2-995-596 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Hellard's Patent Victoria Side-Delivery Reaping and Mowing Machine, 1860. 'Cutting the corn [ie wheat] when it is ripe is one of the most important operations of harvest...the improvements [Mr. Robert Hellard] has patented...consist of arrangements by which laid corn is raised, in whatever direction it may have fallen, and the cut corn is delivered in a manner extremely convenient for binding...he claims for it a superiority on account of lightness of draught, and the fact that, although capable of cutting a breadth only six inches less than any other machines, it can be got through any gateway, while in the cases of some others a post has to be removed or part of a hedge taken down in order to effect admission to the field...[It features:] creepers, or feathered knife-guards, that raise lodged or down-laid corn...Mechanical rollers behind the knives for taking the corn from the creepers as cut, and bringing it on the travelling canvas platform...[It is] self-acting, only requiring a man or lad to drive the two horses...It is made very portable and yet very strong, and can be drawn on its own wheels from field to field, or might easily be put in a common four-wheel dray or drag, and thus drawn any distance without risk of breakage'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.