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THE  LIBRARY 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF 
BRITISH  COLUMBIA 

Gift  of 
H.  R.  MacMillan 


AMERICAN 

Agricultural  Implements 


A  Review  of  Invention  and  Development 

IN  THE 

AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENT  INDUSTRY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


IN  TWO  PARTS 

PART  ONE:     General  History  of  Invention  and  Improvement 
PART  TWO:    Pioneer  Manufacturing  Centers 


R.   L.  ARDREY 


CHICAC.O:     ITULISHED  BY  THE  AUTHOR 


COI'VKIGHTED    1M94,   KY    R.   L.    ARDREY. 


•:.   INTRODUCTORY.  •:. 


THE  vear  of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition  is  a  most  advantageous  time 
for  issuing,  in  book  form,  a  review  of  the  development  of  the  agri- 
cultural implement  industry  in  America.  To  our  improved  methods  in 
agriculture,  more  than  to  any  other  factor,  excepting  railroads,  \se  owe 
the  marvellous  development  of  our  resources  during  the  past  century, 
and  a  full  share  of  the  credit  should  be  given  to  the  inventors,  beginning 
with  Whitney  just  loo  years  ago,  who  gave  their  lives,  often  in  martyrdom, 
to  the  development  of  inventions,  whose  object  was  to  make  labor  more 
effective  in  man's  struggle  with  Mother  Earth. 

If  we  had  none  of  our  modern  implements  of  planting,  cultivation,  har- 
vesting and  separation,  Europe  would  look  in  vain  to  our  shores  for  bread 
and  clothing  for  her  congested  population,  and  the  millions  of  our  own 
cities  would  be  to-day  an  ignorant  peasantry. 

Empires  in  the  past  arose  and  fell  and  their  places  were  utterly  forgotten, 
save  to  the  scribe  or  philosopher,  for  the  masses — men,  women  and  chil- 
dren— were  so  enslaved  to  the  soil  that  they  were  helpless,  after  their  mas- 
ters had  slain  each  other  in  war  or  gone  the  way  of  dissipation.  But  in 
this  nineteenth  century  man  has  been  shaking  off  the  shackles  of  manual 
toil,  and  has  secured  advantages  of  education  and  intercourse  with  his 
fellowmen  that  lay  a  firm  foundation  for  the  future  and  insure  against  a 
relapse,  in  America,  at  least,  into  another  slough  of  ignorance  and  helpless- 
ness. It  is  fitting  that,  in  our  celebration  of  the  achievement  of  Columbus 
in  the  discovery  of  America,  we  should  also  remember  the  inventors  who 
by  power  of  mind  over  matter  have  freed  their  fellowmen.  To  these,  whom 
the  historian  of  the  future  will  call  truly  great,  this  brief  review  of  their 
work  is  dedicated. 

The  author  acknowledges  with  gratitude  the  kindness  of  C.  W.  Marsh, 
editor  of  the  Farm  Iniplenient  N'ews,  in  authorizing  the  revision  and  use  of 
his  able  historical  articles  published  a  few  years  ago.  Mr.  Marsh  is  well 
qualified  to  speak  with  authority  in  matters  pertaining  to  the  agricultural 
implement  industry,  as  he  was  the  inventor  of  the  harvester,  a  machine 
which  represents  to-day  more  capital  invested  in  its  manufacture  and  use 
than  any  other  .single  machine  in  the  world,  excepting  the  steam  engine;  and 
since  retiring  from  its  manufacture  has  been  actively  engaged  for  nearly 
ten  years  in  editorial  work  that  has  kept  him  closely  informed  regarding 
the  progress  of  everj'  branch  of  the  industry.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Mr. 
Marsh  could  not  have  taken  up  this  work,  but  editorial  duties  have  pressed 
him  too  closely,  and  it  has  devolved  upon  the  writer,  who  has  undertaken 
it  in  the  hope  that  four  years'  connection  with  Mr.  Mar.sh's  paper,  nearly 
three  years  of  that  time  as  editorial  assistant,  has  in  some  measure  fitted 
him  for  the  task. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
*  in  2010  with  funding  from 
University  of  British  Columbia  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/americanagricuOOardr 


PART    I 


CHAPTER  I. 


The  Development  of  the  American  Plow. 


THE  first  agricultural  implement  used  by  prehistoric  man,  as  shown  by 
remains  found  in  peat  bogs  of  England,  France  and  other  countries, 
was  a  hooked  stick,  or  sometimes  a  stag's  horn,  adapted  to  the  work  of 
digging  and  stirring  the  soil  in  planting  seed.  This  rude  tool — it  can 
scarcely  be  called  an  invention — developed  in  course  of  time  into  something 
more  like  a  plow,  the  forked  stick  with  a  long  branch  to  which  animals 
were  attached,  and  perhaps  an  artificial  brace  added  to  strengthen  the  other 
branch  used  as  the  share  or  "bottom."  This  stj-le  has  been  found  illus- 
trated on  an  ancient  monument  in  Asia  Minor.  Its  antiquity  is  demonstrated 
by  the  fact  that  the  plow,  as  represented  on  Egyptian  monuments  more  than 
3000  years  B.  C,  shows  a  slight  improvement  over  it.  The  Romans  are  also 
known  to  have  used  wooden  plows  of  a  very  primitive  type,  Ti\'ith  an  im- 
provement in  the  days  of  the  Tarquins  of  a  handle,  which  allowed  the  plow- 
man to  more  easily  hold  the  point  in  the  ground.  Chinese  historians  say 
that  the  Emperor  Shen  Neng,  who  ascended  the  throne  of  China  2737  B.C., 
"first  fashioned  timber  into  plows  and  taught  the  people  the  art  of  hus- 
bandry." 

The  records  of  the  past  fail  to  show  us  when  and  where  metal  points  or 
shares  were  first  used.  Several  prophetic  allusions  are  made  in  the  Old 
Testament  to  the  time  when  warriors  would  "beat  their  swords  into  plow 
shares,"  and  it  is  known  that  ancient  Egyptians  and  Assyrians  had  plows 
that  were  pointed  or  edged  with  copper  and  iron,  but  the  time  when  metal 
was  first  used  cannot  be  even  guessed. 

In  a  later  period,  probably  in  the  time  of  Cincinnatus  and  Cato,  the 
Romans  used  a  plow  that  was  quite  different  from  the  older  patterns  com- 
mon in  various  countries.  J.  Stanton  Gould,  in  his  report  to  the  New  York 
Agricultural  Society  in  1856,  says  that  this  plow  "will  be  found  to  exactly 
agree  with  the  description  of  the  implement  given  by  Virgil  in  the  Georgics. 
The  sole  of  the  plow  has  two  rectangular  pieces  of  wood  fixed  to  it  on  each 
side,  forming  an  acute  angle  with  it,  in  which  the  teeth  {dentalia)  are  in- 
serted. This  exactly  answers  the  description  of  Virgil :  'Duplici  aptantiir 
dentalia  dorso"   (the  teeth  are  fitted  to  the  double  back).     These  project 

5 


6  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 

obliquely  upward,  and  perform  the  office  of  a  mouldboard.  The  share  was 
of  metal." 

The  plows  of  ancient  times  seem,  however,  to  have  been  built  only  for 
the  purpo.se  of  breaking  and  stirring  the  soil,  the  bottom  having  been  invari- 
ably a  simple  wedge,  with  no  power  to  turn  a  furrow.  It  is  true  that  plows  may 
have  been  made  with  one  side  straight  like  a  modern  landside,  and  with  the 
other  side  extending  out  to  push  the  loosened  soil  over  and  thus  leave  some- 
thing like  a  furrow,  but  "no  one  had  as  yet  grasped  the  idea  of  combining 
two  wedges  in  the  same  implement,  nor  had  they  any  idea  of  the  curves  bv 
which  this  could  be  effected."  The  practical  combination  of  share  and 
mouldboard  remained  to  be  discovered. 

Gould  refers  to  a  wheeled  plow  used  in  France  for  centuries,  no  one 
knows  just  how  long,  which  seems  to  be  the  first  feeble  attempt  to  realize 
the  idea  of  a  mouldboard.  Its  model  has  been  handed  down  unchanged  for 
centuries.  It  had  the  principle  of  the  twisted  wedge,  ' '  raising  up  the  earth 
first  and  then  twisting  it  to  the  right.  It  is  furnished  with  two  wheels  to 
keep  it  steady  in  the  furrow,  and  a  coulter  of  the  modern  form.  It  is  a  rude 
affair  when  compared  with  our  modem  implements,  but  it  shows  real 
genius  in  its  author. ' ' 

It  is  well  to  note  here  that  this  is  not  the  first  use  of  either  the  wheel  or 
coulter  on  a  plow.  Plows  having  the  beams  supported  by  two  wheels,  some 
of  them  approaching  in  form  the  two-wheeled  sulky  so  popular  a  few  years 
ago,  were  made  by  the  Greeks  2000  years  ago.  The  coulter  was  certainly 
known  in  the  time  of  William  the  Conqueror,  in  the  eleventh  century,  in 
England,  if  not  earlier,  for  we  read  that  at  that  time  plows  with  their  beams 
supported  on  wheels  were  very  common,  one  of  them  being  described  as 
follows:  "It  was  drawn  by  four  oxen  and  fastened  to  them  by  ropes  made 
of  twisted  willows,  and  sometimes  by  the  skins  of  whales.  It  consists  of  a 
simple  wooden  wedge,  covered  with  straps  of  iron,  one  side  being  placed 
parallel  to  the  line  of  the  plow's  direction,  the  other  sweeping  over  to  the 
left  hand,  cleaning  it  from  its  own  path  and  leaving  an  unobstructed  furrow 
for  the  next  slice.  .\  coulter,  not  unlike  those  now  in  use,  is  inserted  in 
the  beam,  and  a  wheel  is  placed  in  front  to  regulate  the  depth." 

Thus  far,  however,  it  would  seem  that  no  real  inventor  had  appeared  to 
contribute  to  the  development  of  the  plow\  and  even  as  late  as  fifty  years 
ago  in  this  country-  the  usual  method  of  plow-making  was  for  the  farmer  to 
purchase  the  wood  part  of  his  plow  from  a  '  'plow-wright  (or  often  from  the 
jack-of-all-trades  wagon  maker)  and  have  it  "ironed"  by  the  local  black- 
smith, although  sometimes  the  wagon  maker  bought  the  irons  and 
"stocked"  them. 

The  first  English  patent  granted  on  a  plow  was  to  Joseph  Foljambe,  of 
York.shire,  in  1720,  he  having  invented  a  number  of  improvements  on  a  crude 
style  of  plow,  which  had  been  brought  from  Holland.  The  bottom  of 
Foljambe 's  plow  was  of  wood,  with  a  sheet-iron  covering  on  the  wearing 
parts  and  a  point  of  iron  plate.  The  coulter  was,  of  cour.se,  made  of  iron.' 
The  point  was  conical  in  form  and  the  furrow  was  raised  by  it  and  then 
turned  over  by  the  mouldboard.  The  handles  and  beam  were  better  pro- 
portioned than  any  that  had  been  in  use  previously,  and  the   first  clevis 


AMERICAN    AGRICULTIKAI,    IMPLEMENTS. 


JAMES  SMALL'S  EAST  LOTHIAN  PLOW, 


FRAME  OF  THE  EAST    LOTHtAN   PLOW 


S  AMERICAN   AGRICUI.TURAl,   IMPI^EMENTS. 

thai  is  known  to  have  been  used  on  a  plow  was  fitted  to  the  beam.  But 
this  plow,  although  it  was  superior  to  anything  then  known,  did  not  come 
into  general  use  until  James  Small  established  his  factory  at  Black  Alder 
Mount,  Scotland,  in  1763,  and  began  to  manufacture  and  sell  plows  on 
what  was  then  a  large  scale.  In  time  he  made  manj'  improvements, 
and  the  plow  finally  assumed  the  style  of  the  East  Lothian,  which  gave 
general  form  and  feature  to  all  the  common  British  plows  since.  The 
beam  and  handles  were  of  wrought  iron,  the  body  frame  and  mould- 
board  were  cast,  and  the  share  was  of  wrought  iron.  Robert  Ransome, 
of  Ipswich,  England,  obtained  a  patent  in  1785  for  making  the  share 
of  cast-iron,  and  in  1S()3  for  case-hardening  or  chilling  the  share, 
and  Thomas  Brown,  of  Alnwick,  England,  was  engaged  at  the  open- 
ing of  this  century  in  building  plows  of  improved  form  and  construction 
still  more  approaching  the  modern  implement.  The  seed  sown  by  Ransome 
in  1785  took  root,  and  produced  a  manufacturing  establishment,  which  to 
this  day  is  one  of  the  largest  in  England,  having  followed  the  industry 
through  all  the  changes  of  a  century.  Howard,  beginning  about  1840,  estab- 
lished a  factory  which  has  also  continued  to  the  present  day,  having  con- 
tributed, from  time  to  time,  improvements  and  changes  in  patterns  as  de- 
manded by  the  progress  of  invention  or  the  change  in  "fashion." 

In  America,  progress  in  the  development  of  the  plow  was  slow  during 
colonial  times,  owing  to  the  narrow  policy  of  England  in  discouraging  or 
prohibiting  altogether  the  establishment  of  factories.  The  manner  of  mak- 
ing a  plow  a  centurj'  ago  was  remarkably  crude,  judged  by  modern  stan- 
dards. In  the  language  of  Gould:  "  A  winding  tree  was  cut  down,  and  a 
mouldboard  hewed  from  it,  with  the  grain  of  the  timber  running  as  nearly 
along  its  shape  as  it  could  well  be  obtained.  On  to  thi-s  mouldboard,  to  pre- 
vents its  wearing  out  too  rapidly,  were  nailed  the  blade  of  an  old  hoe,  or 
thin  straps  of  iron  or  wornout  horseshoes.  The  landside  was  of  wood,  its 
base  and  sides  shod  with  thin  plates  of  iron.  The  share  was  of  iron,  with  a 
hardened  steel  point.  The  coulter  was  tolerably  well  made  of  iron,  steel 
edged,  and  locked  into  the  share  nearly  as  it  does  in  the  improved  lock 
coulter  of  the  present  day  (1856).  The  beam  was  usually  a  straight  stick; 
the  handles,  like  the  mouldboard,  split  from  the  crooked  trunk  of  a  tree,  or 
as  often  cut  from  its  branches,  the  crooked  roots  of  the  white  ash  being  the 
favorite  timber  for  plow  handles  in  the  northern  states.  The  beam  was  set 
at  any  pitch  fancy  might  dictate,  with  the  handles  fastened  on  almost  at 
right  angles  with  it,  thus  leaving  the  plowman  little  control  over  his  imple- 
ment, which  did  its  work  in  a  ver^'  slow  and  most  imperfect  manner."  It 
must  be  remembered,  however,  that  in  colonial  times  the  land  under  culti- 
vation was  very  largely  "new  ground,"  or  land  recently  cleared  of  timber, 
with  a  porous  soil  which  was  easily  penetrated  and  stirred  up.  It  had 
neither  the  stickiness  nor  tendency  to  bake  of  clay  land  which  has  long 
been  under  cultivation, nor  the  impenetrable  network  of  leathery  grass  roots 
which  made  the  breaking  of  virgin  prairie  soil  so  difficult.  And  besides, 
farming  was  conducted  on  a  far  smaller  scale  then,  for  the  cities  being  small 
and  few  in  number,  the  market  for  farm  products  was  limited,  and  the  aver- 
age farmer  contented  himself  with  growing  enough  for  his  family,  with  a 


AMERICAN'    AGRICrLTURAI,    IMPI.KMKNTS.  9 

small  surplus  for  purchasing  the  very  few  articles  of  commerce  indulged  in 
at  that  early  day. 

Thomas  Jefferson,  the  renowned  statesman,  was  the  first  to  bring  theo- 
retical knowledge  to  the  design  and  the  construction  of  the  mouldboard. 
Writing  in  1788,  he  referred  to  the  curves  which  should  characterize  a 
mouldboard,  and  said:  "The  offices  of  the  mouldboard  are  to  receive  the  sod 
after  the  share  has  cut  under  it,  to  raise  it  gradually  and  to  recover  it.  The 
fore  end  cf  it  should,  therefore,  be  horizontal,  to  enter  the  sod,  and  the  hind 
end  perpendicular,  to  throw  it  over;  the  intermediate  surface  changing  grad- 
ually from  the  horizontal  to  perpendicular.  It  should  be  as  wide  as  the  far- 
row, and  of  a  length  suited  to  the  construction  of  the  plow."  While  Jeffer- 
son succeeded  very  well  in  using  the  experimental  plows  which  he  made,  the 
time  was  not  yet  ripe  for  the  general  adoption  of  his  ideas,  and  his  work 
was  lost  for  a  generation,  until  it  was  taken  up  and  improved  upon  by  Wood 
and  later  inventors. 

The  first  letters  patent  granted  in  America,  on  a  plow,  was  in  1797,  to 
Chas.  Newbold,  a  farmer  of  Burlington,  N.  J.  His  specification  was  as  fol- 
lows: "The  subscriber,  Chas.  Newbold,  of  Burlington  county.  New  Jersey, 
has  invented  an  improvement  in  the  art  of  plow  making,  as  follows,  viz. : 
The  plow  to  be  (excepting  the  handles  and  beam)  of  solid  cast  iron,  con- 
sisting of  a  bar,  sheath  and  mouldplate.  The  sheath  serves  a  double  pur- 
pose of  coulter  and  sheath,  and  the  mouldplate  serves  for  share  and  mould- 
board,  that  is,  to  cut  and  turn  the  furrow.  The  forms  to  be  varied,  retain- 
ing the  same  general  principles,  to  meet  the  various  uses,  as  well  as  inclina- 
tions of  those  who  use  them."  Although  Newbold's  plow  worked  well,  far 
better  than  those  in  general  use  at  that  time,  the  farmers  rejected  it,  on  the 
plea  that  the  cast  iron  "poisoned  the  land,"  and  stimulated  the  growth  of 
weeds,  end  after  spending  ^30,000  in  trying  to  get  it  introduced,  the  inventor 
gave  up  the  task  in  despair.  During  the  twenty  years  following  Newbold's 
invention,  a  number  of  patents  on  plows  were  issued,  but  nothing  valuable 
was  contributed  to  the  art  of  plow  building,  and  the  rude  "bull"  plow  with 
its  wooden  mouldboard  still  ruled  the  realm. 

Jethro  Wood's  invention,  patented  September  i,  1819,  ushered  in  a  new 
era  in  the  history  of  the  plow,  the  era  of  manufacturing,  as  distinguished 
from  the  era  of  building  in  small  quantities  by  blacksmiths  or  "plow 
Wrights. "  In  Wood's  plow,  cast  iron  was  substituted  for  the  wooden  mould- 
board,  landside  and  standard,  and  a  cast  iron  point  or  share  for  the  old 
wrought,  steel  tipped  share.  But  the  most  important  part  of  Wood's 
'\\w(inWon  \va.sth.e  intejchangeability  0/ parts.  This  it  was  that  established 
the  era  of  manufacturing,  by  making  it  possible  for  the  farmer  to  replace  a 
wornout  or  broken  casting  with  a  new  one  from  the  factory.  Wood  also 
sought  to  form  his  mouldboard  on  scientific  principles,  so  that  the  pressure  of 
the  turning  furrow  would  be  evenly  distributed  on  its  surface,  and  thus 
avoid  wearing  it  in  spots.  After  many  ups  and  downs.  Wood  succeeded  in 
reducing  every  point  of  his  invention  to  practice,  and  its  merits  soon  won 
for  it  wide  recognition,  followed  by  a  general  demand  from  the  farmers  for 
the  new  plow;  and  then  began  the  struggle  which  finally  drove  the  noble 
inventor  to  his  grave.     A  demand  once  created  for  the  invention,  others  be- 


am);kican  acricuIvTurai,  imi'mcmivnts. 


CORSICAN  PLOW. 


NORTH  RUSSIAN  PLOW  "KOSOCLIA' 


SICILIAN  PLOW. 


PLCW    FKOM    SOrTH    RUSSIA. 


PLOW  OF   CENTRAL  RUSSIA- 


PLOW    FROM    CREMONA,  ITALY. 


PLOW,  DRAWN   BY   OXEN,  FROM    SARDINIA.  ITALI.-VN    PLOW   FROM   LOMB.^RDY   PLAINS. 


FUE.NCH    PLOW. 


I.MPROVED    FLEMISH    PLOW 


AMERICAN   AGRICrLTURAI,    IMPLEMENTS.  11 

gan  to  manufacture  it — in  wanton  disregard  of  the  inventor's  rights,  ac- 
quired by  his  work  of  a  lifetime,  and  the  expenditure  of  a  fortune  in  his 
experiments — and  in  his  efforts  to  enforce  his  rights  in  the  courts  his  little 
remaining  property  was  spent,  and  his  children,  after  his  death  in  1834, 
were  equally  unsuccessful  in  securing  reparation,  although  congress  had,  in 
1833,  extended  the  life  of  his  patent  fourteen  years.  In  the  words  of  Wm. 
H.  Seward,  secretary  of  state  under  Lincoln:  "No  citizen  of  the  United 
States  has  conferred  greater  economical  benefits  on  his  country  than  Jethro 
Wood — none  of  her  benefactors  have  been  more  inadequately  rewarded." 

Manufacturers  throughout  the  country  having  copied  Wood's  invention 
with  alacrity,  it  was  not  long  until  cast  iron  plows  were  in  general  use,  and 
for  a  generation  or  longer  but  little  was  done  to  improve  his  model,  further 
than  to  make  changes  in  detail,  adapting  it  to  the  needs  of  different  parts  of 
the  country. 

Joel  Nourse  was  one  of  the  noted  plowmen  of  the  generation  succeeding 
Wood.  He  first  started  at  Shrewsbury,  Mass.,  but  afterwards  remo\ed  to 
Worcester,  and  in  1842,  perfected  the  famous  Eagle  series,  plows  with  a 
longer  mouldboard  than  Wood's,  and  with  a  greater  turn,  breaking  the  fur- 
row more  thoroughly.  The  sales  in  the  forties  of  Nourse's  firm,  (Ruggles, 
Nourse,  Mason  &  Co.),  were  said  to  have  reached  25,000  and  30,000  plows 
per  year. 

THE  INVENTION  OF  THE  CHILLED  PLOW. 
There  remains  to  be  noticed  an  important  step  in  the  perfection  of  the 
plows  in  use  throughout  the  eastern  states.  Efforts  to  harden  the  wearing 
parts,,  and  thus  make  them  more  durable,  began  almost  with  the  first  use  of 
cast  plows,  but  the  chilling  process  was  so  little  understood,  that  for  more 
than  half  a  century  no  one  could  master  it.  Credit  for  making  the  chilled 
plow  a  practical  success  is  due  to  James  Oliver,  who  began  experiments  soon 
after  establishing  his  plow  shop  or  factory  at  South  Bend,  Ind. ,  in  1853. 

It  is  a  fact  worthy  of  note,  that  when  cast  or  "grey  iron"  plows  first  came 
into  use,  made  after  the  patterns  of  Wood,  Nourse  and  others,  no  complaints 
were  heard  in  regard  to  scouring.  But  as  the  country  grew  older,  and  the  soil, 
by  repeated  working,  became  dense  and  sticky,  it  was  found  that  cast  ii-on 
scoured  with  difficulty,  or  not  at  all.  Hence  the  great  demand  that  was 
heard  among  the  next  generation  for  a  new  kind  of  plow  that  would  respond 
to  the  changed  requirements.  This  demand  was  filled  by  the  invention  of 
the  chilled  plow,  as  was  also  the  demand  for  a  mouldboard  that  would  with- 
stand more  efficiently  the  wearing  of  gravelly  or  sandy  soil. 

It  was  this  general  and  unremitting  demand  that  led  Mr.  Oliver  to 
persevere  in  his  efforts  to  produce  a  perfect  chilled  plow,  in  the  face  of  as 
great  obstacles  as  ever  embarrassed  an  inventor.  For  years  it  seemed  as 
though  the  problem  would  not  be  solved,  so  long  did  it  require  to  produce 
a  chilled  mouldboard  that  would  meet  the  varying  requirements  of  the 
farmers,  but  success  dawned  at  last,  and  with  it  a  new  epoch  in  agri- 
culture. 

Thomas  Jefferson  had  formulated  the  design  of  an  ideal  mouldboard, 
and  Jethro  Wood  had  done  much  to  realize  this  ideal,  but  of  the  cast 
plows  in  use  when  Mr.  Oliver  began  his  experiments,  there  were  few  that  had 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL,   IMPI^RMHXTS. 


WOODEN   Mori,DBOARD   DUTCH   PLOW    FROM  WOODEN     MOUT  DBOARD    PLOW    FROM     rF.XNSYL- 

ALBANY  tnlNTV.  N.  Y.,  100   YEARS  OLD.  VANIA,  100  YEARS   OLD. 


WOODEN  UrorTLDBOARD   HORIZONTAL  SHARE 
I'LOW,  OF   A    CENTURY   AGO 


JETHRO  WOOD'S  PLOW,  PATENTED  SEPT.  1,    1819. 


CHAS.  NEWBOLD'S  PLOW,  PATENTED  1797. 
FIRST  .AMERICAN  CASTIRON  PLOW. 


ZADOK    HARRIS'   PLOW,   1819. 


SIR  JO=,UL  A  OIBB:,  STLEL  PLOW,  1838.  NOUKSE'S  EAGLE  PLOW,  BUILT  IN  THE  "FORTIES' 


OLIVERS  CHILLED  EDGE  SHARE,   PATENTED 
JULY  29,    1879. 


OLIVER'S   PATENT   NOV.    18,1873. 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  13 

mouldboards  even  approximating  the  best  form  by  which  lightness  of  draft, 
even  distribution  of  the  pressure  of  the  soil  over  the  wearing  surface,  and  a 
properly  laid  furrow  might  be  secured. 

Two  fundamental  defects  had  hitherto  stood  in  the  way  of  a  successful 
chilled  mouldboard.  One  was  the  frequency  of  soft  spots  or  blow  holes  in 
the  casting,  making  it  short  lived,  and  the  other  was  the  extreme  brittleness 
of  chilled  metal,  and  the  risk  of  breakage  in  a  mouldboard  of  convenient 
weight  and  thickness.  A  remedy  for  the  first  was  finally  discovered  in  using 
hot  water  under  certain  conditions  in  the  chills,  and  a  way  was  soon  after- 
wards found  for  removing  the  brittleness.  By  a  peculiar  annealing  process 
it  was  made  possible  to  toughen  the  metal  without  softening  it,  and  so  to 
give  it  the  strength  that  would  enable  it  to  endure  the  hard  usage  of  general 
purpose  work  on  a  million  farms.  With  this  discovery  the  last  barrier  in 
the  way  of  a  successful  chilled  plow  was  removed. 

In  their  general  construction  the  cast  and  chilled  plows  of  the  east  have 
been  so  different  that  it  will  be  proper  to  follow  them  a  little  farther  before 
taking  up  steel  plows.  The  two  classes  may  thus  be  kept  distinct.  Ap- 
parentlv  the  first  patent  covering  a  practical  device  for  adjusting  the  hea.ui 
laterally  in  a  plow  was  issued  to  E.  Ball,  of  Canton,  Ohio,  more  famous  as 
a  reaper  inventor,  the  patent  bearing  date  of  March  23,  1852.  It  showed  a 
standard  with  a  double  head,  with  the  beam  held  to  it  by  two  bolts  in  such 
a  way  that  it  could  be  adjusted  both  laterally  and  vertically.  The  beam 
was  cut  off  at  the  rear  of  the  standard. 

R.  A.  Graham's  patent,  Oct.  4,  1S53,  showed  a  lug  on  the  landside 
handle  to  which  the  heel  of  the  beam  was  attached,  a  peculiarly  arranged 
set  screw  giving  the  beam  a  lateral  adjustment.  This  patent  also  claimed 
a  screw-bolt  in  the  bottom  of  the  handles,  arranged  as  an  adjustable  brace 
for  the  mouldboard.  Still  another  method  of  shifting  a  beam  lateral!}-  was 
shown  in  the  patent  of  A.  W.  Stoker,  Sept.  11,  186tj,  in  which  the  handle 
brace  was  a  rod  extending  through  the  heel  of  the  beam,  a  portion  of 
the  rod  being  threaded  to  permit  of  holding  the  beam  in  position  with  nuts. 

The  slotted  handle  brace  now  in  general  use  on  plows  that  are 
adapted  to  either  two  or  three  horses,  was  patented  by  James  Oliver,  Feb. 
21,  1871.  In  this  patent  Mr.  Oliver  covered  also  a  share  with  a  fin  cast  upon 
it  extending  upward  from  the  landside  edge  of  the  point  so  as  to  cut  the 
soil  or  sod.  June  18,  1872,  the  same  inventor  patented  his  peculiar  standard 
by  which  the  beam  is  brought  more  directly  over  the  line  of  draft,  the  shin 
extending  to  the  side  past  the  landside  edge  of  the  beam.  This  patent  also 
covered  the  peculiar  Oliver  wheel  for  a  wood  beam  plow,  one  arm  of  the 
standard  being  slotted  to  permit  a  vertical  adjustment,  and  the  other  arm 
flattened  on  its  end  and  fitted  under  the  beam,  where  it  is  held  by  a  hook  in 
a  way  to  permit  alignment  of  the  wheel  when  the  beam  is  shifted.  In  his 
patent  of  Nov.  18,  1873,  Mr.  Oliver  shows  a  share  with  a  coulter  or  shin  cast 
as  a  part  of  it,  to  be  seated  against  the  front  edge  of  the  mouldboard,  and 
also  the  sloping  landside,  a  feature  that  has  ever  since  distinguished  his 
plows  in  the  trade.  A  later  patent,  issued  July  29,  1879.  and  several  suc- 
ceeding it,  covered  for  Mr.  Oliver  the  process  of  chilling  the  nose  and  cut- 
ting edge  of  a  share. 


14  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAI^   IMPLEMENTS. 

The  Patent  Office  records  show  many  efforts  to  produce  a  cast  share  with 
a  slip  or  reversible  nose,  the  names  of  M.  M.  Bowers  and  James  Oliver  ap- 
pearing oftener  than  others,  and  their  inventions  having  a  more  practical 
appearance.  Mr.  Bowers'  first  patent  appears  in  1875,  and  his  last  in  1880. 
An  important  patent  was  also  issued  to  Mr.  Oliver  May  8,  1877,  for  a  jointer 
or  coulter  holder.  It  covered  a  holder  rigidly  secured  to  the  standard  of 
the  plow,  and  having  a  slotted  plate  fitting  the  under  .side  of  the  beam,  to 
which  it  was  held,  as  well  as  a  slotted  arm  extending  downward,  to  which 
the  jointer  or  hanging  coulter  blade  is  attached. 

.STEEL  WALKING    PLOWS. 

When  hardy  emigrants  from  the  Old  World  landed  upon  our  eastern 
shores  to  establish  settlements,  they  found  that  in  the  land  of  their  dreams, 
'  'flowing  with  milk  and  honey, ' '  the  advantages  of  free  farms  were  largely  off- 
set by  the  disadvantages  of  pioneer  life, of  clearing  away  the  forest,  and  pre- 
paring the  soil  for  the  growth  of  their  crops.  They  had  new  proof  of  the  fact 
that  the  treasures  of  the  .soil  can  onh'  be  unlocked  by  patient  and  persistent 
application.  The  experience  of  settlers  east  of  the  Alleghenies  had  its  coun- 
terpart in  the  pioneer  work  of  those  who  settled  in  the  vast  prairie  region  of 
the  Mississippi  valley,  extending  a  thousand  miles  westward  from  Ohio. 
Where  the  ax  and  the  "grub  hoe  "  had  been  needed  to  subdue  the  eastern 
land,  the  prairie  breaking  plow,  with  a  share  as  sharp  as  the  woodman's 
ax,  was  required  to  penetrate  the  turf  of  a  thousand  years'  growth  and  un- 
cover the  inexhaustible  soil  that  lay  shielded  beneath  the  hard,  matted 
roots  of  the  prairie  grasses  and  weeds.  Never  in  histor}'  had  such  a  prob- 
lem confronted  the  land-seeking  emigrant;  but,  with  ready  ingenuity,  he 
forged  with  blacksmith's  tools  a  new  kind  of  plow  to  meet  the  new  require- 
ments. The  old  principles  of  a  beam,  handles,  a  mouldboard,  standard  and 
share  were  all  right,  but  the  mouldboard  must  be  made  with  a  long,  easy 
curve,  and  the  share  with  an  edge  of  the  finest  steel.  In  late  years,  prob- 
ably early  in  the  "forties,"  a  few  curving  rods  were  attached  to  the  share 
in  place  of  a  mouldboard.  The  plow  was  made  of  exceptional  strength, 
for  it  was  the  rule  to  use  three  to  six  yokes  of  oxen  in  breaking. 

With  the  problem  of  breaking  overcome,  it  might  have  been  expected 
that  the  soil  would  become  tractable  and  obedient  to  the  touch  of  its  mas- 
ter, but  yet  another  obstacle  was  to  be  surmounted.  The  old  wooden  plows, 
and  those  of  cast  iron  that  were  coming  in  from  the  east,  or  of  "boiler 
plate"  that  were  made  by  local  blacksmiths,  would  not  scour  in  the  light 
vegetable  mould  after  it  had  been  stirred  up  by  cultivation  during  several 
sea.sons.  Various  remedies  were  tried,  but  without  avail,  until  it  was  dis- 
covered that  a  high  grade  of  steel  would  clean  itself  and  do  satisfactory 
work.  Who  it  was  that  made  this  discovery  it  would  be  difficult  to  deter- 
mine, but  the  first  steel  plow  of  which  there  is  any  record  was  made  in  1833 
in  Chicago  in  the  woods  near  where  the  Illinois  Central  station  at  Twelfth 
street  now  stands. 

The  maker  of  this  plow  was  John  Lane,  whose  son,  the  inventor  of  soft 
center  plow  steel,  was  a  witness  of  the  incident,  and  yet  lives  in  Chicago  to 
tell  the  interesting  story.  A  rude  forge  of  logs  had  been  built  by  Mr.  Lane, 
who  was  a  blacksmith,  and  to  a  tree  that  stood  by  it  a  bellows  was  hung. 


AMERICAN   ACRICUI^TrRAI.   IMPLHMEXTS. 


15 


NATIVE  PLOW,  J'HIIJPriX]-;  ISLANDS. 


PERSIAN    PLOW. 


A:."OrUEK    STYLE,  I'H  11, 1 1'l'INH  ISLANDS. 


MEXIC.A.N    PLOW. 


HEBREW   PLOW,  BIBLE  TIMES. 


JAVANESE   PLOW 


JAPANESE   PLOW. 


JAPANESE    HAND   PLOW. 


MEXICAN    PLOW. 


16  AMERICAN   AGKICUI.TUR.\L   IMPLEMENTS. 

An  old  saw,  probably  a  worn  out  "crosscut,"  had  been  cut  and  deprived  of 
its  teeth,  and  three  lengths  of  it  were  used  to  make  a  niouldboard  of  the 
requisite  width,  another  piece  forming  the  share  and  an  "anchor  wing"  of 
iron,  the  three-cornered  shin  piece  shown  in  illustration. 

For  several  years  it  was  impossible  to  obtain  anything  Vjut  saws  from 
which  to  make  a  plow,  and  old  ones  were  gathered  up  and  used  until  the 
supply  was  exhausted,  and  new  ones  had  to  be  purchased.  In  1830  or  1837 
plow  makers  like  I^ane  were  able  to  obtain  from  Pittsburg  saw  blanks  or 
plates,  seven  or  eight  inches  wide,  in  which  the  teeth  had  not  been  cut,  two 
widths  being  sufficient  for  a  mouldboard.  Two  or  three  years  later,  as  nearly 
as  the  younger  Lane  can  remember,  a  special  width  of  steel  coula  be  had 
from. Pittsburgh,  rolled  twelve  inches  wide,  and  this  gave  quite  a  boom  to 
the  infant  industry 

It  was  a  plow  with  a  mouldboard  made  of  old  saws  that  John  Deere, 
then  a  blacksmith,  built  in  1837,  after  he  had  come  west  and  settled  in  Grand 
Detour,  111.  The  success  of  the  first  two  which  he  made  led  him  to  build  a 
considerable  number,  for  which  he  found  a  ready  sale.  This  again  inspired 
him  to  higher  eflForts,  and  he  ordered  from  abroad  the  steel  which  could  not 
be  obtained  in  this  country  in  the  quantitj'  or  quality  he  desired,  and  went 
still  further  in  his  improvements.  "The  first  slab  of  plow  steel  ever  rolled 
in  the  United  States  was  rolled  by  Wni.  Woods  at  the  steel  works  of  Jones 
&  Quigg  and  shipped  to  John  Deere  in  IMoline,  111.,"  says  James  M.  Swank, 
in  his  "History  of  Iron  and  Steel  In  All  Ages."  Mr.  Deere  removed  to 
Moline  from  Grand  Detour  in  1847  and  founded  the  business  which  is  now 
carried  on,  perpetuating  his  name.  His  partner  at  Grand  Detour,  Major 
Andrus,  continued  at  that  place  until  later  years. 

Wm.  Parlin,  another  pioneer  in  the  days  when  the  Illinois  prairies  were 
settled  and  broken,  worked  in  much  the  same  way,  beginning  in  1842,  and 
laid  the  foundation  for  what  is  claimed  to  be  the  oldest  permanent  steel  plow- 
factory  in  the  west.  Many  other  names  could  be  mentioned  of  men,  who, 
with  the  black.smith's  hammer  and  sledge,  brought  forth  in  limited  num- 
bers what  was  then  the  most  important  of  all  agricultural  implements. 

But  few  patents  have  been  issued  affecting  the  form  or  general  appear- 
ance of  the  steel  plow,  which  has  always  been  made  on  simpler  lines  than 
the  chilled  plow. 

The  manufacture  of  steel  for  plows  used  on  the  prairies  of  the  west  was 
revolutionized  in  1868,  by  the  invention  of  "soft  center"  .steel  for  mould- 
boards,  shares  and  landsides.  For  a  time  during  the  infant  years  of  the 
industry  plows  were  made  from  a  high  grade  of  saw  steel,  but  before  long 
cheaper  material  was  substituted,  with  the  result  that  plows  made  of  it 
would  not  scour  in  all  kinds  of  soil.  Case-hardened  German  steel  was  then 
tried,  but  it  was  not  generally  satisfactory,  chiefly  because  of  the  difficulty 
in  tempering  it  imiformly.  In  1862  an  invention  was  patented  that  in  some 
measure  paved  the  way  for  the  introduction  of  "soft  center"  steel,  but  it 
did  not  come  into  general  favor,  although  it  is  still  used  successfully  by  two 
well-known  plow  manufacturers.  It  w-as  covered  by  the  patent  of  Wm. 
Morri.son,  and  consisted  in  the  use  of  a  cast  steel  plate  for  the  face  of  a 
mouldboard,  share  or  landside,  welded  upon  and  strengthened  by  a  backing 


AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 


17 


ANOTHER  STYLE    PRAIEIE   BREAKIXG   PLOW. 


PRAIRIE  BREAKING   PLOW  OF  50  YEARS  AGO. 


THE   FIRST    STEEL   PLOW,  1833 


JOHN  LANE'S  PATENT,  1868,  "SOFT  CEN- 
TER" STEEL. 


,^r  > 


GILPIN    MOORE,  JUNE  29,  1875. 


GILPIN  MOORE'S  PATENT,  JTNE  29.  1875. 


W.  L.  CASADAY'S  PATENT,  MAY  3,  1876.  W.  L.  CASADAY'S  PATENT,  SEPT.  6,  1881. 


18  AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 

plate  of  soft  iron.  The  great  defect  in  it,  wliich  prevented  its  general  in- 
troduction, was  its  tendency  to  warp  in  tempering,  which  could  only  be 
overcome  by  a  tedious  and  unsatisfactory  method  of  holding  it  in  clamps. 
The  iron  and  steel  would  not  expand  and  contract  together. 

John  Lane,  above  referred  to,  some  time  prior  to  applying  for  his  pat- 
ent, wliich  was  i.ssued  Sept.  IT),  1868,  conceived  the  idea  of  making  a  plate 
of  three  layers,  two  outer  plates  of  steel,  with  a  central  one  of  soft  iron  or 
steel.  When  made  in  this  way  a  mouldboard  or  other  shape  would  not 
warp  enough  to  injure  the  scouring  or  turning  qualities  of  the  plow,  as  the 
one  layer  of  steel  balanced  the  other  in  heating  and  tempering,  and  the  soft 
plate  in  the  middle  made  the  combination  stronger  than  any  form  of  .steel 
that  had  ever  been  used. 

The  importance  of  this  invention  can  hardly  be  estimated.  On  many 
kinds  of  prairie  soil  plowing  was  done  with  great  difficulty,  and  in  some 
sections  it  could  not  be  done  at  all  with  the  old  style  plows,  except  under 
favorable  conditions.  The  new  kind  of  steel  was  like  oil  upon  troubled 
waters,  and  proved  itself  worth  millions  annually  to  the  farmers  of  the  west. 
Its  inventor  was  content  with  a  royalty  of  about  3  cents  on  a  plow,  yet  this 
amounted  to  a  sum  that  would  have  made  Jethro  Wood  one  of  the  wealthiest 
men  of  his  day. 

It  was  of  the  .steel  plows  that  turn  the  prairies  of  the  west  that  Mr. 
Marsh  wrote  in  his  beautiful  "plow  sentiment"  in  1885  as  follows:  "The 
young  farmer,  if  possessed  of  any  spirit,  as  he  guides  a  well  set,  keen  cut- 
ting American  plow  through  the  ground  behind  a  spanking  team,  his  well 
made  implement  answering  promptly  to  his  touch,  shaving  the  roots,  and 
covering  all  with  the  ru.shing  furrow  as  it  ripples  from  the  polished  mould- 
board,  feels  an  exhilarating  interest  in  his  work,  akin  to  that  of  the  sailor 
who  plows  the  waves  with  a  light,  trim  vessel  under  a  spanking  breeze. 
There  is  the  same  sort  of  mastery  over  the  elements  and  a  like  freedom  of 
action  in  governing  them.  In  my  observation  of  foreign  farming  it  seemed 
to  me  that  the  marked  superiority  of  American  farmers,  in  spirit  and  intelli- 
gence, was  largely  due  to  the  finish  and  capacity  of  the  agricultural  imple- 
ments in  use  in  this  country. 

"American  inventors  and  manufacturers  have  done  much  bj-  providing 
such  .superior  tools,  to  edvicate  and  elevate  our  operating  classes;  while  on 
the  other  hand,  such  intelligence  demands  from  manufacturers  a  continu- 
ance of  their  best  efforts,  and  the  combined  result  is  manifest  in  the  fact 
that  as  a  working  people  we  are  infinitely  in  advance  of  all  others.  We 
labor  with  zest  and  a  masterful  spirit  because  our  tools  are  in  accord  and 
give  us  perfect  command  over  the  work  in  hand.  What  a  contrast  between 
our  plows  and  the  thing  so  called  in  Russia,  for  instance,  and  what  a  con- 
trast al-so  between  the  respective  operators.  Like  plow,  like  man.  On  the 
one  side  are  brightness,  keenness  and  adaptability;  on  the  other  coarseness, 
clumsiness  and  stolidity. 

"Americans  whittle  because  they  carry  finely  finished  and  keen  cutting 
knives,  and  it  is  a  plea.sure  to  use  them.  The  same  pleasure  exists  in  the 
use  of  our  machinery,  generally.  Not  so  on  the  other  side;  their  imple- 
ments excite  no  impulse  to  operate  them  nor  pleasure  in  their  operation. 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  19 

If  j-our  knife  was  but  a  piece  of  hoop  iron  edged,  you  would  have  no  im- 
pulse to  whittle.  A  European  peasant's  plow  beside  one  of  ours  affords  a 
like  comparison.  It  does  seem  as  if  the  general  diffusion  of  intelligence 
throughout  the  world,  by  paper,  steam  and  electricity,  would  ere  long 
awaken  the  foreign  tiller  of  the  soil,  and  penetrate  even  his  stolid  soul  with 
an  ambition  for  better  things  than  what  have  come  down  to  him  scarce!}- 
improved  for  a  thousand  years  and  he  ought  to  begin  the  new  life  with  an 
American  plow." 

SULKY   AND   GANG   PLOWS. 

Although  sulky  riding  plows  are  now  eminently  practical  implements 
and  are  in  general  use  throughout  the  west,  a  brief  period  of  thirty  years 
would  cover  their  development.  Twenty  years  of  this  time  were  taken  up 
by  the  invention  and  manufacture  of  various  styles  of  the  old  two-wheel 
sulky,  the  three-wheel  plows,  now  so  popular,  having  been  made  practical 
for  general  introduction  within  the  past  ten  years. 

So  many  patents  were  granted  during  the  reign  of  the  old  sulky  that 
they  present  the  aspect  of  a  pathless  wilderness,  one  that  the  author  has  no 
intention  of  exploring.  It  may  be  in  order,  however,  to  notice  brief!  v  a  few  of 
the  pioneer  patents  on  wheel  plows  or  those  on  sulkies  svhich  became  popular. 
The  first  patent  that  appears  in  this  class  was  granted  to  H.  Brown,  March 
9,  1844,  and  covers  an  arrangement  of  plow  bases  in  a  gang.  The  next, 
issued  to  E.  Goldthwait,  Nov.  26,  1851,  shows  a  plow  with  two  wheels  sup- 
porting the  forward  end  of  the  beam,  the  plow  being  constructed  substan- 
tially like  a  wood  beam  walking  plow.  A  patent  was  issued  to  C.  R. 
Brinckerhoff,  Oct.  11,  1853,  on  a  plow  which  was  almost  the  same  in  general 
form,  though  differing  in  details  of  construction  and  adjustment.  Several 
patents  were  granted  on  gangs  prior  to  that  of  M.  Turle}-,  Dec.  9,  1856, 
which  shows  a  sulky  with  one  base.  During  the  years  following  patents 
v\-ere  issued  at  frequent  intervals  to  inventors  in  various  parts  of  the  country, 
covering  the  arrangement  and  adjustment  of  sulk}-  and  gang  plows. 

One  of  the  first  sulky  plows  to  be  made  practical  for  introduction  into 
general  use  was  the  Davenport,  based  on  patents  issued  to  F.  S.  Davenport, 
Feb.  9,  1864,  for  a  gang  plow.  Robert  Newton,  of  Jerseyville,  111.,  in  1864 
converted  one  of  Davenport's  gangs  into  a  three-horse  plow,  with  one  six- 
teen-inch  base,  a  three-horse  evener  and  rolling  coulter,  and  used  it  success- 
fully, making  many  improvements  which  were  found  necessar}',  such  as 
to  change  the  position  of  the  tongue,  putting  it  between  the  land  horses. 
Mr.  Newton  met  with  many  discouragements,  but  persevered  and  was  able 
to  sell  twenty-six  sulky  plows  in  1865  in  the  state  of  Illinois.  From  this 
small  beginning  he  saw  the  trade  grow  until  in  one  year  36,000  plows  of 
this  type  were  sold  by  one  house,  he  having  captured  in  the  meantime  ninety- 
one  out  of  107  field- trial  awards.  By  1868  there  were  several  practical 
sulkies  in  the  field,  and  an  important  trial  was  held  at  Des  Moines  in  that 
year.  Many  other  tnals  were  held  in  the  years  following,  and  at  St.  Louis 
in  1873,  there  were  sixteen  sulky  plows  entered  in  competition,  more  than 
had  ever  before  been  brought  together. 

January  19,  1875,  a  patent  was  granted  to  Gilpin  Moore,  on  a  sulky  that 
became  widely  known  as  manufactured  at  INIoline  by  Deere  &  Company, 


20  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 

May  2,  1876,  a  patent  was  granted  to  W.  L.  Casaday,  reissued  Nov.  13, 
1S77,  on  the  famous  Casaday  sulky,  made  by  the  Oliver  Chilled  Plow 
Works,  which  was  the  first  to  do  away  with  the  landside  and  use  a  wheel 
set  at  an  angle  against  the  furrow  to  support  the  plow.  Other  important 
patents  were  granted  to  Casaday  in  the  years  following  on  adjustments  for 
this  plow.  In  1884  the  first  of  the  three-wheel  plows  was  introduced  in  the 
trade  by  the  Moline  Plow  Company,  based  on  patents  that  had  been  issued 
to  G.  W.  Hunt.  The  ultimate  success  of  this  type  of  plow  inspired  invent- 
ors everywhere  to  activity  in  the  new  field,  and  many  improvements  and 
variations  have  been  recorded  in  the  Patent  Office  in  the  intervening  years. 
To  enter  into  a  description  of  all  of  them  would  be  impossible,  and  it  is  too 
early  in  their  development  for  the  evolution  of  the  trade  to  show  what 
principles  are  destined  to  triumph  and  become  the  standard. 

For  the  past  forty  years  inventors  have  worked  on  the  problem  of  steam 
plowing.  The  favorite  plan  in  England  has  been  to  draw  a  gang  of  plows 
back  and  forth  across  the  field  by  a  cable  driven  by  an  engine  at  one  side,  or 
often  by  two  engines,  one  on  each  side  of  the  plot.  Many  of  these  outfits 
went  into  use,  and  at  least  one  or  two  were  imported  into  this  country  and 
used  for  a  time.  The  plan  proved  a  clumsj^  one,  however,  and  has  been 
almost  entirely  abandoned  abroad. 

In  this  country  the  popular  plan  has  been  to  draw  a  gang  of  plows 
behind  a  traction  engine.  In  some  cases  a  modified  form  of  threshing 
engine  has  been  used,  of  sixteen  or  twenty-horse  power  or  larger.  Excel- 
lent results  have  been  obtained,  and  mauj'  outfits  of  this  type  are  now  in 
use. 

