Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-01-16
SOMETHING NEW.

Having heard but indistinctly Of Mr..
w. H. Palmer's recently acquired pat
ent, the EXPOsIToR has taken pains
this week to interview Mr.. Palmer and
learn the particulars of the invention
for the benefit Of its readers.
1t is generally known that the patent
which Mr. Palmer has secured Is for a
sickle-bar, such as are used upon har-
vesters. But. of the nature of the in
vention and its utility the public seem
entirely ignorant. In the first place it
is known by all who have ever had any
acquaintance with harvesting machin-
cry that the most bothersome part of
machine is the sickle-bar. Both the
small boy who has had to turn the
grind-stone for two hours before break
fast and the man who has had to hold
five foot bar upon the stone during
that time readily recognize this fact.
It has therefore been an open problem
with inventors to find some means
by which the separate knives might be
fastened to the bar easily so they could
be removed individually and sharpened
or replaced. However the rapid mo-
ton and consequent shaking which the
bar has necessarily received have detied
inventive genius for years; and men be-
came persuaded that the only way to
fasten these knives, was by riveting
them stationarily to the bar.
1t seems certain that Mr. Palmer has
solved this problem. In order to show
the EXPOsITOR how firmly the knives
were gripped he sawed them across a
log which was lying near until he be-
came nearly exhausted. 1t must be
evident that sickle bar which will
sustain intact such strain is Il firm
piece of mechanism. TO accomplish
this Mr. Palmer has resorted to Il most
ingenious combination of the slot and
clamp. In the double-bar the knives
are placed in sets of three between the
two steel bars which constitute the
back bone" of the sickle-bar. Rivets
are driven between each set of three
knives along the bar. Slots III the sides
of the knives allow them TO tit snugly
around the rivetS, and thus hold them
from being moved either forward or
back. You will see that we are con-
sidering each set of three knives sep
arately. We have told how the first
and third are held. Now the second
one. of each of these sets of three. slips
in tightly between the first and third
knife and hooks around a little rivet
near the back Of the bar by means of a
little slotted hole in the knife. Thus
you will readily see that this center
knife can not move either forward or
back by reason of the slot: nor can it
or the other knives move side ways be-
cause Of their fitting closely together:
But, of course, the knives would not
stand much shaking fitted in so. But
Mr.. Palmer has provided against this
by placing wedge at the head of the
bar by which the knives are. driven
firmly together. His patent allows
him also to use a screw to accomplish
this end: or in fact any other device.
With some notifications i'm parts the
same principal can be applied to single
bars, and the invention includes this
also.
We confidently believe Mr.. Palmer
has struck the happy thought which is
wanted to make n harvester perfect
machine. 1t seems to us his invention
is not only of permanent utility but
must become universal. To fuss with
the old style sickle-bar will be like re-
turning to the old cradle, the advant-
ages are so numerous which are plainly
offered by it. While working IN the
field the farmer can remove broken
section and replace it in moment
He can grind one knife without dis
troying another, can replace few dull
knives by sharp ones even in the field
in moments time, and hundred
other advantages which save time and
money to the user Any farmer who
has had to leave his machine and har-
vesting hands in the middle of field
and 90 to the house. or even clear to
town to punch out rivets SO as TO re-
place broken section will appreciate
the utility of contrivance like tins.
To lose time in that way during good
harvesting weather is not inclined to
make an energetic farmer feel good.
For such people we think Mr.. Palmer
has something of use; and we are con-
fident of his success.