Threshing machine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A threshing machine in operation

The thrashing machine, or, in modern spelling, threshing machine (or simply thresher), was a machine first invented by Scottishmechanical engineer Andrew Meikle for use in agriculture. It was invented (c.1784) for the separation of grain from stalks and husks. For thousands of years, grain was separated by hand with flails, and was very laborious and time consuming. Mechanization of this process took much of the drudgery out of farm labour.
Contents
[hide]

1 Early social impacts 2 Later adoption 3 Farming process 4 Modern developments

o o

4.1 In Europe and Americas 4.2 Another development in Asia

5 Preservation

5.1 Musical references

6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit]Early

social impacts

Threshing machine from 1881

The Swing Riots in the UK were partly a result of the threshing machine. Following years of war, high taxes and low wages, farm labourers finallyrevolted in 1830. These farm labourers had faced unemployment for a number of years due to the widespread introduction of the threshing machine and the policy of enclosing fields. No longer were thousands of men needed to tend the crops, a few would suffice. With fewer jobs, lower wages and no prospects of things improving for these workers the threshing machine was the final straw, the machine was to place them on the brink of starvation. The Swing Rioters smashed threshing machines and threatened farmers who had them. The riots were dealt with very harshly. Nine of the rioters were hanged and a further 450 were transported to Australia.

[edit]Later

adoption

Irreler Bauerntradition shows an early threshing machine (Stiftendrescher) at the Roscheider Hof Open Air Museum

Irreler Bauerntradition shows awinnowing machine (a forerunner of the threshing machine) at the Roscheider Hof Open Air Museum

Early threshing machines were hand-fed and horse-powered. They were small by today's standards and were about the size of an upright piano. Later machines were steam-powered, driven by a portable engine or traction engine. In 1834, John Avery and Hiram Abial Pitts devised significant improvements to a machine that automatically threshes and separates grain from chaff, freeing farmers from a slow and laborious process. Avery and Pitts were granted a patent in the United States on December 29, 1837.[1] John Ridley, an Anglo-Australian inventor, also developed a threshing machine in South Australia in 1843.[2] The 1881 Household Cyclopedia said of Meikle's machine: "Since the invention of this machine, Mr. Meikle and others have progressively introduced a variety of improvements, all tending to simplify the labour, and to augment the quantity of the work performed. When first erected, though the grain was equally well separated from the straw, yet as the whole of the straw, chaff, and grain, was indiscriminately thrown into a confused heap, the work could only with propriety be considered as half executed. By the addition of rakes, or shakers, and two pairs of fanners, all driven by the same machinery, the different processes of thrashing, shaking, and winnowing are now all at once performed, and the grain immediately prepared for the public market. When it is added, that the quantity of grain gained from the superior powers of the machine is fully equal to a twentieth part of the crop, and that, in some cases, the expense of thrashing and cleaning the grain is considerably less than what was formerly paid for cleaning it alone, the immense saving arising from the invention will at once be seen. "The expense of horse labour, from the increased value of the animal and the charge of his keeping, being an object of great importance, it is recommended that, upon all sizable farms, that is to say, where two hundred acres [800,000 m], or upwards, of grain are sown, the machine should be worked by wind, unless where local circumstances afford the conveniency of water. Where coals are plenty and cheap, steam may be advantageously used for working the machine."

Open air museum in Saint-Hubert, Belgium.

[edit]Farming

process

Threshing is just one process in getting cereals to the grinding mill and customer. The wheat needs to be grown, cut, stooked (shocked, bundled), hauled, threshed, and then the grain hauled to an elevator and the chaff baled. For many years each of these steps was an individual process, requiring teams of workers and many machines. In the steep hill wheat country of Palouse in the Northwest of the United States, steep ground meant moving machinery around was problematic and prone to rolling. To reduce the amount of work on the sidehills, the idea arose of combining the wheat binder and thresher into one machinea combined harvester. About 1910, horse pulled combines appeared and became a success. Later, gas and diesel engines appeared with other refinements and specifications.