During  the  past  ten  years  the  needs  of  wheat  ranches  in  California  and 
elsewhere  have  developed  a  special  form  of  engine  for  plowing,  harvesting 
and  similar  work.  As  built  by  Jacob  Price  at  the  J.  I.  Case  Works  in  Ra- 
cine, and  by  the  Benicia  Agricultural  Works,  Daniel  Best  and  others  in  Cali- 
fornia, this  engine  has  assumed  a  tricycle  form,  the  weight  of  the  boiler 
and  engine  resting  on  two  very  high,  wide  tread  wheels,  with  a  third  wheel 
in  front  of  castor  type  for  easy  steering.  A  high  pressure,  force  draft  boiler 
is  used,  and  small,  high-speed  engines,  developing  forty  to  eighty-horse 
power,  according  to  the  size  of  the  outfit.  Such  engines  are  in  general  use 
on  large  farms  in  the  west,  drawing  twelve,  fifteen  and  sometimes  eighteea 
twelve-inch  plows,  and  turning  over  twenty-five  to  fifty  acres  per  day. 


A 


CHAPTER  II. 

Harrows. 

I,THOUGH  the  harrow  is  of  far  less  antiquity  than  the  plow,  it  is  a  more 


used  by  man  was  undonbtedl}^  nothing  more  than  the  branch  of  a  tree,  and 
it  is  equally  probable  that  the  next  stage  of  development  was  a  crude  wooden 
frame  with  wooden  teeth,  or  possibly  a  forked  timber  with  a  piece  extend- 
ing across  the  rear  from  one  prong  to  the  other.  A  peculiar  form  of  A 
frame  harrow,  shown  in  our  illustration,  was  used  by  the  ancient  Romans, 
who  also  had  a  kind  of  smoothing  harrow.  Pliny  says:  "After  seed  is  put 
in  the  ground  harrows  with  long  teeth  are  drawn  over  it." 

In  the  Bible  it  is  said  of  King  David,  about  1033  B.  C,  in  describing  his 
treatment  of  the  men  of  Rabbah,  that  "he  cut  them  with  saws  and  toothed 
harrows  of  iron  and  with  axes."  Other  references  are  made  in  the  Bible  to 
harrows  as  a  means  of  torture,  but  no  mention  is  found  of  their  use  in  agri- 
culture. We  may  infer,  however,  that  they  were  generally  used  for  that 
purpose,  and  that  their  adaptability  as  a  means  of  torture  in  those  days  of 
cruelty  and  bloodthirstiness  was  only  incidental. 

The  Japanese  have  used  from  time  immemorial  disk  harrows,  like  that 
shown  in  our  illustration,  which,  it  will  be  obser\'ed,  has  smoothing  Ijlades 
or  teeth  running  behind  the  disks.  A  roller  with  teeth  is  also  of  unknown 
antiquity  in  Japan,  and  both  it  and  the  disk  harrow  are  in  common  use 
to-day  in  that  country. 

Harrows  may  be  properly  divided  into  three  general  classes;  spike  tooth, 
disk  and  spring  tooth.  The  first  two,  as  we  have  just  seen,  are  of  remote 
antiquity,  the  spike  tooth  being  probably  the  older,  as  wooden  teeth  w'ould 
be  naturally  used  before  disks  were  invented.  The  spring  tooth  is  an  inven- 
tion of  the  past  generation.  The  spike  tooth  harrow  of  the  early  settlers  in 
the  west  was  so  simple  in  construction  that  the  frame  was  usually  home- 
made or  made  to  order  at  the  village  wagon-maker's,  the  teeth  being  forged 
of  iron  by  the  village  blacksmith.  Aside  from  changes  in  frame  and  manner 
of  hitching,  the  only  improvement  of  which  this  harrow  was  susceptible  was 
giving  the  point  of  the  teeth  a  backward  pitch  to  thus  make  them  more 
effective  in  smoothing  the  surface  and  crushing  clods.  With  the  cheapen- 
ing of  iron  and  steel,  however,  came  the  practicability  of  making  the  frame 
of  iron  and  the  teeth  of  steel.  Then  a  lever  to  change  in  an  instant  the 
pitch  of  the  teeth  was  invented  by  an  Iowa  man  early  in  the  "seventies"  and 
the  spike  tooth  harrow  as  made  by  plow  manufacturers  and  others  and 
largely  sold  throughout  the  west,  wa.;  perfected. 

The  first  patent  in  the  United  States  for  a  revolving  disk  for  pulverizing 
the  soil  was  granted  Aug.  7,  1847,  to  G.  Page,  and  showed  a  single  disk  used 

?i 


22  AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 

as  a  side  part  of  a  peculiar  form  of  plow.  For  the  arrangement  of  disks  in 
a  gang,  a  patent  was  issued  June  27,  1854,  to  H.  ]M.  Johnson,  this  invention 
seeming  to  lay  the  foundation  for  the  modern  disk  harrow,  although  in  a 
previous  patent  in  184(1,  disks  were  shown  as  an  attachment  to  a  seeder, 
following  behind  to  pulverize  the  ground  and  cover  the  seed,  with  a 
rake  attachment  bringing  up  the  rear.  S.  G.  Randall  patented  in  1859  a 
combination  of  a  broadcast  seeder  and  two  gangs  of  disks  set  at  an  angle. 
With  this  invention  as  a  basis  on  which  to  build,  our  inventors  and  manu- 
facturers went  on  from  step  to  step,  making  improvements  and  changes,  all 
of  which  have  resulted  in  the  various  forms  of  disk  harrows  now  on  the 
market.  The  manufacture  of  such  harrows  began  in  the  "seventies"  in  New 
York,  and  about  1880  prominent  manufacturers  in  the  west  became  interested 
in  the  trade,  which  has  developed  largely  in  their  hands. 

The  spring  tooth,  as  generally  used  in  harrows  of  this  class,  was  in- 
vented by  David  L.  Garver,  of  Hart,  Mich.,  and  patented  in  1869.  For 
eight  years  the  inventor  made  unsuccessful  efforts  to  introduce  his  harrow, 
only  making  a  few.  At  this  time  D.  C.  Reed,  of  Kalamazoo,  became  in- 
terested in  the  harrow,  and  endeavored  to  establish  the  manufacture  of 
it.  Finding  Garver's  invention  incomplete,  he  improved  it  by  the  ad- 
dition of  an  adjustable  clip  for  holding  the  teeth  in  any  position  desired, 
which  he  patented  in  1877.  This  improvement  made  the  new  implement  a 
successful  one,  and  the  demand  for  it  became  general  among  the  farmers, 
especially  in  the  eastern  and  central  states.  Many  inventors  sought  fame 
in  the  new  field,  and  patents  on  new  de^'ices  and  variations  of  old  ones 
multiplied,  all  being  subordinate  during  its  life  to  the  Garver  patent  on  the 
spring  tooth.  D.  C.  &  H.  C.  Reed  &  Co.,  of  Kalamazoo,  were  the  first  to 
begin  manufacturing  in  the  west,  followed  a  year  later  by  Chase,  Taylor  & 
Co.,  and  by  others.  In  the  east  G.  B.  Olin  &  Co.  at  Canandaigua,  N.  Y., 
acquired  an  interest  in  the  Garver  patent  and  were  pioneers  in  manufactur- 
ing. As  new  manufacturers  came  into  the  field  patent  litigation  increased, 
and  by  the  fall  of  1890  matters  had  fallen  into  so  much  of  a  tangle  that  it 
was  deemed  best  by  leading  houses  to  consolidate  their  interests  in  patents, 
which  numbered  several  hundred,  into  a  corporation  to  be  known  as  the 
National  Harrow  Co.  This  was  accomplished,  and  the  company  was  made 
trustee  or  owner  of  all  the  patents,  the  different  manufacturers,  originally 
fourteen  or  fifteen  in  number,  taking  licenses  to  manufacture.  In  time 
others  were  taken  into  the  fold,  and  at  present  the  licensees  number  about 
twenty-five.  Within  the  past  year  a  consolidation  of  manufacturing  inter- 
ests has  been  effected,  several  large  houses  turning  over  their  business  to  a 
new  company,  known  as  the  Standard  Harrow  Co. 

Of  late  years  several  new  types  of  harrows  have  been  brought  before 
the  trade,  notably  an  invention  of  La  Dow,  a  spading  harrow,  manufact- 
ured at  Brockport,  N.  Y.,  by  D.  S.  Morgan  &  Co.,  the  old  reaper  house,  and 
the  Clark  "cutaway"  harrow,  made  at  Higganum,  Conn. 


AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL   IXPLEMENTS. 


23 


PRIMITIVE  BRUSH   HARROW 


FIRST  IMPROVEMENT,  CROSS  EAR  HARROW. 


ROMAN  SPIKE  TOOTH  HARROW 


JAPANESE  DISK   HARROW. 


JAPANESE    TOOTHED   ROLLER. 


GARVER  SPRING   TOOTH    HARB'^W,  16 


CHAPTER  III. 

Grain  Drills. 


UNDOUBTEDI/Y  the  first  method  of  puttinj^seed  in  the  ground  by  prim- 
itive man  was  to  make  holes  with  his  stag's  horn  or  crooked  stick  and 
drop  in  the  seed,  covering  it  afterwards.  Broadcast  seeding  probably  origi- 
nated in  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  where,  after  the  water  had  subsided,  a  farmer 
could  sow  his  seed  and  drive  sheep  over  the  ground  or  go  over  it  with  a 
brush  harrow  or  plow.  The  first  trace  of  a  seeding  machine  that  is  found 
in  history  is  an  Assyrian  drill  used  many  centuries  before  Christ,  a  repro- 
duction of  it  being  found  on  the  Aberdeen  "black  stone,"  of  the  time  of 
Bsarhaddon,  080  B.C.  "It  was  a  rude  implement,  having  a  mouldboard 
made  from  a  round  stick  of  toughened  wood,  with  a  tongue  and  handles 
attached.  In  the  rear  of  the  plow  point  was  attached  a  bowl-shaped  hopper, 
supported  upon  a  hollow  standard,  through  which  seed  passed  to  the  furrow, 
and  was  covered  by  the  turned  furrow  falling  back  upon  it."  The  Chinese 
have  a  kind  of  wheelbarrow  seeder  with  hollow  teeth  which  draws  furrows 
and  drops  the  seed,  and  it  is  claimed  that  this  implement  has  been  used 
for  ages. 

It  is  said  that  in  Italy  about  the  year  IGOO  A.  D.,  a  seeder  running  on  two 
wheels  and  supporting  a  seed-box  on  its  axle,  was  used.  It  was  "mounted 
on  two  wheels,  the  axle  passing  through  the  seed-box,  on  the  bottom  of 
which  was  a  series  of  holes  opening  into  an  equal  number  of  metal  tubes  or 
funnels,  through  which  the  seed  was  conducted  to  the  ground.  The  fronts 
of  the  tubes,  at  their  lower  ends,  were  shaped  somewhat  like  plowshares, 
and  were  designed  to  make  small  furrows  into  which  the  seed  dropped." 

Several  efforts  were  made  during  the  sixteenth  century  by  English  in- 
ventors to  perfect  a  seeding  machine,  and  their  machines  may  have  worked 
well  in  the  hands  of  the  inventors,  but  were  soon  lost  sight  of  and  forgot- 
ten. One  machine  by  an  unknown  inventor  on  the  continent  was  manu- 
factured and  patented  about  1664,  and  in  1669  John  Evelyn  presented 
one  to  the  Philosophical  Society  of  London,  and  it  is  even  claimed  an  agent 
was  appointed  in  London  for  its  sale.  The  machine  was  attached  to  the 
"stilts"  of  a  plow,  behind,  and  consisted  of  a  seed-box  having  a  cj-linder  fur- 
nished with  wheels  to  distribute  the  seed,  which  was  dropped  regularly  in 
the  furrow. 

The  greatest  contribution  to  the  early  development  of  grain  drills  was 
made  by  Jethro  Tull  in  the  eighteenth  century.  In  1731,  in  a  work  which 
he  published,  entitled,  "Horse-hoeing  Husbandry,"  he  argued  that  grain 
and  seed  should  not  be  sown  broadcast,  but  should  be  planted  in  rows  or 
drills  so  as  to  admit  of  hoeing  by  horse  power  with  proper  implements.  His 
first  drill  was  constructed  so  as  to  sow  wheat  or  turnips,  three  rows  at  a  time. 

;i4 


AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL,  IMPLEMENTS. 


25 


ENGLISH  WHEELBARROW  SEEDER.  1S20. 


4 


T: 


FOSTER,  JESSUP  &  BROWN'S  FORCE  FEED, 
NOV.  4.  1851. 


COOKE  S  GRAIN  DRILL.      EARLY  ENGLISH 
INVENTION. 


C.  P.  BROWN'S  P.A.TENT,  OCT.  9,  1£6C'. 
FORCE  FEED. 


PATRIC  Ji;  BICKFORD,  NOV.  26,  1867.       FORCE  FEED 


J.  P.  FULGHUM    OCT    ."50,   1577.      FORCE  FEED. 


26  AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 

"It  consisted  of  two  seed-boxes  with  a  coulter  attached  to  each,  and  following 
each  other;  behind  them  followed  a  harrow  to  cover  in  the  seed.  His  object 
in  having  two  separate  deposits  of  seed,  and  at  different  depths,  was  that 
they  might  not  sprout  at  the  same  time,  and  so  perhaps  escape  the  ravages 
of  the  fly."  Mr.  Tull  spent  his  lifetime  and  a  fortune  in  developing  this 
and  other  implements  in  the  line  of  drills,  horse-hoe.s,  and  cultivators,  and 
died  poor.     His  son  died  in  prison  for  debt 

In  Croker's  "Dictionary  of  Arts  and  Sciences,"  published  in  London, 
in  1765,  is  the  following  description:  ^' Drill  or  Drill  Box,"  a  name  given 
to  an  instrument  for  sowing  land  in  the  new  method  of  horse-hoeing  hus- 
bandr}-  (introduced  by  Tull).  It  plants  the  corn  [grain]  in  rows,  makes 
the  channels,  sows  the  seeds  in  them,  and  covers  them  with  earth  when 
sown;  and  all  this  at  the  same  time,  and  with  great  expedition.  The  prin- 
cipal parts  are  the  seed-box,  the  hopper,  the  plow  and  its  harrow,  of  all 
which  the  seed-box  is  the  chief.  It  measures,  or  rather  numbers  out  the 
seed  which  it  receives  from  the  hopper,  and  is  for  this  purpose  an  artificial 
hand;  but  it  delivers  out  the  seed  much  more  equally  than  can  be  done  by 
a  natural  hand." 

Under  the  heading  ''Sowing''  the  author  argues  for  the  "drill  way"  in 
preference  to  the  "common  way"  of  spreading  by  hand,  because  of  the  reg- 
ularity of  distributing  the  seed  and  depth  of  planting,  as  well  as  the  saving 
of  seed  by  the  use  of  the  machine. 

In  Dodsley's  Annual  Register  for  1764,  a  seed-plow  is  mentioned  as 
having  been  made  to  go  to  York.  It  was  mounted  on  two  wheels,  to  be 
drawn  by  one  or  tw^o  horses.  It  made  several  furrows  at  once  and  would 
.sow  any  kind  of  seed  and  cover  at  the  same  time,  "all  with  great  expedition 
and  exactness. "  This  was  practically  the  crude  predecessor  of  the  modern 
grain  drill.  From  this  time  on  many  inventions  were  patented,  some  of 
them  simple  and  practical,  others  too  complicated  for  .successful  use. 

A  clergyman  named  Cooke  made  many  improvements  in  this  line,  some 
of  which  became  a  part  of  all  British  grain  drills  constructed  since.  His 
drill  and  horse-hoe  described  in  Loudon's  Encyclopedia  in  1831,  was  a  con- 
vertible machine,  that  is,  the  seed  apparatus  was  made  so  it  could  be  de- 
tached, thus  making  a  cultivator  of  the  implement.  One  of  these  seeders 
is  described  as  follows:  "The  seed-box  is  of  a  peculiar  shape,  the  hinder 
part  extending  lower  than  the  fore  part.  It  is  divided  by  partitions  and 
supported  by  adjustable  bearings  so  as  to  preserve  a  regular  delivery  of  the 
seed,  while  the  machine  is  passing  over  uneven  ground.  The  feeding  cyl- 
inder is  made  to  revolve  by  a  toothed  wheel  w-hicli  is  fixed  on  each  end  of 
the  main  axle,  and  gears  with  other  toothed  wheels  on  each  end  of  the  C3I- 
inder.  The  surface  of  the  cylinder  is  furnished  with  a  series  of  cups  which 
revolve  with  it  and  are  of  various  sizes  according  to  the  different  seeds  in- 
tended to  be  sown.  These  deposit  the  seed  regularly  in  funnels,  the  lower 
ends  of  which  lead  immediately  behind  the  coulters,  which  are  connected 
by  a  beam  .so  as  to  be  kept  in  an  even  line,  and  are  capable  of  being  held 
out  of  working,  when  desired,  bj'  a  hook  and  line  in  the  center.  The  seed, 
as  it  is  deposited,  is  covered  bj-  a  harrow  fixed  on  behind.  The  carriage 
wheels  are  larger  than  usual,  by  which  means  the  machine  is  more  easily 


AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  27 

drawn  over  uneven  ground,  and  the  labor  of  working  is  reduced.  On  this 
machine  the  grain  spouts  consisted  of  a  number  of  tapering  pipes  or  funnels 
fitted  into  one  another  so  as  to  form  flexible  tubes." 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  early  in  the  century  the  English  had 
traveled  far  on  the  road  towards  the  manufacture  of  grain  drills,  such  as  are 
now  used.  The  Norfolk  drill  is  favorably  mentioned  by  Loudon.  It 
sowed  "a  breadth  of  nine  feet  at  once,"  and  was  quite  generally  used  on 
light  soils  and  on  thin  ground. 

In  the  hand-drill  barrow,  described  by  Loudon,  may  be  seen  the  prede- 
cessor of  the  one-horse  drill,  which  is  still  used  for  covering  beans  and 
other  seeds  in  the  east  and  south  and  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  as  well 
as  for  drilling  corn.  It  is  a  suggestion  also  of  the  lister,  a  modern  American 
implement.  A  wheelbarrow  seeder,  such  as  is  used  for  sowing  grass  seed, 
w^as  introduced  in  England  about  1820,  and  it  is  stated  that  in  certain  parts 
of  England  and  southern  Scotland,  a  one-horse  seeder  on  the  same  principle 
was  in  use  for  grain  seeding,  the  .seed-box  being  large  and  mounted  above 
two  low  wheels. 

The  first  patent  on  a  seeding  machine  in  America  was  granted  in  1799, 
and  up  to  1836,  when  the  Patent  Office  records  were  burned,  patents  had 
been  granted  to  about  thirty  inventors  in  this  line.  It  does  not  seem,  how- 
ever, that  anything  valuaVjle  had  been  contributed  to  the  art  beyond  what 
we  have  noticed  on  behalf  of  the  English  inventors.  The  most  important 
inventions  that  were  left  to  be  discovered  were  in  the  feed  and  in  adjusting 
devices  that  to  day  distinguish  American  drills. 

The  manufacture  of  grain  drills  began  in  this  country  about  1840.  A 
few  drills  had  been  brought  over  from  England  and  introduced  here,  and 
efforts  had  been  made  to  establish  the  manufacture  of  the  machines,  but 
nothing  permanent  resulted.  The  first  important  patent  of  which  we  have 
any  record,  was  granted  in  1835,  and  re-issued  in  1838.  It  was  on  a  ma- 
chine designed  to  sow  lime  and  plaster,  and  as  re-issued  showed  that  the 
invention  was  intended  to  sow  grain,  also.  In  1837  another  patent  was 
granted,  covering  the  application  of  centrifugal  force,  to  sow  lime,  plaster 
and  small  grain.  In  1838  a  patent  was  issued  for  a  grain  drill  in  which  a 
spring  arm  attached  to  a  horizontal  shaft  revolved  within  the  hopper  and 
agitated  the  grain  over  the  mouths  of  the  tubes  through  which  it  was  dis- 
tributed. August  25,  1840,  J.  Gibbons,  of  Adrian,  Mich.,  patented  a  grain 
drill  with  cavities  to  deliver  seed,  and  a  device  for  regulating  its  volume; 
and  in  1841  he  also  patented  a  distributing  cylinder,  having  several  rows  of 
cavities  around  its  peripherj-,  in  combination  with  a  hopper.  These  four 
patents  were  the  only  ones  issued  in  six  years,  two  of  them,  it  will  be 
noticed,  being  on  broadcast  seeding  devices,  and  two  on  drills. 

Among  the  earl}'  inventors  who  made  substantial  improvements  in  the 
invention  of  drills,  were  M.  &  S.  Pennock,  of  East  Marlboro,  Pa.,  who  made 
considerable  progress  in  the  development  of  "cylinder  drills. "  Their  first 
patent,  dated  March  12,  1841,  and  re-issued  Oct.  30,  1849,  covered  the  simul- 
taneous throwing  into  and  out  of  operation  by  a  lever  of  each  seeding 
c\dinder,  and  its  corresponding  tube  and  drill,  and  made  so  as  to  use  any 
number  of  hoes  desired.     It  covered  also  an  arrangement  of  spur  wheels  for 


28  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 

connecting  the  seed  cylinders  and  hoppers  to  the  shaft,  so  that  they  could 
be  thrown  into  and  out  of  gear  when  the  drill  was  in  motion.  Many  other 
patents  were  issued  to  this  firm,  most  of  them  covering  improvements  in 
cylinder  drills,  in  which  a  series  of  cylinders  operated  over  a  series  of  hoes 
or  tubes.  In  the  years  following  1850,  patents  were  issued  on  grain  drills  at 
frequent  intervals,  and  it  is  unnecessary  for  us  to  follow  them  in  detail. 

By  this  time  three  different  classes  of  drills  were  in  the  field,  distin- 
guished by  their  feeding  devices.  The  first,  of  cylinder  drills  as  built  by 
the  Pennocks  and  others;  the  second,  as  slide  drills,  in  which  the  distribu- 
tion was  effected  or  governed  by  means  of  a  slide;  the  third  class,  the  force 
feed  drills,  which  were  then  coming  into  use.  Man}-  of  the  slide  drills  used 
had  a  slide  moved  by  a  cam  or  crank  motion  to  distribute  the  grain,  and 
also  a  slide  in  the  bottom  of  the  grain-box  to  increase  and  decrease  the 
quantity,  by  enlarging  or  decreasing  the  size  of  the  opening  for  the  passage 
of  the  grain.  Others  of  this  class  used  the  slide  in  the  bottom  to  govern  the 
quantity  fed  and  had  a  metal  agitator  or  a  rotary  feed  in  the  box  to  assist  in 
the  passage  of  the  grain,  and  still  others  used  two  continuous  flexible  rollers 
to  distribute  the  grain,  which  regulated  the  quantity'  by  increasing  or  de- 
creasing the  distance  between  the  rollers. 

The  first  patent  on  a  force  feed  for  a  grain  drill  was  issued  Nov.  4,  1851, 
to  N.  Foster,  G.  Jessup,  H.  L.  and  C.  P.  Brown,  this  invention  introducing 
the  name  "force  feed."  The  claim  was  as  follows:  "  In  combination  with 
the  seed-box  A'  and  cap  «,  arranging  the  rotary  disk  /,  vertically  and 
providing  it  with  the  projections/,  and  the  stationary  vertical  disk  b,  pro- 
vided with  an  opening  h,  for  receiving  the  grain,  and  the  flanchesr^, 
between  which  the  said  projections  rotate,  and  by  which  the  grain  is  carried 
from  the  seed-box  to  the  cap,  and  thence  to  the  seeding  tube;  the  whole 
being  arranged  in  the  manner  and  for  the  purpose  specially  set  forth 
and  described. "  These  parties  had  been  associated  in  the  manufacture  of 
grain  drills  at  Palmyra,  N.  Y.,  since  1849.  In  1854  the  Browns  removed 
to  Shortsville,  and  established  a  factory  under  the  firm  name  of  H.  L.  &  C. 
P.  Brown,  the  firm  incorporating  in  later  years  as  the  Empire  Drill  Co.  In 
1866  C.  P.  Brown  patented  a  modification  of  the  original  Foster,  Jessup  & 
Brown  feed,  which  has  since  been  used  in  the  Empire  drill,  and  is  known 
technically  as  the  "single  distributor." 

About  this  time  C.  E.  Patric,  who  had  been  in  the  employ  of  the 
Browns,  removed  to  Macedon,  N.  Y.,  and  he  and  Lyman  Bickford  took  out 
several  patents  in  1867,  covering  the  "double  distributor."  The  distinguish- 
ing feature  of  this  invention  was  a  seed-wheel  or  disk  with  carrying  flanges 
on  each  side,  one  chamber  feeding  coarse,  bulky  seeds,  like  oats,  and  the 
other  being  smaller,  to  sow  wheat,  rye,  etc.  The  invention  was  adopted  by 
Bickford  &  HuflFman,  of  Macedon,  and  in  1867  Mr.  Patric  went  to  Spring- 
field, O.,  and  licensed  Ferrell,  Ludlow  &  Rodgers,  later  Thomas,  Ludlow 
&  Rodgers,  incorporated  in  1883  as  the  Superior  Drill  Co. 

October  6,  1868,  C.  O.  Gardiner,  of  Springfield,  O.,  assignor  to  Thomas 
&  Mast,  secured  a  patent  on  a  force  feed  that,  with  later  improvements  from 
the  same  inventor,  became  known  as  the  Buckeye.  Oct.  30,  1877,  J.  P. 
Fulghum  patented  a  force  feed  principle  that  has  been  adopted  by  a  num- 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  29' 

ber  of  prominent  western  manufacturers.  Many  other  feeding  devices  have 
since  been  invented  and  introduced,  but  those  we  have  noticed  laid  the 
foundation. 

Patents  were  granted  at  an  early  day  on  "  adjustable  rank  "  drills,  or 
those  having  devices  for  shifting  the  hoes  from  a  straight  rank  to  a  staggered 
position.  One  of  the  most  important  was  that  of  Charles  F.  Davis,  Feb.  18, 
181)8. 

About  twent3--live  years  ago  inventors  turned  their  attention  to  shoe 
drills,  a  class  that  has  become  popular  in  the  western  trade.  Cooke's  early 
English  drill  shows  a  hoe  that  is  in  some  measure  suggestive  of  the  shoe, 
but  it  is  not  likely  that  inventors  had  their  inspiration  from  this  source. 
Brown,  of  corn  planter  fame,  had  introduced  the  principle  of  a  shoe  so 
.shaped  as  to  cut  through  or  rise  over  obstructions;  and  it  was  but  a  step  to 
adapt  this  invention  to  the  grain  drill.  Springs  for  holding  the  shoes  into 
the  ground  were  attached,  as  well  as  chains  or  wheels  for  covering  the  seed, 
and  other  devices,  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  trace  their  development  in 
detail. 

The  broadcast  seeder,  with  a  slide  distributor,  and  later  a  force  feed, 
preceded  the  drill  in  general  use  in  the  west  and  is  still  extensively  manu- 
factured, several  makers  exhibiting  samples  at  the  Columbian  Exposition. 
In  recent  years  they  have  been  largely  replaced  in  popular  favor  by  disk 
seeders  convertible  into  disk  harrows. 

Fertilizer  distributors  are  quite  generally  used  on  drills  in  the  east,  but 
the  western  farmers  have  only  in  a  few  localities  begun  the  use  of  com- 
mercial fertilizers.     Grass  seeding  attachments  are  in  general  use. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Corn-Planters  and  Check-Rowers. 


THE  practical  development  of  the  two-horse  corn-planters  now  in  general 
use  throughout  the  west  and  southwest  dates  from  1S')3.  Although 
there  was  a  patent  granted  in  1799  to  Eliakim  Spooner  for  a  seeding  ma- 
chine, followed  by  about  thirty  other  patents  in  the  class  of  "  seeders  and 
planters,"  issued  prior  to  183G  (the  year  in  which  the  patent  records  were 
destroyed),  and  the  man  who  conceived  the  idea  of  the  corn-planter  was 
probably  among  this  number,  a  review  of  the  art  will  show  that  noth- 
ing available  for  introduction  into  general  use  had  been  invented  prior  to 
the  year  mentioned. 

D.  S.  Rockwell's  patent,  March  1:*,  1839,  shows  a  planter  with  four 
wheels  of  equal  size  and  two  seed-boxes  and  was  intended  to  plant  two 
rows.  Furrows  were  opened  for  each  row  by  a  peculiarly  shaped  shovel, 
behind  which  the  seed  was  dropped  between  two  diagonally  set  blades, 
the  combination  of  shovel  and  blades  being  faintly  suggestive  of  the  modern 
shoe.  The  rear  wheel,  set  behind  the  blades,  covered  the  corn  ana  packed 
the  earth  as  in  the  modern  planter.  The  seed  was  dropped  from  the  hopper 
by  a  device  "  consisting  of  the  slides  placed  above  and  below  the  partition, 
and  operated  upon  by  means  of  a  toothed  segment  and  pinion,  arranged  sub- 
stantially as  set  forth,  and  set  in  motion  by  one  of  the  bearing  w'heels." 

The  next  patent,  to  G.  Mottmiller,  of  Columbus,  O.,  Sept.  1,  1843, 
covered  a  frame  jointed  to  the  axle,  but  had  other  features  not  consistent 
with  a  practical  planter.  E.  Wood's  invention,  patented  Jan.  10,  1845,  was 
intended  for  drilling  two  rows  of  potatoes,  but  had  many  features  of  a  suc- 
cessful corn-planter.  Edward  Wicks,  of  Bart  Township,  Pa.,  patented 
March  26,  1850,  a  planting  cylinder  containing  cells  or  cavities  that  could 
be  enlarged  or  diminished  as  might  be  required.  D.  B.  Rhodes,  of  Concord, 
N.  Y.,  patented  in  December,  1850,  a  double-row  planter  in  which  the  hopper 
had  two  sliding  bottoms  arranged  to  measure  and  drop  the  seed.  In  C. 
Van  Every's  planter,  one  wheel,  about  four  feet  in  height,  had  an  intermit- 
tent gear  with  cogs  at  three  points  on  its  periphery  to  operate  the  dropping 
device,  so  as  to  plant  three  hills  with  each  revolution  of  the  wheel,  which 
was  about  four  feet  high.  It  will  be  observed  that  all  the  inventions  men- 
tioned thus  far  had  automatic  dropping  devices,  but  in  the  next  patent,  to 
M.  Corey,  of  Jerseyville,  111.,  Oct.  28,  1851,  there  was  a  claim  covering 
an  indicator  to  point  out  "the  place  where  corn  has  been  planted,"  sug- 
gestive of  operating  the  dropper  by  hand.  The  next  and  last  patent  previous 
to  the  appearance  of  a  generally  successful  planter,  was  granted  to  H.  Ver- 
million, of  Rising  Sun,  Ind.,  Nov.  2,  1852,  and  covered  a  peculiar  distribut- 
ing device. 

30 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  31 

The  aim  of  these  early  inventors  was  evidently  to  produce  an  auto- 
matic planter,  and  nothing  practical  came  of  their  efforts  because  the 
real  need  of  the  western  farmer  was  a  planter  that  would  place  the 
hills  in  check,  so  the  corn  could  be  plowed  both  ways.  A  device  for 
dropping  the  corn  by  hand  or  in  some  way  under  the  direct  control 
of  the  operator  must  be  combined  with  means  for  opening  the  furrow 
and  covering  the  corn.  This  was  done  by  Geo.  W.  Brown,  of  Tylers- 
ville  (later  of  Galesburg),  111.,  whose  first  patent  was  issued  Aug.  2,  1853,  but 
afterward  re-issued  Feb.  16,  1858,  and  again  re-issued  Sept.  11,  1860.  It  is 
said  that  Mr.  Brown  used  his  planter  successfully  as  early  as  Ma}-,  1851.  In 
his  first  patent  in  1853  he  claimed:  "The  oscillating  horizontal  wheels  or 
distributors,  in  the  bottom  of  the  hopper,  having  slots  and  holes  of  various 
sizes,  in  combination  with  stationary  caps  and  pins,  for  the  discharge  of 
different  kinds  and  quantities  of  seeds.  Also,  the  arrangement  of  covering 
rollers,  mounted  as  described,  and  performing  the  purposes  of  covering  the 
seed,  elevating  the  cutters  in  turning  around,  and  in  adjusting  them  to 
different  depths."  As  re-issued  in  1858  the  patent  had  only  one  claim:  "A 
shoe  for  opening  a  furrow,  which  has  a  convex  edge  in  front  and  a  seed- 
tube  in  its  rear  end,  so  that  it  may  cut  through  any  grass,  open  out  a  furrow 
and  hold  it  open  until  the  seeds  are  deposited  in  it,  substantially  as  herein 
set  forth." 

In  the  re-issue  of  Sept.  11,  i860,  all  the  new  features  in  Mr.  Brown's 
planter  were  covered  in  five  divisions  cr  claims.  Briefly  stated,  the  first 
division  covered  the  frame,  supported  in  front  on  not  less  than  two  runners 
or  shoes  with  upward  inclining  edges,  and  the  rear  part  supported  on  not 
less  than  two  wheels,  the  latter  being  arranged  to  follow  the  former.  The 
second  division  covered  the  shoe  or  runner,  edged  and  cur\-ed  upward  in 
front  so  as  to  climb,  cut  or  break  through  obstacles,  and  widening  toward 
its  rear  end  so  as  to  open  a  furrow  for  the  seed;  and  also  made  long  enough 
to  furnish  support  to  the  frameworK.  The  third  division  covered  the  hinged 
joint  between  tongue  and  rear  of  the  machine,  so  that  one  part  of  the  frame 
might  be  raised,  lowered,  adjusted  or  supported  on  the  other  part.  The 
fourth  division  claimed  the  operation  by  hand  of  the  dropping  mechanism, 
by  an  attendant  riding  on  the  machine,  in  position  to  see  the  marks  for  the 
corn  and  to  operate  in  conformity  therewith;  also  the  lever  and  its  arrange- 
ment by  which  the  driver  could  raise  the  framework  and  seeding  devices 
carried  thereon,  to  aid  the  machine  in  passing  over  obstacles  and  in  turning 
around.  The  fifth  division  claimed  in  combination  with  runners  and  cover- 
ing wheels,  a  pair  of  auxiliary  wheels  and  an  axle  for  the  double  purpose  of 
taking  the  weight  off  the  runners  and  covering  wheels,  and  for  affording 
means  for  converting  the  machine  from  a  planter  operated  by  hand  to  an 
automatic  seed-sower;  and  also  hanging  the  axle  of  auxiliary  wheels  in  ad- 
justable arms  or  levers  so  that  more  or  less  of  the  weight  of  the  machine 
might  be  placed  upon  said  auxiliary  wheels. 

Other  patents  were  granted  about  this  time.  One  to  L.  Caswell,  of 
Harrison,  Me.,  Aug.  1,  1853,  covered  an  adjustable  axle;  another  to  E.  Mar- 
shall, of  Clinton,  N.J.,  April  11,  1854,  was  on  automatic  dropping  devices; 
and  .still  another  to  M.  Ward,  of  Owego,  N.  Y.,  March  27,  1S.55,  covered 
a  slotted  adjustable  share  and  short  compressing  blocks  on  the  periphery 


32  AMERICAN    AGRICULTURAL   IMl'LKMENTS. 

of  the  wheel,  to  press  the  earth  over  the  seed  and  at  the  same  time  mark 
the  hill.  Geo.  W.  Brown's  second  patent  was  issued  May  8,  1855,  and 
claimed:  "In  combination  with  the  hoppers  and  their  semi-rotating  plates, 
the  runners  F,  with  their  valves  e,  and  their  adjustment  by  means  of  levers 
and  cams,  and  the  driver's  weight,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  and  dropping 
seeds  by  each  vibration  of  the  lever  D,  and  to  regulate  the  depth  of  planting 
as  described." 

This  second  patent  of  Mr.  Brown's  was  re-issued  Nov.  10,  1857,  and 
again  Dec.  11,  1860.  As  re-issued  it  covered:  Placing  seats  of  driver  and 
dropper  so  that  one  balanced  the  other;  making  driver's  seat  adjustable  so 
he  could  put  more  or  less  of  his  weight  on  the  .seeding  apparatus  and  thus 
regulate  the  depth;  hanging  the  seeding  apparatus  on  hinged  joints  so  it  could 
be  raised  out  of  the  ground  and  carried  on  the  wheels  and  tongue;  a  stop 
for  preventing  rear  part  of  frame  from  descending  too  low  when  the  for- 
ward part  was  raised  and  carried;  and  finally,  an  improvement  in  drop- 
ping device,  by  which,  with  one  lever,  the  seed  passages  could  be  opened 
and  closed  at  regular  inten/als  to  pass  measured  quantities. 

The  first  patent  on  a  marker  was  granted  to  E.  McCormick,  Oct.  16, 
1855,  for  a  device  projecting  from  the  end  of  the  axle.  F.  Goodwin,  of 
Astoria,  N.  Y.,  March  3,  1857,  showed  in  his  patent  the  first  marker  that 
could  be  changed  from  one  side  to  the  other,  but  did  not  make  any  claim 
on  it,  and  Kuschke  and  Merkel,  of  St.  Louis,  in  their  patent  of  May  liH, 
1857,  made  no  claim  for  their  marljers,  one  on  each  side  of  the  ^jlanter,  ar- 
ranged so  as  to  be  folded  over  the  planter  when  not  in  use.  The  marker  as 
used  to-day  was  shown  in  the  invention  of  jarvis  Case,  of  La  Fayette,  Ind., 
whose  patent,  under  date  of  Dec.  1,  1857,  showed  a  marker  having  a  double- 
edged  shoe,  and  hinged  so  that  it  could  be  turned  over  to  mark  on  either 
side,  or  be  raised  clear  of  the  ground  in  turning. 

Many  other  inventors  contributed  their  ideas  and  work  to  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  modern  planter,  which  represents  the  simplest  and  best  devices 
of  all  combined  into  one,  though  of  course  there  are  points  of  difference  in 
nearly  all  the  planters  of  standard  makers.  J.  \V.  Vandiver  in  1863  patented 
adjustable  covering  shares,  a  feature  of  the  old  Vandiver  planter  made  at 
Quincy,  since  improved  by  J.  C.  Barlow,  his  associate  and  the  head  of  the 
Barlow  Corn  Planter  Co.  Gait  &  Tracy,  of  Sterling,  111.,  were  large  manu- 
facturers of  planters  of  the  "open  heel  "  drop  pattern  in  the  early  daj-s,  be- 
ginning in  1867,  and  they  contributed  many  improvements.  An  early  patent 
of  Geo.  W.  Brown  shows  the  principle  of  the  rotary  drop,  in  which  the 
dropping  plate  is  rotated  by  intermittent  steps,  moving  forward  with  either 
a  right  or  left  motion  of  the  dropping  lever.  The  Deere  &  Mansur  Co.,  of 
Moline,  111.,  are  accredited  with  pioneer  work  in  adapting  this  rotary  drop 
to  a  check-rower.  The  ^Moline  Plow  Co.  introduced  a  few  years  ago  the 
principle  of  gearing  the  dropping  mechanism  to  the  wheel  of  the  planter  so 
as  to  drop  one  kernel  at  a  time  into  the  valve.  The  advantage  of  this  de- 
vice, which  has  been  generally  adopted  by  manufacturers,  is  that  the  corn 
can,  if  desired,  be  planted  in  hills  with  a  checkrow  attachment,  or  the 
check- rower  can  be  taken  off  and  the  corn  drilled  in.  The  Fuller  &  John- 
son Mfg.  Co.  of  Madison,  Wis.,  have  introduced  what  they  term  a  "force 


AMERICAN"   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


33 


D.   S.    ROCKWELL'S    PATENT,  1839. 


GEO.  W.    DROWNS    I:K-i    I'LAMi-K     i  >53. 


M.    ROBBINS.    I'AlKNT.    ISbT. 


G.   D.   HAWORTH'S  PATENT,   1870. 


34  AMERICAN   AGRICUI/rfRAL   IMPIJiMEXTS. 

feed,"  a  peculiar  form  of  secoudary  drop,  operating  in  the  valve  of  the 
planter.  The  H.  P.  Deuscher  Co.,  of  Hamilton,  O.,  have  as  a  feature  of 
their  planter  a  telescoping  axle,  by  which  the  wheels  can  be  moved  away 
from  the  rows  when  it  is  not  best  to  pack  the  soil  on  the  corn. 

Within  the  last  year  or  two  steel  has  been  generally  adopted  in  the  con- 
struction of  planters,  the  Farmers  Friend  Mfg  Co.,  of  Dayton,  O.,  leading 
in  the  change.  Many  other  improvements  and  adaptations  might  be  noticed, 
but  enough  has  been  said  to  point  out  the  landmark  patents  and  improve- 
ments. 

The  lister  is  a  modified  form  of  corn-planter  that  is  used  extensively  in 
the  southwest  where  the  soil  is  dry  and  other  conditions  are  favorable  to 
this  method  of  planting.  The  distinguishing  feature  of  a  lister  is  a  small 
double  mouldboard  plow  adapted  to  opening  a  furrow  (generally  with  a 
subsoiler  running. behind  to  make  a  seed-bed),  in  combination  with  a  cover- 
ing wheel,  a  seed-box  and  mechanism  actuated  by  the  covering  wheel  for 
dropping  the  corn.  Sometimes  a  lister  is  mounted  on  two  wheels  like  an 
old-fashioned  sulky  plow,  and  still  other  forms  and  adaptations  have  been 
used. 

The  advantage  of  planting  in  this  manner  is  that  the  seed  is  covered  in 
the  bottom  of  a  furrow,  and  is  better  prepared  to  withstand  the  dry  weather 
common  in  the  southwest,  and  besides,  planting  can  be  done  without  first 
plowing  and  harrowing  the  land.  In  drj-  seasons  a  lister  could  be  used  to 
advantage  in  Illinois  and  other  central  states,  but  generally  there  is  too 
much  moisture  in  the  ground. 

The  introduction  of  the  lister  dates  back  about  fifteen  years.  Several 
patents  were  granted  to  IMi.ssouri  and  Kansas  farmers,  and  the  implements 
were  at  first  made  in  small  numbers  by  local  blacksmiths.  The  Parlin  & 
Orendorfif  Company  of  Canton,  111.,  were  the  first  of  the  old  line  plow"  man- 
ufacturers to  make  the  new  implement  in  quantities  for  the  trade,  the  late 
Wm.  Parlin  having  given  considerable  attention  to  its  development. 
THE  CHECK-ROWER. 

The  first  invention  of  a  planter  to  drop  in  check  automatical!}',  is 
accredited  to  M.  Robbius,  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  whose  patent  of  Feb.  10, 
1857,  covered  a  reversible  hopper,  an  arm  with  vibrating  claw  or  tappet  con- 
nected with  the  seeding  mechanism,  in  combination  with  a  jointed  rod  or 
chain  provided  with  buttons.  This  patent  was  re-issued  Feb.  t>,  1S.J8,  with 
three  claims,  the  first  covering  the  dropping  of  seed  from  a  plow  or  drill  by 
means  of  an  anchored  chain  or  its  equivalent,  the  second  claim  covering  the 
chain  or  cord,  and  the  third  claiming  an  arm  with  a  vibrating  claw  or  tap- 
pet, or  equivalent  devices,  operating  the  seed  discharging  mechanism. 
Mr.  Robbins'  invention  was  practically  a  one  hor.se  drill,  with  the  chain  or 
rod  attached  as  patented,  and  it  did  not  become  known  as  a  "check- rower." 
This  name  was  given  to  later  inventions  of  the  Haworths  and  others,  who 
had  in  view  a  separate  attachment  to  be  put  on  any  planter.  A  few  planters 
Robbins  made  worked  well,  but  they  were  not  practical  and  he  died  poor. 

The  next  patent  following  that  of  Robbins  was  issued  to  John  Thomp- 
son and  John  Ramsay,  of  Aledo,  111.,  vSept.  29,  1804,  and  covered  "the  em- 
ployment or  use  of  a  wire  or  cord,  provided  with  knots  at  a  suitable  distance 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  3-") 

apart,  and  applied  to  the  machine  substantially  as  shown  in  connection  with 
anchors."  This  was  re-issued  as  assigned  to  G.  D  ,  J.  W.,  L.  L.  and  M. 
Haworth,  Dec.  21,  1875,  and  again  Oct.  31,  1876.  The  last  re-issue  covered 
the  knotted  cord  for  actuating  seeding  devices;  guides  or  pulleys  arranged  to 
transfer  said  cord  from  one  side  of  the  machine  to  the  other  in  its  passage 
over  the  same;  the  combination  with  the  rock  shaft  operated  upon  the  cord, 
of  forked  arms  or  levers  placed  one  at  each  end  of  said  rock  shaft  and 
adapted  to  be  operated  upon  alternately  by  the  cord;  and  finally,  the  arrange- 
ment of  seeding  devices  in  connection  with  the  cord,  whereby  the  latter 
could  impart  positive  movement  in  one  direction  to  seeding  devices.  April 
24,  1S()6,  \V.  W.  Hubbard,  of  Edinburg,  Ind.,  obtained  a  patent  for  various 
improvements,  which  also  was  re-issued  to  the  Haworths,  March  27,  1877. 
This  coA-ered  horizontal  traversing  bars  for  automaticalh-  moving  check-row 
cords  at  the  end  of  the  field,  and  a  movable  arm  for  supporting  on  machine 
when  turning.  G.  D.  Haworth  took  out  a  patent  on  check-rower  devices 
Feb.  22,  1870,  and  several  others  were  issued  later  to  the  Haworths  in  the 
sams  line. 

A  patent  was  issued  to  Alden  Barnes,  of  Bloomington,  111.,  Nov.  5,  1872, 
and  was  re-issued  in  two  divisions  P^eb.  20,  1877,  covering  several  devices, 
the  most  important  being  a  check-row  chain  made  with  knots  formed  bj- 
coiling  a  piece  of  wire  around  the  main  wire.  It  was  assigned  to  the  Cham- 
bers, Bering,  Ouinlan  Company,  of  Decatur. 

Improvements  now  became  necessary  in  the  dropping  mechanism.  The 
slide  drop  had  become  too  slow  for  use  on  the  check-rower,  and  a  rotary 
drop  was  therefore  devised  and  adopted.  With  this  invention  the  develop- 
ment of  the  more  important  features  of  the  check-rower  was  completed, 
although  many  changes  and  improvements  have  been  made  from  time  to 
time  by  leading  manufacturers  in  the  details  of  its  construction. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Corn  Cultivators. 


As  in  the  case  of  the  two-row  corn-planter,  the  development  of  the  "strad- 
dle-row" sulkj'  cultivator  has  been  since  iSoO.  In  fact,  it  would  seem 
that  the  development  of  these  two  implements  has  been  on  parallel  lines,  so 
inseparably  connected  have  the}'  been  with  the  history-  of  modern  corn- 
growing  methods  in  the  Mississippi  valley  and  elsewhere.  The  corn-planter 
came  first  in  the  conception  of  inventors,  and  its  use  by  the  farmers  no 
doubt  created  the  demand  for  a  cultivator  that  would  be  more  efficient  and 
rapid  in  its  operation  than  the  old  t^'pe  of  horse  hoes  that  had  come  down, 
with  little  improvement,  from  the  hands  of  Jethro  Tull.  Altogether,  the 
two  implements  have  made  it  possible  for  one  man  to  grow  forty  acres  of 
corn  in  connection  with  other  farm  work  on  a  like  scale,  a  result  that  no 
doubt  seems  impossible  to  the  farmers  of  the  eastern  part  of  our  own  coun- 
try; but  that  is  almost  the  average  of  those  making  a  specialty  of  corn-grow- 
ing in  the  west.  It  is  not  the  author's  intention  to  treat  in  this  chapter  of 
horse  hoes,  called  cultivators  in  the  east.  It  is  true  they  were  the  predeces- 
sors of  the  modern  sulky  cultivators,  but  there  seems  to  have  been  an  inter- 
mediate stage  in  the  development  of  the  corn  cultivator.  For  man}'  years 
prior  to  the  invention  of  Esterlj-,  to  be  noticed  further  along,  wheel  cultivat- 
ors had  been  used  to  prepare  fallow  ground  for  seeding  without  the  use  of 
the  plow.  These  old  implements  had  two  wheels  carrying  a  frame  with  a 
vertical  adjustment,  to  which  the  shovels  were  hung,  as  well  as  a  seat  for 
the  driver  and  numerous  other  devices  for  convenience  in  operating  them  or 
for  making  their  work  more  effective. 

It  would  be  a  natural  evolution  for  inventors  to  next  think  of  dispens- 
ing with  the  shovels  in  the  middle  and  hanging  the  others  on  two  separate 
gangs,  which  could  be  attached  to  the  axle  or  frame  and  drawn  by  hinged 
or  swivel  couplings.  This,  in  fact,  was  the  next  step  that  was  taken.  The 
first  patent  on  a  sulky  cultivator  having  a  combination  of  these  principles 
was  granted  to  George  Esterly,  of  Wisconsin,  the  famous  inventor  and 
manufacturer  of  grain  headers.  It  was  dated  April  22,  1856.  Aug.  2*3  of 
the  same  year,  H.  D.  Ganse,  of  New  Jersey,  patented  a  cultivator  having 
means  for  controlling  the  gangs  by  the  feet.  Jan.  13,  1857,  J  Shaw,  of 
Georgia,  patented  a  cultivator  in  which  the  hoes  or  shovels  had  a  swivel  ad- 
justment to  throw  the  dirt  to  and  from  the  plants.  N.  Whitehall,  of  In- 
diana, patented  April  27,  1857,  a  cultivator  in  which  the  axle  was  arched 
over  the  row  (Esterly's  patent  and  others  showing  only  a  straight  axle), 
and  which  also  had  an  evener  suspended  upon  three  points.  A  drag  fender 
or  shield,  attached  to  the  gangs  on  each  side,  was  covered  in  the  patent  of 
N.  Eraser  and  A.  J.  McClellan,  Aug.  10,  1858. 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


W.    p.    BROWN'S  COUP-UN-G,  18.9.  GILPIN  MOORF.'S   SPRING   AND  COUPLING,  1879. 


38  AMERICAN    AGRICUI/rCRAI,   IMPLEMENTS. 

James  Dundas,  of  Illinois,  later  of  Nebraska,  secured  Feb.  8,  lHo9,  a 
patent,  re-issued  Oct.  1(1,  18GG,  in  which  there  were  six  conilnnation  claims 
on  the  use  of  two  wheels  on  a  cultivator  arranged  with  two  gangs  w-ith  a 
space  between  them,  a  seat  for  the  driver,  and  means  for  moving  the  gangs 
laterally  and  raising  the  plows  relatively  to  the  treads  of  the  wheels. 

