The devices so far shown belong to what is known as the Appleby type. of twine binder, although similar prad kid results in automat ically tying sheaves with twine arc reached by some differences of mechanical de tail in the Holmes binder, with equal success. Utiliza tion of the ineelianield press ure on a tripping aria, by the paekeil grain, to start I he hinder mechanism, is MI Vs sPiltial of all the twine-bin ders in vogue, to relieve the operator from care over the binder Once ad justed for given tightness of band, position of band, and size of sheaf, the binder is self regulating.
The Holmes Binder.—The knotter (Fig. 20) of the Ilohnes binder is a hollow shell rotated by its pinion and having a barbed volute hook centered on its lower end in a plane trans versa] with its axis. The shell contains a spindle carrying at its lower end a secondary hook accommodated to the bottom surface of the primary hook and normally in a state of pressure against the barb, held there by a spiral spring at the top connecting the spindle and shell.
When the knotter rotates the top of its spindle strikes a stop just before the rotation is com pleted, while its shell, continuing to rotate, opens a gap between its barb and the end of the arrested secondary hook on its spindle, admitting the two branches of twine which are to be drawn through the turn of the knot (Fig. 21). The knotter then makes a retrograde revolu tion to its original position, during which the turn of the knot encounters a stationary strip per which plows the turn of the knot free from the hooks, while the ends, still pinched against the barb, are drawn through the turn to complete the knot. The ejection of the sheaf forcibly releases the knot ends from the barb. The device shown by Fig. 22 for retaining the twine end is a sliding grasper united with a station ary cutting blade, shown in progressive action in Figs. 23. 24, and 25. The relation of these parts and the cam-gear which drives them in unison is shown in Fig. 29. The spiral spring on the small lever which slides the grasper is arranged at such an angle as to equalize the holding power of the grasper on all sizes of twine; and the grasper swings from a pivot above it to render twine to the knotter positively, as the forming of the knot progresses. As this retaining device cuts off and seizes the twine end in one operation, and severs only one branch of the twine, it does not drop, unused. with each
sheaf, the portion of twine gripped, as is done in the Appleby type ; the flat coil form of the knotter also admits of bringing it down ex tremely close upon the straw, as seen in Fig. 27. Fig. 2S shows Wood's method of packing by an overhanging wheel armed with three folding packer-teeth, which withdraw successively from the grain when they have propelled it as fin• forward as possible. The auto matic tripping device arrests the rotation of the two packer-wheels when it starts the operations of binding before described in the Appleby binder, and again starts their rotation each time the needle returns to its position of rest below the table.
The ejector is swung by a crank to which it is pivoted about midway of its length, the top being pivoted to a hinged guide-rod, thus causing the two tines of the ejector to execute the movement of it pitchfork as ordinarily operated by the two hands of a man, as seen in the dotted line, Fig. 29. The direction of withdrawal avoids the tendency to foul discharged sheaves and carry them back over upon the mechanism of the binder, as may occur with a rotary ejector. The mechanism, except the needle when at rest, is placed above the table, and is seen in a general view in Fig. 30, which also exhibits a number of sheaves deposited on Wood's sheaf-carrier. Fig. 31 shows the manner in which the sheaf-carrier folds backward, wing-like, to deposit its load. The operator can thus group his sheaves in such a manner as to greatly reduce the labor of stocking. Fig. 32 shows this binder with the back half of the table omitted. The packers and ejectors are in pairs. The pair of parallel bars in the table are adjustable higher or lower to determine the size of gavel. The automatic tripping is effected by grain pressure upward upon the tail of the trip-lever (Fig. 33), also seen in Fig. 30 to the right of the parker-wheel. Figs. 34 and 35 show a manner of adapting the Wood machine to harvesting flax, which is usually left in bunches instead of sheaves. A slotted table with a series of teeth movable in the slots is substituted for the binder mechanism. The operator, by One movement on a foot: lever, unloads the sheaf-carrier and lifts the series of teeth to cheek the delivery of flax from the table as often its a sufficient bunch accumulates on the en rrier.