[edit]Modern [edit]In

developments

Europe and Americas

Modern day combine harvesters (or simply combines) operate on the same principles and use the same components as the original threshing machines built in the 19th century. Combines also perform the reaping operation at the same time. The name combine is derived from the fact that the two steps are combined in a single machine. Also, they are self-powered, usually by a diesel engine, and selfpropelled.

Today, as in the 19th century, the threshing begins with a cylinder and concave. The cylinder has sharp serrated bars, and rotates at high speed (about 500 RPM), so that the bars beat against the grain. The concave is curved to match the curve of the cylinder, and serves to hold the grain as it is beaten. The beating releases the grain from the straw and chaff. Whilst the majority of the grain falls through the concave, the straw is carried by a set of "walkers" to the rear of the machine, allowing any grain and chaff still in the straw to fall below. Below the straw walkers, a fan blows a stream of air across the grain, removing dust and fines and blowing them away. The grain, either coming through the concave or the walkers, meets a set of sieves mounted on an assembly called a shoe, which is shaken mechanically. The top sieve has larger openings, and serves to remove large pieces of chaff from the grain. The lower sieve separates clean grain, which falls through, from incompletely threshed pieces. The incompletely threshed grain is returned to the cylinder by means of a system of conveyors, where the process repeats. Some threshing machines were equipped with a bagger, which invariably held two bags, one being filled, and the other being replaced with an empty. A worker called a sewer removed and replaced the bags, and sewed full bags shut with a needle and thread. Other threshing machines would discharge grain from a conveyor, for bagging by hand. Combines are equipped with a grain tank, which accumulates grain for deposit in a truck or wagon. A large amount of chaff and straw would accumulate around a threshing machine, and several innovations, such as the air chaffer, were developed to deal with this. Combines generally chop and disperse straw as they move through the field, though the chopping is disabled when the straw is to be baled, and chaff collectors are sometimes used to prevent the dispersal of weed seed throughout a field. The corn sheller was almost identical in design, with slight modifications to deal with the larger kernel size and presence of cobs. Modern-day combines can be adjusted to work with any grain crop, and many unusual seed crops. Both the older and modern machines require a good deal of skill to operate. The concave clearance, cylinder speed, fan velocity, sieve sizes, and feeding rate must be adjusted for crop conditions.

[edit]Another

development in Asia

From the early 20th century, gasoline or diesel-powered threshing machines, designed especially to thresh rice, the most important crop in Asia, have been developed along different lines to the modern combine.

Even after the combine was invented and became popular, a new compact-size thresher called a harvester, with wheels, still remains in use and at present it is available from a Japanese agricultural manufacturer. The compact-size machine is very convenient to handle in small terrace fields in mountain areas where a large machine, such as combine, is not usable. People there use this harvester with a modern compact binder.

[edit]Preservation
A number of older threshing machines have survived into preservation. They are often to be seen in operation at live steam festivals and traction engine rallies such as the Great Dorset Steam Fair in England, and the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion in northwest Minnesota.

[edit]Musical

references

Irish songwriter John Duggan[3] immortalized the threshing machine in a song The Old Thrashing Mill.[4] The song has been recorded by Foster and Allen and Brendan Shine. On the Alan Lomax collection Songs of Seduction (Rounder Select, 2000), there's a bawdy Irish folk song called "The Thrashing Machine" sung by tinker Annie O'Neil, as recorded in the early 20th Century. In his film score for "Of Mice and Men" (1939) and consequently in his collection "Music for the Movies" (1942), American composer Aaron Copland titled a section of the score "Threshing Machines," to suit a scene in the Lewis Milestone film where Curley is threatening Slim over giving May a puppy, when many of the itinerant worker men are standing around or working on threshers. Northampton, MA-based indie rock band Winterpills have a song on their 2005 debut album Winterpills called Threshing Machine. It is not about agricultural machinery.