B.  Tin\iham,  assignor  to  Hapgood  &  Co.,  an  old  Chicago  firm  of  plow 
makers,  obtained  a  patent  Dec.  11,  ISfJO,  that  was  re-issued  Jan.  10,  1871.  It 
claimed  a  beam  hinged  or  pivoted  to  an  axle  by  a  joint,  whereby  the  beams 
with  their  shovels  had  both  a  vertical  and  lateral  swing  in  an  upright  po.si- 
tion.  It  al.so  claimed  a  rearward  extension  of  the  arched  axle  of  the  plow, 
with  supports  on  it  for  holding  up  the  gangs  when  not  in  operation.  The 
name  of  L-  B.  Waterman,  of  Chicago,  first  appears  in  a  patent  issued  to 
him  May  13,  18(52,  covering  an  adjustable  seat,  a  feature  of  the  Waterman 
cultivator,  built  for  many  years  b}'  Furst  &  Bradley. 

J.  A.  Thorp  and  John  Cox,  of  Michigan,  patented  Jan.  27,  1803,  the 
use  of  a  yielding  connection  or  wooden  peg  in  the  shank  of  the  gang,  so 
that  the  shovel  might  yield  when  it  came  against  an  obstruction  that  would 
otherwise  break  it. 

The  patent  i.ssued  to  P.  Coonrod,  of  Illinois,  Dec.  24,  1867,  shows  a 
coupling  with  a  sleeve  fitted  on  the  axle,  as  illustrated,  this  laying  the  foun- 
dation for  the  Brown  and  later  patents  using  a  sleeve  or  box.  July  9,  1872, 
a  patent  was  issued  to  W.  P.  Browu,  of  Zanesville,  Ohio,  on  a  spring,  the 
claim  being  worded  as  follows:  "Spring  arms  and  chains  for  suspending  the 
weight  of  the  .shovel  beams,  substantially  as  and  for  the  purpose  described." 
]\Iay  1'),  1877,  an  important  patent  was  issued  to  the  same  inventor  on  a 
coupling  and  spring,  and  Jan.  3,  1879,  still  another  patent  covering  details 
of  what  is  known  as  the  Brown  coupling,  more  generally  used  by  manufact- 
urers than  any  other. 

July  22,  1879,  a  patent  was  issued  to  G.  Moorp,  of  Moline,  111.,  covering' 
the  use  of  a  spring  and  coupling,  as  shown  in  illustration.  Dec.  16,1879, 
E.  A.  Wright,  of  Iowa,  patented  a  peculiar  .spring,  the  principle  of  it  being 
to  exert  a  lifting  strain  on  the  gang  after  it  has  been  raised  above  its 
operating  position,  and  to  bear  down  on  it,  rather  than  lift  it,  while  it  is  in 
the  ground.  Byron  C.  Bradley,  of  Chicago,  April  27,  1880,  .shows  the  use 
of  a  "C"  .spring  and  chain,  the  spring  being  mounted  directly  on  the  coup- 
ling, and,  therefore,  independent  of  the  upper  part  of  the  frame.  This 
patent  also  .shows  a  draft  spring.  E  A.  Wright,  of  lov/a,  was  granted  a 
second  patent  June  7,  1881,  covering  more  fully  the  principle  of  his  double- 
acting  spring.  Since  that  time  many  other  patents  have  been  issued  on 
changes  of  form,  and  on  the  adaptation  of  springs  and  couplings. 

For  many  years  following  the  introduction  of  cultivators,  the  popular 
style  was  the  "long  swing,"  in  which  the  coupling  was  located  forward  of 
the  axle,  and  thus  permitted  the  use  of  longer  beams,  and  gave  the  gangs  a 
long,  easy  swing.  Cultivators  with  the  coupling  at  the  axle,  however, 
were  in  the  field  early,  and  soon  grew  in  favor  on  account  of  their  conven- 
ience and  compactness. 

Many  adaptations  of  the  .standard  t}-pe  of  cultivator  have  been  made  by 
inventors,  for  corn  cultivation  and  other  uses.     Disks  in  place  of  shovels 


AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENT^;  39 

have  been  introduced  by  a  number  of  manufacturers,  and  meet  with  favor. 
Spring  teetli,  an  adaptation  of  the  old  Garver  harrow  tooth,  have  also  come 
into  favor,  the  late  Horatio  Gale,  of  Albion,  ^lich.  (founder  of  the  Gale 
Manufj^cturing  Company)  having  given  considerable  attention  to  their  de- 
velopment. D.  S.  Morgan  &  Co.,  of  Brockport,  N.  Y  ,  make  a  "spading" 
cultivator,  and  the  Cutaway  Harrow  Co.,  of  Higganum,  Conn.,  have  intro- 
duced their  "cutaway"  disks  in  this  field. 

AVithin  the  past  few  years  many  styles  of  "tongueless"  walking  cultiva- 
tors have  been  put  on  the  market  by  manufacturers,  and  have  met  with  a 
favorable  reception.  They  have  the  advantages  of  general  convenience, 
light  draft,  flexibility  in  the  frame  so  that  the  gangs  can  be  held  more 
steadily  and  nearer  to  the  corn  when  it  is  small,  and  less  room  is  required 
for  turning  at  the  side  of  the  field.  For  these  and  other  reasons,  they  are 
preferred  by  farmers  who  are  not  averse  to  walking. 

Manufacturing  in  this  line  is  now  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  steel  plow 
manufacturers,  each  of  whom  has  patents  covering  distinctive  devices  in 
couplings,  springs  and  other  parts. 

[Chapters  VI.  VII.  VIII,  and  IX  on  Reapers,  Harvesters,  Automatic  Binders  and 
Mowers,  are  substantially  the  historical  articles  compiled  by  C.  W.  Marsh  and  published 
in  the  Farin  Implemeut  A'ezfS,  beginning  in  January,  1856.  Nearly  all  the  chapters  of  this 
book  are  written  from  data  compiled  by  Mr.  Marsh,  but  those  specially  referred  to  are 
practically  his  writing.] 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Reaper. 


THE  harvesting  of  grain  when  ripe  and  ready  to  gather  has  been,  until 
within  a  few  j-ears,  the  most  burdensome  and  exacting  operation  on  the 
farm.  It  may  not  be  delayed  like  other  work,  for  if  not  promptly  done  the 
farmer  might  lose  all  the  fruits  of  his  previous  labors,  and  unless  properly 
and  carefully  performed  his  losses  maj'  still  be  severe. 

Harvest  was  a  season  of  toil  and  anxiety,  and  its  close  among  most 
nations  was  celebrated  by  general  rejoicings.  Games  and  rustic  fetes  marked 
the  final  ingathering  of  the  sheaves.  The  husbandmen  ceased  their  labors 
and  threw  off  their  cares  in  rounds  of  uproarious  jollification.  In  the  old 
simple  daj-s  of  England  the  "Harvest  Home,"  or  close  of  the  season,  was 
such  a  scene  as  Horace's  friends  might  have  expected  to  see  at  his  Sabine 
farm,  or  Theocritus  might  have  described  in  his  Idyls;  and  possibly  such 
scenes  were  presented  in  those  ancient  times.  The  last  sheaves  were  brought 
home  in  what  was  called  the  hock-cart,  surmounted  by  a  sheaf  formed  and 
dressed  to  represent  a  female  figure — presumably  the  goddess  Ceres — or  by 
pretty  girls  of  the  reaping  band  fantasticall}'  attired  and  crowned  with 
flowers.  A  pipe  and  tabor  led  the  procession,  while  the  reapers  danced 
around  shouting: 

"Harvest-home,  harvest-home. 

We  have  plowed,  we  have  sowed. 

We  have  reaped,  we  have  mowed, 

We  have  brought  home  every  load, 

Hip,  hip.  hip,  han'est  home,"  etc. 

Those  merry  days  have  long  since  passed.  Our  age  is  hard  and  practi- 
cal. Everything  now  is  done  for  gain,  and  this  disposition  has  chilled 
the  simple,  joyous  cu.stoms  of  our  fathers;  besides,  modern  invention 
has  rendered  harvesting  as  ordinary  a  process  as  any  other  on  the  farm, 
and  has  deprived  it  of  many  of  the  features  which  in  old  times  made  it  im- 
portant and  interesting. 

The  farmer,  who,  driving  from  a  comfortable  seat,  rolls  off  ten  or  fifteen 
acres  of  well  bound  sheaves  per  day  from  his  machine,  has  btit  little  con- 
ception of  the  amount  of  painful  study  and  expensive  experiments,  of  the 
many  inventions  it  has  required  to  bring  from  the  ancient  sickle  to  the 
machine  with  which  he  so  easily  gathers  his  grain,  such  perfection  as  it  has 
attained. 

For  such  development  the  world  is  indebted,  first,  to  inventors  purely; 

second,  to  men  who  arranged  and  combined  crude  inventions  or  devices 

into  practical  machines;  and,  third,  to  foresighted  business  men,  who,  rec- 

ognizixig  the  value  of  improved   machines,  put  them   upon  the  market  as 

trade  ventures.     Some  who   have  been  prominent   in   this  line  have  com- 

40 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL    IMPLEMENTS.  41 

bined  these  attributes  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  but  this  general  classifica- 
tion can  be  maintained.  Either  class,  and  especially  the  third,  has  been 
inclined  to  assume  :nore  than  its  share  of  credit,  and  profit  also,  but  historj- 
should,  though  it  seldom  does,  right  such  matters  so  far  as  it  can,  and  give 
credit  only  where  it  properly  belongs. 

There  is  no  record  of  any  machine  constructed  to  reap  grain  otherwise 
than  by  hand  until  about  the  close  of  the  last  century.  There  was  unques- 
tionably a  stripping  harvester  used  by  the  Gauls  early  in  the  Christian  era, 
but  as  it  was  not  properly  a  reaper,  it  will  be  noticed  further  along  under 
harvesters. 

"In  the  summer  of  1870,"  says  IMr.  Marsh,  "I  spent  several  pleasant 
days  at  an  agricultural  college  in  Ungarisch  Altenburg.  a  little  town  situ- 
ated upon  an  arm  of  the  Danube,  which  puts  out  from  the  main  river  not 
far  below  Vienna,  and  returns  to  it  at  Raab.  While  there  I  was  shown  a 
model  of  a  primitive  reaper  in  the  college  museum,  built  somewhat  after  the 
styleof  the  Kerr  machine  made  in  1811.  It  had  a  revolving  perpendicular 
drum,  carrying  a  projecting  circular  knife  at  its  base,  and  a  rim  at  the  top 
notched  so  as  to  catch  and  carry  the  heads  of  the  cut  grain,  and,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  knife,  operating  on  the  butts  as  the  drum  revolved,  to  de- 
liver in  a  swath  outside  of  the  line  of  the  cut.  This  drum  with  its  knife 
and  notched  rim  was  revolved,  as  I  remember,  by  a  crossed  belt  on  a  system 
of  pulleys  from  the  axle,  between  the  two  wheels,  which  supported  the 
drum,  suspended  before  them  to  a  pulley  on  an  upright  spindle  through 
the  center  of  the  drum.  It  had  shafts  reaching  back  for  the  animal  which 
pushed  it  forward,  and  it  was  altogether  a  simple  contrivance  which  might 
work  fairly  well.  The  professors  told  me  that  this  model  was  a  reconstruc- 
tion from  an  engraving  on  a  stone  found  in  this  vicinity  (the  country  here  is 
level,  exceedingly  fertile,  and  was  colonized  by  fugitive  Cathagenians  dur- 
ing the  third  Punic  war,  about  150  B.  C),  and  that  this  stone  had  been  veri- 
fied by  similar  lines  of  figures  found  engraved  among  the  ruins  of  Car- 
thage. It  may  be  further  said  that  the  Cathagenians  were  an  exceedingly 
enterprising,  ingenious  and  practical  people,  noted  for  trade'and  manufact- 
ures. It  was  of  them  the  old  Romans  said  that  their  onh'  aim  in  life  was 
'to  buy  cheap  and  sell  dear. '  They  were  infinitely  more  advanced  than  the 
Gauis,  who  used  the  stripping  harvester  or  header  not  so  very  long  after, 
and  they  might  have  produced  either. ' ' 

The  publication  just  one  hundred  years  ago  by  the  Society  of  Arts, 
Manufactures  and  Commerce,  in  Great  Britain,  of  Pliny's  description  of  the 
stripping  harvester  used  in  Gaul,  brought  out  two  years  after  an  answering 
machine  from  Mr.  Pitt  and  one  or  two  others  of  the  same  class.  The  first 
patent  granted  for  a  reaping  machine  was  obtained  in  England  by  Joseph 
Boyce,  July  4,  1799,  which  is  only  remarkable  because  of  being  the  first.  In 
the  following  years  several  patents  were  granted,  but  it  is  impossible  to 
notice  within  the  scope  of  this  book  any  other  than  those  which  first  show 
some  feature  that  has  remained  as  a  necessary  part  of  a  practical  reaping 
machine  to  this  day;  and  as  this  movement  began  in  England,  we  will  con- 
tinue with  British  inventors  for  a  time.  Gladstone,  in  1806,  produced  a 
reaper  mounted  on  two  wheels,  M-hich  was  drawn  from  the  front,  with  side 


42  AMlvRICAN    ACRICLLTIRAI,    IMI'MvMKNTS. 

cutting  apparatus,  and  a  seguiL-ntal  bar  having  fixed  guard  teeth  therein 
for  gathering  and  holding  the  grain  while  being  cut.  In  1807  Mr.  Pluck- 
netthada  machine,  which,  as  described,  was  drawn  from  the  front  and  side, 
and  a  driver's  seat  is  shown  thereon.  The  machine,  which  he  patented  in 
180"),  a  crude  thing,  had  gatherers,  or  outside  and  inside  dividers.  Both 
Gladstone  and  Plucknett  used  revolving  cutters.  Salmon's  reaper  in  1S()7 
had  a  divider  or  "projecting  bar  which  separates  the  standing  corn  [grain] 
from  tliat  to  be  cut,"  supported  by  a  grain  wheel,  the  latter  arranged  to 
raise  and  lower  the  cut  of  the  machine.  It  had  vibrating  knives  cutting 
over  stationary  edged  guards,  like  shears,  and  it  had  also  an  upright, 
pendulous,  vibrating  self- rake,  worked  by  a  crank,  which  swept  across  the 
cutting  apparatus  at  regular  intervals,  depositing  the  grain  in  gavels  or 
bunches  at  the  side. 

In  1811  two  reapers  upon  like  novel  principles  were  invented,  one  by 
Smith  and  the  other  by  Kerr,  the  cutting  being  accomplished  by  a  circular 
knife  projecting  from  the  base  of  a  drum  and  .evolving  therewith.  An 
illu.stration  of  the  Kerr  machine  is  shown. 

In  1814  a  theatrical  genius  by  the  name  of  Dobbs  invented  a  reaper, 
which  he  advertised  by  introducing  it  upon  the  stage,  the  latter  being 
planted  with  wheat  and  cut  by  the  machine  during  the  course  of  a  play 
adapted  to  it. 

Mr.  vScott,  in  LSI-"),  produced  a  peculiar  reaper  with  a  circular  cutting 
movement,  the  cutters  having  serrated  edges,  the  only  lasting  feature  Ijeing 
his  grain  divider  and  inside  gatherer,  which  he  described  as  follows:  "There 
was  fixed  on  the  long  right  hand  prong  P,  Fig.  3,  a  sheet  of  thin  plate  iron 
kneed  to  the  same  acute  angle  with  the  prong,  and  of  the  same  height  with 
the  drum,  for  the  purpose  of  dividing  the  standing  corn  from  that  to  be  cut, 
and  there  was  also  an  inclined  piece  of  sheet  iron,  etc.,  so  placed  on  the  left 
hand  side." 

Mann's  machine,  in  1820,  carried  the  cut  grain  off  into  a  swath  with 
revolving  rakes.  It  had  a  regular  tilting  lever  by  which  "  the  director  of 
the  machine  has  it  in  his  power  to  raise  or  depress  the  forepart  and  cutter 
at  pleasure. "  It  was  raised  and  lowered  on  the  carrying  wheels,  and  "for 
this  purpose  the  axles  of  both  wheels  of  the  carriage  are  supported  in  sliding 
bars  with  guide  rods,  N.  N. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  most  original,  the  cleanest,  simplest  and 
greatest  single  invention  ever  made  in  harvesting  machiner}',  that  of  Henry 
Ogle,  a  schoolmaster  of  Rennington,  assisted  by  Thomas  and  Joseph  Brown, 
founders,  at  Alnwick,  England,  in  1822.  This  schoolmaster  possessed  in- 
ventive genius  of  a  high  order,  and  a  modesty  equal  to  his  ability.  He 
says,  in  a  description  of  his  invention  and  their  efforts:  "I  made  a  small 
model,  but  not  being  a  workman  myself,  and  being  on  very  friendly  terms 
with  one  Thomas  Brown,  a  founder,  and  his  son.  Joseph  Brown,  I  presented 
it  to  them."  After  describing  their  first  efforts,  he  says:  "They  chen  m.ide 
the  teeth  [guards]  shorter  and  tried  it  again,  in  a  field  of  wheat.  It  then 
cut  to  great  perfection,  but  .still  not  laying  the  corn  [grain]  into  sheaves, 
the  farmer  did  not  think  that  it  lessened  the  expense  much."  Mr.  Brown 
took  it  home  again,  and  added  the  part  for  collecting  the  corn  into  a  sheaf, 


AMERICAN'   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


43 


THE  OGLE  REAPER,  1822 


hussey's  reaper,  1833. 


BELLS  REAPER,  1826. 


MCCORMICK'S    REAPER,  AS  BriLT  AT   BROCK- 
PORT,  N.    Y.,    184»i 


AMBLER'S  SICKLE  BAR,  1834. 


THE  NEW  YORKER  SELF   RAKE. 


THE   ]OiiS    P.  MA-N.VV    KEAPrR. 


44  AMERICAN    AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS 

G,  G  (the  platform  I,  when  he  tried  it  again  at  Ahiwick  in  a  fiehl  of  barley, 
which  it  cut  and  laid  out  into  sheaves  remarkably  well  Messrs.  Brown 
then  advertised  at  the  beginning  of  1823  that  they  would  furnish  machines 
of  this  sort  complete  for  sheaving  corn,  "but  farmers  hesitated  at  the  ex- 
pense, and  some  working  people  at  last  threatened  to  kill  Mr.  Brown  if  he 
persevered  any  further,  and  it  has  never  been  tried  more."  It  was  esti- 
mated from  the  cutting  it  did  to  have  an  average  capacity  of  fourteen  acres 
per  day.  By  reference  to  the  illustration  of  this  machine  it  will  be  seen 
that  it  had  all  the  elements  of  the  modern  hand-raking  reaper  and  dropper. 
It  was  drawn  from  the  front  and  side.  It  was  supported  on  two  driving 
wheels.  It  had  the  ordinary  reel.  It  had  the  projecting  bar  with  the 
guard-teeth,  a  reciprocating  knife  or  sickle,  cutting  over  s.iid  guard  teeth, 
and  a  grain  platform  attached  to  and  behind  the  bar.  Hinged,  it  was  used 
as  a  dropper;  rigid,  the  grain  was  put  off  in  gavels  to  the  side.  In  the 
words  of  Mr.  Ogle,  this  frame  or  platform,  G,  G,  when  hinged,  "is  lifted 
till  as  much  corn  is  collected  as  will  be  a  sheaf,  and  let  fall  by  a  lever,  H,  H, 
over  a  fulcrum  upon  the  iraxae  B,  B,  etc.,  when  the  corn  slides  off,  when 
it  is  a  little  raised  again.  It  was  found,  however,  to  answer  better  when  it 
was  put  oflf  by  a  man  and  a  fork  toward  the  horse,  as  it  is  easier  bound  and 
leaves  the  stubble  clear  for  the  horse  to  go  upon." 

From  the  position  of  the  lever  it  is  certain  that  a  seat  was  provided  for 
its  operator.  As  the  grain  '  'was  put  off  by  a  man  and  a  fork  towards  the 
horse" — not  raked — the  forker  probabl}^  stood  on  the  machine;  and,  un- 
questionably, as  the  machine  was  made  for  use  in  the  field,  it  had  a  grain 
wheel  or  shoe,  divider  and  inside  gatherer,  as  these  had  been  previously  in- 
vented, described  and  publicl}^  used;  and  also  other  necessary  parts  to  make 
it  fully  operative,  for  Mr.  Ogle  says,  in  closing  his  description:  "I  have 
only  given  a  part  of  the  framing  [construction],  as  most  mechanics  take 
their  own  way  of  fixing  the  main  principle." 

The  next  and  last  British  reaper  which  we  need  notice  was  invented  by 
Rev.  Patrick  Bell,  of  Carmyllie,  Scotland,  in  1<S2().  The  illustration  shows 
its  construction  so  clearl}'  that  a  general  description  is  unnecessary.  It  had 
a  shear-cutting  apparatus,  the  lower  cutters  being  fixed,  the  upper  shearing 
across  them,  with  an  advancing  movement  also.  The  grain  was  delivered 
again.st  the  cutters  b)'  an  adjustable  reel,  and  was  carried  to  the  side  by  a 
revolving  canvas  or  endless  apron,  as  shown. 

This  machine  worked  well,  and  quite  a  number  of  them  were  built  for 
the  market.  One  at  least  was  shipped  to  America  in  1884  to  John  B.  Yates, 
of  Chittenango,  Madi.son  county,  N.  Y.,  who  used  it  successfully. 

Here  we  may  leave  British  inventors,  conceding  to  them  that  the  hand- 
rake  reaper,  self-raker  and  dropper  were  invented  by  them.  But  they  were 
inventors  simply,  while  progress  and  practical  development  were  due  to 
American  invention  and  enterprise— to  the  men  who  arranged  and  combined 
old  devices  into  practical  machines,  inventing  improvements  and  perfecting 
details,  and  also  to  men  of  business  foresight,  who  put  such  improved  ma- 
chines upon  the  market.  Unquestionably  some  devices  were  doubly  in- 
vented, i.e  ,  on  both  sides  of  the  water,  as  there  was  so  little  communication 
between  the  two  countries  in  the  early  part  of  the  century. 


AMERICAN    AGRICULTURAL   IMPLHMEXTS.  45 

American  invention  in  this  line,  so  far  as  there  is  any  record,  began 
vrith  the  patent  issued  to  Richard  French  and  T.  J.  Hawkins,  of  New  Jersey, 
May  17,  1803.  No  reliable  description  of  this  machine  seems  to  be  extant. 
Five  patents  of  no  general  importance  were  issued  between  that  time  and 
Feb.  13,  1822,  when  Jeremiah  Bailey,  of  Pennsylvania,  took  out  one  for  cut- 
ting grass  or  grain.  This  machine  was  supported  on  two  wheels,  one  only 
being  the  driver;  the  horse  walked  to  the  side  and  front  and  the  circular 
scythe  frame  projected  into  the  grain.  It  was  the  first  to  indicate  the  prin- 
ciple contained  in  a  flexible  bar,  as  "with  the  inequalities  of  the  ground  the 
scythe  frame,  shaft  and  trundlehead  rise  and  fall."  E.  Cope  and  J.  Hooper, 
Jr.,  of  Pennsylvania,  obtained  a  patent  May  18,  1825,  for  a  machine  which 
was  considered  simply  as  an  improvement  on  the  Bailey,  having  the  same 
general  principles  but  being  less  complicated  in  construction.  It  is  claimed 
that  this  machine  worked  well. 

The  next  invention  showing  marked  progress  was  that  ofWni.  Manning, 
of  New  Jersey,  patented  May  3,  1831.  His  reaper  had  two  grcund  wheels 
fixed  to  the  same  axle,  from  which  a  frame  extended  having  a  bar  attach- 
ment provided  with  guard-teeth,  over  which  a  sickle  with  spear-shaped  sec- 
tions reciprocated.  This  was  substantially  the  scalloped  sickle.  Three 
inventions,  of  no  importance,  except  Schnebly's,  1833,  which  had  an  inter- 
mittent endless  apron  gaveler,  are  mentioned  between  the  date  of  Manning's 
patent  and  that  of  Obed  Hussey,  Dec.  31,  1833. 

Hussej-'s  machine  w'as  principal!}'  remarkable  for  its  compact  form,  its 
hinged  frame,  and  for  the  novel  construction  of  its  guard-teeth,  which  were 
made  double  or  slotted,  so  that  the  scalloped  or  zigzag  knife  might  vibrate 
through  the  openings,  the  space  between  each  guard,  from  center  to  center, 
being  as  wide  as  the  distance  between  each  point  on  the  knife  or  sickle. 
This  was  a  marked  improvement,  and  the  machine  was  really  the  first  one 
made  sufficiently  practical  to  find  a  regular  market  and  to  come  into  general 
use  Its  manufacture  began  in  1834;  it  was  introduced  into  different  states 
immediately  following;  it  was  built  in  substantially  the  same  form  (though 
guards  were  improved  in  1847)  continuously  up  to  about  thetimeof  Hussey's 
death,  and  its  chief  feature  has  been  incorporated  in  all  harvesting  machines 
made  since. 

To  Bernard  Jackson,  of  Ohio,  was  granted  a  patent,  June  14,  1834,  for  a 
four-wheeled  reaper  having  '  'discharging  arms,  which  are  to  deposit  the  grain 
as  it  is  cut  behind  the  left  side  of  the  machine." 

The  next  patent  was  granted  to  Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  of  Virginia,  June 
21,  1834.  After  describing  his  machine,  he  says:  "And  I  particularly  claim 
the  cutting  by  the  means  of  a  vibrating  blade,  operated  by  a  crank,  having 
the  edge  either  smooth  or  with  teeth,  either  with  stationary  wires  or  pieces 
above  and  below,  and  projecting  before  it,  for  the  purpose  of  staying  or  sup- 
porting the  grain  whilst  cutting;  or  the  using  a  double  crank,  and  another 
blade  or  vibrating  bar,  as  before  described,  having  projections  before  the 
blade  or  cutter  on  the  upper  side,  both  working  in  contrary  directions, 
thereb}'  lessening  the  friction  and  liability  to  wear  by  dividing  the  motion 
necessary  to  one  between  the  two. ' ' 

McCormick  built  only  a  few  experimental  reapers  such  as  he  described 


46  AISIKRICAX   AGRICIXTI-RAI,    IMPLKMKNTS. 

in  this  patent.  Tliey  were  not  sufficiently  practical  for  the  market.  Rutin 
1S4.")  he  went  to  Brockport,  N.  Y.,  and  arranged  with  .Seymour  «S:  Morgan 
to  make  his  machine  as  improved.  One  hundred  werebuiit  for  the  harvest 
of  1846,  which  were  fairly  successful.  Not  long  after  he  went  to  Chicago 
and  began  his  eminently  successful  career  as  the  manufacturer  of  his  reaper, 
which  soon  became  well  known  throughout  the  west. 

December  23,  1834,  Enoch  Ambler,  of  New  York,  obtained  a  patent 
about  which  but  little  can  be  learned.  It  is  understood,  however,  that  he 
used  the  first  wrought-iron  finger-bar  with  steel  guards  and  steel  shoes. 
The  illu-^tration  shows  what  is  said  to  be  his  old  bar.  Abraham  Rundell,  of 
New  York,  April  22.  1835,  patented  a  machine  with  double-acting  scissors 
cutters,  and  also  with  a  raking  and  discharging  device.  A  number  of  i)at- 
ents  containing  nothing  particularly  new  were  granted  during  the  balance 
of  this  year,  and  until  June  28,  183G,  when  H.  Moore  and  J.  Hascall,  of  Mich- 
igan, obtained  one  on  some  valuable  features;  Vjut  as  this  machine  was  a 
harvester  it  wall  be  described  farther  along.  Again  we  pass  over  several  pat- 
ents obtained  for  various  devices  until  we  come  to  that  of  Jonathan  Reed, 
of  New  York,  March  12,  1842.  He  claimed  vibrating  knives  with  .serrated 
edges  in  combination  with  serrated  guards;  also  a  peculiar  self-rake,  the 
teeth  of  which  projected  through  slots  in  the  platform.  Passing  along 
again  over  useless  inventions,  or  those  relating  to  harvesters,  we  stop  at  the 
name  of  \Vm.  F.  Ketchum,  of  New  York,  but  his  patent  of  Nov.  IS,  1844, 
was  of  little  consequence. 

January  31,  1845,  C.  H.  McCormick  obtained  a  patent  covering  "the 
curved  or  angled  downward  for  the  purpose  described)  bearer  for  supporting 
the  blade,"  the  reversed  angle  of  the  teeth  of  the  blade,  the  construction  of 
the  guards  so  as  to  form  angular  spaces  in  front  of  the  blade,  the  combina- 
tion of  bow  and  dividing  iron  for  supporting  the  grain,  and  the  position  of 
the  reel-post  on  his  machine. 

\Vm.  F.  Ketchum,  ]\Iarch  7,  1846,  obtained  a  patent  on  a  machine  hav- 
ing the  driving  wheels  under  the  grain  platform;  and  Clinton  Foster  pat- 
ented, April  18,  a  self-rake  which  swept  across  the  platform  as  controlled 
by  the  operator.  This  was  quite  an  advance  in  the  direction  of  a  practical 
self-raking  reaper  Alexander  Wilson,  of  New  York,  Sept.  3,  got  a  patent 
on  several  devices,  the  one  noticeable  being  upon  the  construction  by  which 
cutters  may  follow  the  undulations  of  the  ground  independent  of  and  not 
affected  by  the  up  and  down  movement  of  the  horse."  Nov.  20,  Andrew  J. 
Cook,  of  Indiana,  obtained  a  patent  on  a  revolving  reel  rake,  the  first  of  its 
class. 

Wni.  F.  Ketchum  came  to  the  front  again  July  10,  1847,  with  an 
ingenious  and  simple  machine,  which  made  quite  a  sensation  at  the  time. 
There  was  an  endless  chain  of  cutters  on  a  bar  projecting  from  the  center 
of  the  drive-wheel  which  did  not  prove  practical,  but  his  bar  was  made  to 
sweep  the  ground  only  the  length  of  the  cutting  part,  then  angled  up  to  the 
drive-wheel  frame.  As  this  is  the  common  way  of  making  and  attaching 
finger-bars,  the  invention  was  valuable. 

Obed  Hussey,  Aug.  7,  1847,  obtained  his  important  patent  for  fastening 
the  upper  piece  of  the  guard  to  the  lower  piece  at  the  point,  leaving  the 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  47 

back  end  unconnected,  so  as  to  prevent  choking,  as  all   guards  are  now 
made. 

C.  H.  INIcCormick,  Oct.  :*3.  obtained  another  patent  on  his  machine  for 
"placing  the  gearing  and  crank  forward  of  the  drive-wheel  for  protection 
from  the  dirt,  etc.,  and  thus  carrying  the  driving-wheel  further  back  than 
heretofore,  and  sufficiently  so  to  balance  the  rear  part  of  the  frame  and  the 
raker  thereon,  when  this  position  of  the  parts  is  combined  with  the  sickle 
back  of  the  axis  of  motion  of  the  driving-wheel  by  means  of  the  vibrating 
power. "  He  also  claimed  the  combination  of  reel  with  raker's  seat,  arranged 
and  located  as  described,  so  as  to  enable  the  raker  to  rake  and  deliver  the 
grain  on  the  ground  to  the  side  of  the  machine,  etc. 

Continuing  the  record,  Nov.  14,  1848,  F.  S.  Pease,  of  New  York,  ob- 
tained a  patent  on  a  combination  of  levers  with  rake  for  operating  the 
latter.  On  Nov.  21,  .same  year,  Goble  and  Stuart  patented  a  rotary  rake 
which  was  to  pass  horizontally  across  platform,  and  was  "given  an  unequal 
motion  for  the  purpose  of  raking  the  cut  grain  in  an  effectual  manner," 
and  Daniel  Gushing,  of  Aurora,  111.,  same  date,  on  revolving  rakes. 

January  16,  1849,  Oliver  Barr,  of  Aurora,  111.,  patented  a  revolving  rake 
and  an  inclined  platform  with  a  sort  of  trap  door  for  grain  to  fall  through 
— a  kind  of  dropper.  Jas.  L.  and  H.  K.  Fountain,  of  Rockford,  111.,  Mav 
lo,  were  allowed  a  claim  for  "giving  to  a  vibrating  blade  a  compound 
transverse  and  horizontal  cut  by  combining  it  with  stationary  teeth  or  a 
reel."  The  old  "Fountain,"  as  after  improved,  was  a  popular  machine  in 
its  da^-.  A.J.  Purviance,  of  Ohio,  Ma}' 22,  obtained  a  patent  for  construct- 
ing the  platform  separate  from  the  other  framework,  so  as  to  convert  the 
machine  easily  into  a  mower  or  reaper  as  required.  This  was  an  important 
feature  and  marked  the  beginning  of  practical  combined  machines.  On 
June  12  a  very  important  patent  was  granted  to  Nelson  Piatt,  of  Ottawa, 
111.,  which  was  assigned  to  Seymour  &  ^Morgan.  This  was  the  first  of  the 
sweep-rake  system  which  afterward  became  so  popular.  The  rake  swept 
the  grain  off  in  gavels  at  right  angles  to  the  path  of  the  machine.  J.  J.  and 
H.  F.  Mann,  of  Indiana,  June  19,  patented  a  self-rake  consisting  of  endless 
bauds,  which  delivered  the  grain  into  a  receiver,  whence  it  was  discharged 
by  an  attendant  upon  the  ground  in  gavels.  The  Manns  were  ingenious 
and  worthy  inventors,  but  unfortunate  as  manufacturers.  A  few  other  pat- 
ents were  granted  during  the  j^ear,  but  not  of  any  particular  consequence. 

"Whoever  has  followed  the  narrative  thus  far,  or  will  take  the  trouble 
to  trace  the  matter  out  for  himself  in  the  patent  records,  cannot  fail  to  .see 
that  a  practical  reaper  was  produced  by  degrees;  that  one  invented  a 
machine  having,  perhaps,  but  a  single  u.seful  feature;  his  machine  died, 
but  this  feature  lived.  Another  did  likewise,  and  still  another  brought  out 
what  rr.ay  have  given  much  promise,  but,  containing  nothing  necessary  to 
conceptions  following,  dropped  out  of  the  way.  And  so  as  the  years  rolled 
along  the  useful  features  became  massed,  until  practical  machines  con- 
tained them  all.  He  will  find  that  the  successful  reaper  was  invented  not 
by  one  man,  but  by  many. 

The  twig  planted  by  British  inventors,  nourished  and  intelligently  cul- 
tivated by  practical  American  genius,  had   in  1850  become  a  well-rooted. 


48  AMERICAN   AGRICIJI.TURAL,   IMPLliMliNTS. 

vigorous  sapling;  thereafter  it  grew  rapidly,  putting  forth  limbs  and 
branches  in  various  directions.  As  soon  as  it  had  been  demonstrated  that 
grain  could  be  successfully  harvested  b)'  machinery,  inventors  directed 
their  attention  to  its  delivery,  to  provide  mechanical  methods  for  getting  it 
off  the  reaper  and  in  the  best  possible  shape  for  binding,  and  so  the  various 
self-rakes  and  droppers  were  invented.  The  idea  was  not  new,  for  it  will 
be  remembered  that  some  of  the  earliest  and  crudest  reapers  had  self-raking 
devices  attached,  but  nothing  came  of  them,  naturally  enough,  as  such 
attachments  could  not  be  of  an}-  value  so  long  as  the  foundations  upon 
which  they  must  rest  were  not  fixed.  The  reapers  which  nmst  bear  them 
had  not  been  established 

Heretofore  so  few  patents,  comparatively,  had  been  granted  that  it  has 
been  possible,  even  in  this  brief  review,  to  mention  all  which  were  of  any 
special  importance,  or  were  steps  in  development;  but  from  1850  onward 
they  increased  so  -apidly  and  became  so  complicated  and  intermixed  that 
it  will  be  impossible  to  notice  any  more  than  such  as  seem  to  have  been 
the  beginning  of  certain  sj-stems  or  classes  of  reaping  machines.  Even 
this  is  a  difficult  undertaking,  to  determine  the  bearings  of  patents  upon 
machines,  for  the  former  are  usually  but  skeletons,  and  one  may  easily  fail 
to  see  the  completed  form  which  they  were  intended  to  bear. 

The  year  18.")0  was  not  prolific  in  new  features  for  reapers.  J.  L.  Harde- 
man obtained  a  patent,  Aug.  20,  for  a  platform  guiding-board,  in  connection 
with  an  automatic  discharging  mechanism.  It  was  aften\'ard  assigned  and 
re-issued  to  Wm.  N.  Whitely,  of  Springfield,  Ohio,  and  was  merged  in  the 
Champion  system.  E.  Danford,  of  Geneva,  111.,  Sept.  17,  patented  improve- 
ments on  a  double  sickle.  He  made  a  fair  machine  out  of  this  old  idea.  As 
a  mower  it  was  one  of  the  best  in  its  time. 

In  1851,  Palmer  &  Williams  obtained  a  patent,  Jul}*  1,  for  their  sweep- 
rake  and  quadrant  platform.  Assigned  to  Seymour  &  Morgan,  of  Brock- 
port,  N.  Y.,  it  entered  into  their  system  of  self  rakes.  July  8,  Wm.  H. 
Seymour  patented  improvements  on  a  self-rake.  These  were  the  foundation 
patents  of  the  celebrated  self- raker  known  as  the  "  New  Yorker,"  as  manu- 
factured by  Seymour  &  Morgan.  John  H.  Manny,  of  Waddam's  Grove, 
111.,  Sept.  23,  obtained  a  patent  for  hanging  the  cutter-bar  to  the  side  of  a 
triangular  frame,  so  that  neither  end  could  sag;  also  for  forker's  stand  back 
ofoutereudof  platform.  This  was  an  important  invention,  and  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  immense  reaper  business  of  Rockford,  111.,  where  Manny 
came  in  1853,  and  subsequently  went  into  partnership  with  Wait  and  Sylves- 
ter Talcott.  Later,  Ralph  Emerson  and  Jesse  Blinn  entered  the  firm,  which 
was  known  as  Manny  &  Co.,  and  after  Manny's  death  as  Talcott,  Emerson 
&  Co.  Manny  was  a  prolific  inventor  (the  same  may  be  said  of  the  Manny 
family  I,  and  his  early  death  was  unquestionably  a  great  loss  to  progress. 
His  machine  was  for  a  time  built  by  W^alter  A.  Wood.  It  was  one  of  the 
earliest  of  successful  combined  machines. 

In  1852,  B.  Densmore,  of  New  York,  obtained  a  patent,  Feb.  10,  for  a 
hanging  drive-wheel  in  supplementary  frame,  hinged  to  and  outside  of  the 
main  frame,  etc.  It  was  assigned  to  D.  M  Osborne  and  W.  A.  Kirby.  R. 
T.  Osgood,  of  Maine,  obtained  a  patent,  Feb.  17,  assigned  to  and  liberally 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTUKAI.  IMPLEMENTS.  49 

re-issued  by  Cj'renus  Wheeler,  of  Poplar  Ridge,  N.  Y.,  for  independent 
driving  and  supporting  wheels  on  a  common  axle,  carrying  a  rectangular 
main  frame  between  them  on  the  axle;  also  providing  each  drive- wheel 
with  ratchet-wheel  and  pawl,  for  the  purpose  so  well  known.  This  was  one 
of  the  base  patents  on  the  old  "  Cayuga  Chief "  and  other  such  machines, 
and  so  was  that  granted  to  E.  Forbush,  July  20,  which  also  went  to  Mr. 
Wheeler.  It  covered  the  rake,  supported  by  pivoted  connection  in  the 
rear  of  the  drive-wheel  axis,  sweeping  over  the  platform  and  delivering 
grain  to  the  rear  of  the  main  frame.  J.  S.  &  D.  Lake,  same  date,  obtained 
a  patent  for  flexible  bar  devices,  assigned  to  and  re-issued  extensivel}'  by 
Jas.  Saxton,  of  Canton,  Ohio.  W.  H.  Seymour,  Dec.  14,  obtained,  a  patent 
for  raker's  stand  on  their  old  "  New  Yorker,"  and  supplementary  metallic 
frame  for  gearing.  Jearum  Atkins,  Chelsea,  111.,  patented,  Dec.  21,  his 
automatic  self-rake,  which  was  truly  an  automaton.  It  picked  up  the  grain, 
turned  round  and  laid  it  off.  It  was  a  striking  sight  in  the  field,  worked 
well  and  had  large  sale  for  two  or  three  years,  but  1857,  with  its  heavy, 
tangled  grain  and  financial  troubles,  wrecked  both  machine  and  manu- 
facturers. 

In  1853,  Thos.  D.  Burrall,  of  New  York,  patented,  April  5,  an  additional 
apron  to  platform,  to  convert  rear-discharge  into  side-discharge.  It  was  re- 
issued for  much  more.  J.  H.  Manny,  April  19,  patented  cutter  fingers,  and 
June  21,  a  sickle.  Philo  Sylla and  Augustus  Adams,  of  Elgin,  111.,  Sept.  20, 
obtained  a  patent  for  a  jointed  bar.  They  assigned  to  C.  Aultman,  of  Can- 
ton, Ohio,  who  re-issued  it  extensively,  and  it  became  one  in  the  Buckeye 
system.  W.  &  T.  Schnebley,  New  York,  Dec.  20,  patented  a  peculiar  self- 
rake. 

In  1854,  A.  J.  Cook,  of  Ohio,  patented,  March  28,  a  reel-rake,  sweeping 
backward,  assigned  to  C.  Wheeler.  George  Esterly,  of  Wisconsin,  obtained 
a  patent,  June  27,  on  construction  of  sickle,  and  a  sort  of  plow  track-clearer 
for  divider.  Abner  Whitely,  Aug.  22,  obtained  a  patent  for  a  conical  track- 
clearer,  and  Sept.  19,  for  suspending  rake  to  one  of  the  reel-blades,  a  very 
important  patent^  He  invented  many  valuable  devices.  C.  Wheeler,  Dec. 
5,  patented  a  hanging  finger-bar.  W.  F.  Ketchum,  assignor  to  R.  L,.  How- 
ard, BuiTalo,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  19,  patented  a  segmental  rim  for  drive- wheel,  to  be 
used  off  or  on  in  reaping  or  mowing.  Many  will  remember  this  old  How- 
ard machine.  Ketchum  was  a  versatile  inventor,  the  pioneer  in  mowers 
and  he  applied  his  genius  in  every  direction.     He  died  in  the  harness. 

In  1855,  J.  E.  Newcomb,  on  Jan.  9,  obtained  a  patent  for  a  dropper  and 
other  devices,  assigned  to  J.  F.  Seiberling,  Akron,  Ohio,  who  was  the 
acknowledged  head  of  the  dropper  system.  Cyrenus  Wheeler,  Feb.  6,  ob- 
tained a  patent  for  a  combination  of  a  hinged  finger-beam  and  a  side-deliv- 
ery platform.  Mr.  Wheeler  was  a  prolific  and  thoroughly  practical  inven- 
tor. The  old  "Cayuga  Chief"  was  built  under  his  patents  principally— in 
fact,  he  was  one  of  the  chiefs  in  the  two-wheel  jointed-bar  fraternitv,  and 
his  works  live.  Walter  A.  Wood,  Hoosick  Falls,  N.  Y.,  March  25,  obtained 
a  patent  for  giving  the  inside  of  the  grain-wheel  a  conical  shape  for  track- 
clearing,  and  for  improvements  on  platform  Moses  G.  Hubbard,  New 
York,  June  4,  obtained  a  patent  for  an  angle  iron  bar.     Hubbard  invented 


50  AMERICAN   AGRICUL'fURAIv  IMPLEMENTS. 

numerous  devices  and  can  be  followed  all  through  this  department  in  the 
patent  office.  J.  Richardson  obtained  a  patent,  June  19,  for  a  self-rake,  after- 
ward assigned  to  Walter  A.  Wood.  J.  E  Heath,  of  Ohio,  Sept.  11,  obtained 
a  patent  for  a  cam  gear  in  center  of  drive-wheel. 

In  1856,  the  patent  of  Owen  Dorse}%  of  Maryland,  March  4,  was  an  im- 
portant one  for  a  continuously  revolving  reel  raking  device,  "the  rakes  of 
which  rise  and  fall  as  they  rotate,  and  as  they  approach  the  front  part  of  the 
platform  descend  to  the  level  of  the  latter  and  sweep  over  it,  raking  the  cut 
grain  therefrom,  and  then  ri.se  at  the  discharge  end  of  the  platform  out  of 
the  way. "  This  was  a  very  valuable  invention.  At  first  the  driver  could 
not  ride,  but  this  difficulty  was  obviated  by  the  T.  Whitenack  patent  of 
Feb.  5,  1861,  and  by  several  others.  Cornelius  Aultman  and  Lewis  Miller, 
assignors  to  Ball,  Aultman  &  Co.,  Canton,  Ohio,  patented,  June  17,  a  double 
rule  joint  or  double-jointed  coupling  for  finger-bar  machine.  Patents  were 
issued  to  M.  G.  Hubbard,  Sept.  2,  for  his  self-rake;  and  the  .same  date  to 
Wm.  A.  Kirby,  for  drive-wheel  having  no  outer  frame  support,  for  the 
construction  of  his  two-part  frame  inside  of  drive-wheel,  and  for  hinged 
lever  seat.  Pells  Manny,  of  Illinois,  Oct.  21,  obtained  two  patents  for  the 
construction  of  sickles  and  vStirrup  brace  for  finger-bar.  Wm.  N.  Whitely, 
of  Springfield,  Ohio,  Nov.  25,  covered  improvement  on  his  .self-rake  for 
balancing  by  connecting  driver's  seat  with  front  end  of  frame,  and  also  for 
controlling  the  rake. 

In  1857,  D.  M  Osborne  and  W.  A.  Kirby,  assignees  of  W.  Mulley,  Feb. 
10,  secured  a  patent  covering  a  reel  support  on  single  post,  a  feature  of  the 
Kirby.  Walter  A.  Wood,  same  date,  obtained  two  patents  for  raker's  seat 
and  for  shoe  track-clearer.  George  Esterly,  March  24,  covered  leading 
trucks  for  his  big  wheel,  single  gear  machine.  Ralph  Emerson,  of  Rock- 
ford,  111.,  May  26,  patented  an  improvement  on  tongue  and  castor  wheel 
for  Manny  machine;  and  John  P.  Manny,  July  14,  an  improvement  on  self- 
rake.  C.  P.  Gronberg,  of  Geneva,  111.,  Dec.  1,  secured  a  patent  for  a  pecul- 
iar raking  device.  Gronberg  was  an  inventor  of  merit,  but  he  was  unfort- 
unate in  his  undertakings.  E.  Ball,  of  Canton,  Ohio,  same  date,  obtained 
a  patent  for  holding  up  hinged  cutter-bar  for  moving,  etc.,  and  for  several 
other  devices  pertaining  to  the  Ball  machine.  Mr.  Ball  was  one  of  the 
pioneers  in  the  two-wheeled  jointed-bar  system.  He  was  a  good  man  and 
a  thoroughly  excellent  manufacturer,  but  became  involved  in  business  and 
died  soon  after. 

In  1858,  J.  L.  Fountain,  of  Rockford,  111.,  patented,  Jan.  12,  a  self- 
rake.  F.  Nishwitz,  of  New  York,  Feb.  16,  patented  a  lever  pawl  and  chain 
for  raising  floating  cutter-bar.  It  is  said  that  Ni.shwitz  was  one  of  the  first 
to  construct  a  practical  jointed-bar  machine,  but  was  too  poor  to  go  on 
with  it.  Geo.  S.  Curtis,  of  Chicago,  patented,  Feb.  28,  his  cam  reaper. 
Lewis  Miller,  Canton,  Ohio,  May  4,  obtained  a  patent  relating  to  front-cut, 
iolnted  bar  machines,  for  hinging,  raising  and  folding  cutter-bar  on  the 
"  Buckeye,"  and,  same  date,  on  combining  reel  with  hinged  platform  so  as  to 
preserve  their  relations  when  undulating.  These  were  important  patents. 
L  J-,  W.  S.  and  C.  H.  McCormick,  May  11,  secured  a  patent  for  construc- 
tion of  finger-bar,  liberally  re-issued  afterward;  John  P.  Manny,  July  6,  four 


AMERICAN    AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  51 

patents  on  his  machine;  C.  H.  McCormick,  Sept.  21,  on  shape  of  guard 
fingers;  McClintock  Young,  Maryland,  same  date,  who  then  began  the 
foundation  of  what  was  known  afterward  as  McCormick's  self-rake;  Jas.  S. 
Marsh,  Lewisburg,  Pa.,  Nov.  16,  on  lever  and  adjustment  of  finger-bar. 

In  1859,  Wm.  N.  and  Andrew  Whitely,  obtained  a  patent,  Jan,  18,  on 
guards  and  sections;  J.  S.  and  H.  R.  Russell,  of  Maryland,  March  29,  for 
improvements  on  reel  rake,  assigned  to  J.  F.  Seiberling,  and  forming  part 
of  his  system.  S.  A.  Lindsay,  of  Maryland,  Aug.  2,  for  a  reel  rake  arranged 
to  accommodate  itself  to  a  hinged  platform,  also  covering  the  important 
combination  of  a  quadrant  platform,  hinged  finger-beam  and  frame  sup- 
ported by  two  wheels;  Obed  Hussey,  Aug.  23,  for  raising  and  lowering  de- 
vice for  his  machine,  his  last  patent;  E.  Ball,  Oct.  18,  drag-bar  and  swiveled 
coupling-arm  and  finger-bar;  Wm.  A.  Kirby,  Nov.  15,  location  of  raker's 
seat  on  Kirby  reaper. 

