle of a patentwhich was granted to the inventor in 1835 ; but since thattime many improvements, which also form the subject ofpatent, have been added. The object of the inventor wasto construct the arm, so that it might not only be an effi-cient weapon of defence, as respects its repeating powers,hut also admit of its being fired with the same precisionas ordinary weapons. For this purpose the axis of therevolving breech was sot in the same vertical plane as thebarrel in a right line, preventing the necessity for anypari protruding from the frame of thearm. The illustra-tion shows the improvements applied to a pistol and to aritlo. Fig. 1 is a side view of the pistol; fig. 2 is a longi-tudinal section taken through the middle of Hie barreland revolving breech ; figs. 3 and 4 are end views of thenipple and charge ends of the breech ; and fig. 5 is a sideview of a rifle: a is the revolving breech having sixchandlers to receive charges. It is mounted on an axish, fixed to the metal frame c; d is a lever provided with a