[edit]See

also

Swing riots Threshing

[edit]References

1. ^ "When threshing machines were harvest kings". Small Business Advances. 2. ^ H. J. Finnis (1967). "Ridley, John (1806 - 1887)". Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2. MUP. pp. 379. Retrieved 2007-08-19. 3. ^ http://www.bardis.ie/composers.htm#duggan 4. ^ Song lyrics: The Old Threshing Mill

[edit]External

links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Threshing machines

Video Victorian agricultural engine, in steam, driving a threshing machine. History of Threshing Machines at the Canada Agriculture Museum Model of threshing machine (Danish)

Reaper-binder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008)

A Massey-Harris reaper-binder pulled by a tractor (Rutland, England, 2008)

A modern compact binder for rice (2006)

The reaper-binder, or binder, was a farm implement that improved upon the reaper. The binder was invented in 1872 by Charles Withington.[1] In addition to cutting the small-grain crop, it would also tie the stems into small

bundles, or sheaves. These sheaves were then 'shocked' into conical stooks, resembling small tipis, to allow the grain to dry for several days before being threshed. Withington's original binder used wire to tie the bundles. There were various problems with using wire and it was not long before William Deering invented a binder that used twine and a knotter (invented in 1858 by John Appleby).[2] Early binders were horse-drawn and powered by a bull wheel. Later models were tractor-drawn. The implement had a reel and a sickle bar, like a modern grain head for a combine harvester, or combine. The cut stems would fall onto a canvas, which conveyed the crop to the binding mechanism. This mechanism bundled the stems of grain and tied a piece of twine around the bundle. Once tied, it was discharged from the back of the binder. With the replacement of the threshing machine by the combine harvester, the binder became almost obsolete. Some grain crops such as oats are now cut and formed into windrows with a swather. With other grain crops such as wheat, the grain is now mostly cut and threshed by a combine in a single operation, while the binder is still in use at small fields or outskirts of mountain areas.

[edit]References

1.

^ *George Iles (1912). "Cyrus H. McCormick". Leading American Inventors (2nd ed.). New York: Henry Holt and Company. pp. 276314.

2.

^ Appleby, John Francis 1840 - 1917

[edit]External

links

Media related to Reaper-binders at Wikimedia Commons History of Twine Japanese reaper binder on YouTube Japanese threshing machine on YouTube

Introduction
Most museum visitors would recognize a threshing machine, having first become acquainted with them at the Harvest or Thanksgiving celebrations hosted by museums and living history sites. Embodying more than one hundred years of mechanical evolution, these large, technologically-advanced machines must also be acknowledged for the essential role they played in Canadas agricultural development particularly in the ascendancy of King Wheat on the Canadian Prairies. There is a great deal of lore associated with threshing from tales of working by moonlight to get the crop through before it was frost-damaged, to stories of the

enormous quantities of food that had to be prepared for threshing crews. Many museum collections contain panoramic photographs showing a group of workers arrayed in front of a steam engine, water wagon, threshing machine, and eight to ten wagons of stooks ready for threshing. In Western Canada, the photos usually come from the estate of a local thresherman. In the East, they are often mementoes kept by community members who, in their younger days, may have gone west as Harvest Excursionists to find work on threshing crews. The ten threshing machines in the Museums collection showcase the technologys development, from an early manual-feed machine about the size of a refrigerator capable of threshing seventy bushels of grain per day, to a large machine used by custom threshermen able to process as many as two thousand bushels per day. From the birth of Canadas agricultural equipment manufacturing industry, many firms focussed on the production of threshing machines or included them in their product lines. All of the threshing machines in the Museums collection were manufactured and used in Canada.

In the Beginning
Scottish millwright Andrew Meikle is credited with the introduction around 1786 of a combined thresher/winnower, in which both mechanisms were powered by a belt from a common drive pulley. When shocks of grain were fed into the machine, they passed between the corrugated surfaces of a series of rollers, forcing the kernels out of the heads. Once past these rollers, grain was carried on a conveyor to a fanning mill, which blew away any remaining chaff. Soon after this, an English inventor copying Meikles design created a machine which separated the grain by passing it between a drum or cylinder and a concave surface, both of which were fitted with iron projections. This English patentquickly formed the basis of future technological developments largely because less care was required when feeding grain into the cylinder-concave surfaces of the English design, than into a machine with corrugated rollers.