In  1860,  E.  Ball  and  M.  E.  Ballard,  March  20,  secured  a  patent  for  steel 
spring  cap-plate  with  heel  of  cutter-bar  and  shoe;  Lewis  E.  Reese,  New  Jer- 
sey, April  10,  for  improvement  on  revolving  reel-rake  to  enable  driver  to 
ride  comfortably;  F.  H.  Manny,  of  Illinois,  Aug.  20,  for  hinged  cap  and 
shoe;  Walter  A.  Wood,  Sept.  11,  on  his  self-rake  or  automatic  fork.  McClin- 
tock Young,  Sept.  18,  obtained  a  valuable  patent  for  "combination  of  a 
revolving  reel  shaft  carrj-ing  diverging  reel  gatherers  supported  at  one  end 
only,  the  fixed  double-walled  cam  and  the  rake  revolving  around  said  shaft, 
and  oscillating  on  an  axis  both  eccentric  and  transverse  to  said  shaft 
with  a  counterpoise  to  equalize  the  movement  of  said  rake;"  re-issued  after 
assignment  to  the  McCormicks.  This,  combined  with  other  devices,  became 
the  INIcCormick  self-rake. 

In  1861,  D.  S.  Morgan  obtained  a  patent,  Jan.  22,  for  reel  support;  J.  S. 
Marsh,  May  21,  for  rake;  Walter  A.  Wood,  Nov.  19,  covering  improvements 
on  his  well-known  self-rake  now  practicallj^  invented;  D.  L.  Emerson,  of 
Rockford,  111.,  Dec.  10,  on  combination  of  wheel  and  divider,  one  of  his 
many  patents. 

In  1862,  Ralph  Emerson,  on  Jan.  14,  obtained  a  patent  relating  to  a 
lever-bar  and  attachment  of  guards;  Samuel  Johnson,  Nov.  4,  for  his  sweep- 
rake,  mounted  directly  and  vrholly  upon  a  suspended  hinged  joint  finger- 
beam. 

In  1863,  a  patent  was  issued  to  James  S.  Marsh,  Feb.  10,  for  revolving 
rake  and  reel,  the  arms  of  which  are  hinged  to  the  revolving  head  independ- 
ent of  each  other,  etc.,  and  to  Reuben  HofFheins,  Pennsylvania,  Nov.  3,  for 
self-rake  mounted  on  finger-beam  and  rotating  on  a  vertical  axis,  or 
nearly  so. 

In  1864  the  most  important  patent  issued  on  reapers  was  to  O.  H.  Bur- 
dick,  Jan.  7,  for  his  rake,  which  was  one  of  the  D.  M.  Osborne  &  Co.  system. 

In  1865,  a  patent  was  issued  to  Samuel  Johnston,  Feb.  7,  assignor  to 
himself  and  R.  L.  Howard,  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  for  his  celebrated  reel  rake. 
In  this  all  the  arms  carried  rakes,  and  were  each  hinged  independently  and 
all  controlled  by  the  driver;  to  John  A.  Dodge,  of  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  May  23, 
for  construction  of  main  gearing,  etc. ;  to  Wm.  N.  Whitely,  Aug.  29,  for 
Champion  self-rake;  to  Lewis  Miller,  of  Ohio,  Nov.  21,  for  his  well-known 


52  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 

table-rake,  i.  e.,  table  upon  which  grain  falls,  and  revolving  rake  beneath, 
to  sweep  it  off  to  the  side  and  rear;  to  A.  J.  Manny  (another  Manny  in  the 
field),  Nov.  28,  for  hinged  cutting  apparatus,  and  to  Wni.  N.  Whitely,  Dec. 
5,  for  improvements  on  drag-bar. 

In  18()(),  three  patents  were  issued  to  Wm.  N.  Whitely,  Jan.  30,  for  im- 
provements on  the  Champion;  one  to  O.  H.  Burdick,  assignor  to  himself 
and  D.  M.  Osborne,  Feb.  27,  for  rake  and  reel;  one  to  Adam  R.  Reese,  of 
New  Jersey,  May  1,  for  revolving  rake  in  connection  with  driver's  seat,  and 
one  to  Wm.  N.  Whitely,  Aug.  21,  for  reel  and  rake  independent  of  reel  for 
hinged  platform. 

In  1867,  a  patent  was  issued  to  L.  J.  McCormick,  and  L.  Erpelding, 
Jan.  15,  for  supplementary  frame,  hinged  finger-beam  worked  by  lifting 
and  locking  levers;  and  to  Amos  Rank,  Feb.  12,  for  longitudinal  drag-bar 
and  other  improvements  on  the  "  Etna  "  machine. 

In  1868,  Jas.  S.  Marsh  obtained  a  patent,  Jan.  21,  for  de\'ices  on  his 
rake;  Rufus  Button,  Feb.  11,  five  patents  on  reaper  construction;  C.  Wheeler, 
April  21,  two  patents  on  rake  and  on  machine;  G.  W.  N.  Yost,  of  Corry, 
Pa.,  June  9,  five  patents  on  devices  pertaining  to  the  "Climax"  machine, 
mowing  and  reaping. 

In  1869,  John  Barnes,  of  Rockford,  111.,  obtained,  Jan.  12,  two  patents 
on  his  self-rake  machine;  Amos  Rank,  of  Ohio,  Maj'  4,  one  covering 
devices  for  dropper;  Eph.  Myers,  of  Maryland,  Dec.  4,  for  dropper;  T.  F. 
Lippincott,  of  Pennsylvania,  Dec.  21,  for  dropper;  and  L.J.  McCormick,  L. 
Erpelding  and  Wm.  R.  Baker,  for  over-hung  reel  in  connection  with  rotat- 
ing turning  rake  mounted  on  the  finger-beam. 

The  inventions  that  have  been  noticed  in  the  foregoing  bring  us  down 
to  1870,  to  the  time  when  foundation  features  of  reapers  had  all  been  in- 
vented and  substantially  perfected.  It  is  therefore  unnecessary  to  pursue 
the  subject  farther,  especially  since  the  reaper  had  by  this  time  begun  to 
beat  a  retreat  in  the  harvest  fields  of  the  west  before  the  advance  guard  of 
modern  harvesting  machinery. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

Harvesters 


SINCE  the  advent  of  the  Marsh  harv'ester  the  term  "harvester'-  nas  been 
applied  almost  exclusively  to  the  particular  kind  of  machines  which 
carry  binders,  whether  men  to  bind  by  hand,  or  automatic  binders,  substi- 
tuted for  the  men,  to  bind  mechanically.  But  this  use  of  the  term  is  arbitrary 
and  narrow,  it  should  take  in  strippers,  headers  and  combined  har\"esters 
and  threshers;  and  it  will  at  least  be  better  for  our  purpose  to  give  it  a  wider 
meaning. 

The  first  harvester,  then,  of  which  we  have  an}-  certain  record  was  the 
often  mentioned  Gallic  stripping  header  described  by  Pliny  in  the  first  cent- 
urj'  and  by  Palladius  in  the  fourth.  It  appears  to  have  been  uninter- 
ruptedly used  for  several  centuries,  and  unquestionably  it  had  not  been  in 
use  that  long  without  having  been  more  or  less  improved,  for  the  people 
who  could  invent  and  construct  siich  a  machine  would  surely  improve  upon 
it,  and  they  would  also  invent  others  of  like  character.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  various  reaping  and  har^-esting  machines  were  used  by  the  ancients  of 
which  we  have  no  record,  principally  because  agricultural  pursuits  were 
not  honored  and  historians  gave  their  attention  chiefly  to  matters  of  gov- 
ernment and  war.  But  had  the  Alexandrian  library-  and  museum  escaped 
destruction,  we  should  have  had  descriptions  of  many  strange  devices  and 
methods,  some  of  great  value,  that  have  been  lost  to  the  world  and  never 
yet  found  by  our  wisest  men  or  most  skillful  inventors. 

This  machine  of  the  Gauls  had  lance-shaped  knives,  or  teeth,  with 
sharpened  sides,  projecting  forward  from  a  bar,  like  guard-teeth,  but  set 
close  together  and  forming  a  sort  of  comb.  As  it  was  pushed  forward  the 
stalks  next  the  head  came  between  these  sharp  teeth  and  were  cut  or 
stripped  off  into  a  box  attached,  to  and  behind  the  cutter-bar,  and  carried  by 
two  wheels.  When  the  box  was  filled  with  heads,  the  machine  was  driven 
in  and  emptied.  This  is  the  way  in  which  it  is  supposed  that  it  was  worked, 
and  the  illustration  is  the  generally  accepted  representation  of  it  as  roughly 
reconstructed  from  the  old  Latin  descriptions. 

This  har%-esting  machine  has  not  received  the  attention  it  deser\-es.  It 
was  the  prototype  of  all  headers  and  strippers.  Its  distinctive  features  are 
shown  in  several  modern  inventions  in  this  class,  and  the  Australian  strip- 
pers of  to-day,  less  their  threshing  attachments,  are  mere  copies.  Undoubt- 
edly it  was  found  to  be  exactly  the  thing  required  for  such  grain  as  was 
raised  upon  the  plains  of  Gaul,  just  as  in  Australia  it  is  peculiarly  adapted 
to  the  requirements  there. 

The  discussion  of  this  machine  in  England  a  hundred  years  ago,  grow- 
ing out  of  the  publication  of  the  descriptions  given  bv  both  Pliny  and  Pal- 

53 


54  AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 

ladius,  and  instigated  also  by  a  premium  offered  by  the  Society  for  the  En- 
couragement of  Arts,  Manufactures  and  Commerce,  brought  out  in  17.*<G  the 
machine  "for  rippling  corn"  (grain)  of  Wm.  Pitt,  of  Pendeford.  It  was  an 
attempted  improvement  on  the  ancient  one  just  described.  The  "rippling 
cylinder" — the  first  suggestion  of  a  reel — took  off  and  delivered  the  heads 
into  a  box  behind  the  strippers.  Mr.  Pitt  says:  "The  grain  thus  collected, 
in  a  short  time  of  the  most  favorable  weather  the  straw  may  be  cut  and  col- 
lected at  leisure,  and  with  less  regard  to  rain  or  showers  than  is  necessarily 
the  case  in  the  common  mode  of  harvesting."  So  here,  after  nearly  1,800 
years,  we  have  the  second  header,  according  to  the  records.  What  held 
the  world  back  during  this  long  interval?  A  successful  clover  header  niade 
in  1807  had  exactly  the  Gallic  cutting  apparatus,  and  it  was  not  unlike  a 
modern  popular  American  clover  header.  Nothing  further  seemed  to  have 
been  done  on  this  class  of  machines  by  British  inventors  for  a  long  time;  so 
we  may  now  take  up  American  inventions. 

Samuel  Lane,  of  Hallowell,  Maine,  Aug.  8,  1828,  obtained  a  patent  for 
a  combined  harvester  and  thresher.  It  was  an  ingenious  machine,  but  very 
complex.  There  is  no  record  of  its  use,  and  it  probably  never  went  beyond 
a  patent.  ""^  was,  however,  the  first  machine  of  record  covering  these  prin- 
ciples. 

D.  Ashmore  and  J.  Peck,  of  Tennessee,  Sept.  18,  1835,  patented  a 
header  with  cutters  like  those  of  the  old  Gallic  machine;  but  they  added 
fingers  (not  cutting)  projecting  beyond  the  cutters,  "the  better  to  guide  the 
heads  to  the  knives,"  and  also  a  reel,  or  "open  cylinder,"  carrying  knives 
which  in  revolving  came  nearly  into  contact  with  the  row  of  fixed  lance- 
shaped  knives  or  strippers.  It  resembled  somewhat  the  first  modern  har- 
vesting machine — that  of  Wm.  Pitt,  in  1786,  before  described.  They  claimed 
"the  principle  of  the  governor  of  the  rudder  to  give  direction  to  the  ma- 
chine." Bell  also,  in  1826,  had  a  hand  lever  for  directing  his  reaper,  and 
both  were  operated  from  behind. 

E.  Briggs  and  C.  G.  Carpenter,  Feb.  6,  1836,  patented  a  machine  that 
ran  on  four  wheels,  like  wagon  wheels,  and  depended  upon  the  traction  of 
the  two  hind  wheels  to  carry  both  the  cutting  and  threshing  apparatus. 
They  claimed  broadly  "the  manner  and  principle  of  applying  the  power  of 
a  team  to  cutting,  threshing  and  cleaning  grain  by  moving  forward  the 
machine,"  etc.,  but  this  was  not  a  new  idea. 

June  28,  1836,  H.  Moore  and  J.  Hascall,  of  Kalamazoo,  Mich.,  patented 
a  machine  for  harvesting,  threshing,  cleaning  and  bagging  grain  which 
deserves  particular  mention  because  of  its  many  ingenious  devices,  its  com- 
parative success  and  the  notoriety  it  gained  on  account  of  the  unsuccessful 
attempt  made  in  1853  to  get  the  patent  extended  through  Congress.  This 
machine  in  the  hands  of  its  ingenious  proprietors  would  have  proved  a  suc- 
cess had  they  been  able  to  invent  something  to  regulate  the  weather  in  this 
western  country.  But  the  maxim,  old  at  the  time  of  Pliny  and  quoted  by 
him,  that  " 'tis  better  to  reap  two  days  too  soon  than  two  days  too  late,"' 
has  always  been  in  the  way  of  such  har\'esters,  in  this  climate  at  any  rate, 
for  here  the  proper  time  to  citt  is  not  the  proper  time  to  thresh  grain.  This 
machine  had  a  reciprocating  sickle,  working  across  fixed  guard-teeth,  with. 


AMERICAN'   AGRICILTIRAT.   IMPLEMENTS  55 

a  "rippling  cylinder,"'  studded  with  rows  of  small  spikes,  acting  as  a  gather- 
ing reel  over  the  sickle  and  delivering  the  grain  upon  an  endless  apron 
behind,  which  carried  the  heads  back  to  a  threshing  cylinder.  Back  of  the 
latter  was  a  traveling  sieve,  or  riddle,  which  carried  the  coarser  refuse  over 
to  fall  upon  the  ground,  while  the  threshed  grain  and  chaff,  sifting  through 
the  sieve,  was  winnowed  by  a  fan  blast,  then  elevated  and  delivered  through 
a  spout  into  bags. 

The  next  machine  of  this  class  was  invented  by  Alfred  Churchill,  of 
Geneva,  111.,  and  patented  March  Iti,  1.S41.  It  was  constructed  on  an  en- 
tirely different  principle  from  the  foregoing,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  it 
ever  went  into  use. 

;May  14,  1841.  D.  A.  Church,  of  New  York,  obtained  a  patent  for  still 
another  har\-ester  and  thresher.  The  peculiar  feature  of  this  was  that  it 
had  the  old  Gallic  comb  cutters,  improved  bj-  having  a  spring  attached  to 
keep  them  up  to  the  gathering  wheel,  which  latter  operated,  like  the  old 
"rippling  cylinder, "  to  force  the  heads  against  and  between  the  knives. 
The  heads,  after  being  dissevered,  were  carried  back,  threshed  and  delivered 
in  substantially  the  usual  manner.  Some  of  these  machines  were  manu- 
factured for  the  market,  and  gave,  it  is  claimed,  good  satisfaction.  In  1847, 
Feb.  13.  Mr.  Church,  in  connection  with  L.  H.  Overt,  of  New  York,  and 
W.  W.  and  O.  F.  Willoughby,  of  Chicago,  patented  certain  improvements 
in  the  construction  of  a  separator,  consisting  of  '  'separate  combs  turning  on 
pivots  in  endless  chains,"  etc.  Mr.  Church  died  about  this  time.  E.  C. 
West,  of  Vermont,  June  25,  1845,  patented  a  sort  of  revolving  cradle  ap- 
paratus for  cutting,  with  apron  to  receive  grain  and  to  deliver  to  threshers. 
March  7,  1846,  J.  Darling,  of  Michigan,  patented  improvements  upon  car- 
rying platforms  formed  of  toothed  slats  and  moving  as  described  to  convey 
grain  to  the  thresher.  He  also  claimed  a  mode  of  steering  by  pivot  wheels. 
Clinton  Foster,  of  Indiana,  Jan.  1,  1847,  patented  devices  relating  to  ma- 
chines of  this  description.  'Mr.  Foster  was  a  son  of  Judge  Foster,  of  Hamil- 
ton county,  Ohio,  on  whose  farm  Capt.  Husse}-  tried  his  machine  in  18.32. 
He  got  into  a  way  of  inventing  in  consequence,  and  did  some  creditable 
work  on  harvesting  machines. 

In  connection  with  the  subject  of  harvesters  and  threshers,  considerable 
interest  attaches  to  the  invention  of  a  Mr.  Ridley,  of  South  Australia,  in 
1845.  It  is  described  as  follows:  "It  is  something  like  a  cart  pushed  for- 
ward by  two  horses  instead  of  being  drawn.  In  front  of  the  machine  is  a 
verv  large  steel  comb,  which,  as  the  machine  advances,  seizes  the  straw  as 
a  comb  seizes  the  hair,  that  is,  the  grain  was  combed  out,  the  kernels  falling 
into  the  box,  or  the  heads  were  dragged  up  to  a  cylinder  playing  over  the 
comb  and  threshed  out.  The  winnowing,  it  is  said,  was  done  by  the  "draft 
raised  by  the  motion  of  the  machine."  The  publication  of  this  invention 
occasioned  considerable  discussion,  and  the  English  papers  were  verj-  indig- 
nant that  the  Yankees  should  claim  that  they  had  any  such  machines  here. 
Even  Her  ilajesty  and  Prince  Albert  became  interested,  and  "were  pleased 
to  express  to  Mr.  Ridley  their  admiration  of  the  value  and  importance  of  his 
invention."  Inasmuch  as  our  patent  office  records  show  several  elaborate 
har%-esting  and  threshing  machines  prior  to  this — Moore  &  Hascall  ha\-ing 


50  AMERICAN   AORICn.TrKAI.    rMPIj;MKNTS. 

used  theirs  some  ei.i^lit  or  nine  years  before — the  indignation  over  "  Yankee 
assumption"  manifested  by  our  British  cousins  was  certainly  uncalled  for, 
and  somewhat  ridiculous,  considering  the  character  of  the  invention.  Even 
in  their  own  dominions,  and  much  nearer  home,  a  machine  for  harvesting 
and  threshing  had  been  constructed  and  used  some  time  during  the 
"thirties"  by  a  man  named  Williams,  in  Canada,  which  might  have  been 
quoted  against  this  Australian  device,  both  on  the  score  of  ingenuitj-  and 

priority. 

George  Esterly,  of  Wisconsin,  Oct  2,  1844,  obtained  a  patent  on  his 
header  or  harvester.  "The  box  which  receives  the  grain  is  supported  on 
wheels  and  is  provided  with  a  permanent  knife  in  front,  and  a  rotating  reel 
with  beaters,  which  carry  the  heads  of  grain  up  against  the  permanent  knife 
to  cut  them  off."  By  a  lever  the  attendant  adjusted  the  cutter  and  reel  to 
the  varying  height  of  the  grain.  Esterly's  machine  was  manufactured  on  a 
considerable  scale  and  did  good  work.  The  illustration  shows  the  first  one 
made  and  used  in  1844.  Afterward  he  added  a  canvas  apron  to  carry  the 
heads  l)ack,  and  another  to  deliver  to  the  side  and  into  wagons;  besides  mak- 
ing improvements  in  other  respects.  It  was  a  leading  machine  back  in  the 
"forties." 

March  27,  1.S49,  Jonathan  Haines,  of  Illinois,  patented  his  celebrated 
header,  known  throughout  the  west  generally  some  years  since,  and  in  Cali- 
fornia still,  as  "Haines  Illinois  harvester."  Large  numbers  of  them  have 
been  built,  and  they  were  thoroughly  practical  heading  harvesters.  His 
claim  was  on  "suspending  the  frame  which  carries  the  conveyer  reel  and 
cutter,  upon  the  axles  of  the  wheels  A,  when  the  frame  thus  suspended  is 
hinged  to  the  tongue,  and  rendered  capable  of  being  turned  upon  its  bear- 
ings, by  means  of  a  lever,  for  the  purpose  of  elevating  and  depressing  the 
cutter  as  herein  set  forth."  It  cut  a  very  wide  swath  in  the  ordinary  man- 
ner and  harvested  rapidly  when  run  to  its  capacity.  The  patent  was  subse- 
quently re-issued  so  as  to  cover  his  devices  better. 

In  the  summer  of  1850  Augustus  Adams  and  J.  T.  Gifford,  of  Elgin,  111., 
built  a  machine  and  made  application  for  patent  (which  was  afterward  with- 
drawn) on  "improvements  for  cutting  and  gathering  grain  either  by  the 
reaping  or  heading  process. "  The  cut  grain  was  delivered  by  means  of  an 
endless  canvas  apron  into  a  receptacle  at  the  side  which  was  like  a  wagon 
box  and  upon  wheels,  and  falling  on  the  floor  was  lifted  therefrom  by  two 
or  more  attendants,  riding  in  the  box,  and  placed  upon  a  table  along  the 
outer  side,  where  it  was  bound.  This  machine  was  tried  in  the  harvest  of 
1850  or  1851  and  was  probabl}^  the  first  in  the  field,  with  men  riding  thereon, 
who  bound  the  grain  as  cut.  But  Mr.  Gifford  dying,  Mr.  Adams  connected 
himself  with  Pliilo  Sylla,  and  they  began  on  a  machine  of  a  different  char- 
acter, which  was  patented  Sept.  20,  1853.  This  carried  three  men  upon  its 
platform  to  bind  the  grain,  which  was  forked  or  shoved  around  to  them  by 
a  fourth  man.  A  box  was  attached  to  receive  the  sheaves  and  carry  them 
until  enough  was  collected  for  a  "shock,"  when  they  were  dumped  upon 
the  stubble.  It  contained  another  principle:  the  finger-bar  was  hinged  to 
the  main  frame,  allowing  it  to  "vibrate  perpendicularly  and  accommodate 
itself  to  uneven  ground."     On  account  of  the  latter  feature,  particularly, 


AMERICAN   AGRICLXTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


GALLIC   STRIPPING   HEADER,  FIRST   CENTURY. 


PITTS  MACHINE,  1 


MARSH   HARVESTER,    AS  BUILT   IN   18T9. 


MODERN  CALIFORNIA  COMBINED  HARVESTER.  AUSTRALI.^II  'COMBINED"   STRIPPING 

HARVESTER. 


5H  AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 

the  patent  was  purchased  by  C.  Aultmau  &  Co.,  to  whom  it  was  re-issued  in 
six  divisions.  Unquestionably  it  was  one  of  those  inventions  which  set  a 
stake,  so  to  speak;  and  if  the  inventors  had  comprehended  all  the  possi- 
bilities of  this  machine,  as  well  as  of  the  other  which  they  abandoned,  and 
had  thoroughly  followed  them  up,  thej'  might  have  reaped  great  advantages 
therefrom.  But  as  a  harvester,  this  last  carried  so  many  men  that  it  was  too 
heavy  and  cumbrous,  and  the  facilities  for  handling  the  grain  were  not 
sufficient  to  enable  the  operator  to  take  care  of  it,  especially  if  heavy  or 
tangled.    They  built  a  hundred  or  more  of  them  and  then  discontinued. 

April  1,  1S56,  A.  Elliott,  of  California,  patented  a  complicated  machine 
by  which  grain,  after  being  cut,  was  formed  "  into  sheaves  or  bundles,  by 
means  of  a  series  of  endless  bands  and  rollers  having  an  intermittent 
motion,"  which  were  bound  by  boys  during  a  stop  in  the  revolution  of  the 
compressing  apparatus  that  grasped  the  bundles.  The  machine  was  not 
practical  and  it  added  nothing  to  progress.  Ezra  Emmert,  Franklin  Grove, 
111.,  Jan.  19,  1858,  patented  a  machine  with  an  apron  delivery,  his  claim 
being  for  the  "peculiarly  constructed  apron  F,  and  retaining  hooksy, y,  in 
combination  with  binding  hook  L  and  platform  M,  for  purposes  specified." 
This  was  never  put  upon  the  market.  Possibly  both  these  latter  machines 
should  have  been  classed  with  binders  on  account  of  their  devices  for  form- 
ing bundles,  but  the  tying  was  done  by  hand. 

We  have  now  traced  this  class  of  machines  down  to  the  advent  of  the 
Marsh  harvester,  the  prototype  of  all  machines  which  since  have  carried 
binders — whether  men  or  automatic  machinery  substituted  in  place  of  men 
— to  bind  grain  before  delivery  to  the  ground.  No  other  harvesting  ma- 
chine before  it  had  lived  to  establish  a  general  trade.  The  Haines  header 
made  the  best  record,  but  it  was  limited  to  localities  where  the  climate  and 
conditions  might  allow  its  use.  At  the  time  the  Marsh  harvester  began 
seeking  a  place  in  the  market  "reapers" — hand-rakers,  self-rakers  and 
droppers — held  the  trade  substantially  to  the  exclusion  of  any  other  kind  of 
harvesting  machine.  So  many  failures  and  disappointments  had  attended 
the  introduction  of  hai-vesting  machines  that  a  general  prejudice  existed 
against  anything  not  strictly  a  reaper. 

This  was  the  condition  of  the  trade  when  C.  W.  and  \V.  W.  Marsh,  of 
DeKalb  county.  111.,  invented  their  harvester  and  during  the  years  of  its 
development  and  introduction.  They  had  not  the  advantage  of  the  earlier 
inventors  for  whom  there  was  an  open  field,  and  a  hungry  demand  for  any- 
thing that  might  ci;t  the  grain;  but  the}-,  and  parties  interested  in  them, 
had  to  face,  with  a  machine  clouded  by  the  failures  of  others,  various  excel- 
lent reapers  backed  by  established  reputations  and  wealthy  proprietors,  in 
full  control  of  the  market. 

Their  original  patent  was  granted  Aug.  17,  1858,  and  their  first  harvester, 
built  at  home,  was  successfully  operated  through  harvest  that  year.  It  has 
never  been  changed  materially,  in  principle  or  form,  since;  and  if  the  same 
old  jnachine  as  used  in  1858,  and  painted  as  others  now  are,  were  seen 
standing  to-day  in  any  field  in  America,  Europe  or  Australia,  with  binders' 
tables  off",  one  familiarwith  such  machines  would  wonder,  as  he  came  forward 
for  a  closer  inspection,  whether  it  was  McCormick's,  Wood's  or  Deering's,, 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTL'RAL   IMPLEMENTS.  59 

Samuelson's  or  Hornsbys  harvester  and  binder,  and  why  the  binder  was 
not  in  place. 

Its  invention  was  not  the  result  of  an  accident,  but  was  deliberatelv 
studied  and  worked  out  on  the  farm  during  1856,  1857  and  1858,  and,  some- 
what like  Esterly's  header,  from  practical  necessity.  The  theory  of  the  in- 
ventors was  that  two  men  might  bind  the  grain  cut  by  a  five-foot  sickle  in 
ordinary  motion,  provided  it  could  be  delivered  to  them  in  the  best  possible 
position  and  condition  for  binding,  and  they  could  have  perfect  freedom  of 
action.  They  knew  that  traps  or  aids  in  binding  would  simply  be  impedi- 
ments, and  that  only  a  free  swing  and  an  open  chance  at  the  grain  would 
enable  them  to  handle  it;  so  they  arranged  the  elevated  deliver}-,  recept- 
acle and  tables,  and  the  platform,  with  these  ends  in  view,  that  the  oper- 
ators alternating  in  their  work  regularly  might  have  equal  advantages  and 
facilities  for  binding,  and  that  their  weight  might  give  necessary  traction 
and  balance.  This  was  their  original  invention,  without  reference  to  the 
original  patent,  which  was  misunderstood  by  the  examiner,  and  botched  by 
Munn  &  Co  ,  the  attorneys  who  filed  the  application.  The  bundle  carrier, 
with  its  caster  wheel,  shown  in  first  patent,  was,  as  it  proved,  an  unfortunate 
afterthought.  It  was  not  built  with  the  first  machine,  and  was  no  more 
necessary  to  it  than  such  attachments  have  been  to  other  harvesters. 

The  second  Marsh  harvester  was  built  in  Chicago  in  1859.  It  worked 
admirably  through  that  harvest,  and  aroused  much  enthusiasm  and  courage 
in  the  inventors.  In  1860  they  attempted  to  put  up  a  dozen  at  home;  but 
they  were  fifteen  miles  from  the  railroad,  the  work  was  partly  done  in 
Chicago,  partly  at  De  Kalb,  and  partly  at  home  and  around  among  the 
Vjlacksmiths.  The  machines  came  together  badly,  and  had  neither  strength 
nor  capacity  for  the  extraordinary  weight  and  height  of  the  grain  grown 
that  year,  so  these  failed  except  one  or  two,  which  were  patched  up  and 
pulled  through — but  the  men  handled  the  grain  when  it  could  be  gotten  to 
them.  This  was  a  serious  disaster,  and  everybody  interested  in  the  invent- 
ors advised  them  to  give  the  thing  up,  except  Lewis  Steward,  of  Piano,  111  , 
who  saw  one  of  the  1860  machines  work;  so  they  went  to  Piano,  and  in  con- 
nection with  Mr.  Hollister,  a  thorough  mechanic,  built  a  harvester  which, 
though  somewhat  imperfect  in  details,  had  the  required  strength,  mechan- 
ical action,  and  capacity  for  all  kinds  of  grain.  This  was  experimented 
with  and  improved  during  the  years  1861,  1862  and  1863,  and  seeming  suffi- 
ciently practical,  the  manufacture  of  harvesters  for  the  market  began  at 
Piano  in  the  fall  of  1863  by  Steward  &  Marsh.  Fifty  were  begun,  only 
twenty-six  being  completed,  but  they  gave  fair  satisfaction  in  the  har^-est  of 
1864,  and  the  balance  of  them,  improved  somewhat,  were  successfully 
marketed  in  1865. 

Meantime  the  Marsh  Bros,  had  become  involved  through  these  experi- 
mental expenses  and  losses,  and  having  neither  the  experience  nor  the  in- 
clination to  be  manufacturers,  but  hoping  to  avoid  that  necessity,  they  were 
induced  to  sell  a  third  interest  in  their  invention  to  Champlin  &  Taylor,  a 
couple  of  speculators,  in  connection  with  whom  they  made  a  license  for  six 
of  the  western  states  to  Easter  &  Gammon,  of  Chicago,  reserving,  however, 
certain  rights  to  themselves  and  for  the  Piano  shops.    About  this  time,  also, 


•60  AMERICAN    AGRICl'LTrRAI,    IMPLKMEXTS. 

Euierson  &  Talcolt  became  interested  through  purchase  from  Champlin  & 
Taylor.  Unfortunately,  too  many  were  thus  interested,  and  the  machines 
thereafter  were  made,  not  as  they  should  have  been  during  their  develop- 
ment— continuously  in  one  shop  and  by  one  set  of  men  — but  at  Piano  by 
Marsh,  Steward  &  Co.;  at  Beloit,  Wis.,  by  Parker  &  Stone;  at  Roekford, 
111.,  by  Emerson,  Talcott  &  Co.,  and  at  Springfield,  Ohio,  by  Warder, 
Mitchell  &  Co.  Some  in  consequence  were  constructed  well,  some  fairly 
and  some  poorl}-. 

The  introductor}'  struggle  was  severe  and  costly  to  the  inventors  and 
proprietors.  On  account  of  its  solitary  position  all  others  were  naturally 
combined  against  it.  Binders  were  prejudiced  from  the  start,  supposing  it 
would  be  very  hard  work,  or  that  the  machine  in  the  end  might  reduce  de- 
maud  for  labor  in  harvest.  They  had  to  be  coaxed,  sometimes  specially 
hired,  and  generally  instructed.  Trials  were  gotten  up,  and  experienced 
men  who  could  bind  alone  exhibited  their  capacity.  Even  farmers'  daugh- 
ters who  had  become  experts  were  taken  to  trials  and  bound  the  grain  as 
cut,  to  show  men  what  they  ought  to  be  able  to  do.  And  thus  the  machine 
steadily  gained  ground. 

From  the  time  of  the  invention  of  this  machine,  until  ISTl-fourteen 
years — none  like  it  was  on  the  market,  or  publicly  known  except  in  patents. 
In  1871  Mr.  Ellward  had  six  machines  built  at  Piano— a  modification  of  the 
Marsh;  and  about  this  time  W.  R.  Low  got  out  his  machine;  which  was  a 
change  in  another  direction,  Ellward's  machine  became  well  known  in 
time  as  the  St.  Paul  harvester;  and  Low's,  improved  by  himself  aud  Au- 
gustus Adams,  as  the  Low,  Adams  &  French  har^'ester,  built  by  the  Sand- 
wich Manufacturing  Company.  Both  these  concerns  recognized  the  rights 
of  the  inventors,  took  out  licenses  and  built  good  machines.  Along  in 
1872  and  1873  other  parties  began  making  harvesters,  and  also  experiment- 
ing with  automatic  binders  attached — the  Wood  for  instance— as  also  did  the 
Marsh  licensees,  at  first  sending  out  both  the  hand  and  automatic  binding 
attachments,  aud  as  the  latter  became  perfected,  dropping  the  former  al- 
together. The  McCormicks  began  putting  out  harvesters  in  1875  and  wire 
binders  in  1877,  and  others  came  in  later. 

Thus  as  the  years  rolled  along  hand  binding  gradually  gave  place  to 
automatic  binding,  with  wire  at  first  and  cord  at  last;  and  thus  also  out  of 
the  body  of  the  old  Marsh  harvester  sprang  the  various  harvesters  and 
binders  now  harvesting  grain  for  the  world. 

Of  straight  harvesters — carrying  men  to  bind-  there  had  been  made  up 
to  and  including  1879,  over  100,000,  of  which  about  two-thirds  had  been 
produced  by  the  Marsh  combination,  and  the  rest  by  outsiders. 

There  seems  to  be  nothing  worthy  of  notice  in  this  line  among  the  pat- 
ents, during  the  latter  part  of  1858  or  1859.  In  February,  1860,  E.  Peck, 
of  California,  obtained  a  patent  on  a  header — for  improvements  in  guiding 
and  turning  the  machine  bj^  means  of  shaft  pinion  and  semicircular  rack; 
B.  F.  Witt,  of  Indiana,  April  10,  18G0,  for  a  harvester  which  had  a  supple- 
mentary carriage  attached  with  saddles  for  binders;  C.  Alvord,  of  Wisconsin, 
March  5,  1861,  for  a  harvester  which  had  a  reciprocating  gavel  carrier  to 
deliver  gavels  alternately  at  each  end  of  a  trough,  to  be  bound,  etc. ;  J.  R. 


AMERICAX   AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS.  61 

and  C.  N.  Mayberry,  of  Illinois,  Nov.  19,  1861,  for  improvements  in  balanc- 
ing, equalization  of  draft,  and  raising  and  lowering  their  header.  Sept.  16, 
1862,  Royal  Hance,  of  Illinois,  patented  a  header  on  which  the  convevor  was 
located  in  front  of  the  drive  wheel  and  the  horses  were  attached  to  and 
drew  from  the  front. 

C.  W.  and  W.  W.  Marsh,  Jan.  5,  1864,  patented  improvements  on  their 
harvester,  for  projecting  part  of  the  elevator  forward  the  better  to  carry  up 
butts  of  grain,  etc.;  D.  J.  Marvin,  of  California,  Nov.  15,  1864,  obtained  a 
patent  for  a  harvester  and  thresher,  "so  pivoting  or  hanging  cutter  frame 
upon  the  main  axle  that  it  can  be  moved  longitudinally  and  also  raised  and 
lowered  at  pleasure,"  etc.;  J.  W.  Harvey,  of  Iowa,  Dec.  27,  1864,  on  an 
auxiliary  concave  receiver,  gate  and  gaveling  fingers,  for  seizing  the  grain 
to  facilitate  binding.  C.  W.  and  W.  W.  Marsh,  Feb.  14,  1865,  received  a 
patent  covering  scolloped  gatherer  or  hollow  inside  divider  with  hinged  ex- 
tension; and  J.  Seibel,  Feb.  21,  1865,  on  a  "push"  harvester.  C.  Denton,  of 
Illinois,  Oct.  9,  1866,  patented  his  header,  the  improvements  being  chieflj- 
upon  devices  for  raising  and  lowering  the  cutting  apparatus  and  in  attach- 
ing the  spout,  etc.  J.  Emer}-,  of  Iowa,  June  25,  1867,  obtained  a  patent  for 
rotating  binders'  station  in  connection  with  a  harvester.  This  idea  was 
further  developed  by  J.  D.  Easter  &  Co.,  some  years  after.  J.  Lancaster,  of 
Maryland,  Aug.  29,  1867,  patented  for  a  harvester  a  rake  and  fender,  in  con- 
nection with  binders'  platform  in  rear  of  grain  platform.  C.  W.  and  W. 
W.  Marsh,  Nov.  12,  1867,  secured  a  patent  on  a  single  driving  belt  for  har- 
vester platform  and  elevator  with  adjustable  tightening  pulley,  etc.  ;J. 
Underwood,  of  Iowa,  June  9,  1868,  patented  his  harvester  in  which  "the 
grain  as  it  is  felled  by  the  cutter  is  moved  backward  and  upward  and  deliv- 
ered upon  a  platform  upon  which  it  is  moved  laterally  toward  the  inner 
side  to  a  position  where  it  may  be  conveniently  bound  by  hand" — the  grain 
being  moved  by  a  reciprocating  follower.  C.  Denton,  of  Illinois,  June  30 
1868,  obtained  a  patent  on  spout  and  arrangement  for  driving  sickles  for  his 
header;  C.  W.  and  B.  F.  Witt,  of  Indiana,  Aug.  4,  1868,  on  a  tipping  rake  to 
receive  grain  and  deliver  to  binder,  and  binder  table  in  combination  with 
tipping  rake;  M.  Vanderpool,  Oregon,  Oct.  6,  1868,  on  peculiar  harvester 
and  thresher,  with  spiral  reel,  obliquely  ribbed  drum,  ribbed  concaves  and 
spiked  drums,  etc. ;  L.  B.  Lathrop,  California,  May  25,  1869,  on  a  harvester 
and  thresher  with  too  many  devices  to  describe  herein;  July  13,  1869,  E. 
Emmert,  of  Illinois,  on  "the  combination  of  a  continuously  moving  carrier 
with  an  oscillating  stop  rake,  to  intermit  the  delivery  of  grain  to  the  binder" 
and  W.  G.  and  L,.  T.  Davis,  Oregon,  Nov.  16,  1869,  "a  combined  header  and 
thresher,  constructed  substantially  as  described,  and  having  arrano-ements 
for  attaching  teams  both  at  front  and  rear  substantially  as  set  forth." 

AUSTR.\LIAN   STRIPPING   HARVESTERS. 

The  first  machine  of  record  on  this  plan  as  used  in  Australia  was  the 
one  brought  out  by  Mr.  Ridley  in  1845,  already  described.  Stripping  har- 
vesters, however,  which  are  now  so  extensively  used  in  many  portions  of 
Australasia,  where  climate  and  grain  may  be  adaptable,  have  been  of  recent 
development.  All  seem  to  have  the  steel  comb  stripping  arrangement  of 
the  old  Gallic  machine  so  frequently  referred  to — with  the  "rippling  cylin- 


•62  AMKRICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMI'LEMEXTS. 

der"  added  first  l)y  Mr.  Tilt  in  ITStJ,  but  so  set  as  to  tlireih  out  the  grain 
from  the  heads,  v.-hich  threshed  grain  from  ordinary  strippers,  to  be  cleaned 
by  "winnowers" — as  separate  machines,  either  by  following  or  receiving  the 
uncleaned  grain  brought  to  them.  The  combined  stripper  and  winnower  is 
called  by  Australians  a  "combined  harvester."  The  following  is  a  descrip- 
tion of  McKay's: 

"The  front  portion  is  made  as  the  ordinary  stripper,  the  drum  driving 
the  stripped  grain  up  over  the  apron  and  into  a  hopper,  under  which  the 
riddles  are  suspended  on  self-adjusting  rollers,  by  the  action  of  which  they 
are  always  retained  in  a  horizontal  position,  which  is  necessary  for  the 
proper  cleaning  of  the  grain.  The  blast  is  derived  from  a  fan  placed  at 
bottom  of  the  back  part  of  the  machine,  the  current  of  air  from  which  is 
directed  through  the  riddles,  and  is  quite  sufficient  to  eflfectually  remove  all 
chaflF,  etc.,  from  the  grain.  The  power  of  the  blast  can  be  regulated  by  the 
driver  as  may  be  required,  and  the  riddles  have  a  vibratory  motion  imparted 
to  them,  as  in  the  ordinary  winnower.  The  chaflF  is  carried  forward  into  a 
box  placed  behind  the  drum,  thus  preventing  its  escape  over  the  field, 
which  is  an  objection  urged  against  other  harvesters.  When  filled  the  box 
can  be  instantly  emptied  of  its  contents  by  the  man  moving  a  lever  and  the 
chaff  dropped  in  a  heap.  All  whiteheads  are  returned  by  an  elevator  to  the 
drum  to  be  re-threshed.  The  grain,  after  passing  through  the  riddles,  falls  on 
a  screen  in  the  usual  manner,  and  is  conveyed  to  an  elevator  placed  on  the 
rear  side  of  the  machine.  This  elevates  it  into  a  hopper  from  which  the  bags 
are  filled.  The  bag  stands  on  the  platform  close  beside  the  driver's  seat,  and 
thus  all  the  principal  operations  are  under  his  eye.  The  grain  is  run  into 
the  bag  through  a  tube.  To  overcome  the  difficulty  hitherto  felt  of  sewing 
the  bags  a  very  simple  device  has  been  hit  upon.  The  bags  are  sewn  before 
they  are  taken  to  the  field,  all  but  about  three  inches  of  the  corner.  The 
grain  is  run  into  this  opening,  and  as  the  bag  is  attached  to  a  shaking  lever 
it  can  be  completely  filled.  In  the  sewing  of  the  bags  a  length  of  twine  is 
left  at  the  corner  sufl&cient  to  secure  it.  Thus  when  the  bag  is  full,  the 
driver  has  merely  to  twist  the  string  around  a  time  or  two  (an  operation  only 
requiring  a  few  seconds),  and  the  bag  is  then  disposed  of  in  a  fit  condition 
for  market.  For  the  greater  convenience  of  gathering  they  may  be  dropped 
two  at  a  time,  there  being  sufficient  room  on  the  platform  to  carry  two 
or  more  bags  as  occasion  may  require." 

THE   CALIFORNIA   COMBINED   HARVESTER. 

The  climate  of  California  has  proved  favorable  to  the  development  of 
the  ' '  combined  harvester, ' '  and  during  the  past  ten  years  many  styles  of 
this  eminently  labor-saving  implement  have  been  perfected  and  manufact- 
ured for  use  in  the  great  wheat  ranches  west  of  the  Rockies.  The  invention 
of  the  main  features  of  this  machine  was  recorded  in  the  patent  ofl&ce  before 
any  hand-raking  reaper  had  been  made  practical  for  the  market,  and  it 
seemed  at  first  as  though  it  would  come  into  general  use.  But  climatic  con- 
ditions in  the  central  and  eastern  states  are  such  that  wheat  must  be  cut 
before  it  is  dry  enough  to  be  threshed.  On  the  Pacific  coast  it  seldom  or 
never  rains  during  the  harvest  season,  and  the  straw  stands  straight  and 
stiflf. 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTUR.\L   IMPLEMENTS.  63 

The  combined  harvester,  as  generally  used  on  the  Coast,  is  practically  a 
combination  of  a  header,  cutting  Iti  to  4U  feet,  with  a  threshing  cylinder 
and  separator.  It  is  drawn  or  propelled  either  by  animals  or  by  a  traction 
engine.  Eighteen  to  twentj'-four  or  more  horses  or  mules  are  required  to 
handle  one  of  the  more  common  size,  or  a  traction  engine  developing  40  to 
60-horse  power.  A  machine  of  ordinary-  capacity,  requiring  three  or  some- 
times four  men  to  operate  it,  will  cut  50  acres  per  day,  lea\-ing  the  grain  in 
oags,  which  are  dropped  from  the  machine,  to  be  picked  up  by  wagons. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Automatic   Binders. 


PROGRESS  is  made  by  steps,  uot  by  leaps,  but  always  there  were  men 
whose  ideas  projected  far  in  advance  of  their  times.  Inventors  and 
reformers  usually  attempt  to  cover  too  much,  in  view  of  conditions  current; 
and  their  efforts  fail  because  people,  although  generally  disposed  to  take  in 
improved  methods  and  theories  if  given  regularlj^  and  in  small  doses,  will 
reject  the  same  altogether  if  offered  in  mass.  They  forget  that  the  world 
was  not  made  in  a  daj' — that  its  rock  had  to  be  covered  with  mould  before 
it  could  take  on  its  dress  of  ornamented  green.  Radicals  are  uot  philo- 
sophic architects;  they  too  often  build  superstructures  before  the  foundations 
have  been  laid.  Their  ambition  is  too  vaulting  and  too  crisp;  they  fail  be- 
cause they 

"Soar  too  high  and  fall  for  lack  of  moisture  quite  a-dry," 

as  Byron  wrote  of  Bob  Southey.  Still  these  Excelsiors  are  necessary  factors 
in  progress.  Though  they  may  flash  up  like  rockets  and  come  down  like 
the  sticks,  their  short  illuminations  usually  point  out  roads  which  others 
following  may  pursue  more  surely  and  successfully.  Many  machines  and 
manv  theories  have  failed  because  their  projectors  built  up  airy  edifices  upon 
insufl&cient  foundations;  but  some  have  failed  simply  because  the  people 
were  not  ready  or  fitted  to  receive  them. 

Inventors  of  har\-esting  machinery  dreamed  over  self-raking  devices, 
and  wandered  among  the  mazy  complications  of  combined  harvesters  and 
threshers,  before  any  one  had  produced  a  practical  cutting  apparatus.  Ogle 
and  Brown  got  out  early  a  promising  reaper,  but  the  people  broke  it  up  and 
mobbed  them.  These  all  failed,  but  they  pointed  out  the  road  which  others 
took  in  due  time. 

Inventors  were  seeking  after  automatic  binders— the  climax  of  harvest- 
in"'  machinery  — before  a  practical  reaper  had  been  fully  found.  They  also 
were  in  advance  of  the  times  and  conditions,  and  could  not  have  succeeded 
because  practical  reaping  machines  had  first  to  be  fully  developed,  generally 
introduced,  and  made  thoroughly  familiar  to  farmers.  Hence  all  the  earlier 
efforts  failed,  though  some  of  them  might  have  been  crowned  with  success 
had  the  conditions  been  favorable. 

The  invention  and  development  of  self-binders  may  be  divided  into  three 
eras,  the  first  comprising  the  earlier  efforts,  which  were  confined  chieflj'  to 
the  adaptation  of  binding  devices  to  reapers— some  as  attachments  operated 
bv  attendants,  and  some  complete  and  automatic  throughout,  but  all,  sub- 
stantially, upon  what  is  called  the  "low  down"  theory.  Every  kind  possible 
of  material  was  used  and  every  conceivable  form  of  binder  was  tried,  butall 
failed  to  the  extent  that  none  established  itself  in  the  market.     The  second 

6t 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  65 

era  began  with  the  adaptation  of  self-binders  to  the  Marsh  harvester  and  runs 
through  the  various  stages  of  development  in  wire  and  twine  binders,  and 
down  to  the  time  of  the  third,  or  current  era,  wherein  all  useless  and  im- 
practicable devices  have  been  eliminated,  all  material  for  bands  has  given 
place  to  twine,  and  all  machines  upon  the  market,  with  one  or  two  excep- 
tions, are  substantially  alike  in  form  and  general  principles. 

John  E.  Heath,  of  Warren,  Ohio,  was  the  first  of  record  to  attempt  to 
bind  grain  by  machinery,  and  his  was  a  twine  or  cord  binder.  His  patent 
was  dated  July  22,  1850,  and  the  claims  are  as  follows: 

"First.  Gathering  the  grain  and  compressing  it  into  a  sheaf  substan- 
tially as  herein  set  forth,  by  means  of  the  rake  and  standard 

"Second.  Carrying  the  cord  around  the  sheaf  and  holding  the  latter 
until  the  band  is  tied  by  means  of  the  curved  lever  h,  and  toothed  arm^\ 
substantially  as  herein  described 

"Third.  The  employment  of  split  thimble  and  sliding  hook  to  aid  in 
tying  the  band. 

"Fourth.  Alternating  the  rake  to  gather  the  grain  and  compress  the 
sheaf,  by  means  of  the  spring,  strap  and  drum,  substantially  as  herein  set 
forth." 

"Fifth.  Bridging  the  space  through  which  the  bound  sheaf  drops,  to 
support  the  grain  while  it  is  being  gathered,  substantially  as  herein  set 
forth." 

But  little  is  known  of  Heath's  binder  except  from  his  patent  It  is  said 
that  he  built  several  machines  and  that  they  operated  fairly  well  for  a  first 
effort.  They  must  have  given  good  promise,  as  he  sold  the  right  to  the 
southern  portion  of  Illinois  for  ^^4,000  to  S.  H.  Tudor  in  1851,  and  made 
other  transfers  on  record  He  was  born  in  Tolland,  Conn.,  March  19,  1806. 
At  the  age  of  twelve  he  made  ax-helves  and  ox-yokes  by  machinery.  He 
removed  to  Ohio  at  an  early  date  and  there  conceived  the  idea  of  a  binder. 
vSomewhere  about  1840  he  took  first  premium' for  his  mower  at  the  state  fair 
in  Chicago,  and  in  1855  he  was  awarded  the  ;f  1,000  grand  gold  medal  offered 
by  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  Society  for  the  best  mowing  machine. 
He  died  at  Prairie  City,  111.,  July  16,  1881. 

