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Shelling peas for preserving or cooking is a tedious and somewhat laborious process, and as this vegetable is of no use until the shell has been removed, it is desirable that we should have some means or appliance by ?which we can easiiy remove the shell without in any way damaging the pea. Our engraving represents a sheller which fully accomplishes, by simple means, all that it is designed to do. It is the invention of W. J. Stevenson, of New York, and was patented by him March 30th, 1858. A is the board on which it is placed, or the base from which rises the frame, C, carrying , the drawer, B, and sides, E. The hopper, D, I into which the peas are fed is supported on an S axle, d, and it has a shaking motion given to it by means of the cams, f, on the roller, F. This roller, F, has around it a number of endless bands, K, which serve as conveyors for the peas, and pass round the roller, G, which may be grooved or otherwise, to keep the bands in position ; the roller,' G, is rotated by a handle, J. Above the roller, G, is a plane roller, I, placed somewhat behind, G, but yet in contact with it. I and G rest in the bear- ings, H, and the three rollers are put ia any position, and the endless bands kept in any degree of tension by the screws and sliding journals, i g f. The operation is as follows : When the peas are shaken out of the hopper they are brought by the endless bands to the rollers, I and G, and here it is necessary that the shell should be drawn through, but that the bite of the rollers should be so small as to have a tendency to reject the peas and not draw them through. This difficulty is overcome in a very ingenious manner, the roller, I, being, (in relation to the peas) a little in advance of G, first comes in contact with the pea pod, this it presses down upon the endless bands, which being somewhat elastic, yield and split the pod, thus presenting the pod to pass between the rollers, I G, so that it will be drawn through and crushed, and at the same time the pea^s will be forced through the interstices of the bands into the drawer, B, beneath. To farmers who grow peas for seed, and market gardeners who prepare these healthy and nutritious vegetables for sale, this machine will prove invaluable, and they may obtain any further information by addressing the inventor, 438 Third avenue, New York.
