driven by a small engine. On this shafting and five feet apart are cast-iron wheels two feet in diameter, each wheel having one side of its flange slightly beveled. Six feet six inches above the shearing floor, and attached to each post by back screws, and five feet apart, is a cast-iron bracket with an extension of three feet of right angle iron. , On each bracket is a small leather wheel four inches in diameter, with a bevel of one and one-half inches, corres ponding to the bevel of the iron wheel above. This wheel, rotates on a spindle, is formed by compressing several layers of leather between brass plates. On the end of the spindle is a steel hook, and outside the bearing is screwed a brass coupling, which is attached to a flexible tube six feet six inches long. Inside this tube is a piece of round gut half an inch in diameter, with a hook at one end and an eye at the other ; the eye is placed in the hook at the end of the spindle carrying the small leather/ friction wheel, and the hook is placed in th6 eye at pie end of the universal joint forming part of the shearing machine. The connection is made complete by
a thin brass coupling slipping over a light brass ferule on the end of the flexible tube and screwed to the end of the universal joint. By pulling a small cord hanging from the bracket, a spring liberates the catch and instantly the bevel leather wheel is pushed into position and contact with the bevel of the iron wheel revolving on the shaft, and thus it communicates a rotary motion to the core-inside the flexible tube, and so to the' small rods working their crank inside the casing of the machine. This crank moves from side to side of the cylinder, and thus causes the- fork with cutter attached at the end to reciprocate over the comb, and as the comb is pushed into the wool, so does the small cutter cut. An eight horse-power engine will drive one hundred shears, one man attending each, and their con struction is not so 'complex but that a shearer of ordinary intelligence can learn to work them in a few hours. The time required for the shear-' ing of one sheep is from three and a half to five