The  next  patent  for  a  binder  was  granted  to  Watson,  Renwick  &  Wat- 
son, May  13,  1851.  This  patent  is  a  curiosity  and  a  study.  The  specifica- 
tion is  exceedingly  long,  with  many  drawings,  and  it  is  reinforced  by  two 
or  three  pages  of  modifications,  the  inventors  evidently  intending  to  cover 
every  form  of  binding  device  that  they  could  think  of  Their  first  claim 
reads  as  follows:  "The  method  of  raking  and  binding  grain  with  one  opera- 
tion, by  the  mechanism  herein  specified  or  its  equivalent  ".  That  was 
comprehensive  and  broad  enough  .surely.  The  next  claim  related  to  the 
self-rake,  which  was  a  toothed  arrangement,  sweeping  the  grain  lengthwise 
of  the  platform  and  delivering  to  the  binder  located  at  the  end  Their  claim 
reads:  "The  method  of  adapting  the  binding  apparatus  to  the  length  of  the 
cut  grain;  either  by  moving  the  cutting  apparatus  backward  and  forward  to 
accommodate  the  binder,  or  by  moving  the  binder  nearer  to  or  further  from 
the  front  of  the  platform  in  such  a  manner  that  thesheaf  may  be  bound  near 
the  middle  of  its  length,"  etc.     The  next  claim  covers  the  automatic  prin- 


66  AMF.BICAN    AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 

ciple,  the  parts  "acting  in  connection  and  automatically,  by  motion  derived 
from  or  dependent  upon  the  movement  of  the  machine,"  etc.;  and  the  fifth 
covers  the  cord  arm,  which,  with  the  cord  or  twine,  encircled  the  bundle, 
the  cord  paying  off  from  a  reel  and  through  the  end  of  the  arm  in  the  usual 
way,  substantially.  It  shows  two  ways  of  fastening  and  band;  one  by  pass- 
ing the  end  of  the  cord  through  an  eyelet  which  is  closed  down  upon  them 
by  a  blow  from  a  plunger,  the  other  by  making  a  knot.  Apparently  every- 
thing necessary  in  the  way  of  a  binder  was  thought  of  and  much  more,  but 
it  did  not  get  beyond  experiments. 

P.  H.  Watson  and  E.  S.  Renwick,  two  of  the  three  inventors  who.se 
patent  we  have  just  described,  were  granted  another  patent  on  binders  Dec. 
6,  1853.  This  is  an  exceedinglj'  complicated  invention,  but  its  general 
form  more  nearly  approaches  the  modern  harvester  and  binder  than  any 
other  of  these  early  inventions. 

The  grain  was  to  fall  upon  revolving  bands,  and  was  to  be  carried  up 
by  a  series  of  such  bands  into  a  sort  of  crib,  in  which  it  was  to  be  bound 
and  from  which  it  was  to  be  delivered  upon  the  ground.  The  binding  was 
to  be  done  with  cord  or  twine,  tied  with  a  knot,  and  all  the  movements 
were  automatic.  This  also  had  several  pages  of  variations  and  modifications 
added.  It  was  a  mass  of  ingenious  but  impracticable  devices,  and  the 
patent  is  well  known  in  the  courts,  as  it  has  been  a  stumbling  block  in  the 
way  of  later  inventors.  Mr.  Watson  became  a  noted  patent  lawyer,  was 
assistant  secretary  of  war  under  Stanton,  and  after«'ard  president  of  the 
Erie  railway. 

These  first  three  efforts  were  made  with  cord  or  twine  as  the  material 
for  binding.  The  next  patent  on  binders  was  granted  to  J.  E.  Nesen,  of 
New  York,  December  13,  1853.  He  employed  an  endless  platform  apron, 
having  an  intermittent  motion  for  carrj-ing  the  grain  to  the  binder  hooks 
which  compressed  into  bundles  that  were  bound  with  straw  bands.  It  was 
not  an  automatic  binder,  of  course. 

Geo.  W.  N.  Yost,  of  Mississippi,  Jan.  1,  185G,  obtained  a  patent  on  a 
machine  for  binding  with  a  cord  band,  cut  to  right  length,  wnth  a  knot  tied 
in  one  end.  This  knotted  end  was  placed  in  a  notch  and  the  other  end 
went  somewhere.  A  gathering  and  compressing  apparatus  swept  along  the 
platform,  forming  a  bundle,  around  which  the  band  was  brought,  when  its 
ends  were  tied  by  an  attendant. 

W.  E.  Pagett,  of  Virginia,  Julj*  29,  1856,  used  m.etal  strips  prepared  with 
hooks  and  rings  in  combination  with  slide  and  "  way  "  by  which  the  bands 
were  put  around  the  bundle  and  hooked  together. 

These  three  last  described  were  not  automatic  and  the)-  added  nothing 
to  advancement.  The  next  machine  showed  decided  progress.  This  was 
the  invention  of  C.  A.  McPhitridge,  of  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  by  whom  it  was 
patented  Nov.  18,  1856.  The  theory  of  it  is  very  well  given  in  his  claim,  as 
follows:  "The  combination  of  the  reciprocating  arm  G,  with  spring  pliers 
G  attached,  with  stationary  arm  M,  revolving  twister  r,  cutting  plate  q, 
friction  brake  q,  spring  m,  and  movable  plate  o  ;  when  the  same  are  con 
structed  and  arranged  to  operate  in  relation  to  each  other  and  the  main 
frame  and  driving  wheel,  for  the  purpose  of  binding  grain  from  a  continuous 


AMERICAN    AGRICILTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  67 

coil  of  wire,"  etc.  He  was  the  first  to  bind  with  wire,  which  was  coiled 
upon  a  reel  and  delivered  to  the  reciprocating  binding  arm.  The  latter  per 
formed  its  functions  substantially  like  the  modern  arm,  and  the  wire  received 
the  ordinary  twist  and  cut. 

During  the  year  1857  four  binder  patents  were  issued,  as  follows:  April 
2S,  to  J.  F.  Barrett,  New  York;  Mayo,  to  H.  Kellogg,  Marengo,  111.;  Sept. 
22.  to  J.  F.  Black,  Lancaster,  111.,  and  Dec.  29,  to  L.  D.  Phillipps,  of  Chi- 
cago. All  were  for  improvements  in,  or  aids  to,  hand  binding  with  straw. 
It  is  a  singular  coincidence  that  during  this  same  year  the  IMarsh  Bros,  were 
inventing  their  harvester  and  seeking  the  same  end — rapid  straw-binding 
— but  in  another  way  altogether,  their  plan  being  to  deliver  the  grain  by 
the  machine  in  the  best  possible  condition  and  position  to  the  attendant 
binders  riding,  leaving  them  to  do  the  mere  tj-ing  by  hand,  free  from  and 
undisturbed  by  the  traps  and  aids  proposed  by  others. 

Allen  Sherwood,  Auburn,  N.  Y  ,  Jan.  26,  1858,  took  out  a  patent,  and 
Sept  14  another,  covering  devices  in  his  wire  binder.  The  first  patent 
claims  binding  the  grain  by  means  of  a  wire,  placed  on  a  spool  and  carried 
partially  around  the  grain  by  the  arm,  in  connection  with  twisting  and 
cutting  devices;  and  the  second  claims — in  combination  with  fingers  for 
throwing  the  gathered  gavel  up  into  the  concave — the  arm  for  carrying  the 
binding  wire  up  and  over  the  sheaf  and  placing  the  wire  in  the  slot  of  the 
twisting  wheel;  also  the  combination  of  the  sliding  knife  with  the  twisting 
wheel  for  cutting  off  the  wire,  the  twisting  wheel  with  the  wire  carriers; 
and  finally,  the  "  forming  a  knot  or  enlargement  on  the  end  of  the  wire  be- 
hind where  it  is  cut  off  b}-  the  cutter,  by  twisting  the  portion  of  it,"  for  the 
purpose  of  preventing  the  end  from  being  drawn  out  of  the  slot  in  the 
twister.  Aug.  30,  1859,  he  took  out  another  patent  covering  improvements 
in  his  machine.  Sherwood's  binder  was  very  ingenious  and  did  good  work. 
It  was  intended  for  attachment  to  reapers  of  the  time,  hence  was  not  fully 
automatic,  but  required  an  attendant  to  work  it.  He  spent  several  j-ears 
in  developing  and  in  trying  to  introduce  it,  and  a  considerable  number 
were  built  and  used,  giving  promise  of  ultimate  success,  but  the  prejudice  of 
farmers  against  wire  and  its  high  price  proved  too  much  for  him.  He 
fought  manful  y,  working  his  binders  about  the  countr\-  and  at  fairs,  and  he 
only  failed  because  the  conditions  were  too  unfavorable. 

March  2,  1858,  W.  L.  Childs,  of  New  York,  patented  an  ingenious 
twine-binder.  The  cord  was  taken  from  a  spool  located  in  the  grain-wheel 
divider.  It  was  passed  under  the  platform  and  around  in  front  of  the  re- 
ceptable  into  the  nippers,  above,  in  the  arm;  a  self-rake  swept  the  grain 
against  the  cord,  which  was  forced  back,  receiving  and  encompassing  the 
gavel;  then  the  arm  came  down,  the  twine  was  cut  off,  and  the  ends  were 
twisted  and  tucked  under  automatically.  He  also  had  a  bundle  car- 
rier. INIarch  23,  a  patent  was  issued  to  A.  F.  French,  of  Yermont,  cov- 
ering devices  for  aiding  attendant  to  bind  with  straw  bands,  twisted  by 
hand;  May  11,  to  G.  Notman,  of  Ohio,  for  a  mechanism  by  which  the  blind- 
ing was  done  with  cords  cut  to  lengths  and  placed  by  an  attendant;  July  6, 
to  John  P.  Manny,  of  Rockford.  111.,  on  a  machine  something  like  the  last, 
for  binding  with  a  prepared  cord  band,  cut  to  proper  length,  having  a  knot 


68  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAI,   IMPI^EMEXTS. 

tied  in  one  end  and  a  little  cast  hook  on  the  other,  placed  in  position  by  an 
attendant,  but  automatically  passed  around  the  compressed  gavel — hook  and 
knot  engaging  as  bundle  expanded  when  loosened  from  the  compressor, 
the  binding  mechanism  operating  in  combination  "with  a  rake  that  auto- 
matically throws  itself  out  of  gear,"  etc. 

August  17,  C.  W.  and  W.  W.  Marsh  patented  their  hand-binding  har- 
vester, which,  though  not  belonging  specifically  to  this  class,  became 
finally  the  foundation  upon  which  practical  binders  up  to  this  time  have 
been  built. 

To  J.  Mitchell,  Sept.  7,  was  granted  a  patent  for  an  automatic  straw- 
binder.  "This  invention  consists  in  the  use  of  clamps  or  band-carriers,  a 
band-twisting  device,  tucking  rod,  and  discharging  device  applied  to  the 
reaper,  arranged  relatively  with  each  other  and  operated,  whereby  the  grain 
is  bound  into  sheaves  and  discharged  upon  the  ground,  the  whole  working 
automatically  as  the  machine  moves  along."  It  was  not  practical.  The 
next  patent,  Nov.  16,  was  to  Wm.  Graj',  of  Ohio,  covering  ingenious  con- 
trivances for  binding  automatically  with  straw.  The  idea  was  suggested  to 
him  by  the  peculiar  automatic  self-rake  of  Jearum  Atkins,  mentioned  in 
review  of  reapers.  "Spring  talons  forked  at  ends  and  mounted  on  a  turn- 
ing post  like  Atkins'  self-rake,  are  brought  down  to  the  gavel  by  cam  slot 
in  post;  they  descend  so  that  one  talon  strikes  the  heads  and  the  other  the 
butts;  their  spring  ends  being  forced  into  the  grain  pick  up  a  wisp  for 
a  band;  they  then  turn  at  right  angles  to  the  gavel,  placing  the  wisp  or 
band  across  it;  descending  further  and  coming  together  with  band  carried 
around  the  gavel,  the  ends  of  the  bands  are  twi.sted  by  rotating  pliers  and 
tucked  under;  then  the  talons  raise,  lifting  the  bundle  and  dropping  it 
upon  the  ground,  and  go  back  to  place  to  repeat,"  etc.  One  feature  which 
is  deserving  of  particular  notice  is  described  in  first  claim:  "The  arrange- 
ment of  gravitating  platform  /^19,  and  the  seriesof  levers,  G,  H,  I,  J,  with 
their  accessories,  in  the  described  connection  with  a  drive-wheel,  for  the 
automatic  starting  of  the  binding  mechanism  by  the  weight  of  the  sheaf  or 
gavel,"  that  is,  the  weight  of  the  sheaf  threw  the  binder  in  gear. 

March  8,  1859,  to  A.  Ralston,  of  Pennsylvania,  a  patent  was  issued  on 
device  for  assisting  attendant  to  bind  with  straw.  It  had  a  "shocking  car- 
riage' '  attached,  in  which  a  shock  was  formed  and  dropped  upon  the  ground 
through  its  bottom.  To  J.  D.  Osborn,  of  Michigan,  June  14,  a  patent  was 
issued  for  a  twine-binder,  of  which  the  claim  is  as  follows:  "A  binding 
knot  composed  of  three  loops  passed  through  each  other,  when  said  passing 
of  the  loops  through  each  other  is  affected  by  machinery  driven  or  moved 
from  any  of  the  moving  parts  of  a  harvesting  machine,  and  whether  ac- 
complished by  the  means  herein  stated  or  by  their  substantial  equivalents. ' ' 
The  cord  or  twine  was  taken  from  a  reel.  To  F.  Meyer,  of  Illinois,  Aug. 
2,  a  patent  was  issued  for  a  very  ingenious  and  complicated  series  of  devices 
by  which  a  straw  rope  band  was  twisted  from  the  butt  of  the  gavel  and 
wound  around  the  latter  while  being  turned  or  rotated  for  the  purpose.  To 
C.  H.  McAller,  of  Wisconsin,  Aug.  16,  a  patent  was  issued  for  devices  to  aid 
attendant  in  binding  with  straw  by  hand,  and  Oct.  11,  to  J.  McAller  for  im- 
provements on  the  same.     To  C.  H.  Durkee,  of  Wisconsin,  Nov.  22,  a  patent 


AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 


6S 


M'PHITRIDGE  PATENT,  1856,  FIRST  WIRE 
BINDER. 


LOCKE'S    WIRE    BINDER,    18T3. 


burson's  wire  binder,  1861,  attached  to 

A    reaper. 


JAS    F   GORDONS     CRA\E      LINDER,  187:) 


JOHN  H.  GORDON'S  "PACKER"    BINDER,  18'3. 


"i^  aAIKRICAN  agricultur.\l  implkmexts. 

was  issued  for  mechanism  arranged  to  assist  attendant  in  binding  with    straw 
bands,  cut  and  prepared. 

In  1860,  May  22,  a  patent  was  issued  to  D.  W.  Avers,  of  Illinois,  for  a 
wire-binder,  having  a  rotating  arm,  twisting  device,  cutter  and  holder,  ''all 
the  parts  working  automatically  by  the  turning  of  a  shaft,  and  a  gavel  bound 
at  each  revolution  of  the  shaft."  To  H.  Kaller,  of  Illinois,  June  o,  a  patent 
was  issued  for  a  wire-binder  with  a  vibrating  curved  arm,  and  means  for 
cutting  and  twisting  the  wire;  and  to  A.  B.  Smith,  of  Penn.sylvania,  June 
19,  for  cord-binder,  the  chief  feature  bein.y^  its  compressing  arms,  working 
independently  of  the  cord  arm,  etc.  June  2(j,  W.  W.  Burson,  of  H'inois, 
obtained  his  first  patent.  This  was  for  a  twine-binder,  to  be  used  upon  any 
reaper  and  to  be  operated  by  an  attendant.  It  tied  a  knot  in  the  cord  by 
means  of  hooks  working  together.  July  10  a  patent  was  granted  to  J. 
Courser,  of  Illinois,  for  an  automatic  knot-tying  device  for  taking  twine 
from  a  reel;  on  the  17th  of  the  same  month,  to  J.  S.  Hickey, of  Illinois,  for  a 
binder  to  be  operated  by  hand,  and  to  Chas.  Mar.ston,  of  Wisconsin,  Aug. 
14, for  a  very  cumbrous  and  complicated  machine  for  binding  and  shocking, 
and  devices  to  aid  attendants  riding  to  bind  with  straw  braid.  It  will  be  noted 
that  all  but  two  of  the  binder  patents  of  18G0  were  issued  to  citizens  of  Illi- 
nois, and  one  of  these  hardly  belongs  to  this  class. 

In  IS61,  Feb.  12,  a  patent  was  issued  to  S.  Reynolds,  of  Rhode  Island, 
for  a  wire-binder,  with  arm,  twister  and  cutter,  operating  automatically; 
to  L.  P.  Harris,  of  Ohio,  Feb.  26,  for  another  wire-binder,  which  discovers 
nothing  new.  W.  W.  Burson,  then  of  Yates,  but  now  of  Rockford,  111., 
took  out  a  patent  on  the  same  date,  Feb.  26,  1861.  This  was  for  his  wire- 
binder;  and  it  was  the  foundation  of  a  machine  that  made  more  stir,  and 
came  nearer  to  practical  success  and  public  approval  than  any  other  of  the 
various  binders  belonging  to  the  I'rst  era.  It  was  constructed  as  an  attach- 
ment to  the  ordinar}'  reaper.  As  the  gavels  were  raked  into  the  bincier,  an 
attendant  sitting  beside  it  turned  a  crank  giving  the  necessary  movements 
for  binding  the  bundles.  Other  patents  for  improvements  were  issued  to 
him  as  follows:  To  H.  M.  and  W.  W.  Burson,  March  3,  1863;  to  W.  W. 
Burson,  Aug.  11,  1863;  also  Oct.  4,  1864,  and  July  25,  1865,  the  two  latter 
patents  covering  devices  for  adapting  his  binder  to  the  use  of  twine.  Bur- 
son's  first  binder,  built  in  1859,  patented  June  26,  ISCO,  and  mentioned  be- 
fore, bound  with  twine,  but  as  that  material  was  not  easily  obtained  he 
turned  his  attention  to  wire.  He  had  two  wire-binders  at  work  in  the  har- 
vest of  1860.  The  next  year  some  twenty-five  of  them  were  built  at  Musca- 
tine, Iowa,  for  attachment  to  the  John  H.  Manny  reaper,  and  were  worked 
in  the  harvest  from  Vandalia,  111.,  northward  as  far  as  Red  Wing,  Minn., 
several  being  sold  to  farmers.  In  1862  about  fifty  more  were  made.  One  of 
them  was  at  the  great  reaper  trial  at  Dixon,  111.,  that  \ear.  It  made  a  de- 
cided sensation,  and  notices  of  its  work  appeared  in  many  newspapers  of 
the  time.  As  said  by  the  Chicago  Tribune:  "The  great  feature  of  the  day, 
which  never  failed  to  draw  the  crowd,  was  the  grain  binder  of  W  W.  Bur- 
son; " and  hy  the Fanneis''  Advocate:  "Burson  truly  had  an  ovation  that  must 
have  been  gratifying  to  him."  It  was  used  on  a  John  H.  INIanny  six-foot- 
cut  reaper,  made  by  Talcott,  Emerson  &  Co.,  of  Rockford,  111.     Burson  ar- 


AMERICAN   AGiaCULTLRAL    IMPLKMEXTS.  71 

ranged  with  this  firm  to  build  for  him  1,100  of  his  binders  for  18B3.  These 
were  good  machines  and  worked  well,  but  the  prejudice  against  wire  and  its 
cost  at  war  prices  operated  against  them.  The}-  were  mosth-  sold,  however, 
and  used  for  many  years  thereafter;  but  a  profitable  market  could  not  be 
established  for  them,  so  their  manufacture  was  discontinued.  Yielding  to 
the  objections  against  wnre,  he  turned  again  to  twine-inventing  and  sub- 
stituted a  knotter  in  place  of  his  wire  twister,  and  he  had  this  in  success- 
ful operation  in  I860.  During  the  winter  following  Mr.  Emerson  went  to 
even,'  twine  factory  in  the  United  States,  and  to  agents  of  foreign  manufact- 
urers of  twine,  to  find  or  to  get  made  what  should  be  sufficiently  cheap  and 
also  strong  enough  for  practical  use  as  material  for  binding  Nothing  then 
could  be  produced,  on  account  of  war  prices  and  crude  machinerv,  that 
would  answer  the  purpose.  Still  determined  to  succeed,  Talcott,  Emerson 
&  Co.  imported  machinery  and  began  manufacturing  twine,  but  their  fac- 
tory burned  up  soon  after,  and  they  discontinued  further  efforts.  At  this 
time,  too,  the  Marsh  harvester  was  rapidly  gaining  favor,  and  on  the  score 
of  economy  was  a  successful  competitor  against  any  sort  of  binder,  no  mat- 
ter what  kind  of  material  might  then  be  used  on  the  latter.  Mr.  Burson 
says  that  he  got  on  a  Marsh  harvester  cutting  rye  in  1866,  and  bound  two 
rounds  alone,  at  first  trial.  He  decided  there  that  a  binder  had  to  be  made 
fully  automatic,  and  that  material  for  binding  must  be  cheaper  to  enable  a 
self-binder  to  compete  with  the  harvester. 

In  1S61,  Oct.  '19,  to  C.  Alvord,  of  Wisconsin,  a  patent  was  issued  for 
reciprocating  gavel  carriers,  presses,  etc.;  to  C.  Powers  and  P.  Lancaster, 
of  Michigan,  Oct.  29,  for  a  twine-binding  attachment  which  had  considera- 
ble merit,  its  chief  feature  being  a  rotating  head  in  connection  with  a 
swinging  arm.     The  ends  of  the  cord  were  held  by  a  tight  twist. 

In  1862,  April  15,  to  A.  S.  Harding,  of  New  York,  a  patent  was  issued 
for  a  machine  to  rake  and  bind  grain  with  straw  taken  automatically 
from  a  box,  put  around  gavel  and  ends  twisted,  clamps  and  other  devices 
helping  in  the  operation;  to  J.  H.  and  A.  E.  Rodstone,  of  Indiana,  Aug.  19, 
for  rake  and  straw-binding  devices,  and  to  J.  M.  Grosh,  of  Pennsylvania, 
Oct.  28,  for  something  of  the  same  general  character. 

In  1863,  Jan.  13,  to  H.  Palmer,  of  New  York,  a  patent  was  granted  for 
an  automatic  twine-binder.  The  grain  was  drawn  from  a  slotted  platform 
by  a  reciprocating  rake,  when  it  was  caught  by  a  cradle  and  delivered  to 
hooks,  clamped  and  bound  by  a  series  of  operations  and  devices.  To  R.  D. 
Brown,  of  Indiana,  April  7,  a  patent  was  issued  for  a  complicated  machine 
which,  in  addition  to  binding  the  sheaves,  deposited  them  in  bunches  on 
the  ground,  and  had  a  device  for  counting  the  number  thus  dropped;  to  \V. 
H.  Harrah  and  H.  P.  Jones,  of  Iowa,  June  30,  for  a  wire-binding  attach- 
ment operated  by  an  attendant;  to  J.  Judevine  and  Z.  Shaw,  of  Wisconsin, 
July  14,  for  a  similar  wire-binding  attachment;  to  A.  B.  Smith,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, July  28,  for  improvements  on  his  twine-binder,  first  patented  June 
19,  1860;  to  A.  Under^NOod,  of  Wisconsin,  Aug.  11,  for  a  very  ingenious  au- 
tomatic twine-binding  attachment,  which  was  constructed  on  its  own  plat- 
form, taking  the  place  of  the  reaper  platform  when  attached,  and  forming 
thus  a  complete  machine  (the  cord  was  twisted  and  then  tied,  and  an  auto- 


72  AMKUICAN   AGRICri.TURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 

matic  fork  discharj^ed  the  ])undles);  to  W.  I).  Harrali,  of  Iowa,  Dec.  22,  for 
a  novel  bindinj^  mechanisni,  the  gavel  of  grain  being  pressed  endwise  into 
a  compressing  tube  on  which  were  prepared  endless  bands,  one  of  which 
was  slipped  over  the  sheaf  as  it  passed  out  of  the  tube,  the  expansion  of  the 
bundle  tightening  the  band  around  it. 

In  1804,  Jan.  2(),  S.  T.  Holly  took  out  two  patents  on  binder.  Jacob 
Behel,  then  of  Earlville,  now  of  Rockford,  111.,  Feb.  1(>,  obtained  a  patent 
for  one  of  the  most  important  inventions  ever  made  on  binders,  viz.;  the 
knotting  bill  and  turning  cord  holder.  The  bill,  which  was  .substantially 
like  all  in  use  now,  seized  the  portions  of  the  cord  which  were  to  form  the 
knot,  and  looping  the  .same,  moved  l)ack  past  the  knife,  which  .severed  the  cord 
at  the  proper  point,  leaving  the  end  of  the  cord  from  the  reel  (or  ball)  firmly 
held  by  the  turning  cord  wheel.  Mr.  Behel,  in  connection  with  W.  Hedges, 
took  out  another  patent  Sept.  0,  which  has,  among  various  claims,  one  for 
an  adjustable  cord  guide  located  between  reel  (or  ball)  and  binding  arm; 
and  his  patent  of  Sept.  19,  1865,  claims  a  friction  apparatus,  swinging  frame 
and  cord  guides,  for  the  cord  as  taken  from  the  .spool  (or  ball),  akso  the  com- 
bination of  tying  bill  and  moving  knife.  Mr.  Behel  was  a  meritorious  in- 
ventor, but  unfortunately  he  was  too  earlj';  for  when  the  time  came  for  all 
the  world  to  u.se  his  inventions  his  patents  had  nearly  all  expired.  To  S. 
J.  Wallace,  of  Illinois,  April  12,  1804,  a  patent  for  a  wire-binder  was  issued 
having  several  ingenious  and  important  features— a  rack  for  giving  motion 
to  twister,  etc. — but  it  is  too  long  and  complicated  to  describe.  T.  T.  Curtis, 
of  Michigan,  May  3,  patented  a  machine  that  combined  a  self  rake,  binder 
and  .shocker.  During  the  balance  of  the  year  no  binder  patents  were  is.sued 
except  those  to  Burson  and  Behel,  already  mentioned. 

This  brings  us  down  to  the  year  1805  on  all  the  binder  patents  issued 
previously,  and  here  we  may  stop  taking  them  in  course,  for  lack  of  time 
and  room,  and  because  also  here  ended,  with  Burson's  final  effort,  all  hope 
on  the  part  of  practical  men,  of  establishing  a  marketable  self-binder  with 
conditions  as  they  were,  i  e.,  with  material  for  binding  so  dear;  with  the 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  making  any  binder  work  in  connection  with  a 
reaper  or  on  the  "low-down  "  principle;  and  with  the  Marsh  harvester  on 
the  market  then  as  a  successful  competitor  on  the  score  of  economy  against 
any  binder,  no  matter  how  thoroughly  practical  in  operation  it  might  have 
been.  It  is  somewhat  remarkable,  too,  that  the  Marsh  harvester,  which  at 
that  time  repidsed  binders,  should  be  the  verj'  machine  which  a  few  j-ears 
after  invited  them  on. 

"The  first  clear  idea  of  an  automatic  binder  as  an  attachment  to  our  har- 
vester," says  Mr.  Marsh,  "I  got  in  July,  1870,  in  this  manner:  I  was  then 
operating  one  of  the  machines,  which  we  had  sold  to  the  government,  at 
Ungarisch,  Altenburg,  Hungary,  upon  the  farms  connected  with  the  Agri- 
cultural College.  Prince  or  Archduke  Nicholas,  of  Wiirtemberg,  was  stop- 
ping there  at  the  time  and  became  very  much  interested  in  the  trials  of 
machines  then  in  progress  One  afternoon,  after  he  had  followed  the  har 
vester  around  several  times,  watching  the  operation  of  machines  and  bind- 
ers, as  he  had  frequently  done  before,  he  asked  me  to  have  them  stop  at  the 
end  furthest  from  the  crowd  (which,  by  the  way,  v/as  not  allowed  to  follow). 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL    IMPLEMENTS.  73 

He  fhen  said  that  such  men  as  they  had  in  Europe  would  never  bind  by 
hand  successfully,  but  that  an  automatic  binder  should  be  put  in  their  place. 
Evidently  he  had  been  studying  the  subject,  for  he  explained  quite  in  detail 
his  plan — the  location  and  movement  of  the  binder,  which  was  to  use  wire; 
in  short,  he  gave  me  the  general  outline,  which  several  years  after  I  saw  in 
•Gordon's  "crane  "  binder;  and  he  asked  me  to  remain  over  and  help  him, 
with  such  good  mechanics  as  we  could  get  at  the  institute,  to  produce  a 
binder  for  the  following  season.  I  had  no  idea,  then,  of  the  importance  of 
his  suggestion,  and  gave  it  scarcely  a  thought,  except  to  wonder  at  his  in- 
ventive disposition  and  I  never  heard  further  of  him." 

There  were  several  binder  patents  granted  during  the  year  ISGo,  but 
none  of  them  represented  successful  inventors  or  machines,  except  two 
issued  Dec.  19,  to  S.  D.  Locke,  of  Janesville,  Wis.,  one  covering  a  compress- 
ing device,  the  other  his  rotating  hook  twister.  Locke  sslxs  he  began  in 
18(51  to  build  a  binder  which,  after  nearly  completing,  he  abandoned,  to 
commence  on  one  of  another  style  or  plan.  From  this  commencement  to 
1869  he  was  engaged  in  efforts  to  adapt  binders  to  reapers,  working  on  differ- 
ent plans  and  taking  out  various  patents.  In  the  spring  of  1869  he  arranged 
with  Walter  A.  Wood  &  Co.,  of  Hoosick  Falls,  N.  Y.,  and  went  there.  He 
tried  first  to  fit  his  binder  to  the  Wood  self-raker;  but  gave  that  up  and  then 
put  one  on  a  heading  machine,  operating  it  with  fair  success  in  1870.  The 
company  built  several  for  these  headers  the  next  year.  In  1872  he  attached 
one,  as  he  says,  to  "  a  har^-ester  of  the  modern  or  Marsh  type."  They  built 
five  on  this  plan  in  1873,  of  which  four  were  used  for  that  har\-est.  Next 
year  a  few  more  were  built  and  the  next  three  hundred,  and  after  that  the}- 
w'ere  put  upon  the  market  iu  large  numbers  by  the  Wood  company,  up  to 
1880,  inclusive. 

Mr.  Locke  took  out  patents  too  numerous  to  mention.  He  claims  to 
be  the  first  man  to  build  an  automatic  binder  as  a  distinct  and  separate  ma- 
chine for  attachment  to  a  harvester,  and  Walter  A.  Wood  &  Co.  were  the 
first  to  build  and  put  regularh-  upon  the  market  successful  automatic  bind- 
ing machines.  While  it  is  probably  true  that  Mr.  Locke  was  the  first  in- 
ventor of  binders  on  record  who  made  a  final  success,  and  that  success  began 
Avith  the  adaptation  of  his  binder  to  the  Marsh  harvester  in  1872,  yet  to  S. 
D.  Carpenter,  of  Carthage,  Mo.,  then  of  Madison,  Wis.,  probably  belongs 
the  credit  of  the  first  attempt  of  the  kind.  Carpenter  seems  to  have  been 
the  first  to  discover  this  necessity  to  binders:  the  elevation  and  then  down- 
ward delivery  of  the  flowing  stream.  He  began  his  binder  work  back  in 
1861  or  1862,  in  the  usual  way  for  attachment  to  reapers;  and  although  there 
is  some  dispute  or  discrepancy  as  to  dates,  he  certainly  had  a  binder  on  a 
IMarsh  harvester  as  early  as  1867.  His  machine  c  eated  considerable  of  a 
sensation,  was  successfully  exhibited  and  a  number  experimentalh*  built, 
but  they  did  not  get  it  upon  the  market. 

In  the  long  list  of  meritorious  inventors  the  name  of  James  F.  Gordon, 
•of  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  and  of  his  brother,  John  H.  Gordon,  should  stand  out 
prominently  on  account  of  their  valuable  work  and  their  persistent  efforts. 
James  F.  began  inventing  in  this  line  as  early  as  1862  and  had  a  full-sized 
machine  in  1*>64.     He  continued  his  experiments  under  adverse  conditions 


74  ami;rican  agriclxtural  implements. 

— lack  of  means,  and  other  disadvantages — getting  a  second  machine  built 
in  Kalamazoo,  Mich.,  in  1867,  and  another  in  Rochester,  N.  Y. ,  in  1868, 
which  was  successfully  operated  near  that  city  and  elsewhere  during  har- 
vest. May  12,  of  that  year,  his  first  patent  was  issued.  Meantime  he  had 
been  compelled  to  dispose  of  interests  in  his  inventions  to  provide  funds 
for  this  development.  He  built  several  for  the  next  season  which  were  used 
in  the  field,  and  exhibited  at  fairs — but  success  was  not  assured  until  1871, 
when  he  procured  a  Marsh  harvester  and  attached  his  binder  thereto,  with 
which  new  combination  he  did  good  work  that  harvest.  He  continued  on 
this  last  plan,  assisted  by  his  brother,  John  H.,  through  1872  and  1873 
building,  perfecting  and  exhibiting  their  binders  as  attached  to  harvesters. 
Aug.  27,  1872,  he  obtained  a  patent  on  the  improved  machine,  and  June  16, 
1874,  on  another.  On  account  of  peculiar  construction  one  of  these  early 
binders  was  designated  the  "gaveller"  and  the  other  as  the  "recipro- 
cator. ' ' 

John  H.  Gordon,  then  living  at  Kalamazoo,  Mich.,  built  his  first 
"  packer  "  binder  during  the  fall  of  1873,  and  prior  to  the  next  harvest  three 
were  completed  for  the  market.  He  bought  three  Marsh  harvesters  upon 
which  to  place  them.  One  of  the  machines  thus  combined  he  sold  to  Ed. 
McElroy,  living  near  Kalamazoo,  for  $'M)0  cash.  This  is  believed  to  be 
the  first  cash  sale  of  an  automatic  binder  on  record.  It  did  excellent  work 
and  bound  about  one  hundred  acres.  Gammon,  Deering  &  vStewart  became 
interested  in  Gordon  binders  in  1873  and  in  1874  began  putting  them  on 
the  market.  J.  F.  Gordon  produced  soon  after  what  was  known  as  his 
"crane"  binder,  which  was  built  largely  by  Gammon,  Deering  &  Steward. 
D.  M.  Osborne  &  Co.  also  built  this,  taking  license  from  both  the  brothers 
on  their  machines;  and  D.  M.  Osborne  afterward  bought  an  interest  in  their 
patents.  J.  H.  Gordon  next  invented  his  "crank  and  guide-arm,"  or  the 
Buckej'e  wire-binder— so  called  after  this  concern  took  license  and  began 
building.  This  was  in  1878.  The  next  year  Walter  A.  Wood  &  Co.  took  a 
license  on  this  last  machine,  as  improved,  and  made  a  couple  of  hundred 
before  they  changed  to  tv^ine.  Having  thus  brought  their  several  wire- 
binders  to  a  high  state  of  perfection  (and  it  is  a  sti iking  peculiarity  that 
all  worked  well  from  the  start)  with  several  of  the  la'  '^e.st  manufacturers  as 
their  licensees,  building  thousands  annually,  the  v  (  rid  seemed  fairly  in 
their  grasp,  w-hen  suddenly  the  twine  binders  surged  to  the  front  and  cap- 
tured the  whole  trade. 

Along  in  the  early  part  of  the  "seventies"  several  ingenious  binding 
machines  were  patented  by  various  inventors.  W.  H.  Payne  began  them 
and  continued  thereafter  \\ith  varying  .success,  until  the  Appleby  swept 
him  and  others  out  of  the  market.  It  is  said  that  he  was  the  first  to  use  a 
bundle  carrier  with  a  binder.  There  were  Spaulding,  with  his  measuring 
or  trip  device;  Baila.  Chapman  and  Fowler,  with  his  ingenious  mechanism 
for  stitching  a  band  around  and  into  a  bundle.  Keller  and  Storle  did  good 
work,  and  so  did  Travis  and  J.  F.  Steward  later.  John  H.  Whitney  patented 
his  binder,  low-down,  in  1870  and  1872,  and  was  making  rapid  strides  toward 
success;  but  his  fire  was  too  intense  and  he  soon  burned  out,  dying  ia 
1872. 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


75 


THE  APPLEBY     "STA^'DAKD"   BINDER,    AS   FIRST    PUT  ON   THE   MARKET. 


BEHEL'S   tying    bill — FORMING    THE   KNOT. 


76  AMERICAN    AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 

Geo.  Draper,  of  Mazomanie,  Wis.,  an  Englishman  by  birth,  but  forty 
years  in  this  country,  while  an  invalid,  invented  and  had  built  in  1870  and 
1871,  a  very  ingenious  binder,  applying  it  to  the  Kirby  reaper.  It  is  said 
that  it  was  a  very  creditable  effort,  and  that  among  other  practical  devices 
it  had  an  automatic  trip  lever  for  starting  the  binding  mechanism  under 
pressure  from  the  grain.  Ill  health  and  lack  of  means  prevented  the  full 
development  of  his  ideas. 

So  much  misfortune  had  all  along  befallen  these  various  efibrts  to  at- 
tach binders  to  reapers,  that  the  attention  of  inventors  about  that  time 
became  directed  to  another  method  of  gathering  and  binding  the  grain, 
resulting  in  the  peculiar  machine  called  the  "gleaner,"  which  is  a  binder 
attached  to  a  raking  device  for  gathering  gavels,  deposited  on  the  ground, 
from  a  reaper,  and  binding  them.  A  patent  was  granted  to  M.  T.  Ridout, 
Nov.  14,  1871,  for  the  first  gleaner.  Other  patents  were  issued  on  this  style 
of  machine  to  J.  A.  Scott  in  1873,  Leuz  and  Wittker  in  1874,  and  afterwards 
to  R.  Eickmeyer,  M.  G.  Hubbard,  Samuel  Johnson,  W.  N.  Whitely  and 
others.  Many  of  them  were  built  and  used  successfully,  especially  in  the 
eastern  and  middle  states. 

Had  Marquis  L.  Gorham,  of  Rockford,  111.,  lived  to  complete  his  work, 
it  is  altogether  probable  that  his  name  would  have  been  amongthe  fir.st  of  the 
successful  inventors  of  twine-binders.  He  began  on  his  binder  in  1873  and 
had  it  done  for  the  harvest  of  1874.  He  attached  it  to  an  "altered  over  Marsh 
harvester."  This  machine  did  good  work  in  the  har\-est  of  1874,  cutting  and 
binding  many  acres.  Mr.  Gorham  obtained  patents  on  it  Feb.  9,  and  March  16, 
1875.  He  continued  his  experiments,  making  improvements  and  applying  for 
patents  thereon,  until  sickness  intervened,  and  finally  death  in  the  fall  of  1870 
brought  to  rest  his  overtaxed  body  and  brain.  Some  efforts  were  made  to 
finish  his  work,  btit  the  master  spirit  was  no  longer  present  to  guide  it  to 
successful  completion,  and  it  was  not  pushed  forward  with  sufficient  prompt- 
itude to  obtain  a  place  before  the  Appleby  had  captured  the  market  on  this 
style  of  machine.  Mr.  Gorham  was  a  brilliant  inventor,  quick  in  percep- 
tion, rapid  in  execution,  and  practical  always.  He  added  much  to  the  per- 
fection of  farm  implements.  His  seeders,  cultivators,  etc.,  are  well  known 
all  over  the  western  country. 

The  St.  Paul  Harvester  Works,  of  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  did  a  large  amount 
of  pioneer  work.  They  were  among  the  first  to  build,  exhibit  and  put  upon 
the  market  modern  cord-binders,  under  the  EHward  and  Levalley  patents. 
The  binder  operated  fairly  well,  and  they  were  gaining  ground  with  it,  un- 
til the  Appleby  and  Holmes  stepped  in  before  and  demolished  them. 

Chas.  B.  Withington,  of  Janesville,  Wis.,  patented  Feb.  20,  1872,  and 
May  19,  1874,  one  of  the  best  and  most  successful  wire-binders  ever  put  in  the 
field,  as  attached  to  the  Marsh  harvester  manufactured  by  C.  H.  and  L.  J. 
McCormick  &  Co.  This  binder  differed  essentially  from  the  Gordon  and 
other  wire-binders,  in  its  chain  movement,  in  carrying  two  spools  of  wire 
from  which  the  bands  were  formed,  and  in  other  operating  devices.  In 
1874,  or  early  in  1875,  Withington  sold  a  half  interest  in  his  patents  to  the 
McCormicks  and  made  general  arrangements  with  them  for  the  develop- 
ment and  manufacture  of  his  machines.     They  built  three  or  four  experi- 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAI,  IMPLEMENTS.  77 

mental  binders  for  1875;  thirty  or  forty  in  1876.  and  in  1877  they  were  put 
regularly  upon  the  market,  where  they  held  a  foremost  place  until  1881, 
when  the  McCormicks  began  building  the  Appleby. 

No  name  is  so  well  known  among  persons  interested  in  harvesting  ma- 
chines as  that  of  John  F.  Appleby,  and  no  machine  ever  swept  over  the 
world  with  such  overwhelming  rapidity— once  it  got  started — as  the  twine- 
binder  designated  the  "Appleby."  This  success  was  not  due  to  the  new- 
ness of  the  devices  applied,  nor  to  the  surpassing  character  of  Mr.  Appleby's 
genius,  although  he  has  been,  a  persistent  and  clear-headed  inventor;  but  it 
would  seem  that  the  ingenuity  of  a  number  of  inventors,  running  in  the 
same  direction,  had  become  massed  or  dammed  before  certain  common  ob- 
structions, beyond  which  they  could  not  flow;  and  it  was  reserved  for  him 
to  combine  in  his  binder — built  upon  the  Marsh  harvester — the  most  prac- 
tical of  these  principles,  directing  the  best  efforts  into  one  channel;  and 
b^^  devices  of  his  own  to  remove  the  obstructions,  thus  opening  the  way 
for  the  flood  that  followed. 

In  the  fall  of  1881  W.  N.  Whitely,  then  the  head  of  the  Champion  in- 
terest at  Springfield,  Ohio,  who  had  been  experimenting  largely  with  low- 
down  and  other  binders  since  1875,  bought  the  interest  of  Appleby  and  his 
assignees  in  his  many  patents.  Others  had  obtained  licenses  or  shop  rights, 
or  arranged  with  Whitely  therefor.  So  from  that'  time  and  onward  the 
twenty  odd  manufacturers  of  the  United  States  have  been  running  substan- 
tially in  one  groove,  building  the  Appleby  type  of  binders  upon  the  Marsh 
type  of  hai-\^esters,  each  applying  special  or  distinctive  devices  in  accord- 
ance with  his  bent,  the  Holmes  binder  only,  built  by  the  Walter  A.  Wood 
company,  differing  from  the  others  in  .some  of  its  principles.  Mr.  Holmes, 
the  inventor,  began  experimenting  in  this  direction  as  long  ago  as  1S68, 
it  is  said.  He  was  poor,  and  struggled  along  as  best  he  could,  until 
1879  when  the  Wood  company  gave  him  assistance.  His  patent  was  granted 
Dec.  3,  1878. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

Mowers. 


MAKING  hay— cutting  and  drying  grass  for  fodder — was  a  familiar  duty 
among  ancient  stock  raisers.  The  process  is  frequently  alluded  to  in 
the  Bible,  but  the  uses  of  hay  are  now  nearly  or  quite  forgotten  in  Pales- 
tine, straw  and  chaff  having  long  ago  supplied  its  place  for  fodder.  From 
primitive  times  down  to  the  present  there  has  been  no  material  change  in 
the  process  of  manual  mowing.  The  scythe  of  the  pre-historic  Lacustrine 
inhabitant  of  Switzerland  was  curved,  and  was  attached  to  a  handle,  form- 
ing an  implement  substantially  the  same  as  we  now  use,  and  that  likewise, 
when  swung  into  the  grass  or  grain,  described  the  segment  of  a  circle  in 
cutting;  and  so  does  the  sickle.  It  was  this  natural  primitive  movement 
that  the  first  constructors  of  both  reapers  and  mowers  tried  to  imitate  or 
reproduce  in  their  machines,  and  early  American  inventors  of  mowers  per- 
sistentl}^  endeavored  to  make  practically  operative  this  original  principle. 
Indeed,  it  was  many  years  before  the  rotary  or  scythe-curve  theorj-  of  cut- 
ting was  abandoned. 

The  idea  of  mowing  grass  by  horse  power  was  conceived  in  America, 
and  the  first  patent  ostensibly  covering  a  machine  of  that  character  was 
granted  to  Peter  Gaillard,  of  Lancaster,  Pa.,  Dec.  4,  1812;  so,  according  to 
the  record,  he  was  the  first  inventor  in  this  line.  Previous  to  the  date  of 
this  patent  several  crude  reaping  machines  had  been  produced  in  England, 
but  none  of  them  had  passed  the  experimental  stage  or  been  put  up  in  prac- 
tical form,  and  all  were  intended,  as  their  construction  and  descriptions 
indicate,  for  cutting  grain  and  not  grass.  The  credit  for  the  conception, 
therefore,  of  mowing  grass  with  a  machine  propelled  by  other  than  man 
power  belongs  to  an  American  inventor,  although,  because  reapers  and 
mowers  are  usuall}'  classified  together,  writers  on  this  subject  speak  of  these 
old  English  reapers  as  mowing  and  reaping  machines. 

Jeremiah  Bailey,  of  Chester  county,  Pa.,  Feb.  13,  1822,  patented  a 
mower  or  grass-cutting  machine  which  made  considerable  stir  at  the  time, 
in  England  as  well  as  in  this  country.  The  Mechanic's  Magazine  (British), 
1823,  describes  it  as  follows:  "The  mowing  machine  of  which  the  above  cut 
is  a  representation  was  invented  by  Jeremiah  Bailey,  of  Chester  county, 
United  States,  who  has  obtained  a  patent  for  the  same.  It  has  been  exten- 
sively used  and  approved  of  during  the  last  season  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  patentee,  and  promises  to  be  of  great  public  utility.  It  is  understood 
that  it  will  mow  ten  acres  per  day.  The  following  description  will  explain 
its  operation  and  show  the  skill  and  ingenuity  of  the  inventor: 

"This  machine  is  supported  by  two  wheels  on  different  axles.  The  left 
wdieel  is  fixed  to  its  axle,  so  that  they  revolve  together.     The  right  revolves 


■-MERICAX    AGRICULTIRAL   IMPLEMENTS.  79 

on  its  axle  like  a  common  cart  wheel,  and  is  placed  about  a  foot  further 
back  than  the  other.  The  left  works  within  the  frame,  and  has  a  circle  of 
cogs  screwed  on  the  outside  of  the  felloes,  but  of  a  less  diameter,  to  keep 
them  from  the  ground.  These  cogs  work  into  a  vertical  cog  wheel  in  front 
that  turns  an  iron  shaft  extending  horizontally  toward  the  center  of  the  ma- 
chine; upon  the  inner  end  of  this  shaft  is  fixed  a  vertical  face  wheel,  whose 
cogs  turn  a  trundle-head  on  a  vertical  shaft.  To  the  bottom  of  this  shaft, 
near  the  ground,  is  fixed  a  circular  horizontal  framework,  on  the  circumfer- 
ence of  which  is  screvped  the  scj'thes  in  six  parts,  laid  horizontally,  with  the 
edges  turned  outward,  so  as  to  form  a  complete  circle.  To  keep  the  scythes 
at  a  proper  distance  from  the  ground  the  bottom  of  the  shaft  is  supported 
on  a  piece  of  wood  of  the  machine,  secured  by  a  tye  from  the  tail,  somewhat 
resembling  a  sled  runner,  in  which  it  works  in  the  manner  of  a  gudgeon; 
with  the  inequalities  of  the  ground  the  scythe  frame  shaft  and  trundle-head 
rise  and  fall.  The  edge  of  the  scythe,  in  its  revolution,  passes  under  a 
whetstone  fixed  on  an  axis,  and  revolving  with  the  scythe.  To  create  fric- 
tion this  axis  is  more  or  less  inclined  to  the  line  of  the  direction  of  the  revo- 
lution, according  to  the  friction  required.  This  stone,  by  means  of  a  sliding 
rod  by  which  it  is  attached  to  the  machine,  rises  and  falls  with  the  scythes. 

*  *  *  The  horse  is  put  into  shafts  and  walks  in  front  of  the  left  side  of 
the  machine,  and  always  on  the  mowed  ground  after  the  first  swath  is  cut 

*  *  *  The  grass  as  it  is  cut  is  first  thrown  by  the  progressive  motion 
against  a  rise  in  the  scythe  frame  toward  the  center,  and  by  the  same  motion 
is  afterward  thrown  off  in  a  regular  row,  following  the  center  of  the  machine. ' ' 

The  next  patent  was  granted  July  3,  1824,  to  John  A.  Wadsworth,  Ports- 
mouth, R.  I.,  for  a  horse  scythe.  May  18,  1825,  E.  Cope  and  J.  Hoopes. 
Jr.,  of  Chester  Count)',  Pa.,  received  a  patent  on  a  mowing  machine  some- 
what similar  in  principle  to  that  of  Jeremiah  Bailey,  described,  but  of  better 
form  and  simpler  construction.  A  letter  written  in  18o4,  by  N.  Cope,  son 
of  E.  Cope,  contained  the  following  regarding  this  mower:  "This  was  a  very 
efficient  machine,  but  was  chiefly  used  for  mowing  grass,  and  it  would  cut 
an  acre  in  thirty  minutes  by  the  watch,  better  than  it  possibly  could  be  done 
by  hand.  I  assisted  to  build  some  twent3--five  or  thirty  of  them  before  I 
came  west,and  I  much  question  whether,  for  the  purpose  of  grass-cutting. 
a  better  or  more  simple  machine  has,  or  ever  will  be,  constructed." 