Catalogue image of the cylinder and concave from a threshing machine

Although most threshers were still hand-cranked, they could also be driven by a horse treadmill or sweep. The action of a horse walking on the treadmill's moving inclined platform drove a large pulley on the side of the device, which was outfitted with a leather drive belt. Although one-horse treadmills such as the one manufactured by La Compagnie Desjardins of St. Andre One horse treadmill manufactured de Kamouraska P.Q. (680861) were most common, it was possible to purchase large mills accommodating two by La Compagnie Desjardins of Sainte-Andr de Kamouraska, P.Q. or three horses walking abreast. In the case of horse (680861) sweeps such as those manufactured by Sawyer-Massey, horses walked around a central device containing a gear box, which transferred power to the threshing machine by means of a tumble shaft or rod.

Sweep in Sawyer-Massey Catalogue

Groundhogs and Bull Threshers

Threshing machines had to be pegged to the ground, in order to prevent them from disengaging from their tumble shafts during operation. This is thought to have contributed to the nicknamegroundhog thresher. The roaring sound created by the spinning cylinder also gave rise to the name bull thresher (670835). By the early 1850s, these machines were showing up in prize lists at Canadian agricultural fairs, and in manufacturers advertisements. Many manufacturers offered both a thresher and power source, emphasizing that the two pieces were specifically designed to work together.

Bull Thresher (670385)

A machines threshing capacity was determined by the width of its cylinder, and most groundhog threshers had cylinders measuring less than twenty-four inches in diameter. Unbound sheaves were fed headfirst into the machine by hand, where they were caught by

the spinning cylinder and threshed between the teeth of the cylinder and concave. The kernels then had to be manually cleaned with a winnowing basket or fanning mill. Labourers were required to feed the sheaves into the machine, clean and bag the grain, and remove and stack the loose straw as it dropped off the conveyor. This type of machine could process 70 bushels of grain per day a tenfold increase over the daily output of a single labourer using a flail. In the early 1860s, the Little Giant Thresher a large groundhog thresher mounted on two wheels from the Stratford Agricultural Works of Stratford, Ontario could be purchased for $100.00 cash, or $105.00 on approved credit. The four-horse sweep required to operate the machine cost an additional $100.00, or machine and sweep could be purchased together for $185.00. Soon, machines like the La Compagnie Desjardins Threshing machine manufactured (680860), featuring a slotted conveyor belt or endless apron and by La Compagnie Desjardins (680860) integral fanning mill, were introduced to the market. The conveyor carried the straw up and off the rear of the machine, and the chaff and kernels dropped through the machines slats into the hopper of the fanning mill, which was mounted under the conveyor.

Shake It Out
The next step in the threshers development was the way in which chaff and kernels of grain were separated from the straw. By the mid 1860s, many Canadian manufacturers, such as P.T. Legar (710572), were manufacturing variations on the Vibrator Separator, which had been patented by the Nichols and Shepard Company of Battle Creek, Michigan. In this device, the conveyor was replaced with a series of straw walkers or racks, connected to a concentric that caused them to shake back and forth longitudinally. Rows of wooden or metal fingers caught the threshed stalks as they left the cylinder, and each progressive sweep shook grain kernels out of the mass, transporting the straw to the rear of the machine. Manufacturers insisted that the shaking motion guaranteed the removal of more kernels than was possible with the conveyor method. The partially-cleaned grain fell to the bottom of the machine, where a re-feed conveyor brought it back to the front of the straw walkers for a second cleaning. The kernels fell through sieves mounted just above the pan or bottom of the machine, where a chute on the side could be opened to feed the grain into a bushel measure, then into grain sacks.

Vibrator Separator manufactured by P.T. Legar (710572)

This system of straw walkers mounted above a perforated sieve quickly became the standard for mechanical winnowing technology. Once the straw had been carried past the walkers, it dropped onto the ground at the rear of the machine, where labourers pitched it into a pile or straw stack. Not only did threshing machines equipped with

More Gadgets
By the 1860s, most machines were capable of efficient and reliable mechanized threshing and winnowing. The laborious process of feeding bundles into the machine and removing and disposing of the straw and chaff that exited out the rear of the machine had yet to be mechanized, however. By the early 1870s, however, it was possible to buy a machine like the MacDonald- MacPherson Standard (780939). These came equipped with a straw stacker: a slatted conveyor attached to the rear of the machine, which carried the straw away and deposited it in a pile. As the straw stack grew in height, the conveyor was gradually raised by a system of chains and pulleys. Although straw stackers mechanized the process of building straw stacks and eliminated the need for several labourers, this labour-saving was often offset by a need for more workers elsewhere in the process. By the 1880s, for example, horse-drawn binders were supplanting field labourers and MacDonald-MacPherson & Co., Standard speeding the harvesting process. These machines Threshing Machine (780939) used wire to tie the stalks of grain, however, making it necessary to have several labourers had to cut and remove the wire ties before passing the bundles to the labourers who fed them into the machine. Once the grain had been separated from the stalks and chaff, two more labourers removed it from the machine and measured and bagged it. Thus, despite technological advances, a minimum of six men was still required to operate a threshing machine. The use of sisal twine in the Appleby patent twine-tying mechanism of the late 1880s soon made it unnecessary for labourers to cut and remove wire ties. This, in turn, made it possible to introduce a mechanical device for feeding bundles into the threshing machine. There were many competing brands of self-feeders; all, however, were similar in appearance and function. Sawyer-Massey of Hamilton used a J.R. Ebersol Special Band Cutter and Self-Feeder on their Peerless Separator (700391). A self-feeder consisted of a conveyor, equipped with open slats with upwardpointing short tines. These were attached to the front of the machine, level with the bottom of the cylinder. The tines caught the bundles as they were pitched onto the conveyor, and carried them under a row of reciprocating knives which cut the twine bands, opened the bundles, and fed them directly into the cylinder at a constant rate.

J.R. Ebersol Special Band Cutter and Self-Feeder

Sawyer-Masseys Peerless Separator By the mid-1890s, most of the large machines from (700391) Canadian and American manufacturers were equipped with self-feeders, that had governing mechanisms controlling the speed at which sheaves were fed into the cylinder. This speed was related to the cylinders optimum threshing speed. The feeder would not start moving until the cylinder was spinning fast enough and, when the cylinder slowed under the load, so did the self-feeder. This meant it was nearly impossible to slug or jam the cylinder by feeding sheaves too quickly. Although it was essential that the cylinder and subsequent mechanisms be kept operating at

maximum capacity, too much grain led to reduced separating efficiency. This forced manufacturers to increase the length and width of their machines straw walkers, in order to accommodate the increased flow of material to be separated. It was common to find a threshing machine with a 32-inch-wide cylinder and a 54-inch-wide straw walker.

Advertisement for a Hawkeye SelfFeeder

straw walkers operate differently, but their appearance had changed as well: the small squat box on skids had been replaced by a long rectangular box on wheels.

Metal Machines
In 1904, the J.I. Case Plow Works of Racine, Wisconsin manufactured the first threshing machine with sheet-metal panels and a metal angle-iron frame. Sheet-metal panels were easier to manufacture than wood, and it was anticipated that the angle-iron frame would offer greater rigidity than had been possible with a wooden frame.

Skeleton of a Case Metal Threshing Machine

Despite manufacturers assurances that their machines were made with the finest kiln-dried hardwood, and that a regular tightening of bolts would suffice, a threshing machine operating at full speed would have been subject to incredible strain. Although manufacturers of wooden machines initially scoffed at J.I. Cases product, many including the George White Company of London Ontario (680634) followed suit, and switched to the production of metal machines. Threshing machines had finally reached the pinnacle of their Ontario Metal Threshing Machine (680634) technological evolution. Rubber tires might replace wooden wheels, and grease cups would be supplanted by compression grease fittings, but the internal mechanism would remain unaltered. The threshing machine shown in cutaway in Advance-Rumelys 1918 catalogue was the epitome of technological development, with every available labour-saving attachment.
George White Company of London

Advance-Rumelys Ideal Separator in the 1918 catalogue

Ferguson Thresher Company of Maxville, Ontario threshing machine (810673)

Although the large manufacturers initially followed the bigger is better credo, by the early 1920s many were promoting machines suited to small multipurpose tractors such as the Fordson. The metal machine manufactured by the Ferguson Thresher Company of Maxville, Ontario (810673) could have been powered by any of the multipurpose tractors that were becoming increasingly popular by the 1930s.