As  reapers  and  mowers  belong  to  the  same  original  general  class,  '"har- 
vesters," and  have,  as  was  particularly  the  case  at  first,  so  many  features  in 
common,  it  is  somewhat  difficult  at  times  to  draw  the  line  between  them. 
In  many  of  the  older  patents  they  are  described  as  machines  for  reaping  and 
mowing,  having  been  designed  for  both  purposes,  and  in  some  specifications 
they  are  described  first  as  one  and  then  as  the  other  without  distinction  of 
purpose;  so  one  cannot  always  clearly  understand  to  which  division  of 
the  general  class  the  inventor  intended  his  machine,  or  to  which  it  really 
belonged.  Taking  Hussey's  invention  as  an  instance:  Contemporary  and 
later  writers  usually  speak  of  it  as  a  mowing  machine,  while  in  fact  it  was 
essentially  a  reaper,  and  made  its  record  as  such,  although  it  was  designed 
to  both  reap  and  mow,  and  introduced  features  without  which  mowers 
could   not  have   been  made  sufficiently  practical  for  the  general  trade.     In 


80  AMERICAN    AGRICLLTLRAL    IMPLEMENTS. 

the  course  of  later  development  the  lines  become  less  mixed  and  more 
divergent,  until  now  the  distinction  between  mowers  and  reapers  or  har- 
vesting machines  is  plainly  marked.  Mowers,  with  reference  to  the  manner 
in  which  the  power  is  attached,  are  known  as  center-draft  and  side  draft; 
with  reference  to  their  bearing  wheels,  by  which  power  is  communicateil  to 
the  cutting  devices, they  are  one-wheeled  and  two-wheeled;  and  as  to  adjust- 
ment of  the  cutting  devices  are  known  as  rigid-bar  and  hinged-bar.  These 
are  general  distinctions  of  which  there  are  respectively  many  variations. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  distinguishing  the  invention  of  Erastus  Inger- 
soll,  Farmington,  Mich.,  patented  May  7,  1830.  It  was  unquestionably  in- 
tended for  cutting  grass,  with  what  success  one  may  judge  from  the  descrip- 
tion: "Runners  bearing  some  resemblance  to  those  of  a  sleigh  are  framed 
together.  A  roller  extending  across  from  one  of  these  to  the  other  at  the 
back  part  rests  upon  the  ground,  and  revolves  when  the  machine  is  drawn 
forward.  Two  pieces  serving  as  shafts  extend  forward,  being  .secured  by 
proper  framing.  The  mowing  or  cutting  part  is  a  horizontal  wheel  about 
eight  feet  in  diameter,  running  near  to  the  ground,  its  lower  gudgeon  fitted 
in  a  piece  framed  across  the  runners,  and  its  upper  is  one  of  the  .shaft  pieces. 
A  band  from  the  roller  extends  to  a  wheel  on  the  axis  of  this  cutting  wheel 
to  give  it  motion.  The  cutters  are  knives  fitted  on  to  the  periphery  of  the 
wheel  so  as  to  form  a  complete  circle." 

Although  the  next  patent,  to  William  ^Manning,  Plainfield,  N.  J.,  May 
3,  1831,  covered  what  was  designated  a  reaping  machine,  its  cutting  device 
marked  an  important  .step  in  the  development  of  mowers.  Quoting  from 
the  description:  "From  the  axletree  extend  two  arms.  *  «  *  The  two 
arms  are  united  together  b}-  a  cross-bar  at  their  extreme  ends,  which  cross- 
bar when  the  machine  is  in  action  rests  and  slides  forward  on  the  ground. 
Teeth  of  six  or  eight  inches  in  length,  more  or  less,  are  set  like  rake  teeth, 
standing  forsvard  on  the  cross-bar.  These  are  made  slender,  and  are  for  the 
purpose  of  holding  the  grass  or  grain  to  be  cut  *  *  *  a  flat  bar  of  iron 
lies  along  upon  the  cross-bar,  and  the  cutters  are  to  be  attached  to  this  upper 
bar.  The  cutters  are  spear-shaped,  and  are  sharpened  on  each  of  their 
edges.  They  may  vary  in  their  length  and  width,  but  ordinarily  they 
may  be  about  six  inches  long,  and  three  or  four  wide  at  their  bases  The 
grass  or  grain,  which  is  held  up  by  the  teeth,  passes  between  these  knives 
or  cutters."  April  26,  1833,  Richard  Heath,  West  Newbury,  Mass.,  obtained 
a  patent  for  a  mower  similar  in  principle  to  the  Bailey,  and  so,  June  29,  1S33, 
did  Thos  A.  Anderson,  of  McMinn  county,  Tenn.  Both  these  machines 
drove  revolving  scythes  placed  near  the  ground,  and  neither  contained  any- 
thing specially  new  and  valuable  in  the  art. 

When  the  invention  of  Obed  Hussey,  Cincinnati,  O.,  patented  Dec.  31, 
1833,  was  added  to  the  others  that  have  been  mentioned,  the  foundation  of 
reapers  and  mowers  had  become  substantially  laid,  and  thenceforward  the 
erection  of  structures  thereon  and  the  perfection  of  their  details  became 
the  chief  work  of  inventors  in  this  line.  The  main  feature  of  his  invention, 
the  cutting  device,  is  thus  set  forth  by  Mr.  Hussey.  "The  cutting  blades  are 
of  lancet-point  shape,  and  sharp  on  both  sides;  these  are  fixed  side  bj-  side 
on  an  iron  rod,  in  the  position  of  sawteeth,  and  receive  a  vibrating  motion 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAI.    IMPLEMENTS.  81 

from  a  crank  to  which  the  iron  rod  is  attached;  these  blades  project  forward 
from  the  front  edge  of  the  platform  towards  the  grain,  and  play  through  a 
corresponding  row  of  permanent  iron  guards  or  fingers,  which  also  project 
forward  from  the  front  of  the  platform.  As  the  machine  progresses  forward 
the  grain  or  grass  comes  in  between  the  stationarj-  guards  or  fingers  and  is 
cut  off  by  the  vibrating  blades.  *  *  *  The  great  point  in  this  invention 
is  the  double  finger,  in  combination  with  the  vibrating  blades,  each  finger 
being  formed  of  an  upper  and  lower  half,  with  sufi&cient  space  between 
for  the  passage  of  the  blades  through  them.  The  straw  or  grass  to  be  cut 
is  supported  both  above  and  below  the  edges  of  the  blades,  and  is  cut  off  as 
the  blades  pass  through  the  fingers  by  the  revolution  of  the  crank."  In 
this  first  machine  the  upper  part  of  the  guard  came  back  to  the  sickle  beam, 
and  the  result  was  that  grass  or  stubble  drew  in  and  more  or  less  choked 
the  sickle.  Some  years  after,  by  cutting  off  the  rear  end  of  the  upper  por- 
tion of  the  guard  and  leaving  it  open,  so  that  stuff  might  work  back  and 
out — thus  forming  what  has  been  called  the  lip  of  the  guard — Mr.  Hussey 
effectually  remedied  the  difficulty,  and  a  practical  cutting  device  for  har- 
vesting machines,  substantialh-  as  used  to  this  day,  v.-as  produced  Man- 
ning, in  1831,  showed  the  guard-teeth  or  fingers  attached  to  the  beam  over 
which  a  sickle  or  cutter,  similar  to  Hussey's,  was  made  to  vibrate,  but  these 
guards  or  fingers  were  single,  that  is,  no  lip  or  returning  piece  over  the 
sickle  was  pro^■ided,  hence  it  was  not  and  could  not  be  a  practical  cutting 
device  because  it  lacked  the  step  toward  completion  that  I\Ir.  Hussey  took. 
However,  in  the  development  of  this  feature.  Manning — as  an  inventor 
simply — is  entitled  to  as  much  credit  as  Hussey,  for  he  stood  midway  be- 
tween Ogle  and  Hussey,  and  made  full}-  as  long  a  step- as  did  the  latter. 

December  23,  1834,  Enoch  Ambler,  Root,  N.  Y.,  obtained  a  patent  for  a 
machine  to  cut  grain  by  horse  power.  There  seems  to  be  much  difference  of 
opinion  as  to  the  merits  of  Ambler's  invention.  Contemporary  writers  refer 
to  it  rather  contemptuously,  but  an  examination  of  the  cut  of  his  old  finger- 
bar  will  show  that  for  one  of  the  earliest  efforts  it  was  a  long  step  in  the 
direction  of.successful  grain  cutting  by  horse  power. 

The  next  patent  in  this  line  was  granted  to  Abraham  Rundell,  Verona, 
N.  Y. ,  April  22,  1835,  and  covered  a  new  idea  in  cutting.  The  device  con- 
sisted of  two  sickles,  or  cutters,  with  corresponding  points,  to  be  operated 
in  contrary  directions,  thus  making  a  double  shear  cut  with  each  pair  of 
points,  the  whole  operating  like  a  series  of  double-acting  scissors.  This  was 
the  first  of  a  number  of  inventions  and  improvements  upon  the  same  prin- 
ciple made  both  iji  this  country  and  in  England;  and  the  cutting  device  of 
one  of  the  most  successful  mowers  of  its  time,  the  Danford,  was  of  this 
character. 

The  first  patent  of  \Vm.  F.  Ketchum,  Buffalo,  N  Y.,  was  issued  Nov. 
18,  1844.  There  is  nothing  of  special  importance  in  this  first  patent  of  Mr. 
Ketchum's,  but  it  is  worthy  of  notice  because  he  was  the  father  of  the  mower 
trade;  that  is,  he  was  the  first  man  to  put  mowers  successfully  upon  the 
market  distinctively  as  such  and  not  as  combined  with  the  reaper.  The 
chief  claim  and  the  one  relating  to  mowers  in  this  patent  was  as  follows; 
"What  I  claim  as  my  invention  is  the  combination  of  the  driving-wheels 


82  AMERICAN    AGRIClI.TrKAIv   IMPLEMIIXTS 

with  the  cutters,  in  the  manner  described,  by  forniinj^  internal  gear  ou  the 
wheels  and  inclosing  all  the  driving  gear  inside  of  them  by  the  construction 
and  arrangement  aboye  set  forth."  Another  patent  was  granted  to  Ketchum 
March  7,  1846.  It  had  no  bearing  upon  mowers,  but  his  next,  July  10,  1847, 
as  it  furnished  a  new  feature  of  value  to  mowers  and  to  reapers  and  mowers 
combined,  became  quite  important,  especially  as  afterwards  re-issued.  The 
claims  in  the  re-issue  are  as  follows: 

"First.  Placing  the  cutter-bar  and  cutters  lower  than  the  frame  of 
the  machine,  and  opposite  the  side  of  the  plane  of  the  wheel,  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  leave  unobstructed  space  below  the  frame,  and  also  between 
the  wheel  and  the  cutters  with  their  supports,  to  allow  the  machine  to  pass 
freely  and  without  clogging  over  the  cut  grass  or  grain,  as  set  forth. 

"Second.  Placing  the  cutters  lower  than  the  frame  and  axle,  and  in 
or  nearly  in  the  same  vertical  plane  with  the  axle  on  which  the  frame 
hangs  and  vibrates,  and  parallel  or  nearlj-  so  to  said  axle,  so  that  the  vibra- 
tions of  the  frame  on  uneven  ground  shall  not  materially  elevate  or  depress 
the  cutters,  as  herein  set  forth. 

"  Third.  The  endless  chain  of  cutters  in  combination  with  the  guard- 
teeth,  operating  substantially  as  described." 

The  main  feature  of  this  patent  was  the  unobstructed  space  between 
driving-wheel  and  finger-bar  and  its  support.s.  The  endless  band  of  cutters 
did  not  work  satisfactorily,  although  when  the  machine  came  out  it  created 
a  great  flutter  among  reaper  men,  as  its  extreme  simplicity  and  great  possi- 
bilities, if  it  proved  practical,  were  apparent  to  all. 

The  next  name  to  be  noticed  in  the  order  of  mower  development  is  that 
of  Eliakim  B.  Forbush,  who  obtained  a  patent  Nov.  17,  1849.  His  claim  in 
this,  his  first  patent,  is  on  an  open  triangular  tooth,  or  triangular  hollow 
tooth  for  cutting  grass  and  grain,  "the  object  being  to  diminish  friction  in 
vibration  and  to  afford  a  more  perfect  clearance. ' '  Following  Mr.  Forbush 
further  we  find  that  July  20,  1852,  another  patent  was  issued  to  him  em- 
bracing four  claims  relating  to  guard  fingers,  etc.,  also  to  a  pivoted  raking 
arrangement.  This  patent  was  afterwards  assigned  to  Cyrenus  Wheeler, 
Jr.,  and  re-issued  in  several  divisions,  mainly  to  cover  points  pertaining  to 
reaping  machines.  The  Forbush  machines  were  made  in  Buffalo,  X.  Y., 
and  were  put  out  both  as  combined,  and  as  mowers  simph-.  The  machine 
was  quite  similar  to  the  Ketchum,  and  in  consequence  the  firm  manufact- 
uring it — the  Smith  Brothers — were  sued  by  Mr.  Ketchum  for  infringement, 
and  were  forced  to  discontinue  making  it. 

One  of  the  men  engaged  in  constructing  the  Forbush  was  AVilliam  A. 
Kirby;  and  from  witnessing  the  operation  of  that  machine  in  the  field  he 
concluded  to  get  up  one  that  might  avoid  its  defects.  The  first  Kirby  ma- 
chine was  completed  in  ISoo;  and  the  first  patent  was  granted  April  lo,  and 
the  second  Sept.  2,  1856.  The  first  related  to  the  method  of  connecting  the 
guard-fingers  to  the  finger-bar,  and  projecting  rivet  heads  and  spaces  in 
connection  with  the  cutters  and  fingers.  The  second  patent  contained  the 
important  feature  of  pivoting  the  main  driving  and  supporting  wheel  to  an 
arm  which  was  in  turn  hinged  to  the  frame  of  the  machine  concentric  to 
the  first  gear  shaft;  which  arrangement  permitted  the  wheel  to  swing  on  its 


AMERICAN   AGRICn.TrRAT,   TMPT,KMKXTS 


S3 


PREHISTORIC    SCYTHh 


BAILEY'S  MOWER,  lSt2. 


HUSSEY'S    MACHINE,  1833. 


ICETCUUM  S   MOWER,  AS  BUILT 


^Sfn?iT??^ 


FORBCSH  MOWER. 


JOHN  H.  MANNY'S  MACHINE  AS  A  MOWER. 


SY-LLA  &   AD.^MS,    HINGED    BAR,    186^. 


CYRENfS    WHRFLER,    JR  ,  1854. 


84  AMERICAN   AGRICUI/n  RAI.   IMl'I.KMKNTS. 

hinged  connection  with  the  gear  frame,  indept  ndent  of  it  and  the  frame 
and  the  cutting  apparatus  connected  therewith  to  rise  and  fall  independent 
of  the  up-and-down  motions  of  the  road  wheel.  A  seat  for  the  driver  was 
pivoted  to  the  frame  of  the  machine  and  fulcrumed  on  the  axle  and  its  arm, 
so  that  the  weight  of  the  driver  was  added  to  the  wheel  to  give  it  sufficient 
adhesion  to  drive  the  cutters,  and  at  the  same  time  relieve  the  cutting  appa- 
ratus and  frame  from  undue  pressure  on  the  ground  when  used  in  mowing. 
Mr.  Kirby,  from  time  to  time,  improved  and  perfected  his  machine,  which, 
like  the  Ketchum  and  Forbush,  was  one-w-heeled,  with  rigid-bar,  although 
the  latter  had  a  certain  adjustability  as  described.  It  became  by  far  the 
most  .successful  of  the  type.  The  three  started  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  one  seem- 
ing to  grow  out  of  the  other,  and  finally  they  were  more  or  less  merged  or 
consolidated  by  D.  M.  Osborne  &  Co.,  at  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  whose  machines, 
combining  all  the  best  elements  of  these  originals  and  other  improvements, 
soon  became  famous,  principally  as  reapers,  but  also  as  mowers. 

Going  back  to  Sept.  17,  1850,  we  notice  the  patent  granted  to  Ebenezer 
Danford,  with  claim  as  follows:  "The  application  to  a  reaping  and  mowing 
machine  of  two  sickles  working  together  in  opposite  directions,  *  *  * 
so  as  to  throw  the  weight  of  the  moving  part  upon  opposite  sides  of  the 
center  of  the  crank  or  bit,  for  the  purpose  set  forth. "  Mr.  Danford's  ma- 
chine did  not  make  much  of  a  record  as  a  reaper;  but  as  a  mower  it  was 
quite  noted  for  its  excellent  cutting  qualities,  though  the  time  and  care  re- 
quired to  keep  the  sickles  in  good  working  order  proved  a  bar  against  its 
entrance  into  general  favor.  A  considerable  number  of  them  were  made, 
sold  and  satisfactorily  used. 

No  one  of  these  early  machines  made  a  better  reputation  in  its  time 
than  the  combined  reaper  and  mower  of  John  H.  Manny;  and  thirtj'-five 
3-ears  ago  in  the  northwest  as  a  mower  it  was  considered  the  best  of  its  class. 
Manny's  first  patent  was  granted  Sept.  23,  1851,  and  covered  his  triangular 
frame,  which  was  one  of  the  principal  features  of  his  machine  as  a  reaper. 
Nov.  23,  1852,  he  obtained  another  patent  covering  the  combination  of  a 
"track  scraper"  with  drive  wheels;  and  also  the  form  and  construction  of 
guard  fingers  so  as  to  cut  well  and  avoid  clogging.  This  and  other  patents 
were  re-issued  largely  (as  usually  were  important  patents  during  those  early 
years),  but  they  related  to  details  of  construction  rather  than  to  new  princi- 
ples. Manny  was  a  practical  as  well  as  a  prolific  inventor,  and  his  machine 
had  obtained  a  foremost  position  early  in  the  race  when  he  died. 

By  1855  one-wheeled  rigid-bar  mowing  machines  had  become  practical, 
either  in  connection  with  reapers  or  as  mowers  alone.  Concerning  some 
features  it  is  impossible  to  determine  definitely  who  presented  them  first; 
and  others  shade  from  one  into  another  so  finely  that  it  is  difiicult  to  dis- 
tinguish them.  Often  they  comprised  series  of  evolutions  within  the  one 
grand  evolution  by  which  han/esting  machines  have  been  developed  and 
perfected,  and  again  the  first  use  of  a  device  is  not  clearly  shown,  as  in  the 
case  of  "track-clearers."  For  instance  some  of  the  earliest  English  ma- 
chines show  a  separating  and  gathering  away  of  the  cut  from  uncut  stalks. 
In  Hussey's  patent  of  1833  there  is  a  device,  shaped  somewhat  like  the 
mouldboard  of  a  plow,  at  the  grain  end  of  the  bar,  that,  with  platform  re- 


AMP;RICAX   AGRICULTrRAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


85 


E.   BALL,  1856. 


E.    BALL,    1857. 


JOHN   LONG,  1857. 


LEWIS  MILLER,   1858. 


86  AMERICAN    AGRICfLTlRAI.   IMPI.KMKNTS. 

moved,  would  turn  the  swath  away  from  the  standing  grain  or  grass.  It  is 
said  that  Joel  Lupton  put  on  what  was  avowedly  a  track-clearer  in  1841. 
Several  just  mention  them  in  their  claims;  Ketchum  patented  one  in  lSo.3; 
Whitely  another  in  1S')4;  Wheeler  in  18.V),  and  thus  they  were  evolved. 

TWO-WHEELED   MOWERS   WITH    HINGED   BARS. 

Apparently  the  first  conception  of  flexibility  or  automatic  adjustability 
to  the  ground  surface  in  the  cutting  apparatus  was  shown  in  the  mower  of 
Jeremiah  Bailey,  1822.  Hussey's  machine  of  1888  had  its  draft  attachment 
in  front  of  two  driving  wheels;  and  the  frame  behind,  which  bore  the  later- 
ally projecting  finger  bar,  having  been  hinged  to  the  main  axle  and  sup- 
ported in  the  rear  by  a  little  wheel,  could  to  a  certain  extent  accomtnodate 
itself  and  the  cutting  apparatus,  in  the  forward  movement,  to  the  inequali- 
ties of  the  ground  uncontrolled  by  the  passage  over  of  the  driving  wheels. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  practical  flexibility. 

The  next  machine  in  order  that  showed  the  features  which  we  are  trac- 
ing was  never  patented,  but  became  somewhat  famous  for  reference  in  after 
years.  The  following  account  of  it  is  extracted  from  Knight's  "Mechanical 
Dictionary:"  "  Hazard  Knowles,  the  machinist  of  the  Washington  patent 
office,  invented  in  1837  a  reaping  machine  having  a  scalloped  reciprocating 
cutter;  the  cutting  apparatus  jointed  to  a  double  arm,  the  opposite  end  of 
which  was  in  turn  jointed  to  the  main  frame,  coincident  with  the  axis  of 
the  crank-shaft;  both  supporting  wheels  were  drivers  for  the  cutters.  It 
was  a  front-cut  machine,  and  had  a  lever  to  raise  the  cutter-bar  to  clear 
stumps  and  other  obstructions.  A  machine  was  constructed  in  1838,  and  in 
1839  was  purchased  by  Joel  Lupton,  who  rode  upon  the  machine  along  the 
turnpike  to  his  home,  near  Winchester,  Va.  The  machine  was  used  occa- 
sionally during  a  few  of  the  following  years,  but  was  soon  laid  aside,  owing 
to  a  fear  of  the  neighbors  that  it  would  disturb  the  relations  of  labor.  It  was 
afterwards  purchased  by  one  of  the  large  firms  of  reaping  machine  makers 
who  became  involved  in  the  tedious  and  expensive  litigation  which  ensued 
when  the  reaper  became  an  important  article  of  manufacture  and  trade.  This 
machine  is  principally  curious  in  its  anticipation  of  so  many  of  the  impor- 
tant features  of  the  more  useful  machines.  Like  Bell's  machine  in  its  his- 
tory, though  far  superior  to  the  Scotch  machine  in  mechanical  structure  and 
adaptabilit}-,  it  was  a  conception  embodied  in  a  single  machine,  and  became 
an  abandoned  experiment,  to  be  brought  fonvard  when  the  inventions  and 
contests  of  others  gave  it  importance.  It  was  a  machine  of  great  possibil- 
ities, but  the  inventor  failed  to  assert  his  rights.  His  position  in  the  patent 
office  prevented  his  becoming  a  patentee,  and  he  preferred  to  retain  his 
salary  to  embarking  in  the  business  of  making  machines  of  so  novel  a  char- 
acter. About  1863  the  machine  was  brought  forward  in  a  patent  suit.  It 
may  be  presumed  that  it  formed  but  another  in.stance  of  the  rule,  that  a 
single  machine  made  and  practically  hidden  away,  shall  not  be  allowed  to 
defeat  a  patent,  when  a  subsequent  inventor  has  showed  due  diligence.  It 
also  indicates  that  the  patent  is  a  quid  pro  quo,  an  exclusive  right  in  return 
for  an  invention  adequately  described  on  record."  In  his  famous  contest 
with  Wheeler  et  al.— the  suit  referred  to — Moses  G.  Hubbard  showed  this 
machine  at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  but  the  court  ignored  it  under  the  rule  tersely- 


AMERICAN"   AGRICri.TURAL    IMPI.EMEXTS.  87 

stated  b}-  Dr.  Knight,  so  equitably  and  so  thoroughly  in  accord  with  com- 
mon sense. 

Alexander  M.  Wilson,  of  New  York,  Sept.  3,  1846,  received  a  patent  on 
a  mower,  with  a  cutting  wheel  something  like  that  of  the  Bailey;  and  it  is 
evident  from  his  action  that  he  had  some  conception  of  the  importance  of 
adjustabilit}'  or  flexibility  in  a  cutting  apparatus.  He  originally  took  out  a 
patent  on  the  same  machine  substantially,  in  1835,  and  the  model  and 
records  having  been  burned  by  the  great  fire  in  the  patent  office,  1836,  he 
was  allowed  to  renew  his  patent  in  1837;  but  in  doing  so  he  made  more 
prominent  the  adjustable  or  flexible  feature,  which,  as  slightly  improved, 
in  his  patent  of  1846,  was  covered  by  claim  as  follows:  "I  claim  jointing  the 
horse-frame  to  the  forward  part  of  the  main  frame,  but  back  of  the  shaft  of 
the  cutting  wheel,  so  as  to  have  the  horses  forward  and  to  the  side  of  the 
cutter,  in  combination  with  a  wheel  of  cutters  for  cutting  grain  or  grass,  so 
that  the  cutters  may  follow  the  undulations  of  the  ground,  independent  of, 
and  not  afi'ected  by,  the  up-and-down  movement  of  the  horses,  as  herein  de- 
scribed. ' ' 

It  is  said  that  Frederick  Nishwitz,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  who  took  out 
several  patents  in  this  line  during  the  "fifties,"  had  invented  a  jointed  bar 
mower  many  years  before,  but  was  too  poor  at  the  time  even  to  get  a  patent, 
and  so  was  compelled  to  l(»t  others  succeed  to  his  invention;  and  also  that 
one  Gerger,  of  Springfield,  111.,  filed  an  application  in  1849  for  a  patent  on 
a  hinged  bar  which  was  rejected;  but  as  in  other  cases,  by  neglecting  to 
complete  their  work,  they  rendered  what  they  had  done  useless  to  themselves 
and  to  the  public,  and  left  the  field  still  open  to  others. 

A  considerable  amount  of  work  was  done  in  this  development  during 
1852.  Byron  Densmore,  of  New  York,  Feb.  10,  obtained  a  patent  which  as 
afterwards  re-issued  and  assigned  to  D.  M.  Osborne  and  \V.  A.  Kirby  had  a 
claim  as  follows:  "Hanging  the  driving  wheel  in  a  supplementary  frame,  or 
its  equivalent,  which  is  hinged  at  one  end  to  the  main  frame  while  its  oppo- 
site end  may  be  adjusted  and  secured  at  various  heights,  or  be  left  free,  as 
desired,  whereb}-  the  cutting  apparatus  may  be  held  at  any  desired  height 
for  reaping  or  be  left  free  to  accommodate  itself  to  the  undulations  of  the 
ground  for  mowing,  etc."  The  patent  became  one  of  the  Kirby  system 
controlled  by  D.  M.  Osborne  &  Co.  His  machine  had  a  single  driving 
wheel,  but  the  cutting  apparatus  was  sufficiently  flexible  to  render  it  in  this 
respect  the  only  single  wheel  mower  that  could  compete  successfully  with 
the  two- wheeled  jointed-bar  machines.  R.  T.  Osgood,  Orland,  Me..  Feb. 
17,  1852,  got  a  patent,  which,  as  re-issued  and  assigned  to  Cyrenus  Wheeler, 
Jr.,  covered  two  independent  driving  and  supporting  wheels  on  a  common 
axle  with  a  ratchet  wheel  and  pawl  for  each,  so  that  either  could  hold  in 
gear  when  advanced  or  be  out  of  gear  when  backed,  a  peculiarly  hinged  ar- 
rangement for  cutter-bar  and  frame,  a  lever  so  that  driver  could  raise  or 
depress  cutters  from  his  seat  while  machine  was  in  motion,  a  balance  wheel 
"to  equalize  the  motion  of  the  cutters,"  and  other  points  not  necessary  to 
mention.  July  20,  1852,  two  important  patents  were  granted,  one  to  Jesse 
S  and  David  Lake,  of  New  Jersey,  and  the  other  to  Eliakim  B.  Forbush, 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.     The  first  was  afterwards   assigned  and   re-issued  to  Jas.  A. 


88 


AMIiRICAX    AGRICULTUKAI,   IMPLKMKXTS. 


CIRCULAR    MOTION 


CONTINUOUS  AND  ADVANCING. 


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CHART   SHOWIXG   FORM   AND 
FROM 


MOVEMENTS   OF  THE  CUTTERS  OF   HARVESTING   MACHINES. 
WOODCROFT'S  appendix    (ENGLISH). 


AMERICAN    AGRICULTfRAL    IMPLEMENTS. 


89 


CUTTERS 

WORKED  BY 

HAND. 


RECTILINEAR    MOTION. 


RECIPROCATING  AND  ADVANCINC. 


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MOVEMF.NTS   OF   THE   CUTTERS   OF  HARVESTING    MACHINES. 
WOODCROFT'S   APPENDIX  (ENGLISH). 


'JU  AMliKICAN    AGRICULTURAL   IMl'LHiiUM'S. 

Saxtou,  Cantou,  O.  It  had  a  single  driviug  wheel,  but  it  claimed  the  at- 
tachment, by  double  hinged  arrangement  to  the  frame  of  any  mowing  ma- 
chine, of  the  cutter  bar,  "so  that  the  guards  or  fingers,  or  that  part  to  which 
thej'  are  sustained  and  supported,  Avill  be  free  to  rise  or  fall  bodily,  and  also 
to  have  a  lateral  or  wabbling  motion  to  enable  the  cutting  apparatus  to  con- 
form freeh'  to  the  undulations  of  the  ground  over  which  it  is  drawn,  inde- 
pendent of  the  up-and-down  motion  of  the  main  frame."  It  also  claimed 
lever,  coupling  piece,  etc.  The  Forbush  patent  assigned  and  re-issued  to 
Cyrenus  Wheeler,  Jr.,  as  to  mowers,  covered  the  "making  of  the  outer  and 
inner  shoes  broader  in  front  of  the  finger-bar,"  and  "the  bearing  piece  Z, 
placed  between  the  outer  shoe  and  guard  finger,  for  the  support  of  the  outer 
end  of  the  cutter-bar."  C.  B.  Brown,  Grigg.sville,  111.,  Dec.  7,  18o2,  pat- 
ented a  skeleton  track-clearer,  which  was  assigned  to  C.  Aultman  &  Co. 

The  next  patent  of  importance  in  mowers  was  granted  to  Philo  Sylla 
and  Augustus  Adams,  Elgin,  111.,  Sept.  20,  1853,  for  a  harvesting  machine. 
It  was  purchased  by  C.  Aultman  &  Co.,  Canton,  O.,  for  a  trifle,  and  was 
re  issued  to  them  in  .six  divisions,  five  of  which  related  to  flexible  or  hinged 
bar  devices  for  mowers  and  by  priority  stood  at  the  head  of  the  "Buckeye" 
mower  patent  sj'stem;  while  the  remaining  division,  relating  to  har\'esters, 
was  sold  for  a  large  sum  to  the  "Marsh  Harvester"  pool.  The  claims  are 
too  many  to  give  in  full,  and  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  they  were  made  to 
cover  all  that  was  possible,  under  the  original  patent,  for  double-hinged 
floating-bar  cutting  apparatus. 

The  patent  granted  to  Cyrenus  Wheeler,  Jr.,  Dec.  5,  1854,  set  a  stake 
by  the  way  or  marked  the  di%ision  line  between  the  old  and  the  new  system 
of  grass  cutting,  not  so  much  because  of  the  importance  or  novelty  of  the 
features  presented  as  in  tiie  fact  that  it  covered  a  machine  that  was  distinct- 
ively in  construction  and  intention  a  two-wheeled  jointed-bar  mower,  and 
although  its  original  cutters  were  discarded  it  stands  in  proper  form  at  the 
head  of  its  class — indicating  specific  purpose,  and  combining  with  the  new, 
valuable  old  features  that  were  but  incidental  to  and  scattered  among  the 
inventions  previously  noticed.  An  evolution  had  been  accomplished,  and 
although  the  thing  turned  out  was  rude  and  imperfect  it  had  the  new  form, 
to  which  the  inventor  and  others  soon  gave  more  symmetry  and  better  ac- 
tion. Mr.  Wheeler  seems  also  to  have  had  a  clearly  defined  purpose,  viz. : 
to  develop  a  practical  marketable  mower  upon  the  new  plan;  for  he  contin- 
ued to  make  i:nprovements,  to  take  out  patents  therefor,  to  build  machines 
and  to  push  their  introduction  until  the  great  mower  business  of  the  country 
had  become  fully  established  upon  this  basis  by  himself  and  others  working 
in  the  same  general  direction.  ThisfirstWheeler  patent  formed  the  foundation 
of  the  "Cayuga  Chief"  .system,  and  was  as  re-issued  the  first  of  the  long  line 
of  patents  which  several  years  after  were  pooled  and  owned  jointly  by  the 
leaders,  in  the  manufacture  of  Buckeye,  Ball  and  Cayuga  Chief  machines, 
when  they  made  their  great  combination.  To  show  that  ]Mr.  Wheeler's  pur- 
pose was  clearly  specified  originally  it  is  only  necessary  to  quote  the  original 
claim  of  the  patent  of  Dec.  5,  1854.  "Having  the  cutter-bar  h,  provided  for 
the  purpose  with  a  .socket  z  to  one  extremity  of  the  arched  bar  w,  by  means 
of  joints  a  a  and  .segments  b  r,  .said  arched  bar  being  in  its  turn  pivoted  in 


AMERICAX   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  91 

X  to  the  main  frame  A,  all  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the  cutter-bar  h,  by 
means  of  levers  j  d  and^,  a  motion  independent  of  the  frame,  and  both  ro- 
tating longitudinally  parallel  to  the  ground,  and  oscillating  radially  from 
the  points  a  a  in  order  to  adapt  the  same  to  the  inequalities  of  the  ground, 
or  to  stop  its  action  at  pleasure."  This  patent  was  re-issued  Jan.  3,  1860,  in 
six  divisions— covering  a  laterally  projecting  finger-bar,  hinged  to  one  end 
or  corner  of  a  main  frame  that  is  free  to  vibrate  about  a  gear-center,  so  that 
said  finger-bar  ma^-  be  permitted  at  each  end  to  follow  the  undulations  of 
the  ground,  and  also  so  that  it  may  rock  or  roll  in  the  line  of  its  length  as 
well  as  rise  and  fall  in  a  line  transverse  thereto;  and  making  claims  for  a 
pitman  in  t-^'o  pieces  constructed  so  that  it  would  not  be  cramped  by  the 
movement  of  the  finger-bar,  and  on  other  details  of  improvement  and  con- 
struction. 'Sir.  Wheeler  took  out  many  patents — covering  points  relating  to 
mowers  in  general  and  devr'^es  pertaining  specially  to  the  Cayuga  Chief, 
either  as  reaper  or  mower,  which,  by  the  way,  was  a  rear-cut  machine,  i.e., 
the  cutter-bar  was  rearAvard  of  the  driving-wheels. 

To  Jonathan  Haines,  Pekin,  111.,  a  patent  was  granted,  Sept.  4,  1855,  on 
a  mower,  which  as  an  invention  ranks  with  any  in  this  class.  It  was  a  two- 
wheeled  machine  vvith  a  floating  bar,  and  well  proportioned.  In  the  original 
patent  the  claims  are:  "First,  the  hanging  of  the  cutter-bar  to  the  main 
frame  by  means  of  the  longitudinal  k  and  transverse  rods  w,  so  that  said 
cutter-bar  may  be  free  to  rise  and  fall  to  the  undulations  of  the  ground, 
while  it  is  prevented  from  all  lateral  motion.  *  *  *  Also  the  use  of  a 
driver's  seat  when  mounted  on  ways  or  rails,  so  that  the  driver  can  at  plea- 
sure throw  his  weight  forward  or  backward,  to  aid  in  balancing  or  relieving 
the  cutters,  as  the  variable  character  of  the  ground  or  condition  of  the  grass 
may  require."  It  was  afterward  re-issued  so  as  to  cover  the  points  invented 
more  clearh' 

Many  familiar  names  will  be  noticed  among  the  inventors  of  devices 
for  mowing  machines  at  this  period.  George  Esterly,  June  27,  1854,  pat- 
ented a  track-clearer  of  plow  shape,  Abner  Whitely,  Aug.  22,  the  rolling 
cone  for  the  same  purpose,  and  Walter  A.  Wood,  March  20,  1855,  the  outer 
wheel  with  its  inner  face  conical  for  clearing  the  track.  In  those  days  Moses 
G.  Hubbard,  then  of  New  York,  was  an  active  inventor.  June  4,  1855,  he 
claimed  "the  emploA-ment  of  the  fingers  to  each  sickle  blade  for  the  purpose 
of  dividing  the  cutter  force  expended  at  each  stroke  of  the  cutter."  And  he 
also  claimed  making  the  cutter-bar  (meaning  the  sickle-bar)  of  angle  iron, 
so  as  to  afford  a  shoulder  against  which  to  abut  the  sections,  so  that  a  .single 
rivet  would  hold  each.  Feb.  5,  1856,  Abner  Whitely  obtained  a  patent  in 
which  he  claimed  "changing  the  angle  of  the  fingers  and  cutters  of  reaping 
and  mowing  machines  while  machine  is  in  motion  and  the  finger  piece  rest- 
ing upon  the  ground." 

The  patent  granted  June  17,  185(5,  to  Cornelius  Aultman  and  Lewis 
Miller,  Canton,  O.,  assignors  to  Ball,  Aultman  &  Co.,  was  a  most  important 
one.  The  original  claim  was  for  "connecting  the  cutter-bar  to  the  machine 
by  the  double  rule  joint,  or  the  double-jointed  coupling  piece,  B  C, "  etc. 
It  was  afterwards  re-issued  in  six  divisions:  covering  bj-  the  two  first  com- 
binations in  which   the  shoe  that  carries  the  end  of  the  finger  beam,  the 


92  AMERICAN    AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENlb. 

hinged  brace  bar  and  hinged  coupling  arm  are  essential  elements;  by  the 
two  next  the  arrangement  for  holding  up  the  bar  with  its  hinge,  hinged 
coupling  arm  and  catch  for  the  purpose  of  removing  the  mower  from  place 
to  place  conveniently  and  securely;  and  by  the  two  next  the  ratchet-wheel, 
pawl  and  spring  combination,  with  two  driving  wheels  and  one  main  gear 
wheel  upon  a  common  axle  for  holding  in  and  out  of  gear,  as  described. 
Immediately  following,  Aug.  12,  185(),  Ephraim  Ball,  of  Ball,  Aultman  & 
Co.,  aforesaid,  took  out  a  patent  which,  although  the  claim  onlj-  covered  de- 
tails of  construction,  showed  the  hinged  brace  that  afterwards,  as  improved 
and  patented,  became  well  known  to  the  trade  as  "Ball's  drag-bar  "  \Vm. 
N.  Whitely,  Springfield,  O.,  Nov.  26,  1856,  obtained  a  valuable  patent  for 
self-raking  reaper,  which  was  one  of  the  first  and  best  as  a  "combined"'  .self- 
raking-reaper  and  mower.  Jan.  27,  1S57,  M.  G.  Hubbard  was  granted  a 
patent  on  a  finger-bar  that  obtained  flexibility  through  being  attached  to 
the  frame  by  two  flat  spring  braces,  so  that  the  bar  could  have  a  vertical 
motion  independent  of  the  frame,  its  motion  being  governed  by  the  surface 
of  the  ground.  Feb.  9,  1858,  he  patented  an  improvement  on  this  device, 
and  March  17,  1857,  a  shifting  seat  as  specially  arranged. 

Between  the  last  date  and  Dec.  1,  1857,  when  Ephraim  Ball's  principal 
patent  was  issued,  several  were  granted  which  as  re-issued  became  of  some 
importance  to  manufacturers.  Ball's  patent  originally  had  but  one  brief 
claim,  as  follows:  "The  combination  of  the  short  curved  brace  rod  ^  with 
the  rigid  and  broad  angle  attachment  of  the  inclined  bar  O  to  the  finger- 
bar/',  the  whole  arranged  for  joint  operation."  It  was  re-issued  July  17, 
1800,  in  seven  divisions,  with  an  aggregate  of  thirty-three  claims.  These 
several  divisions  and  many  claims  covered  hinges,  coupling  arm  brace-bar, 
shoe  and  finger-bar  in  various  combinations;  ths  gear  wheels  and  ratchet- 
wheel,  pawl,  spring  and  case  for  these  latter  in  various  combinations;  the 
balance-wheel  to  regulate  the  crank-shaft;  the  swiveled  pitman,  and,  in 
fact,  all  the  features  of  what  was  known  as  the  Ball  mower;  of  which  the 
patent  drawing  is  a  very  good  representation  so  far  as  it  goes.  It  was  an  ex- 
cellent mower  and  was  the  first  of  its  class  to  obtain  a  wide  reputation  as  such. 

A  few  days  after  Ball's  patent  was  issued,  John  Long.  Massillon,  O., 
Dec.  29,  1857,  took  one  out  that  afterwards  was  assigned  and  re-issued  to 
Whitely,  Fassler  &  Kelly,  and  furnished  some  of  the  prominent  features  of 
the  Champion  mower.  There  were  two  divisions  made  of  the  re-issue,  but  the 
first  claim  of  the  first  division  covers  the  principal  features:  "  The  combi- 
nation in  a  machine  having  two  independent  driving-wheels  of  a  single 
drag-bar  flexibh'  connected  at  its  front  end  with  the  main  frame  forward 
of  the  axis  of  the  supporting  wheels,  its  rear  end  free  to  rise  or  fall  inde- 
pendent of  said  main  frame,  and  connected  with  the  main  shoe  by  two 
joints,  one  forward  and  the  other  in  rear  of  the  sickle,  for  the  purpose  of 
affording  the  cutting  apparatus  firm  support,  and  permitting  either  end  of 
the  same  to  rise  or  fall  with  the  undulations  of  the  ground  over  which  it  is 
drawn,"  etc.  The  other  claims  are  for  various  combinations— chiefly  of 
these  features,  and  also  on  the  slotted  retaining  link  and  other  details. 

February  16,  1858,  to  Fred  Nishwitz,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. ,  was  granted  a  pat- 
ent that,  as  re-issued,  cut  quite  a  figure  among  the  manufacturers  of  mowers. 


AMERICAN    AGRICULTURAL   IMPLKMtXTS.  il.'J 

Feb.  23,  1858,  a  patent  was  granted  to  Hamilton  A.  Parkliurst,  Fairfield,  N. 
v.,  for  a  mower  in  this  class,  which  patent  was  afterward  assigned  and  re- 
issued to  C.  H.  McCormick,  covering  features  and  details  not  noticeably- 
important  in  themselves  or  differing  much  from  others  described.  It  is 
said,  however,  that  this  machine  was  constructed  and  used  as  early  as  1854; 
if  so,  the  inventor  was  much  in  advance  of  others  who  anticipated  him  in 
the  patent  office  and  obtained  patents  that  influenced  the  trade  when  the 
pioneers  were  establishing  it. 

To  Lewis  Miller,  Canton,  O.,  a  patent  was  issued.  May  4,  1S58,  that 
marked  an  era  in  the  history-  of  mowers.  The  drawings  show  the  clean-cut 
features  of  the  invention,  and  that  the  inventor  was  not  a  novice  in  this 
work.  In  this  machine  the  essential  elements  of  a  successful  modern  two- 
wheeled  mower,  with  hinged  floating  finger-bar,  had  at  last  been  massed. 
It  had  two  supporting  wheels,  each  of  them  equally  drivers,  and  a  floating- 
Ijar  made  short  or  stopping  at  the  heel,  each  end  free  to  rise  or  fall,  with 
its  coupling  connection  raised  off  the  ground,  so  as  to  pass  over  the  cut 
grass,  and  with  levers  for  governing  its  action.  The  original  claims  are  stated 
as  follows:  "I  claim  so  hinging  the  bar  or  beam  which  carries  the  cutters 
and  fingers  to  the  beam  Z,  as  that  it  maybe  raised  up,  folded  over,  and 
carried  upon  the  main  frame,  substantially  as  described  (2)  I  also  claim, 
in  combination  with  the  beam  L,  hinged  as  described,  the  braces  ^VS,  rig- 
idh-  connected  therewith,  but  hinged  at  their  opposite  ends,  so  that  the 
beam  L  may  rise  and  fall  at  pleasure,  but  be  permanently  braced  in  its 
proper  position  to  give  the  cutter  and  finger-bars  or  beams,  in  turn,  their 
proper  working  position. ' '  Nine  divisions  were  made  of  this  when  re-issued. 
These  covered:  First,  the  hinging  of  the  finger-beam  to  the  main  frame,  so 
that  it  can  be  folded  up  thereon;  second,  hinging  the  coupling  arm  to  the 
frame  at  one  side  of  the  main  axle  and  supporting  it  by  a  brace  hinged  to 
the  frame  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  axle,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  obtain 
a  wide  basis  for  bracing  on  a  short  frame,  without  interfering  with  the  fold- 
ing" of  the  finger-bar,  etc.;  third,  the  combination  of  crank,  its  journal- 
bearing,  coupling-arm  and  hinge  of  its  inner  end,  with  a  hanger  that  is 
made  a  common  support  for  these  parts;  fourth,  method  of  folding  finger- 
beam  upon  the  frame  by  aid  of  the  coupling-arm  with  lifting  lever,  etc. ; 
fifth,  the  combination  of  knuckle  with  joints  which  connects  finger-beam 
and  coupling-arm,  and  the  lever  for  raising  beam  off  the  ground,  and  of  a 
lever  to  turn  on  a  pivot  and  to  vibrate  laterally,  with  notches  and  a  catch 
to  support  the  lever  at  any  required  elevation,  together  with  the  coupling- 
arm  and  finger-beam,  suspended  to  it;  sixth,  the  arrangement  of  hand-lever, 
driver's  seat  and  foot-lever  whereby  the  driver  may,  when  necessary,  use 
both  his  hands  and  feet  to  rai.se  finger-beam;  seventh,  the  combination  of 
spring,  pawl,  and  the  teeth  with  the  jib  and  key  of  the  connecting  rod  and 
cutter,  etc.;  and  eighth  and  ninth,  shoe  and  adjustable  sole. 

Between  the  issue  of  the  original  Buckeye  patent  and  1800  several  others 
were  taken  out  covering  devices  in  this  class  of  mowers,  of  more  or  less  im- 
portance, by  W.  S.  vStetson,  W.  N.  Whitely,  M.  G.  Hubbard,  Willard  & 
Ross,  Lewis  and  Jacob  Miller  and  E.  Ball;  but  enough  have  been  mentioned 
to  show  the  steps  by  which  two- wheeled  flexible  or  hinged  bar-mowers  were 


94  AMKRICAX   ACRICULTL'KAL  IMPLEMENTS. 

developed  into  practical  luacliiiies.  During  such  development  they  became 
grouped  into  several  great  distinctive  systems,  the  leaders  of  which,  in  their 
order,  were  the  Cayuga  Chief,  the  Ball  and  the  Buckeye.  The  proprietors 
of  the  patents  covering,  respectively,  these  three  systems,  saw  that,  if  either 
should  attempt  to  assert  rights  over  the  other,  endless  litigation  would 
ensue,  and  that  their  energies,  which  were  fully  required  to  meet  the  grow- 
ing demands  of  trade,  would  be  iiselessly  expended  in  efforts  to  define  patent 
lines  that  had  crossed  each  other  in  every  direction.  To  litigate  they  were 
likely  to  destroy  both  business  and  patents,  but  to  pool  their  rights  and  mass 
them  they  could  jointly  protect  each  other  and  probably  control  the  mar- 
ket; and  acting  upon  this  assumption  they  formed  the  famous  ". hinged-bar 
pool."  It  was  a  wise  proceeding  for  all  concerned.  The  patents,  which 
represented  most  of  the  brain  work  that  up  to  that  time  had  been  expended 
in  producing  and  making  practical  these  useful  machines,  were  not  used  for 
mutual  destruction,  but  for  the  joint  maintenance  of  the  rights  which  they 
assured  to  their  owners,  and  for  the  protection  of  all  who  chose  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  same,  under  license,  at,  for  the  time,  reasonable  fees..  Prog- 
ress was  stimulated,  and  not  stifled  as  it  would  have  been  had  the  uncertain- 
ties of  tedious  lawsuits  been  hanging  over  invention  and  trade.  Improve- 
ments followed  fast.  Other  s}-stems  grew  up  and  expanded  Before  the 
association,  with  the  patents,  had  expired,  a  number  of  great  factories  had 
been  established  that  were  making  mowers  substantially  perfect  in  construc- 
tion and  operation;  and  competition  has  since  maintained,  if  it  has  not 
raised  the  standard  of  excellence,  while  the  reduced  cost  of  materials  and 
increased  facilities  for  production  have  brought  the  price  of  a  mower  down 
within  the  capacity  of  any  person  who  may  need  one. 

The  names  of  the  patent  owners  and  inventors  represented  personally  or 
by  their  patents  in  this  combination  belong  appropriatelj*  in  any  history  of 
mowers.  The  members  of  the  consolidation  were  Cyrenus  Wheeler,  Jr., 
James  A.  Saxton,  John  DeWalt,  C.  Aultman  &  Co.,  and  Adriance,  Piatt  & 
Co.,  with  Wm.  Allen  as  attorney.  The  following  patents  under  date  of 
original  issue  belonged  to  the  combination:  Patents  of  Cyrenus  Wheeler, 
Jr.,  Dec.  5,  IS'A,  re-issued  in  six  divisions;  and  extended  seven  years  from 
Dec.  5,  1808;  Feb.  6,  1855,  re-issued  and  extended;  Sept.  2,  1856,  re-issued; 
March  12,  1861,  May  26,  1863;  Feb.  9,  1864,  four  patents;  Oct.  8,  1867;  Feb. 
11,  1868;  and  owned  by  Cyrenus  Wheeler,  Jr.,  through  assignments,  patent 
ofD.  S.  McNamara,  JuneSO,  1857,  re-issued,  and  Sept.  28,  1858,  re-issued  in 
four  divisions;  of  E.  B.  Forbush,  Jul}-  20,  1852;  re-issued  in  four  divisions 
and  extended,  and  March   18,    1856,  re-issued;  of  B.  F.  Roney,   March  11, 

1856,  re-issued;  of  E.  T.  Ford,  Jan.  1863;  of  C.  B.  Wagner,  June  24,  1856, 
two  patents;  of  H.  G.  Vanderwerken,  Dec.  8,  1857;  of  Thos.  H.  Dodge, 
Nov.  15,  1859,  Jan.  31,   1860,   and  Feb.  19,  1868;  of  H.  H.  Smith,  Sept.  8, 

1857,  re-issued  in  three  divisions;  of  A.  J.  Holman,  March  2,  1858,  re-issued 
in  two  divisions;  of  C.  A.  Brownlick,  Jan.  4,  1859;  re-issued  in  two  divisions; 
of  E.  Jones,  March  27,  1860,  re-issued  in  three  divisions;  of  Chas.  Tinker, 
and  I.  A.  Sprague,  Aug.  4,  1857,  re-issued;  and  of  S.  S.  Bartlett,  Feb.  25, 
lS(i2.  Patents  of  C  Aultman  &  Co.,  through  assignment — Sylla  &  Adams, 
Sept.  20.  1S5.'>,  five  of  the  six  divisions  into  which  itvv'as  re-is.sued,  extended; 


AMERICAN-    AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  95 

of  T^ewis  Miller,  June  17,  1856,  re-issued  in  six  divisions,  and  INIay  4,  1^58, 
re-issued  in  nine  divisions.  The  patents  of  E.  Ball  were  also  in  the  pool. 
They  were  dated  Dec.  1,  1857,  re-issued  in  seven  divisions,  and  Oct.  18,  1859; 
and  there  was  in  the  Ball  list  the  patent  granted  to  J.  S.  and  David  Lake, 
July  '10,  1852,  assigned  to  James  A.  Saxton,  re-issued  in  four  divisions,  and 
extended.  Saxton  probably  turned  in  also  the  Willard  &  Ross  re-issues — 
seven  divisions  of  patent  dated  Nov.  3,  1857. 