Powering the Machine

The development of threshing machines with mechanized feeding, threshing, winnowing and straw-stacking devices, and their increase in size, had an enormous impact on the development of power sources. Each step in the mechanical evolution led to a corresponding increase in the amount of power required to operate the machine. To ensure that the machine was being used efficiently in terms of daily threshing output, it had to be kept in continuous operation for long periods of time. These factors combined to ensure the supremacy of portable steam engines as a source of power. As long as the steam engine was kept at operating pressure, it offered a potentially endless supply of energy. For a while, firms like John Abell of Toronto and the Waterloo Manufacturing Company continued to offer eight- to twelve-horse sweeps. Despite the text under the visual of the Pitts horse sweep in the Waterloo Manufacturing Companys 1914 catalogue, however, it was apparent that horse sweeps could not be used to power large technologically-advanced machines.

Sawyer-Masseys c.1918 20-40 Kerosene Tractor (740216)

Pitts Horse Sweep in the Waterloo Manufacturing Companys 1914 catalogue

By 1900, sales of portable engines designed for agricultural use were being outstripped by traction engines. In addition to offering a stationary power source, traction engines could pull equipment such as ploughs. Although most engines were fired with wood, many intended for the Western Canadian market had an optional combination firebox grate and feed chute, enabling the use of straw as fuel. During the first decade of the twentieth century, large kerosene/gas tractors challenged steam traction engines in all areas of agricultural technology, including the powering of threshing machines. Firms such as Sawyer-Massey, which already had a reputation for manufacturing steam traction engines, began to offer kerosene tractors, often in the same catalogue. Sawyer-Masseys 1918 20-40 tractor (740216) offered 20 horsepower on the drawbar and 40 horsepower on the Pulley, making it capable of powering any of the large threshing machines. There was little difference in purchase price: steam and internal combustion each cost between two and three thousand dollars. As smaller multipurpose gas tractors began to make inroads onto Canadas farms, manufacturers touted their utility in replacing horses for fieldwork, and as the ideal power source for harvest-season belt work.

Large gas tractor/threshing crew pitching bundles

The Johnson and Benoud Threshing Outfit, Broderick, Saskatchewan, 1923

A New Technology
By the mid 1930s, threshing machines were facing competition from a new harvesting technology. A combined harvester or combine incorporated the functions of a binder and threshing machine. The combine was pulled or driven through the ripened crop, cutting and threshing as it went, thus eliminating the need for a substantial part of the labour force. At most, three labourers were all that were required: one to drive the tractor, one to operate the combine, and another to drive the truck or wagon that was being filled with grain. In 1928, in addition to their line of metal threshing machines, the Waterloo Manufacturing Company offered a self-propelled Sunshine Combine (691292). By the Second World War, few firms were still manufacturing threshing machines, and the self-propelled combine had gained favour for its labour savings.

Self-propelled Sunshine Combine (691292)

About the Author:

Franz Klingender is Curator of Agriculture at the Canada Science and Technology Museum. On a number of occasions he has picked up a bundle fork to help feed a threshing machine. It's hard, hot and prickly work. For more information, contact: Franz Klingender Curator, Agriculture Canada Agriculture Museum P.O. Box 9724, Station T Ottawa, Ontario Canada K1G 5A3 Tel: 613 996-7822 Fax: 613 947-2374

Seed Drill

Home Agricultural Equipment Seed Drill

Available in diverse specifications, the wide range of Seed Drill is fabricated from Best-In-Class(TM) raw materials and used for agricultural purposes. Moreover, Seed Drills are offered in compliance with the existing market standards and requirements. Our range of product has attained the reputation of being the best in market and comes in reasonable rates. Available In Various Models