Previous  to  the  general  introduction  of  jointed-bar  mowers,  the  practi- 
cal rigid-bar  one- wheeled  machines  readily  cut  swaths  five  and  six  feet  wide, 
but  owing  to  the  angles  that  the  pitman  had  to  take  in  relation  to  the 
jointed-bar,  on  account  of  its  varying  movements,  it  was  not  practicable  to 
cut  a  swath  more  than  aVjout  four  feet  in  width.  The  new  system  brought 
in  and  established  the  narrow  cut,  and  displacing  the  one-wheeled  wide-cut 
machines  by  force  of  custom  apparently,  also  displaced  the  two-wheeled 
center-draft  mowers — the  Eureka,  for  instance — which  carried  their  width  of 
cut  without  any  difficulty;  but  during  the  past  few  years  some  of  the  old 
firms  seem  to  have  recalled  the  fact  that  the  one-wheeled  mowers  could  cut 
wide  swaths,  and  having  concluded  that  it  was  because  these  old  cutter-bars, 
more  or  less  supported,  did  not  drag  loosel}'  and  lieavih-  upon  the  ground, 
they  soon  found  a  way  to  partial!}*  suspend  or  sustain  the  jointed-bar  so  that 
it  also  might  float  lightl}-  over  the  surface.  This  is  accomplished  by  a  sys- 
tem of  springs  that  transfers  the  weight  of  the  cutter-bar  from  the  ground 
to  the  driving-wTieels,  thus  relieving  the  drag  and  down  pressure  and 
increasing  the  traction.  With  this  improvement  very  wide  two-wheeled 
jointed-bar  mowers  are  now  made  and  satisfactorily  used  in  considerable 
numbers. 


CHAPTER   X. 

Haying  Tools  and  Machinery. 


THE  introduction  of  the  mowing  machine  naturally  created  a  desire  for 
some  speedier  method  of  raking  the  mown  hay  than  was  afforded  by  the 
tedious  hand-rake  that  had  done  duty  after  both  the  scythe  and  cradle,  espe- 
ciall}'  during  the  Civil  war,  when  the  use  of  the  mower  became  general  in 
the  effort  to  supply  provender  for  the  armies.  To  meet  this  demand,  inventive 
genius  brought  out  the  old  revolving  horse-rake  and  made  it  a  practical  im- 
plement for  general  use.  With  it  the  hay  could  be  gathered  quickly  into 
windrows,  and  if  properly  handled  it  would  rake  the  field  clean.  But  some- 
thing better  was  in  store  for  the  farmer,  and  in  due  time  the  spring-tooth 
sulky  rake  was  perfected.  With  it  the  work  could  be  done  more  rapidly  and 
the  windrows  were  left  in  better  condition  for  loading.  As  made  to-day  the 
hay  rakes  of  the  sixty  or  seventy  manufacturers  engaged  in  this  line  in  the 
United  States  are  substantially  alike  in  general  principles  and  construction. 
There  are  two  classes,  however,  the  hand-dump  and  the  self-dump,  the 
formei  being  operated  by  a  lever  and  the  latter  bj-  a  foot  trip  throwing  into 
connection  a  ratchet  in  the  wheel  to  raise  the  teeth  and  leave  the  hay  in  the 
windrow. 

The  Walter  A.  Wood  Co.,  of  Hoosick  Falls,  N.  Y.,  have  been  pioneer 
manufacturers  in  this  line,  making  both  hand  and  self-dump  rakes,  and  we 
may  safely  illustrate  their  machine  without  causing  jealousy  on  the  part  of 
others  who  make  just  as  good  an  implement.  Their  self-dump  rake  has 
wood  or  steel  wheels,  as  desired,  and  wooden  axle,  the  teeth  being  raised 
for  dumping  by  an  "internal  wheel  ratchet"  engaging  the  wheels  at  each 
side  and  causing  their  revolution  to  lift  the  frame  that  holds  the  teeth.  The 
trip  for  operating  the  dump  is  under  the  foot  of  the  driver.  The  thills  of 
the  ten  and  twelve-foot  rakes  are  so  made  that  they  can  be  moved  to  the 
center  to  form  a  pole  for  two  horses. 

SIDE-DEI.IVERY  RAKES. 

The  side-delivery  hay  rake  is  an  invention  brought  cut  in  recent  years 
to  be  used  in  connection  with  a  hay  loader.  It  is  difficult  to  rake  the  hay 
with  an  ordinary  sulky  rake  so  that  it  will  lie  in  long  windrows  convenient 
for  the  hay  loader  to  take  it  up,  and  inventors  have  been  seeking  a  new  form 
of  rake  that  would  leave  a  continuous  windrow  at  the  side. 

One  of  the  first  implements  of  this  class  to  be  brought  out  was  the  side- 
delivery  rake  of  the  Chambers,  Bering,  Quinlan  Co.,  of  Decatur,  111.  It  is 
arranged,  as  shown  in  the  illustration,  with  a  crank-shaft  resembling  that  of 
a  tedder,  but  running  forw'ard  diagonally.     Mounted  on  this  shaft  are  kick 

forks  arranged  in  gangs  of  three,  there  being  four  such  gangs  in  all.     As 

96 


AMERICAN-  AGRICULTURAI.  IMPLEMENTS. 


97 


98  AMERICAN    ACKICri/nUAI.    IMI'LEMKNTS. 

shown,  the  shaft  is  operated  by  gearing  and  a  link  belt  from  one  of  the  for- 
ward wheels. 

The  Beck  side-delivery  rake,  which  has  been  pnt  on  the  market  by  the 
Stoddard  Manufacturing  Co.,  of  Dayton,  Ohio,  is  decidedly  novel  in  its 
principle  and  construction.  It  has  three  raking  reels,  which  operate  in 
series  and  carry  the  hay  to  one  side.  The  fingers  are  long,  elastic  spokes 
with  a  hub  set  below  the  line  of  the  driving-shaft,  from  which  motion  is 
transmitted  to  the  spokes  by  a  driving-wheel  that  acts  on  each  spoke  sepa- 
rately through  a  loose  sliding  thimble  to  carry  it  forward.  Its  operation 
can  be  better  understood  by  reference  to  the  illustration. 

HAY  TEDDERS. 

There  are  few  implements  that  give  more  general  satisfaction  iu  use  or 
that  are  simpler  in  construction  and  operation  than  the  hay  tedder.  The 
idea  of  the  implement  was  no  doubt  conceived  by  some  farmer  or  farmer's 
boy  as  a  means  for  shaking  up,  by  horse  power,  hay  that  had  lain  out  iu  the 
rain  and  needed  turning  so  the  sun  could  cure  it.  But  when  the  tedder  had 
been  developed  into  a  practical  implement  it  was  found  that  it  had  a  wider 
field  of  usefulness.  In  mowing,  the  horses  and  machine  must  needs  pass 
over  the  grass  that  has  been  cut,  packing  it  down  more  or  less,  and  if  the 
hay  is  left  in  that  condition  it  dries  but  slowly  and  imperfectly,  always  leav- 
ing the  under  part  of  the  swath  damp  or  onlj'-  partially  cured.  As  in  the 
case  of  the  hay  rake,  it  is  difficult  to  select  a  tedder  for  illustration  from  the 
fifty  or  more  that  are  on  the  market.  However,  D.  M.  Osborne  &  Co.,  of 
Auburn,  N.  Y. ,  who  are  pioneers  in  the  manufacture  of  mowing  machines, 
have  latel}'  brought  out  a  tedder  that  is  made  entirely  of  steel.  The  frame  of 
this  tedder  is  of  angle-steel  bar,  light  in  w^eight  but  of  ample  .strength.  The 
axle  is  of  one  and  one-fourth-inch  steel  and  is  provided  with  ratchets  and 
pawls  in  the  wheels.  It  has  a  steel  crank-shaft  which  derives  its  power  from 
a  gearing  placed  on  the  middle  of  the  axle.  Altogether,  the  implement  is 
neat  and  practical  iu  its  design  and  a  fit  companion  of  the  all-steel  hay  rake, 
which  this  house  recently  brought  out,  the  first  of  its  class. 

HAY-I,OADERS. 

Efforts  to  produce  a  practical  hay-loader  have  been  made  by  scores  of 
inventors  during  the  past  generation,  but  until  recent  years  there  has  been 
no  demand  among  the  farmers  that  would  warrant  the  manufacture  of  such 
an  implement  on  a  large  scale.  About  twenty  years  ago  the  Keystone 
Manufacturing  Company,  of  vSterling,  111.,  began  experiments  in  this  line 
and  brought  out  the  pioneer  implement  in  its  class.  As  will  be  seen,  it  is 
mounted  on  two  wheels  and  is  made  to  be  drawn  after  the  wagon.  It  has 
a  cylinder  with  bars  carrying  hooks  like  the  tines  of  a  pitchfork,  designed 
to  lift  the  hay  from  the  ground  and  deposit  it  upon  an  endless  carrier  or 
apron  which  elevates  it  to  the  wagon.  The  weight  of  the  loader  gives  its 
two  supporting  wheels  sufficient  tractile  power  to  operate  the  cylinder  aud 
elevator.  It  is  claimed  that  with  it  a  load  can  be  taken  from  the  windrow  in 
five  minutes. 

The  Deere  hay  loader,  recently  brought  out  by  the  Deere  &  Mansur 
Company,  of  Moline,  111.,  works  on  an  entirely  different  principle.  It  con- 
sists of  a  series  of  rakes,  .so  mounted  upon  a  crank -shaft  that  they  grasp  the 


AMERICAX   AGRICULTL-RAI<   IMPI^EMiiN 


TS. 


99 


THE  BECK  HAY  LOADER. 


THE  SANDWICH  "CLEAN  SWEEP"   HAY 


LOADER 


THE  KEYSTONE  HAY  LOADER. 


100  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 

hay  in  the  swath  and  draw  it  a  short  distance  forward  on  the  frame  of  the 
loader  by  the  peculiar  alternating  movement  of  the  rakes.  The  hooks  on 
the  under  side  of  each  rake  gradually  carry  the  hay  to  the  top  of  the  eleva- 
tor, where  it  falls  over  in  a  cataract  on  the  wagon.  It  is  simple  in  design 
and  effective  in  operation,  and  has  met  with  a  favorable  reception. 

The  Beck  hay  loader,  a  companion  implement  to  the  Beck  side-de- 
livery rake,  previously  noticed,  is  made  by  the  Farmers  Friend  Manufactur- 
ing Company,  of  Dayton,  Ohio.  It  has,  in  common  with  other  loaders,  the 
two  carrying  wheels  from  which  power  is  derived  by  gearing  to  operate  the 
loader.  The  hay  is  gathered  from  the  swath  or  windrow  by  a  revolving  rake 
and  elevated  a  short  distance  by  an  endless  carrier,  the  latter  dropping  it 
upon  a  long  carrier  by  which  it  is  elevated  and  dropped  upon  the 
wagon. 

HAY  FORKS  AND   CARRIERS. 

The  hay  fork  and  carrier  for  taking  away  hay  in  barns,  or  for  use  in 
stacking  it  in  the  field,  followed  in  the  procession  of  other  improvements 
that  began  about  thirty  years  ago  in  this  industry.  The  first  step  that  was 
taken  was  in  the  development  of  a  harpoon  fork.  A  patent  was  issued  in 
September,  1864,  to  F.  I/.  Walker,  and  other  patents  in  the  two  or  three 
years  succeeding,  which  laid  the  foundation  for  the  Nellis  single-harpoon 
fork,  Mr.  Xellis  patenting,  in  1873,  a  locking  device  that  is  now  in  general 
use  on  this  style  of  fork.  Another  hay  fork,  which  is  known  in  the  trade 
as  the  Walker,  was  patented  by  F.  L.  Walker,  in  1868.  The  double-har- 
poon fork,  generally  known  as  the  Harris,  was  patented  in  1867  by  S.  &  E. 
Harris.  Several  patents  were  issued  in  the  "sixties"  that  laid  the  foun- 
dation for  grapple  forks,  which,  however,  have  been  modified  in  construc- 
tion from  the  ideas  of  their  first  inventors,  making  them  more  simple  and 
eflfective. 

At  first,  hay  forks  were  used  without  carriers,  but  inventors  were  not 
long  in  bringing  out  tracks  and  carriers  by  which  the  hay  could  be  depos- 
ited at  a  distance  from  the  wagon.  J.  F.  Porter,  of  Ottawa,  111.,  was  a  pio- 
neer in  this  line,  having  begun  in  1869,  using  at  first  an  iron  rod  for  the 
track,  or  a  common  2x4  scantling.  In  1872,  Mr.  Porter  patented  improve- 
ments that  gave  considerable  impetus  to  the  demand  for  hay  carriers,  and 
has  since  added  many  valuable  features.  Other  inventors  have  also  been 
at  work  in  the  field,  and  the  records  of  their  efforts  are  so  voluminous  in  the 
Patent  Office  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  point  out  the  various  steps  followed 
by  the  evolution  of  the  trade. 

Within  the  past  ten  years  various  forms  of  steel  track  have  been  per- 
fected for  hay  carriers.  In  1883,  Jacob  Ney,  of  Canton,  Ohio,  patented  a 
track,  consisting  of  two  horizontal  pieces  of  angle-steel,  one  flange  being  set 
vertically  with  the  supporting  rods  or  hanging  hooks  attached  to  it,  and  the 
other  forming  a  horizontal  track  for  the  wheels  of  the  carrier.  The  joints 
were  made  with  clamps  or  fish  plates.  In  1886,  P.  A.  Myers,  of  Ashland, 
Ohio,  patented  a  track  formed  of  two  T  bars,  placed  side  by  side,  held  by 
upper  and  lower  clamps  and  with  connecting  bolts  passing  vertically  through 
the  clamps.  The  suspending  rod  or  cylinder  hooks  are  inserted  between 
the  beams  at  convenient  places.     In  1S87,  J.  F-  Porter,  of  Ottawa,  111.,  pat- 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLE.MEXTS. 


101 


porter's  HAV  CARRIER. 


THE   HARRIS  DOUBLE  HARPOOX  FORK. 


THE  NELLIS  FORK. 


THE  MYERS  DOUBLE  RAIL  STEEL  TRACT 


THE  NEY  STEEL  TR.\CK. 


102  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAI,   IMPI^EMHXTS. 

ented  a  form  of  solid  steel  rail,  and  he  has  also  obtained  a  recent  patent  on 
a  single  rail  with  a  flange  on  each  side  to  support  the  carrier. 

BALING   PRESSES. 

The  many  patents  granted  on  baling  presses  during  the  early  half  of  the 
present  century  show  that  inventors  began  early  to  wrestle  with  the  prob- 
lem of  making  up  hay  in  compact  bales  for  transportation.  It  seems,  how- 
ever, that  no  one  was  able  to  create  a  demand  that  would  warrant  the  man- 
ufacture of  this  useful  machine  until,  in  1853,  H.  Iv.  Emery,  of  Albany,  N.Y., 
began  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  a  crude  form  of  horizontal  press,  in  which 
levers  attached  to  plungers  in  each  end  of  the  baling  chamber  were  oper- 
ated by  chains  and  pulleys.  It  was  awkward  in  appearance  and  in  opera- 
tion it  was  only  capable  of  making  five  250-pound  bales  per  hour,  requiring 
two  men  and  a  horse  to  operate  it.     It  made  a  bale  24x24x48  inches. 

Soon  after  this  first  effort,  in  1859  or  1860,  P.  K.  Dederick,  of  Albany, 
became  interested  in  the  hay  press.  Mr.  Dederick  acquired  the  patterns 
and  business  of  a  series  of  efforts  that  had  begun  years  before,  and  continued 
his  experiments  until  he  had  brought  into  practical  form  a  press  for  general 
use.  In  1872  he  invented  a  continuous  form  of  press,  which  has  since  come 
into  general  use.  George  Ertel,  of  Quincy,  111.,  was  the  pioneer  in  the  west 
in  the  manufacture  of  hay  presses.  His  first  effort  in  this  direction  was  in 
1866,  when  he  made  a  vertical  press  to  be  operated  by  horse  power.  vSoon 
after  he  gave  his  entire  time  to  the  development  and  manufacture  of  hay 
presses  and  contributed  many  valuable  improvements 

About  ten  years  ago  steam  power  presses  were  introduced  and  came 
into  general  use  in  response  to  a  demand  for  greater  baling  capacity  than 
was  possible  with  horse  power.  The  latest  improvement  looking  to  an 
increase  of  capacity  is  a  self-tying  device,  introduced  by  the  Famous  Manu- 
facturing Company,  the  pioneer  house  in  the  west  among  the  manufacturers 
who  were  at  the  Columbian  Exposition. 

The  manufacture  of  hay  presses  has  become  an  important  industry,  one 
that  was  well  represented  at  the  Columbian  Exposition  by  the  exhibits  of 
eight  or  ten  manufacturers. 


CHAPTER  XL 

Threshing  Machinery. 


IT  is  probable  that  at  first  the  little  grain  that  was  raised  was  shelled  by 
hand,  but  as  the  quantity  increased  the  kernels  were  whipped  from  the 
heads  across  sticks  or  poles  or  pounded  out  by  a  staff  or  rod.  In  Isaiah, 
xxviii.,  27,  28,  we  read:  "For  the  fitches  [peas]  are  not  threshed  with  a 
threshing  instrument,  neither  is  a  cast  wheel  turned  about  upon  the  cum- 
min [a  seed-plant  something  like  carawaj-]  ;  but  the  fitches  are  beaten  out 
with  a  stafif  and  the  cummin  with  a  rod.  Bread  corn  is  bruised,  because  he 
will  not  ever  be  threshing  it,  nor  break  it  with  the  wheel  of  his  cart,  nor 
bruise  it  with  his  horsemen." 

Here  we  have  several  methods  of  threshing  indicated;  peas  and  seeds 
from  plants  were  beaten  out  by  a  staff  or  rod,  while  the  grain  crops  required 
something  more  expeditious  and  elaborate  in  construction,  designated  a 
threshing  instrument;  but  the  cleaning  was  accomplished  by  winnowing; 
i.e.,  by  tossing  up  the  threshings,  after  the  straw  was  raked  off,  so  that  the 
wind  might  blow  aside  the  chaff  and  dirt.  A  club  was  at  some  early  time 
attached  to  the  staff,  and  thus  the  flail  was  invented. 

Cattle  were  generally  used  by  the  ancients  to  tread  out  the  grain  spread 
upon  the  " threshing  floor " — referred  to  in  Deuteronomy,  xxv.,  4:  "Thou 
shalt  not  muzzle  the  ox  when  he  treadeth  out  the  corn  " — and  also  to  draw 
around  over  the  grain  the  charatz  of  the  Egj'ptians  and  the  nioreg  of  the 
Hebrews,  the  former  having  been  something  like  the  "stone-boat,"  which 
is  used  on  farms  east  for  gathering  stones,  but  made  rough  on  the  bottom. 
The  latter  consisted  of  a  sled-like  frame  between  the  runners  of  which 
spiked  cylinders  were  placed  that  revolved  upon  the  grain  as  the  rude  im- 
plement was  drawn  around.  Similar  devices  were  known  to  the  old  Romans, 
by  whom  they  were  called  traha  and  tribula.  Something  of  this  sort  is  still 
used  in  eastern  countries  and  in  Italy,  but  one  of  the  common  methods  of 
threshing  there  is  by  means  of  large  fluted  rollers  or  beaters  revolving  upon 
a  long  horizontal  shaft  or  sweep,  one  end  of  which  is  attached  by  a  ring 
around  a  post  set  in  the  center  of  the  circular  threshing-floor,  the  cattle 
being  hitched  to  the  outer  end.  As  they  move  around  outside  of  the  grain 
spread  upon  the  floor  the  rollers  turn  upon  the  shaft  and  beat  out  the 
grain. 

The  flail  has  been  known  among  the  Japanese  from  the  earliest  times, 
according  to  their  records;  either  used  singly  for  threshing  grain  from  the 
straw,  or  in  connection  with  a  stripper,  called  by  them  mogi-kogi.  This 
latter  is  a  large  comb,  with  teeth  of  iron  or  hard  wood.  The  Japanese  im- 
plement is  attached  to  a  frame  or  bench,  the  teeth  pointing  upward.     The 

grain,  after  being  first  reaped,  is  brought  to  it,  and  the  heads  are  stripped 

103 


lot  AMRRICAN-   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLKMEXTS. 

or  comiied  off  between  the  teeth  by  being  drawn  through  1)y  hand.  The 
headings  are  gathered  up  and  carried  to  a  threshing  floor,  where  the  kernels 
are  beaten  out  by  flails.    The  grain  is  cleaned  by  winnowing  or  by  screening. 

Michael  Menzies,  of  Scotland,  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  first  inventor 
of  a  power  threshing-machine,  for  which  he  obtained  a  patent  in  1732.  This 
was  a  contrivance  arranged  to  drive  a  large  number  of  flails  by  water-power. 
It  is  described  as  a  wonderful  invention  and  "capable  of  giving  1,320 
strokes  per  minute,  as  many  as  thirty-three  men  threshing  briskly" — ^de- 
cidedly  indefinite;  and  as  "moved  by  a  great  water  wheel  and  triddles." 
The  grain  was  brought  to  this  machine  as  it  was  to  others  invented  and 
used  during  the  last  century  and  the  early  part  of  this,  before  portable 
threshers  were  introduced.  The  flail  motion  was  not  practicable,  and  was 
soon  aljandoned. 

The  first  practical  effort  leading  in  the  right  direction  was  made  by  a 
Scotch  farmer  named  Iveckie  about  1758.  He  invented  "a  rotary  machine 
which  consisted  of  a  set  of  cross-arms  attached  to  a  horizontal  shaft,  and 
the  whole  enclosed  in  a  cylinder  case."  It  threshed  dry  oats  very  well,  but 
knocked  off"  wheat  heads,  and,  while  it  was  not  practical  as  constructed,  it 
demonstrated  the  superiority  of  the  rotary  motion  and  pointed  out  the  road 
to  success. 

The  first  successful  threshing-machine — the  type  of  modern  threshers — 
was  invented  by  still  another  Scotchman,  Andrew  Meikle,  in  1786,  and  pat- 
ented in  1788.  In  this  "the  grain  in  the  straw  is  fed  from  the  board  A,  be- 
tween two  fluted  rollers  B,  to  the  beater-cylinder  C,  thence  passes  to  an- 
other beating-cylinder  G,  which  operates  over  a  concave  grating;  a  third 
cylinder  H  raises  and  loosens  the  straw  which  parts  from  its  grain  F 
through  the  concaves,  and  the  straw  is  delivered  at  A'."  Circular  rakes  or 
beating-cylinders  were  added  in  1789,  but  a  fanning-mill  was  not  provided 
till  1800,  when  at  last  a  complete  "separator"  was  produced,  threshing, 
cleaning  and  delivering  the  grain  at  one  operation.  Still  these  machines 
were  "stationary,"  being  generally  put  up  in  buildings,  and  the  grain  was 
drawn  to  them. 

In  a  work  describing  the  "Implements  of  Husbandry  Used  in  Scot- 
land," by  Andrew  Gray,  engineer,  published  in  1814,  is  a  description  of  a 
threshing-machine  which  seems  to  have  been  a  complete  separator  to  be 
driven  by  two  horses  attached  to  a  stationary  power.  Except  that  it  was 
not  portable,  it  had  all  the  general  principles  of  a  modern  separator,  even 
to  grading  the  grain,  delivering  two  qualities  while  in  operation — on  one 
side  the  heavy  kernels,  on  the  other  the  light,  or  screenings.  The  inventor's 
name  is  not  given. 

It  has  been  generally  supposed  that  the  threshing  cylinder  was  first 
invented  and  perfected,  next  the  straw-.separating  devices,  and  then  the 
cleaning,  and  that  thus  one  thing  after  another  was  invented  and  applied 
until  the  present  perfection  had  been  attained,  but  early  inventors  of 
threshing-machines,  both  in  Great  Britain  and  in  this  country,  like  those 
of  reapers,  reached  too  far  at  first.  They  covered  the  whole  ground  in 
theory  before  any  main  features  had  been  made  practical;  hence  the  com- 
bination of  a  number  of  undeveloped  principles,  working   imperfectly  of 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAI^  IMPLEMENTS.  105 

course,  rendered  the  whole  too  difficult  to  mauage  and  unfit  for  general 
use.  Afterward  open-cylinder  threshers — called  "chaff-pilers"  by  some, 
"bob-tails,"  "ground-hogs"  and  "bull-threshers"  by  others — were  made 
and  put  upon  the  market  successfully.  About  this  time  '  'traveling  thresh- 
ers,"  which  went  around  the  fields  after  the  grain,  were  used  to  some  ex- 
tent. These  opened  the  way  for  those  that  carried  the  separating  attach- 
ments, which  latter  were  improved  as  use  pointed  out  the  necessity  until, 
having  become  practical  throughout,  the  "separator"  absorbed  the  trade  to 
the  exclusion  of  the  older  or  simpler  forms  of  thresher,  and  further  devel- 
opment has  separated  the  "separator"  into  several  diflfereut  classes,  each  of 
which  has  been  substantially  perfected. 

All  the  early  threshers  were  stationary.  They  were  set  up  in  barns  or 
other  buildings,  and  the  grain  was  brought  to  them  like  grists  to  a  mill. 
Sometimes  they  were  driven  by  water,  but  generally  by  what  have  been 
called  cider-mill  horse-powers.  These  were  usually  under  cover,  and  were 
very  simple  in  construction,  consisting  generally  of  a  center-post,  or  spin- 
dle, pivoted  at  bottom  and  top  in  beams,  with  long  sweep  attached,  and 
carrying  a  very  large  horizontal  master-wheel,  generally  overhead,  which 
drove  a  pinion  and  shaft  and  transmitted  the  power  b}'  a  belt  or  tumbling- 
rod  to  the  thresher.  The  next  idea  was  a  traveling  thresher  with  harvesting 
attachments  or  without,  and  these  obtained  power  for  their  operation  from 
the  traction  of  their  ground  wheels  as  they  were  hauled  around  the  fields. 
About  this  time  tread  or  railway  horse-powers  were  introduced,  and  soon 
after  sweep-powers  came  into  use. 

It  is  possible  that  some  of  the  early  threshers  of  British  make  were 
brought  to  America  or  that  others  similar  were  made  in  this  country  quite 
early  in  the  century.  It.  is  said  that  "bull-threshers"  were  used  as  far  back 
as  1825  or  farther,  but  there  is  no  trace  of  substantial  improvement  in  them 
until  Aug.  8,  1828,  when  Samuel  Lane,  of  Hallowell,  Maine,  patented  a 
traveling  thresher  with  harvester  attachments.  Another  patent  was  granted 
to  him  April  G,  1831,  but  both  were  unrestored.  The  first  had  an  apron  car- 
rier, and  cut  some  figure  in  the  suit  between  Pitts  and  Wemple  many  years 
after.  Lane  was  an  ingenious  inventor,  but  unsuccessful,  and  died  poor  in 
1844. 

The  Pitts  brothers — Hiram  A.  and  John  A. — of  Winthrop,  Maine,  were 
the  first  American  inventors  who  were  successful  and  practical  in  this  line, 
whose  inventions  went  into  general  use  and  have  come  down  to  this  day. 
H.  A.  Pitts,  in  1830,  patented  an  improvement  on  a  railway  or  tread  power, 
which  consisted  in  the  substitution  of  hard  maple  rollersunder  the  movable 
platform,  connected  by  an  endless  chain,  for  the  old-fashioned  leather  belt. 
He  and  his  brother,  John  A.,  began  the  manufacture  of  these  improved 
powers  on  a  small  scale  in  their  native  town,  and  introduced  them  in  the 
state  of  Maine  and  to  some  extent  in  other  New  England  states.  They  be- 
came popular  for  giving  power  to  the  '  'ground-hog' '  thresher,  as  the  open-cyl- 
inder machine  was  called  there.  While  operating  these  machines,  H.  A. 
Pitts  conceivedthe  idea  of  combining  the  old  "ground-hog"  and  the  common 
fanning-mill  in  a  portable  form.  In  1834  he  completed  a  machine  on  this 
plan  which  operated  successfully.     After  various  improvements  had  been 


106  AMERICAN    AGRICUIvTURAI.   IMPI.KMKNTS. 

made  by  him  and  his  l)rother  during  the  intervening  years,  a  patent  was 
granted  to  them,  Uec.  29.  1837,  for  their  thresher,  which  was  the  original  of 
the  great  family  of  "endless  apron"  or  "great  belt"  separators.  This  first 
machine,  though  quite  different  in  appearance  from  those  of  the  class  as 
constructed  at  the  present  day,  had  all  their  essential  features.  It  did  not 
have  a  "second  carrier"  or  open  raddle;  the  apron  ended  at  the  picker;  the 
beater  was  rpund  and  armed  with  pegs;  the  picker  was  of  the  same  form, 
but  smaller,  and  its  office  was  to  throw  the  straw  off  from  the  machine;  and 
the  elevator  did  not  rettirn  the  tailings  to  the  threshing  cylinder,  but  emp- 
tied them  into  the  .sides  of  the  machine  over  the  return  board  or  sieves  for 
re-fanning. 

The  invention  of  the  Pitts  brothers  marked  a  distinct  era  in  the  history 
of  threshing  machines;  and  although  various  improvements  have  been  made 
in  the  details  of  this  type  of  threshers,  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  they  fol- 
lowed the  principles  covered  by  the  original  patent  all  the  way  down  for 
more  than  half  a  century.  They  manufactured  these  machines  in  company 
until  1840,  when  John  A.  Pitts  went  to  Albany,  then  to  Rochester,  N.  Y., 
where  he  connected  himself  with  Joseph  Hall,  another  pioneer.  Next  he 
went  to  Springfield,  Ohio,  and  finally  to  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  where  he  died  in 
1859. 

Hiram  A.  Pitts  remained  in  Maine  until  1847,  when  he  removed  to  Alton, 
111.,  where  he  began  the  manufacture  of  threshing  machines.  He  built  a 
good  many  at  that  place,  improving  and  perfecting  them  from  year  to  year. 
In  1851  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  in  1852  put  upon  the  market  his  first 
threshers  from  that  point.  During  the  years  following  a  large  trade  was  es- 
tablished, and  his  machine,  known  as  the  "Chicago  Pitts,"  found  a  market 
wherever  grain  was  raised  to  any  extent.     He  died,  in  1860. 

Returning  to  the  patent  record,  we  find  that  Feb.  5, 1836,  E.  Briggs  and 
C.  G.  Carpenter  patented  a  traveling  thresher  which  could  be  used  with  or 
without  a  grain-cutting  attachment.  It  ran  on  four  wheels,  like  wagon 
wheels,  and  depended  upon  the  traction  of  the  two  hind  wheels  for  power. 

About  1830  Jacob  V.  A.  Wemple,  of  Montgomery  county,  N.  Y.,  a  black- 
smith and  wagon-maker,  became  interested  in  threshing  machines  on  ac" 
count  of  repairing  some  of  the  crude  machines  in  use  then.  He  invented 
an  open-cylinder  or  "bull-thresher"  and  a  horse-power  to  go  with  it,  and 
began  manufacturing  at  Mineyville,  N.  Y.  The  peculiaritj^  of  the  thresher 
was  in  the  shape  of  the  cylinder  teeth  and  in  the  manner  of  fastening  them 
to  the  cylinder.  The  horse-power  was  of  the  stationar}- type.  About  1840 
he  entered  into  partnership  with  George  AVestingliouse,  whose  son  was  since 
the  inventor  of  the  celebrated  air  brake  for  railroad  cars.  Together  the  two 
inventors  and  mechanics  worked  out  a  separator  differing  somewhat  from 
that  of  the  Pitts  brothers',  in  this  chiefly,  that  it  had  a  short-slatted  canvas 
carrier  that  delivered  the  threshings  upon  a  traveling  sieve  or  riddle,  which 
was  given  a  vibratory  movement  by  running  over  square  tumblers  or  rollers, 
the  grain  and  chaff  shaking  through,  the  straw  being  carried  over.  They 
obtained  a  patent  for  this  machine,  which  was  afterward  known  as  the  Wem- 
ple thresher,  July  13,  1S43.  They  were  then  manufacturing  at  Fonda,  N.Y. 
Mr.  Westinghouse  soon  after  withdrew,  going  first  to  Central  Bridge  and 


AMERICAN-   AGRICUI.TURAI,   IMPLEMENTS. 


107 


^^-i^^^^V-, 


THE   CHARATZ    OF    EGYPT. 


THE    MOREG    OF    THE    HEBREWS. 


JAPANESE    "STRIPPER.' 


EARLY    ENGLISH    SEPARATOR. 


108  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS, 

afterward  to  Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  where  he  permanently  established  himself. 
He  continued  manufacturing  threshers,  after  the  Wemple  principle,  for  many 
years.  He  also  built  at  an  early  day  an  open-cylinder  "ground  hog" 
thresher  with  a  vibrating  separating  attachment.     He  died  in  1844. 

Mr.  Wemple  came  to  Chicago  in  1848.  He  made  and  put  out  his  ma- 
chines successfully  up  to  and  including  1852,  when  he  sold  his  shops  to  H. 
A.  Pitts  and  retired  from  the  business  personally,  leaving  it  to  his  son, 
Andrew,  and  a  Mr.  Kline,  who  continued  under  the  name  of  Wemple  & 
Kline  until  the  general  crash  of  1857,  when  they  went  down  with  many 
others.     Mr.  Wemple  died  in  1878. 

There  was  no  difficulty  in  getting  most  of  the  grain  from  the  straw  with 
the  early  plans  for  separation,  but  all  the  while  the  strife  has  been  to  pro- 
vide devices  the  best  and  surest  to  save  the  little  left.  The  early  British 
machines  and  those  of  the  same  type  constructed  in  this  country  sought  to 
accomplish  this  by  combined  beaters  and  pickers,  which  beat  and  tossed  the 
straw  along  over  concave  grates  or  stationary  raddles,  through  which  the 
grain  fell.  It  is  claimed  that  about  all  the  grain  was  obtained  by  these  de- 
vices. An  improvement  was  inaugurated  and  established  by  Pitts,  whose 
general  plan  was  to  carry  the  threshings  along  upon  an  endless  ascending 
belt,  having  more  or  less  of  a  vib)ratory  or  jarring  motion  while  running, 
by  which  the  grain  was  caused  to  settle  through  the  .straw,  the  process  being 
aided  by  pickers  and  beaters  operating  upon  the  moving  mass.  The.se 
principles,  when  fully  developed,  seemed  to  be  capable  of  saving  substan- 
tially all  the  grain.  But  perfection  had  not  been  attained,  and  a  series  of 
experiments  upon  still  other  methods  of  separation  culminated  in  what  is 
commonly  recognized  as  the  "vibrator." 

Earh'in  the  "thirties"  Pitts  used  a  perforated  board  or  platform,  which 
was  shaken  longitudinally,  in  connection  with  the  "ground-hog"  thresher, 
while  experimenting,  and  before  the  adoption  of  the  endless  apron.  Geo. 
Westiughouse,  at  a  later  period,  used  a  pan  in  a  similar  manner.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  separating  devices  to  be  shaken  longitudinally  were  attached 
to  the  old  "ground-hog  "  or  "bull"  thresher,  at  various  times  before  .sepa- 
rators, as  a  class,  were  generally  used.  A  patent  was  granted  to  W.  Pier- 
pont,  of  Salem,  N.  J.,  May  7,  1850,  on  this  principle;  but  Cyrus  Roberts, 
then  of  Belleville,  111.,  was  the  first  to  invent  and  carry  forward  to  successful 
completion  devices  necessary  to  the  development  of  the  modern  vibrating 
type  of  threshers. 

It  seems  that  John  Cox  and  Cyrus  Roberts  commenced  to  build  tread- 
powers  and  "ground-hog"  threshers  at  Belleville  along  in  1848  or  1849. 
During  the  second  year  they  added  a  vibrating  pan  or  separator,  to  take 
the  place  of  the  forkers  and  the  men  who  pitched  the  straw  away.  This 
addition  to  the  machine  was  set  on  legs,  loosely,  so  as  to  vibrate  backward 
and  forward  by  the  action  of  a  crank  and  pitman  attached.  It  was  made 
of  lumber,  consisting  of  side-boards  and  a  plain  bottom  the  width  of  the 
cylinder,  six  to  ten  feet  long,  and  bored  full  of  holes.  The  vibration  caused 
by  the  crank  motion  shook  the  grain  and  chaff  through  these  holes,  making 
a  partial  separation  only.  It  did  not  dispense  with  the  forkers.  as  they 
still  had  to  help  get  the   straw  away  with  their  forks,  but  it  assisted  mate- 


AMERICAN-   AGRICCLTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 


i09 


PITTS  MACHINE   AS   MADE  IN   1838. 


OLD   WEMPLE  THRESHER    AND    HORSE  POWER. 


THE  SWEEPSTAKES  THRESHER,   PITTS'  SYSTEM. 


DX  &  ROBERTS'    VIBRATING   THRESHER.    IS52. 


NICHOLS  &  SHEPARD'S  FIRST  \^BRATOR,    1858. 


no  AMERICAN    AGKICLLTUKAL   IMPLEMKNTS 

rially  in  the  operation  of  separating  and  dividing  the  grain  from  the  straw. 
There  was  no  fanning  mill  as  yet  to  the  machine,  no  frame-work,  decking 
nor  covering,bnt  ill  a  short  time  a  frame  was  added,  and  to  this  the  vibrating 
pan  or  separator  was  suspended  by  rods.  Other  improvements  were  made, 
and,  July  20,  1852,  Mr.  Rol)erts  obtained  a  patent  on  the  machine,  the  fir.st 
claim  of  which  was  as  follows:  "Having  thus  described  my  improvements 
in  grain  separator  and  cleaner,  what  I  claim  therein  as  new,  and  desire  to 
secure  by  letters  patent,  is  the  combination  of  the  adjustable  crank  for 
vibrating  the  separating  trough  with  the  adjustable  tracks  on  which  the 
jumping  roller  runs,  which  shakes  the  trough  up  and  down,  whereby  the 
straw  may  be  accelerated  or  retarded  without  affecting  the  vertical  shaking 
of  the  straw."  March  25,  1856,  they  obtained  a  patent  for  the  shaking 
fingers,  which  had  been  added  meantime.  This  thresher  was  developed 
into  a  first-class  machine,  known  at  first  as  "Cox  &  Roberts' thresher. " 
The  Cox  &  Roberts'  thresher  was  also  manufactured  by  Kingsland  &  Fergu- 
son, of  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  who  w-ere  among  the  first  to  adopt  this  principle, 
and  were  prominent  in  the  early  struggles  to  develop  and  establish  it.  A 
few  years  after  Mr.  Cox  sold  his  interest  in  the  business,  and  in  1857  Mr. 
Roberts  also  sold  out,  and  afterwards  went  to  Three  Rivers,  Mich. ,  where  he 
resided  until  the  time  of  his  death,  the  past  summer. 

The  development  of  the  Cox  &  Roberts  machine  was  slow,  and  no  great 
headway  was  made  in  the  establishment  of  the  principle  until  in  1858,  when 
Nichols  &  Shepard,  who  had  been  manufacturing  agricultural  implements 
at  Battle  Creek,  Mich.,  since  1848,  commenced  to  build  threshers  upon  this 
vibrating  principle.  Their  plan  was  to  let  the  straw  pass  from  the  thresh- 
ing cylinder  directly  upon  successive  ranks  of  lifting  fingers,  to  which  was 
imparted  a  sudden  up  and  down  motion,  by  means  of  which  the  straw  was 
thoroughly  agitated  from  the  moment  it  left  the  cylinder  until  it  reached 
the  end  of  the  machine.  Their  first  separator  had  but  one  "shaker."  It 
gave  good  promise,  but,  of  course,  was  more  or  less  crude  and  defective  in 
operative  qualities.  John  Nichols  gave  che  machine  the  trademark  name 
"Vibrator,"  and  devoted  his  attention  particularly  to  the  details  of  its  devel- 
opment. The  next  year,  1859,  "double  shakers"  were  put  in  the  machine. 
They  counterbalanced  one  another,  thus  stopping  the  end-shake,  and  they 
also  greatly  assisted  in  separating  by  allowing  the  grain  to  drop  through 
the  slatwork  of  the  upper  shaker  into  the  conveyor-shaker  below.  At  this 
time  the  cylinders  were  built  of  wooden  staves  bolted  to  iron  heads,  the 
teeth  (of  the  old  form,  patented  many  years  before  by  Fox  &  Borland)  being 
driven  in,  or  of  wrought-iron  bars  provided  with  teeth  and  attached  to  cast- 
iron  heads  and  center-piece.  Usually  but  six  bars  were  used,  and  it  was 
found  that  the  bars,  with  their  teeth,  were  too  far  apart,  causing  the  straw 
to  be  jerked  from  the  hands  of  the  feeder  and  carried  through  before  being 
threshed  clean.  They  then  adopted  the  iron  cylinder,  but  added  more  bars 
until  they  built  the  "twelve-bar  cylinder."  They  kept  on  building  and  im- 
proving their  vibrator,  encountering  and  overcoming  many  obstacles  in  con- 
struction, until  1864.  About  this  time  the  machine  attracted  the  attention 
of  H.  H.  Taylor,  of  Chicago.  He  had  long  been  the  most  extensive  dealer 
in  threshing  machines  in  the  United  States,  and  had  just  obtained  an  inter- 


AMERICAN  AGRICUIvTURAI,  IMPi,EMENTS. 


Ill 


OLD    STYLE,  SINGLE    GEAR    POWER, 
USED    BY    PITTS. 


PITTS-CAREY    PO-WER,     MOUNTED. 


DOUBLE    PINION    PITTS-CAREY  POWER. 


J.    I.    case's    climax    POWER. 


WOODBURY    POWER   ON    TWO    WHEELS. 


U, 


m  "vo/^^,  /;\L 


THE  DINGEE-WOODUUKY   POWER. 


112  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAI,   IMPUiMENTS. 

est  in  the  Marsh  harvester,  then  at  the  opening  of  its  career,  for  the  purpose 
of  widening  his  business  in  that  direction.  After  a  careful  investigation  of 
the  merits  and  prospects  of  the  vibrator,  he  was  so  favorably  impressed  that 
in  1865  he  negotiated  with  Nichols  &  Shepard  and  obtained  an  interest  in 
their  patents  and  shops,  meantime  disposing  of  his  interest  in  the  harvester- 
This  reinforcement  added  vigor  to  the  contest  and  struggle  for  supremacy 
between  the  new  principle  and  the  old  types  of  machines.  A  year  or  so 
after,  C.  Aultmau,  of  C.  Aultman  &  Co.,  Canton,  O.,  manufacturers  of  the 
then  celebrated  "Sweepstakes"  thresher,  bought  an  interest  in  the  vibrator 
patents,  and  in  connection  with  Mr.  Taylor  established  the  Aultman  & 
Taylor  Company  at  Mansfield,  O.,  in  1867.  This  consolidation  of  interests 
told  heavily  upon  the  ranks  of  the  old  system.  One  by  one  its  supporters 
gave  way,  until  at  last  substantially  all  had  capitulated  or  had  fallen  into 
line  under  the  new  dispensation.  Mr.  Taylor  died  in  the  heat  of  the  con- 
test, and  Mr.  Aultman  after  it  had  ended. 

In  the  foregoing  full  credit  has  been  given  the  originators  of  and  lead- 
ers in  the  vibrator  movement  for  the  conception  and  establishment  of  the 
general  principle;  but  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  perfection  had  been 
attained  by  them  in  the  first  few  years,  or  that  the  restless  energy  of  genius 
would  stop  there.  When  a  new  system  or  principle  has  been  developed  to 
success  and  general  acceptance,  immediately  invention  seeks  to  provide 
improved  methods  or  better  plans  for  applying  the  same.  Some  of  these 
changes  may  be  but  in  form,  others  in  both  form  and  principle,  while  still 
others  may  advance  by  evolution  so  far  from  the  original  type  as  to  lose 
their  identity  therewith,  and  thus  it  has  been  in  the  development  of  thresh- 
ers since  the  vibrating  system  was  established. 

POWERS  FOR  THRESHING  MACHINES. 

Previous  to  1830  several  kinds  of  crude  stationary  powers  had  been  con- 
structed and  used  for  threshers,  and  tread  (since  called  railway)  powers 
had  by  that  time  become  quite  practical.  These  latter  were  soon  after  con- 
structed so  as  to  be  portable;  and  the  advantages  of  this  principle  being  ob- 
vious, inventors  and  manufacturers  thereafter  adopted  portability  as  a  chief 
feature. 

It  was  a  simple  process  when  portability  became  essential  to  take  down 
the  big  wheel  and  pinion  of  the  old  stationary  power,  to  arrange  frame 
and  levers,  and  to  extend  the  horizontal  rod  along  the  ground,  so  that  horses 
might  travel  over  it.  Then,  when  the  toothed  cylinder  was  substituted  for 
the  old-fashioned  barred  drum,  to  provide  the  increase  of  speed  required 
through  an  intermediate  gear,  that  is,  to  add  what  is  known  as  the  "jack." 
After  a  portable  lever-power  had  been  blocked  out,  so  to  speak,  its  use 
would  readily  point  out  necessary  improvements;  and  as  use  increased  and 
powers  multiplied  different  makers  would  naturally  travel  in  different  direc- 
tions in  the  application  of  such  improvements. 

Probably  the  first  down-power  was  simply  a  large  bull-wheel  and  a 
single  pinion.  It  might  have  been  either  a  spur  or  bevel-gear,  as  both  had 
been  used  on  stationary  powers.  As  far  back  as  1800  a  spur  master-wheel 
and  pinion,  with  a  pair  of  bevel-gears  connected  for  increasing  speed,  all 
overhead,  had  been  used  in  a  stationary  power  for  a  threshing  machine,  hence 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  113 

one  method,  at  least,  of  increasing  speed  in  the  power  itself  was  pointed 
out;  but  it  required  considerable  invention  and  mechanical  skill  to  get  these 
crude  ideas  into  a  successful  portable  lever-power. 

Doubtless  several  kinds  of  fairly  practical  powers  were  constructed  and 
used  before  any  showed  sufficient  superiority  to  create  a  type,  and  probably 
they  were  nearly  or  quite  all  of  the  low  speed,  that  is,  requiring  jacks  to 
give  sufficient  motion;  but  as  with  the  "separator"  so  with  the  power,  it 
seems  that  the  Pitts  brothers  were  the  leaders.  At  any  rate  the  Pitts  power 
was  the  first  to  gain  general  use  and  to  maintain  its  position,  as  improved, 
of  course,  in  the  market  down  to  the  present  day. 

Powers  designated  by  their  motions  are  of  two  classes — the  low  and  the 
high  speed.  The  first  requires  the  jack  to  increase  motion,  and  the  second 
furnishes  sufficient  speed  direct;  but  this  is  quite  an  indefinite  distinction, 
because  compound  gears,  and  the  rate  of  speed  which  may  be  given  by  the 
gears  or  the  cylinder,  afford  wide  scope  in  the  construction  of  the  power 
itself,  so  that  the  line  between  the  two  types  may  not  be  strongly  marked. 
These  powers  for  threshing  machines  are  now  obsolete,  but  for  other  pur- 
poses are  very  useful,  and  are  generally  manufactured.  Of  the  early  high- 
speed powers  the  Planet,  the  Woodbury,  the  triple-gear  and  the  Climax 
were  the  leaders.  The  first  lever-power  used  by  the  Pitts  brothers  had  the 
large  master-wheel  and  single  pinion  with  jack;  but  they  were  experiment- 
ing upon  the  Climax,  so-called,  about  1845,  when  Mr.  Carey,  who  was  work- 
ing in  the  same  room  with  H.  A.  Pitts,  suggested  using  two  pinions  instead 
of  one  for  the  two  bevel-wheels  in  the  center  to  prevent  heat  and  wear.  The 
result  was  the  internal  gear  and  the  turning  of  the  bevel-wheels  down,  and 
thus  the  foundation  of  the  Pitts-Carey  power  was  laid.  Mr.  Carey  made  no 
claims  to  the  invention  at  that  time,  but  the  Pitts  brothers,  in  honor  of  his 
suggestion,  had  his  name  signed  to  the  application  for  patent,  taking  as- 
signment in  full;  and  afterwards  they  paid  him  $500,  which  he  thankfully 
received.  The  original  iron  bridge  which  joined  the  two  pinions  proving 
too  rigid,  the  Pitts  brothers  put  on  their  movable  step  and  adjustable  cap 
to  hold  both  top  and  bottom  of  bull-pinion  and  bevel- wheel.  This  they 
patented  in  1846.  The  Pitts-Carey  combination  became  a  popular  power 
at  once,  and  retained  its  hold  under  various  modifications,  constructions  and 
names.  They  were  not  mounted  at  first,  but  had  that  distinction  at  an 
early  day,  and  have  been  frecjuently  improved  in  accordance  with  current 
requirements. 

The  triple-gear  is  a  high  speed  type  of  power,  and  is  put  out  in  vari- 
ous forms  according  to  the  uses  required  of  it.  Its  principles  are  plainlv 
shown  in  the  illustration,  and  so  are  those  of  the  Climax. 

The  Woodbury  power  has  had  from  the  first  marked  peculiarities.  Its 
construction  was  such  that  it  could  only  be  used  as  mounted,  for  which  reason, 
perhaps,  it  led  in  the  introduction  of  mounted  powers.  It  rode  into  the 
market  on  two  wheels  along  in  the  forepart  of  the  "fifties,"  but  did  not  gain 
ground  very  fast,  owing  to  its  liability  to  break;  but  later,  as  constructed  at 
Springfield,  Ohio,  at  Racine,  by  J.  I.  Case,  and  by  other  careful  manufact. 
urers,  it  gave  satisfaction  Later  on  it  was  mounted  on  four  wheels,  and  was 
improved  and  strengthened,  so  that  it  had  become  a  sturdy  competitor  witL 


114  AMKRICAX   ACRICUIvTURAI^   IMPLEMENTS. 

the  Pitts-Carey,  the  Climax  and  the  triple-gear  types,  but  it  wasstill  supposed 
to  lack  the  strength  and  durability  required  for  the  larger  styles  of  sepa- 
rators. The  original  Woodbury  had  but  two  driving  pinions  for  the  master- 
wheel,  one  above  and  one  below,  on  either  end  of  the  shaft,  upon  which 
was  the  big  spur-wheel;  the  others  were  traveling  pinions  simph-.  W.  W. 
Dingee,  a  skillful  mechanic  and  an  inventor  in  this  line,  remodeled  the 
power  by  making  the  idlers  working  parts  of  the  power,  thus  putting  upon 
four  pinions  the  strain  and  wear  that  previously  had  been  applied  to  two. 

PORTABI^E  AND  TRACTION  STKAM  ENGINES. 

The  use  of  steam  power  for  agricultural  purposes  began  in  England 
almost  half  a  century  ago.  Patents  had  been  granted  more  than  a  century 
ago  to  Watt  and  others  on  steam  engines  of  portable  or  traction  form,  and 
nearly  all  the  essential  elements  of  portable  threshing  engines  had  been 
invented  long  before  threshers  had  become  well  enough  known  for  practi- 
cal men  to  operate  them  by  .steam  power. 

In  18.^0  Horace  Greelej'  mentions  in  the  New  York  Tribune  that  he  had 
seen  at  Watertown,  N.  Y.,  a  portable  .steam  engine  for  farm  use,  and  his 
comments  upon  its  work  would  indicate  that  but  little  was  known  of  such 
engines. 

During  the  Civil  war  the  high  cost  of  iron  and  steel  made  it  impractica- 
ble to  put  on  the  market  engines  for  threshing  purposes  at  a  price  within 
the  means  of  farmers  and  threshermen,  and  it  was  not  until  several  years 
after  that  manufacturers  of  threshing  machinery  turned  their  attention  seri- 
ously to  building  them.  As  .soon  as  the  success  of  steam  threshing  was 
demonstrated,  they  brought  out  portable  engines,  at  first  of  six  and  eight- 
horse  power,  but  later  on  of  greater  capacity,  as  the  trade  demanded.  The 
most  important  improvement  that  was  made  was  in  the  development  of  a 
durable  traction  gear,  but  manj^  minor  inventions  have  been  added.  An 
important  .step  was  taken  when  a  form  of  fire-box  was  brought  out  adapted 
to  the  use  of  straw  as  fuel  instead  of  coal  or  wood. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Corn-harvesters. 


THE  harvesting  of  com  is  one  of  the  problems  that  our  inventors  and 
manufacturers  have  long  sought  to  solve.  Forty-three  years  ago  the 
first  patent  in  this  class  was  granted  to  Edmund  W.  Ouincy,  of  Illinois,  who 
has,  since  that  time,  become  well-known  throughout  the  countrj- as  "Old 
Father  Quincy." 

There  are  two  stages  in  the  development  of  any  implement.  The  first 
covers  the  conception  of  the  idea  and  the  making  of  an  "  operative  ' '  imple- 
ment— one  that  does  its  work  satisfactorily  in  the  hands  of  the  inventor  or 
others  who  handle  it  carefully.  The  second  stage  covers  the  pioneer 
efforts  to  manufacture  it  and  to  introduce  it  into  general  use.  For  ex- 
ample, many  inventors  during  the  early  part  of  the  centurj-  had  reapers 
that  were  "operative,"  but  it  was  not  until  1846  that  they  had  become  suf- 
ficiently practical  to  be  made  and  sold  in  large  numbers.  Again,  inventors 
began  about  1850  to  study  out  the  problem  of  a  self-binding  harvester,  and 
many  machines  were  made  that  would  work  well  in  the  hands  of  inventors, 
but  it  was  twenty-five  j-ears  before  they  had  become  perfect  in  design  and 
operation  so  they  could  be  manufactured  for  general  use;  and  during  this 
time  as  much  capital  was  lost  in  fruitless  efforts  as  there  is  invested  in  the 
industry  at  the  present  time. 

There  are,  to-day,  several  corn-harvesters  that  work  successfully  in  the 
field  when  handled  carefully,  but  whether  they  have  reached  the  final  stage 
of  development  so  they  may  be  put  on  the  market  in  large  numbers,  no  one 
can  predict.  An  encouraging  feature  is  that  these  machines  are  in  the 
hands  of  the  large  manufacturers  of  twine-binding  harvesters,  who  have 
ample  capital  to  carry  the  work  through  to  success. 

"  Old  Father  Quincy 's  "  first  machine  was  essentially  a  field-picker.  It 
was  a  crude  and  impractical  affair,  and  is  only  worthy  of  notice  because  it 
was  the  first  of  record.  Many  other  inventors  worked,  liked  Ouincy,  on 
this  idea  of  a  machine  to  pass  over  the  row  and  pick  the  ears  from  the  stalks. 
It  would  seem  that  a  machine  capable  of  gathering  all  the  ears  had  never 
been  made  by  any  of  them,  although  many  have  come  near  to  attaining 
that  result.  Some  machines  have  worked  fairly  well  in  corn  that  stood  up  in 
good  condition,  but  this  is  not  the  real  object  to  be  gained.  The  successful 
machine,  be  it  a  field-picker  or  a  harvester  and  binder,  must  work  well  under 
all  conditions,  whether  the  ears  be  three  feet  or  seven  feet  from  the  ground, 
and  whether  the  stalks  stand  upright  or  lie  twisted  and  blown. 

In  recent  years,  since  the  development  of  the  twine-binding  harvester, 
practical  men  have  been  almost  unanimous  in  the  belief  that  the  corn-har- 


116  AMERICAN'   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLKMKNTS. 

vester  of  the  future  will  be  a  binder.  In  the  meantime,  however,  another 
type  of  machine,  dignified  by  the  name  of  a  harvester,  has  been  perfected 
and  large  numbers  made  and  sold.  This  is  the  "sled  harvester,"  on  which 
two  men  stand  and  gather  the  stalks  in  their  arms  as  the  machine  is  drawn 
forward,  the  stalks  being  cut  b}-  knives  attached  to  each  side  of  it  at  the  de- 
sired height  from  the  ground. 

The  first  harvester  of  this  class  was  patented  by  J.  C.  Peterson,  of  West 
Mansfield,  O  ,  who  put  one  in  the  field  in  1886.  Soon  after  H.  McDonald 
became  interested,  and  removing  to  Bellefontain^e,  O.,  began  manufacturing 
it  the  following  year.  Others  followed  and  added  improvements,  until  eight 
or  ten  har\'esters  of  this  tj-pe  were  in  the  field.  Three  were  exhibited  at  the 
Columbian  Exposition;  by  the  \Vm.  N.  Whitely  Company,  of  Muncie,  Ind., 
the  A.  W.  Butt  Implement  Company  and  the  Foos  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, both  of  Springfield,  O.  It  is  claimed  that  with  one  of  these  harvesters 
two  men  and  a  boy  can  cut  300  shocks  per  day.  The  men  stand  on  the  sled 
and  each  gathers  an  armful  in  passing  from  one  shock  to  the  next,  taking 
two  rows  and  stopping  at  each  shock  to  deposit  the  corn  at  "gallus  hills" 
previously  prepared. 

Nearly  all  the  leading  manufacturers  of  harvesting  machines  have  ex- 
perimented more  or  less  with  corn-harvesters,  and  three  of  them  exhibited 
machines  at  the  Columbian  Exposition.  D.  M.  Osborne  &  Co.,  of  Auburn, 
N.  Y. ,  were  the  first  of  these  three  to  come  before  the  public,  they  having 
had  in  the  field  for  three  or  four  years  a  machine  adapted  to  be  used 
either  as  a  corn-binder  or  an  ensilage-harvester.  As  may  be  seen  by  refer- 
ence to  illustration,  it  has  two  gathering  arms  carrying  endless  chains, 
which  pick  up  the  corn  and  pass  it  backward  to  the  table  or  elevator.  The 
knife  is  of  circular  form.  The  binding  attachment  may  be  used  the  same  as 
though  harvesting  wheat,  or  an  elevator  may  be  attached,  as  illustrated, 
having  endless  chains  with  fingers  to  carry  the  corn  to  the  top  and  deposit  it 
in  a  wagon  driven  alongside. 

The  McCormick  Harvesting  Machine  Compauj-,  of  Chicago,  the  pioneer 
reaper  house,  had  on  exhibition  a  machine  that  is  odd  in  appearance,  but 
gives  promise  of  practical  w^ork.  The  horses  are  hitched  behind  this  ma- 
chine, the  same  as  they  would  be  hitched  to  a  "header,"  an  apparently  ad- 
vantageous plan.  The  down  corn  is  picked  up  by  gathering  arms,  which 
are  provided  with  chains  for  passing  the  stalks  backward  to  the  cutting 
knife  and  the  binder.  A  standard  twine-binder  is  used,  but  set  in  a  verti- 
cal position,  so  as  to  receive  the  stalks  as  they  are  cut  and  keep  them  verti- 
cal until  the  bundle  is  discharged.  This  machine  is  remarkably  simple  in 
construction,  a  feature  that  is  generally  more  than  half  the  battle  in  the 
development  of  an  invention.  The  illustration  .shows  quite  clearlj-  its  gen- 
eral appearance. 

William  Deering  &  Co.,  of  Chicago,  the  pioneers  in  developing  the 
Appleby  twine-binder,  have  been  experimenting  since  1881  with  corn  har^ 
vesting  machinery,  and  it  is  quite  well  known  among  machine  men 
that  they  have  expended  in  the  neighborhood  of  |200,000  in  their  search 
for  practical  inventions.  Their  exhibit  at  the  Columbian  Exposition 
probably  attracted  more  attention  from  practical  men  than  any  other  ma- 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


ii'; 


THE  PETERSOX  CORN  HARVESTER. 


THE  "scientific"'    corn   H.^RVESTER 


THE   OSBORNE  CORN   HARVESTER. 


118 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAI.   IMPLEMENTS. 


THE  Mccormick  corn  binder. 


THE  DEERING  CORN   HARVESTER  AND   BINDER. 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  119 

chiue  exhibit,  an  indicatiou  of  the  interest  that  is  felt  in  the  problem  of 
harvesting  corn.  Their  leading  machine  i.s  a  modified, form  of  the  standard 
Appleby  binder,  the  harvester  being  adapted  to  operate  with  the  binder  re- 
moved, to  elevate  the  corn  into  a  vvagon.  A  circular  knife  or  saw  is  used, 
set  in  horizontal  position  for  cutting  the  stalks,  which  are  bent  forward  by 
a  hood,  and  fall  upon  a  chain  elevator  which  carries  them  over  the  drive- 
wheel  to  the  binder,  in  the  same  manner  as  a  canvas  elevator  carries  wheat, 
but  with  the  stalks  in  a  reverse  position,  i.  e.,  with  the  tops  forward.  The 
machine  is  simple  in  construction,  and  has  made  an  excellent  record  in  the 
field,  especially  in  the  examination  conducted  by  the  World's  Fair  judges. 
It  rained  during  the  trial,  making  the  ground  soft  and  the  corn  difficult  to 
handle,  some  of  it  being  thirteen  feet  high,  and  the  wind  blew  a  gale.  The 
conditions  could  scarcely  have  been  more  trying,  but  the  machine  did  ex- 
cellent work.  The  illustration  is  from  a  photograph  taken  in  the  same 
'field  a  few  days  after.  Deering  also  exhibited  at  the  fair  a  field-picking 
harvester,  and  a  small  hand-husker,  operated  by  a  crank,  intended  for  use 
in  the  southwest  where  corn  is  stored  in  the  husks  to  protect  it  from  the 
weevil. 

The  development  of  the  corn-harvester  and  binder  by  the  manufactur- 
ers whose  efforts  have  just  been  noticed,  leads  to  the  mention  of  a  machine 
that  can  hardly  be  classed  with  harvesters,  but  which  may  be  noticed  in  this 
chapter  to  better  advantage  than  in  any  other  of  the  chapters  on  corn  ma- 
chinery. The  Keystone  corn-husker  and  fodder-cutter,  as  made  by  the 
Keystone  Manufacturing  Company,  of  Sterling,  111.,  has  been  before  the 
trade  for  several  years,  and  has  become  favorably  known  as  a  practical  ma- 
chine for  the  purpose  indicated  by  its  name.  As  the  stalks  are  fed  into  the 
machine  butts  foremost,  the  stem  of  the  ear  is  cut  by  the  knives  and  the  ear 
falls  upon  a  series  of  inclined  rollers  under  the  feeder's  table.  The  ear 
slides  downward  upon  the  rollers,  which  seize  the  husk  and  strip  it  away, 
allowing  the  ear  to  pass  on  and  fall  into  a  carrier,  which  elevates  it  into  a 
wagon  or  bin.  The  operation  is  simplicity  in  itself,  and  the  work  done  is 
quite  satisfactory.  A  feature  that  appeals  to  the  practical  farmer,  and  espe- 
cially to  the  stock  raiser,  is  that  the  fodder  is  all  saved  and  put  into  the  most 
convenient  form  for  feeding. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Corn-shellers. 


THE  development  of  the  corn-sheller  has  been  contemporaneous  with  the 
pioneer  work  in  corn-planters,  cultivators  and  other  implements.  The 
one-row  corn-drill  or  planter  was  used  to  a  limited  extent  prior  to  1850,  and 
so  also  Avas  the  small  hand  corn-sheller.  When  the  farmers  found  themselves 
in  possession  of  improved  planters  and  cultivators,  with  the  effectiveness  of 
labor  correspondingly  increased,  they  naturally  began  to  inquire  for  a  means 
of  shelling  the  corn  rapidly.  Inventors  were  quick  to  answer,  and  practical 
manufacturers  became  interested  in  the  new  industry  in  due  .season. 

William  Cobbett,  the  noted  English  political  writer,  retreating  from 
the  difficulties  into  which  his  effusions  had  drawn  him,  came  to  the  United 
States  in  1817,  and  leased  a  farm  on  L,ong  Island.  He  became  much  inter- 
ested in  corn-growing,  and  returning  to  England  in  1820,  he  soon  after  took 
a  farm  there  and  began  the  cultivation  of  Indian  corn  specially,  with  a  view 
of  acclimating  it.  He  says  of  shelling  corn:  "This  is  done  in  America  by 
scraping  or  rasping  the  ears  upon  a  piece  of  iron  fixed  across  a  tub,  into 
which  the  grains  fall.     The  iron  is  commonly  a  bayonet." 

The  Mexican  Indians  tie  a  bunch  of  cobs  together  in  circular  form,  mak- 
ing what  they  call  an  olotero,  and  against  this  they  rub  off  the  kernels  by 
hand.  Many  other  crude  ways  for  aiding  the  hands  to  shell  corn  by  the 
turning,  rubbing  or  grating  process,  were  known  and  practiced  in  the  early 
days  before  any  one  had  thought  of  the  first  "one-hole"  sheller,  which  was 
simply  a  hole  smaller  than  an  average  ear,  through  which  the  cob  was 
driven,  leaving  its  corn  on  the  way;  and  it  was  by  improvement  and  a 
proper  mechanical  combination  of  these  elementary  methods  that  the  first 
real  corn-sheller  was  produced.  The  first  efforts  were  directed  towards 
shelling  simply,  the  next  to  separating  or  removing  the  cobs,  then  the  chaff 
and  litter,  and  la.stly  to  increasing  capacity  and  perfection  of  operation. 
The  balance-wheel,  to  give  steadiness,  was  added  quite  early. 

Knight,  in  his  Mechanical  Dictionary,  gives  very  little  indeed  concern- 
ing shellers.     He  divides  them  into  three  classes  as  follows: 

"1.  The  roughened  or  toothed  disk  which  operates  upon  the  ears  in 
connection  with  a  chute  or  oblique  pressure-board,  which  holds  the  corn 
against  the  rubber. 

2.  The  cylinder  with  toothed  periphery  acting  upon  the  ears  in  connec- 
tion with  a  concave  which  affords  a  gradually  decreasing  throat,  as  the  ears 
roll  and  rub  and  part  with  their  grains. 

3.  An  orifice  into  which  the  ear  is  driven  by  a  blow  from  a  mallet,  driv- 
ing the  cob  through  and  shelling  ofif  the  grains  " 

120 


AMERICAN   AGRICL'LTrKAI.   IMPLEMENTS.  121 

Probably  the  first  description  of  a  machine  for  shelling  corn  is  contained 
in  an  English  cyclopedia,  dating  back  about  sixty  years.  The  following 
comment  appears  on  this  subject:  "In  this  country  [England]  there  are 
machines  of  different  kinds  which  perform  the  operation  of  shelling  corn 
with  great  rapidity;  but  whoever  has  a  threshing  machine  might,  by  setting 
the  rollers  and  drum  somewhat  wider  than  usual,  dispense  with  manual 
labor,  both  in  the  operations  of  husking  and  shelling;  and  indeed  we  see  no 
reason  why  the  crop  should,  not  be  harvested,  like  a  crop  of  drilled  beans,  with 
Gladstone's  bean  reaper,  and  sheaved,  shocked,  stacked  and  threshed  like  an  v 
other  grain."  Of  the  sheller  illustrated  the  author  says:  "  It  is  composed  of  a 
thin  vertical  wheel,  covered  with  iron  on  one  side  made  rough  by  punctures, 
which  wheel  works  in  a  trough  and  separates  the  grains  from  the  stalks 
[cobs]  by  rubbing.  The  ears  or  spikes  of  corn  are  thrown  in  by  hand  one 
at  a  time;  and  while  the  separated  grains  pass  through  a  funnel  below,  the 
naked  stalk  is  brought  up  at  the  end  of  the  wheel  opposite  to  that  at  which 
it  was  put  in.  The  wheel  may  either  be  made  rough  on  both  sides  or  on 
one  side,  according  to  quantity  of  the  work  required  to  be  done,  and 
the  force  to  be  applied."  Of  another  it  is  said:  "  Mariott's  improved  maize 
separator  is  the  most  perfect  machine  of  this  kind  at  present  in  use;  it  has  not 
hitherto  been  much  used  in  England,  but  a  good  many  have  been  exported 
to  America  and  the  colonies." 

Here  we  find  that  machines  clearly  belonging  to  Knight's  first  class — 
prototypes  of  the  modern  "picker-wheel"  shellers— were  built  in  England 
for  the  American  market  sixty  years  ago  at  least,  and  probably  before  au}^ 
attempt  had  been  made  in  this  countr\-  to  manufacture  anything  of  the 
kind.  This  need  not  be  wondered  at,  for  the  British  were  considerably  in 
the  advance  of  us,  up  to  the  last  half  centur}^  in  all  these  practical  arts, 
both  as  inventors  and  manufacturers.  It  is  since  then  that  America  has 
outstripped  all  other  nations  in  the  development,  perfection  and  use  of  farm 
implements. 

Hand-shellers  of  the  "picker- wheel"  type  were  probably  the  first  that 
were  made  in  this  country.  Of  these  the  "Clinton"  and  "Burrall"  were 
among  the  earliest  to  be  produced  for  the  market.  In  the  Prairie  Fai  mer 
of  January,  1847,  occurs  the  following: 

"Mr.  Bradley,  of  Kalamazoo  county,  Mich.,  asks:  'Will  you  not  give  us 
a  pattern  for  corn-sheller — not  of  seven  or  one  horse-power,  but  of  one 
man-power— such  as  every  small  or  large  farmer  may  have  without  great 
expense,  say  from  five  to  ten  dollars?'"  In  reply  the  editor  says:  "Bur- 
rail's  corn-sheller  *  *  *  is,  as  we  are  assured,  an  excellent  machine, 
costing  eleven  or  twelve  dollars,  made  wholly  of  iron,  and  can  be  turned 
by  hand  or  horse-power.  It  is  to  be  had  in  eastern  warehouses,  but  there 
are  none  of  them  or  any  other  in  our  market."  So,  according  to  the 
Prairie  Farmer,  there  were  no  corn-shellers  for  sale  in  Chicago  nor  else- 
where in  the  west,  we  would  naturally  assume;  but  Mr.  Bradley's  expres- 
sion, "not  of  seven  or  one  horse-power,"  indicates  that  he  was  acquainted 
with  such  as  were  run  by  power. 

The  late-Augustus  Adams,  of  Sandwich,  111.,  the  recognized  leader  in 
the  development  of  corn-shellers,  in  answer  to  an  inquir}-  some  j-ears  before 


122  AMERICAN    AGKiClLTLRAI.    IMPLEMENTS. 

his  death,  said:  "The  first  sheller  that  I  ever  saw  was  one  that  'Father 
Brewster'  had  when  he  came  to  Elgin,  111.,  which  he  brought  from  the  east, 
but  where  made  I  do  not  kuow.  It  was  like  one  of  our  one-hole  machines, 
except  that  it  delivered  the  shelled  corn  and  cobs  all  together.  The  first 
separating  sheller  I  ever  saw  was  the  Burrall  iron  sheller,  about  1S43  or 
1S44,  which  discharged  the  corn  at  the  bottom  and  the  cobs  at  the  end. 
This  was  built  at  Seneca  Falls,  N.  Y.  The  first  two-hole  sheller  that  I 
know  of  was  made  by  Allen  "Wayne,  who  furnished  his  own  patterns  and 
had  his  castings  made  by  B.  "W.  Raymond  when  the  latter  was  in  company 
with  me  at  Elgin.  Wayne  failed,  owing  Raymond  for  castings,  etc.  Ray- 
mond took  his  patterns  and  stock  and  turned  them  over  to  us  at  Elgin,  and 
we  worked  up  the  unfinished  stock,  which  was  the  commencemeut  of  our 
making  two-hole  shellers.  The  first  power  sheller  I  ever  saw  was.  I  think, 
in  1843  or  1844,  at  Bloomington,  111.,  and  was  what  was  known  as  the  'can- 
non' sheller.  It  was  a  cast-iron  case  about  seven  feet  long  and  perhaps  a 
foot  in  diameter,  receiving  the  corn  at  one  end  and  discharging  the  cobs  at 
the  other.  *  *  *  I  do  not  recollect  its  internal  arrangement  well  enough 
to  describe  it.  I  think  it  was  made  in  Pennsylvania.  The  second  was  a 
cylinder  sheller,  made  at  Peoria.  The  next  (about  1858)  was  the  'Mag- 
nolia,' built  at  Magnolia,  Putnam  county,  111.,  which  shelled  with  ribs  on 
a  cast  cylinder,  and  it  had,  I  think,  a  concave  with  round  rods  to  let  the 
corn  through.  *  *  *  The  next  cylinder  sheller  that  came  considerably 
into  xise,  more  especially  in  warehouses,  was  the  'Richards.'  made  in  Chi- 
cago. This  had  a  revolving  screen  surrounding  the  cylinder  to  separate 
the  com  from  the  cobs." 

Thos,  A-  Gait,  of  Sterling,  111.,  is  another  pioneer  in  the  development 
of  com-shellers.  At  the  time  of  the  above  quoted  interview  Mr.  Gait  had 
this  to  say:  "My  first  experience  with  a  power  sheller  was  about  fifty  years 
ago,  when  a  boy.  We  used  to  place  the  corn  on  a  bam  floor  about  a  foot 
deep,  and  it  was  shelled  out  by  horse-power;  that  is.  by  putting  four  horses 
on  it  and  letting  them  tramp  the  corn  ofi"  the  cob,  which  at  that  time  was 
thought  to  be  a  very  successful  way  of  shelling  com.  It  was  probably  be- 
fore the  time  when  such  a  thing  as  a  corn-sheller  was  thought  of.  At  that 
time,  when  corn  was  needed  for  domestic  use,  we  usually  placed  eight  or  ten 
bushels  of  it  in  the  large  brick  oven  after  the  baking  was  done  and  dried  it 
out;  then  it  was  removed  into  the  kitchen  to  the  big  fire-place,  and  by  laying 
a  shovel  over  the  tub  we  managed,  as  we  thought,  to  shell  ver\-  rapidly  by 
hand.  Some  time  after  that  we  got  a  corn-sheller  which,  if  I  recollect 
rightlv,  was  on  the  same  principle  as  the  present  'picker- wheel'  sheller." 

Mr.  Gait  said  that  he  recalled  "using  a  sheller  at  an  early  day  made  by 
driving  broken  nails  into  a  cylinder,  placing  the  cyliuder  in  a  box.  and  as 
the  cylinder  was  turned  it  shelled  the  corn  from  the  cob." 

The  Annual  Register  of  Rural  Afiairs  for  1857  says  of  Smiths  patent 
"cannon''  sheller,  then  manufactured  at  Kinderhook,  N.  Y.,  that  it  was 
considered  the  best  then  in  use  for  shelling  corn  on  a  large  scale,  and  de- 
scribed it  as  follows:  "It  is  a  horizontal-toothed  cylinder,  six  feet  long  and 
fourteen  inches  in  diameter.  It  can  be  operated  by  water,  steam  or  horse- 
power, and  hence  would  be  very  valuable  in  the  western  states,  where  Indian 


AMERICAX   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMEXTS.  Ii3 

com  is  grown  in  large  quantities.  *  *  *  The  ears  of  com  are  confined 
in  the  operation  to  a  part  of  the  upper  or  rising  side  of  this  cylinder  bv 
means  of  a  cast-iron  concave  or  case  extending  the  -whole  length  of  the  ma- 
chine, and  the  corn  being  shoveled  in  at  one  end  is  driven  through,  and 
the  cobs  discharged  at  the  other,  while  the  com  falls  below,  being  admitted 
by  the  small  space  on  either  side  of  the  cylinder.  The  operation  is  gov- 
erned by  elevating  or  depressing  the  discharging  end,  which  causes  the 
machine  to  discharge  the  cobs  fast  or  slow,  and  of  course  operating  more  or 
less  upon  them,  thus  securing  to  the  operator  the  means  of  finishing  his 
work.  It  is  capable  of  shelling  2Cm)  bushels  of  ears  per  hour  w-ith  a  two- 
horse  power.  Price,  ^4oand  |^iO.''  The  Register  also  speaks  of  the  '"Clin- 
ton '  one  and  two-hole  shellers  of  the  disk  or  picker-wheel  type,  as  in  gen- 
eral use.  This  sheller  was  built  by  the  Clinton  Agricultural  Works,  of 
Clintonville,  Conn.,  and  had  a  very  extensive  sale,  in  fact  quantities  of  them 
were  shipped  abroad, 

Mr.  Adams  moved  from  Elgin  to  Sandwich,  111.,  in  LSoT,  where  A. 
Adams  &  Sons  continued  the  business  and  put  out  several  styles  of  shellers 
of  the  picker-wheel  type;  and  before  the  war  the  firm  had  become  ^dely 
known  to  the  com  buyers  on  the  roads  running  through  the  '"corn-belt"  on 
account  of  their  two  and  four-hole  horse-power  machines.  These  were,  as 
to  shelling  de\-ices,  simply  enlargements  of  their  hand-shellers,  consisting 
of  a  large  picker-faced  disk  or  wheel,  wdth  a  smaller  wheel  having  beveled 
and  ribbed  face  (stripping  or  feed  wheel  i  faced  to  it,  and  a  rag  iron  for  each 
shelling  set,  and  arranged  in  series  of  two  and  four  for  two  or  four-hole 
shellers.  The  four-hole  machine  was  furnished  with  fan  and  elevator,  and 
was  turned  by  two  horse-power.  It  was  fed  from  a  table  on  a  level  with  the 
throats,  a  man  on  each  side  feeding  two.  Two  expert  men  could  put  through 
about  SCK)  bushels  per  day,  a  very  satisfactory-  result,  considering  the  inex- 
pensive character  of  the  machinery-,  the  light  force  and  power  for  operating 
it,  and  the  neatness  and  cleanness  of  the  work  done. 

"Wm.  Gillman,  of  Ottawa,  111.,  early  in  the  '"  sixties  "  began  the  manu- 
facture of  a  cylinder  sheller  for  portable  ser\-ice  among  the  farmers.  This 
was  a  very  good  machine  and  had  considerable  sale.  It  was  the  beginning 
of  the  business  that  for  many  years  past  has  been  conducted  by  the  King 
&  Hamilton  Company.  There  was  also  in  use  before  the  war  a  cylinder 
sheller  made  at  LaFayette,  Ind.  This  was  a  large  machine  adapted  to 
warehouse  use,  substantially  the  same  as  the  one  buUt  by  Mr.  Richards,  of 
Chicago,  and  known  widely  as  the  ""Richards"  sheller.  Many  others  in 
the  west  began  manufacture  later,  some  of  them  continuing  successftdly  to 
the  present  time. 

In  the  east,  besides  the  '"Clinton,"  which  received  its  name  from  Da^^d 
Clinton,  who  invented  the  bevel  or  feed-wheel  and  its  combination  with  the 
picker-wheel,  and  the  ""Burrall."'  invented  by  T.J.  Burrall,  who  about  1S50 
fixed  his  shelling  device  in  a  cast-iron  case,  with  separator  forming  a  part 
of  the  case,  there  were  A.  Blaker  &  Co.,  Newtown,  Pa.;  the  Pennock  Manu- 
facturing Company,  Kennett  Square,  Pa. ;  and  Ruggles.  Nourse  &.  Mason, 
Worcester  Mass. .  all  mantifacturing  shellers  along  about  ISoO  of  the  picker- 
wheel  type. 


I'J-l  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 

Who  first  in  this  country  made  provision  for  separating  the  cobs  from 
the  shelled  corn  in  the  "picker- wheel"  class  of  shellers,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  determine,  but  he  only  improved  the  principle  applied  to  this  purpose  in 
the  old  English  machine  mentioned.  At  any  rate  the  little  "Burrall"  had 
such  a  separating  device,  the  cast  shell  in  which  the  shelling  wheels  were 
inclosed  being  so  arranged  in  relation  to  the  large  sheller-wheel  (picker  or 
straight  runner)  as  to  hold  the  cob,  after  the  corn  was  shelled  from  it, 
pressed  lightly  to  said  large  wheel  in  its  revolution  until  the  cob  arrived  at 
an  opening  in  the  case,  through  which  it  was  discharged  by  its  centrifugal 
momentum.  Early  in  the  "fifties"  the  slatted  cob-rake,  or  riddle,  on  which 
the  cobs  were  carried  off— the  corn  sifting  through — was  introduced;  and 
soon  after  came  the  fan  for  blowing  out  the  light  impurities.  The  late 
Augustus  Adams,  as  early  as  1854  or  1855,  at  Elgin,  111.,  made  two-hole 
hand  shellers  with  cob-rakes.  Slats  of  wood  were  arranged  on  a  pair  of 
leather  belts,  spread  wide  enough  apart  so  that  the  slats,  extending  across 
from  one  end  to  the  other  of  the  belts,  would  about  cover  the  width  of  the 
double  set  of  shelling-wheels;  the  inner  end  of  said  carrier  or  cob-rake 
reached  under  the  shelling-wheels,  and  the  outer  end— somewhat  higher — 
projected  behind  so  as  to  deliver  the  cobs  free  of  the  machine.  The  slats 
were  so  shaped  as  not  to  present  flat  surfaces  for  the  shelled  corn  to  ride  on, 
but  allowed  the  latter  to  pass  freely  through  and  down  the  delivery  chute. 
About  1858  Mr.  Adams  produced  a  flexible  iron  cob-rake,  which  has  proved 
to  be  one  of  the  most  valuable  features  of  the  modern  Adams  shellers.  It 
was  a  rake  made  of  iron  or  steel  rods — three  sixteenths  to  one-quarter-inch 
round,  according  to  the  size  of  the  machine  the  rake  w^as  intended  for — each 
rod  forming  a  link,  the  ends  being  so  peculiarly  turned  that,  joining  with 
those  of  the  next  link  or  rod,  perfectly  flexible  connections  were  made. 
The  rods  formed  the  slats  across,  and  enough  thus  connected  made  a  thor- 
oughly flexible  iron  riddle,  as  pliable  practically  for  its  purpose  as  cloth  or 
leather,  which,  besides  being  durable,  presented  small,  round  surfaces  upon 
which  the  kernels  could  not  ride  out  and  be  wasted. 

A  two-hole  one-horse  power  sheller,  made  by  the  Dillmans,  of  Plain- 
field,  111. ,  had  a  cob-carrier  constructed  and  arranged  like  the  first  described 
as  constructed  by  Mr.  Adams,  except  that  the  slats  consisted  of  foltied  strips 
of  sheet  metal.  These  presented  a  rounded  face,  but  at  intervals  along  the 
carrier  the  front  lip  or  fold  of  a  slat  was  left  up  to  engage  with  lagging  cobs 
and  insure  their  passage  up  the  incline  to  point  of  delivery  outside.  This 
feature  was  covered  by  a  patent. 

Cob-carriers  and  fans  were  usually  at  that  time  attachments  to  power 
shellers.  Hand  shellers,  which  were  made  by  the  parties  above  mentioned, 
by  Gait  &  Tracy,  at  Sterling,  111.,  and  others  in  the  west,  were  mostly  of  the 
Clinton  or  Burrall  types,  and  generally  without  separating  devices,  or  with 
such  as  were  used  to  shoot  out  the  cobs.  After  cob-carriers  and  fans  had 
been  added  to  picker-wheel  shellers,  the  next  step  in  development  was  the 
elevator,  which  device  takes  the  shelled  corn  from  under  the  machine  and 
carries  it  up  to  be  delivered  into  bags.  This  and  other  parts  were  improved 
and  rendered  more  effective  as  the  maturing  experience  of  manufacturers 
saw  the  need. 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTUR.\Iv   IMPLEMENTS.  12-> 

The  uext  and  the  greatest  improveruent  for  giving  capacity  to  these  shell- 
ers  was  the  self-feeding  device,  invented  by  Augustus  Adams  about  1860.  At 
that  time  one  and  two-hole  shellers— hand  and  power — and  those  that  had 
been  made  with  four  holes,  were  fed  each  from  a  table  on  a  level  with  the  feed 
throats  by  hand,  the  operator  manipulating  the  ear^)  30  as  to  present  them 
endways  to  the  shelling  devices.  For  the  four-hole  machine  two  men  were 
required,  one  on  each  side  of  the  table.  The  capacity  of  the  power  shellers  fed 
thus  depended  largely  upon  the  dexterity  of  the  attendant  feeders,  and  much 
loss  resulted.  The  following  is  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Adams:  "  In  the  fall  of 
18-59  I  conceived  the  idea  of  carrying  the  ears  to  the  throats  of  the  machine 
by  a  series  of  belts,  which  proved  a  success,  although  it  came  near  being 
a  failure,  as  the  belts  would  carry  up  the  corn  faster  than  the  throats  could 
receive  it,  causing  clogging.  To  avoid  this  difficulty  I  conceived  the  idea 
of  making  and  placing  the  picker- wheels  in  the  throats  as  now  used,  which 
gave  the  desired  result  and  made  the  feeder  a  success,  enabling  the  operator 
to  feed  the  machine  by  shoveling  the  corn  into  the  feeder,  and  thus  dis- 
pensing with  hand  feeding."  This  feeder  for  a  four-hole  sheller  was  con- 
structed as  follows:  There  was  a  long  trough  inclined  backward  from  a  point 
above  the  feeding  throats  of  the  machine,  at  an  angle  not  too  sharp  to  admit 
of  the  corn  being  carried  up  without  much  tumbling  and  rolling  back- 
ward, and  in  this  trough  were  arranged  four  carrying  belts  with  lugs  run- 
ning parallel  to  each  other,  in  parallel  spaces  corresponding  to  the  four 
throats  of  the  machine.  The  partitions  that  divided  the  trough  into  these 
spaces  were  so  sloped  or  tapered  that  at  their  lower  ends  they  scarcely  rose 
above  the  level  of  the  bottom  of  the  trough,  but  they  were  gradually  increased 
in  their  rise  from  the  bottom  as  they  approached  the  highest  point,  so  the 
corn,  shoveled  promiscuously  in  at  the  lower  end  of  the  trough,  was  carried 
forward  by  the  four  belts,  and  as  it  progressed  these  rising  partitions  raised 
the  ears  that  were  lying  crosswise  above  the  lugs  placed  on  the  belts  for  the 
purpose  of  moving  the  corn  upward,  when,  being  thus  released  therefrom, 
their  tendency  was  to  roll  backward  off  the  edges  of  the  partitions  into  the 
hollows  between,  lengthwise,  and  on  the  top  of  the  lugged  belts,  which  car- 
ried them  in  that  position  up  to  the  highest  point,  whence  they  were  dis- 
charged down  corresponding  chutes  into  the  throats  of  the  machines. 
Afterward,  to  prevent  clogging  at  the  throats,  Mr.  Adams  placed  a  little 
picker- wheel  at  the  side  of  each  throat  to  aid  in  regularly  distributing  and  in 
accelerating  the  ears  as  they  passed  into  the  shelling-wheels.  These  devices 
were  improved  in  form  and  construction  from  time  to  time.  They  worked 
satisfactorily  and  gave  much  greater  capacity  to  the  shellers,.  besides  pro- 
viding a  way  for  enlargement  to  six  holes  or  more,  but  they  did  not  yet 
constitute  a  perfect  feeeder,  for  ears  would  still  wedge  and  clog  at  the  feed 
throats.  To  remedy  this  defect  and  to  make  a  positive  feed  the  invention  of 
H.  A.  Adams  was  added  in  1872,  which  consisted  in  the  location  of  a  power- 
ful shaft  with  wings  or  projections  over  the  throats,  so  that  in  turning  they 
seized  upon  the  approaching  ears,  at  the  point  where  they  were  likely  to 
hesitate  and  wedge,  and  forced  them  through.  This  device  not  only  com- 
pletely prevented  clogging,  but  it  also  increased  the  shelling  capacity' 
largely.     Another  improvement  in  the  construction  of  the  feeder  was  made 


12G  AMERICAN    AGRICULTLRAI,    IMPLEMENTS. 

some  years  after  by  J.  Q.  and  O.  R.  Adams,  sons  of  Augustus,  but  engaged 
in  manufacture  at  Marseilles,  111.,  who  suljstituted  chains  for  the  former 
belts  and  rollers,  thus  oVjviating  the  difificulties  experienced,  when  running 
in  winter,  with  ice  and  snow. 

Other  makers  were  active  also.  The  Plainfield  sheller  had  made  an 
excellent  record  in  improvements  and  practical  operation.  Meantime  A. 
H.  Shreffler  had  connected  himself  with  the  concern,  and  in  1867  the  works 
w^ere  removed  to  Joliet,  111.,  and  there  conducted  under  the  title  of  the 
Joliet  Manufacturing  Company.  Mr.  ShrefBer,  in  1875  or  1876,  made  an  im- 
portant advance  in  the  art  by  raising  the  main  shaft  of  the  sheller — the  one 
upon  which  the  "straight  runner"  or  picker-disk  is  placed,  and  to  which 
power  is  usually  applied — to  a  higher  plane  than  its  companion-shaft,  upon 
which  the  rapidly  revolving  "bevel-runners"  or  stripping- wheels,  and  the 
balance-wheel  are  placed,  so  that  the  ears  of  corn  could  be  delivered  closely 
to  the  throat  of  the  machine  and  run  into  the  shelling-wheels  practically  on 
a  level;  thus  obviaticg  the  necessity  of  raising  the  corn  so  high  as  in  the 
older  form  of  feeder,  and  also,  the  difficulty  consequent  upon  such  raising 
— the  tumbling  and  rolling  of  the  ears  in  their  descent.  This  improvement 
again  added  to  the  capacity  as  well  as  to  convenience  and  quality  of  work, 
and  was  generally  adopted  by  other  makers.  With  these  main  improve- 
ments, and  the  many  in  details  of  construction  which  followed,  the  capacity 
of  a  four-hole  two-horse  sheller  has  been  raised  to  2,500  bushels  per  day 
when  run  to  good  advantage. 

The  Keystone  Manufacturing  Company,  Sterling,  111.,  successors  to 
Gait  &  Trac}',  made  quite  a  departure  from  the  ordinary  picker-wheel 
sheller.  They  substituted  for  the  bevel-runner  or  stripping-wheel  and  rag- 
iron  with  spring,  a  "shelling  picker-shaft,"  with  a  shelling  length  of  eight 
to  ten  inches.  In  this  machine  the  shoe  and  screen  have  been  discarded, 
and  the  separation  is  made  by  open  links  through  which  the  corn  passes 
while  the  cobs,  etc. ,  are  being  carried  off. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

F^eed  and  Ensilage-cutters. 


THE  practice  of  preparing  coarse  food  for  cattle  by  cutting  is  probably  as 
old  as  their  domestication.  Large  vegetables  would  require  reduction 
in  size  before  they  could  be  eaten,  and  the  convenience  of  some  preparation 
and  regulation  must  have  been  soon  recognized.  The  Hebrews  chopped  or 
cut  both  straw  and  grain  in  the  bundle  for  feed,  and  so  did  the  Egyptians, 
Greeks  and  Romans.  The  last-named  people  fed  of  various  succulent 
grasses  and  vegetables,  cutting  up  and  measuring  rations  according  to  the 
requirements  of  their  stock;  but  they  probably  had  no  machines  for  cutting 
other  than  knives  or  chopping  implements.  The  first  feed-cutter  i  for  straw) 
mentioned  in  agricultural  records,  was  invented  by  one  Hochfield,  in  Saxony, 
over  a  hundred  years  ago,  but  no  description  appears  in  the  brief  notice  of  it. 
In  Great  Britain  straw-cutters,  mostly  on  the  simple  plan  of  a  knife  on  a  lever, 
pivoted  at  one  end  and  having  a  handle  at  the  other,  were  used.  Vegetable 
slicers  were  also  made  and  on  the  market  during  the  latter  part  of  last 
century,  as  were  steamers,  boilers,  roasters,  breakers  and  bruisers.  Straw  and 
chaff-cutters  were  patented  in  this  country  early  in  the  centurj'.  Probably 
the  first  advance  was  the  lever  knife,  the  next  a  frame  and  feed  box,  with 
straight  descending  knife.  These  primitive  cutters  are  designated  as  of  the 
guillotine  type,  and  to  this  class  belonged  the  Hotchkiss  straw-cutter, 
patented  Aug  2,  1808,  and  again  Jan.  17,  1817.  There  were  several  forms 
of  these  early  guillotine  cutters — that  is,  of  those  that  operated  on  a  straight 
line  upon  the  straw  or  fodder  as  it  was  issued  from  the  throat  By  an  early 
improvement  the  knife  was  given  an  endwise  motion  in  addition  to  its  de- 
scending, making  a  draw  cut  Some  had  V-shaped  knives  or  cutting  plates, 
and  others  had  double-edged  knives — cutting  on  the  return  while  ascend- 
ing as  well  as  when  descending.  Another  class  of  feed-cutters  had  cutting 
knives  upon  a  cylinder  on  a  horizontal  axis  in  front  of  the  throat  and  cut- 
ting towards  the  axis.  "Salmon,  of  Woburn.  England  [quoting  from 
Knight],  about  seventy  years  since,  introduced  the  oblique  knife,  attached 
cylinder  fashion,  between  two  wheels  and  cutting  towards  the  throat  of 
the  straw  box;  revolving  in  the  same  plane  of  motion  as  the  straw  is 
moved.  This  feature  is  shown  in  the  United  States  patents  granted  to  East- 
man, Jan.  29,  1822,  and  to  Denson,  May  2,  1835.  Weir's  chaflFand  fodder- 
cutter,  used  in  England  more  than  sixty  years  ago,  was  probably  the 
first  representative  of  another  class.  It  had  two  cun'ed  knives  attached, 
•each  with  one  end  to  a  spoke  and  the  other  to  the  rim  of  a  large  balance- 
wheel.  A  crank  was  fixed  to  the  wheel  which,  in  revolving,  carried  the 
knives,  the  latter  cutting  against  a  plane  at  the  end  of  the  feeding  trough 
or  throat.      This  old  English  machine  was  of  the  class  specified    by  Dr. 

127 


128 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 


CYLINDRICAL  STALK  CUTTER. 


HIDE  ROLLER  H.\Y  CCTTER. 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  129 

Knight  as  having  "  the  radial  or  curved  knife  attached  to  a  wheel  revolving 
on  an  axis  parallel  to  the  direction  of  the  feed  and  thus  cutting  off  the  straw 
as  it  issues  from  the  throat  of  the  machine."  Albaret's  (France)  cutter  be- 
longs to  this  class,  as  do  several  styles  of  excellent  cutters  now  made  in  this 
country.  The  knives  of  some  of  the  machines  of  this  class  have  a  draw 
cut,  being  governed  b}-  eccentrics  that  give  them  a  rocking  motion.  Spiral 
cutters  of  various  forms  were  early  invented.  In  one  kind  "  one  roller  has 
spiral  knives,  and  the  other  spiral  abutment  corrugations,  whose  intervals 
are  entered  by  the  knives."  Some  cylinder  machines  cut  against  rollers 
covered  with  raw-hide,  and  some  cutters  were  self-sharpening.  Circular 
saws,  peculiarly  arranged,  were  tried  and  used  to  some  extent,  and  many 
other  devices  not  mentioned,  but  these  we  have  noticed  represent  various 
types  of  early  cutters  that  more  or  less  prefigured  the  perfected  and  enlarged 
machines  now  in  general  use.  All  these  early  feed-cutters  were  turned  or 
worked  by  hand  by  means  of  a  crank  or  lever,  and  at  first  they  were  fed  by 
hand.  The  first  attempt  at  automatic  feeding  was  an  endless  web  of  cloth 
passing  over  two  rollers.  The  next  improvement  was  ' '  a  worm  to  turn  two 
feeding- wheels  to  convey  the  fodder  to  the  knives  attached  to  two  arms  of 
the  fly-wheel. ' '  This  arrangement  fed  so  that  the  fodder  could  be  cut  at  such 
length  as  was  required.  Various  improvements  in  self-feeding  devices  have 
been  made  since,  affecting  their  facility  and  safety.  These  primitive  ma- 
chines were  intended  for  cutting  straw  and  hay  chiefly;  for  corn-stalk  cut- 
ting and  rapid  work  more  capacity  was  given  in  construction,  and  horse  or 
steam-powers  were  attached. 

It  is  scarcely  fifty  years  since  feed-cutters  were  first  made  for  the  market 
in  the  United  States.  In  Great  Britain,  and  on  the  continent  of  Europe  to 
some  extent,  where  farms  are  small,  rents  high  and  fodder  dear,  for  perhaps 
a  hundred  years  past  machines  of  this  class  have  been  made  and  sold. 
They  are  not  necessary'  tools  like  the  plow — which  all  agricultural  peoples, 
no  matter  what  the  state  of  their  civilization,  must  have— but  they  are  im- 
plements of  economy,  marking  advanced  intelligence  on  the  part  of  the 
users.  The  peasant  procured  a  plow  of  some  sort,  because  he  must  have  it 
or  starve;  it  was  not  a  matter  to  exercise  his  thought  or  judgment,  it  was 
one  of  necessity.  On  the  contrary,  the  modern  farmer  or  stock  raiser  buys 
a  feed-cutter  or  grinder  as  the  result  of  deliberate,  intelligent  consideration; 
and  it  marks  his  advanced  capacity,  while  the  failure  to  invest  in  such 
economic  implements  indicates  lack  of  progress,  and  lack  of  ability  to  em- 
ploy resources  or  materials  to  best  advantage. 

Some  time  early  in  the  "forties"  several  parties  in  the  eastern  states 
began  to  make  feed-cutters— then  generally  called  straw  or  chaff-cutters — 
for  a  limited  trade.  That  section  of  our  country  had  become  pretty  well 
settled,  and  the  rough,  weak  lands  having  been  put  largely  to  stock,  econ- 
omy in  the  u.se  of  feed  began  to  be  generally  studied  and  practiced.  The 
old  firm  of  Ruggles,  Nourse  &  Mason,  at  Worcester,  Mass.,  made  straw  and 
hay-cutters  previous  to  1845  ;  and  in  1848  the  New  York  State  Agricultural 
Society  awarded  them  first  premium  for  their  hide-roller  cutter.  A  feed- 
cutter  made  by  this  old  concern,  having  a  pair  of  feed-rollers,  was  cata- 
logued as  early  as  1847;  and  various  forms  and  styles  of  these  machines  had 


130  AMERICAN  AGRICUIvTURAL  IMPI^EMENTS. 

been  produced  and  put  upon  the  market  by  them  early  in  the  "fifties," 
affording  types  for  many  of  the  modern  machines. 

Bildad  B.  Belcher,  of  Chicopee  Falls,  Mass.,  was  a  pioneer  in  this  line, 
and  brought  out  the  class  of  cutters  known  as  "  self-sharpeners."  It  seems 
that  in  the  winter  of  1849  an  ingenious  Vermont  mechanic  conceived  the 
idea  of  a  feed-cutter,  the  knives  of  which  any  person  of  ordinary  intelligence 
might  grind  and  keep  in  order,  and  produced  what  was  known  as  the 
Yankee  Blade.  In  the  summer  of  1852  Mr.  Belcher  became  interested  in 
it,  and  made  arrangements  for  its  manufacture  and  sale.  He  began  opera- 
tions in  the  fall  of  that  5^ear,  improved  the  machine  in  various  ways,  and 
came  out  with  it  under  the  name  of  the  self-sharpening  feed-cutter.  It 
sharpened  itself  by  reversing  the  motion,  and  applying  oil  and  emery.  The 
working  parts  consisted  of  "an  upper  and  lower  cylinder,  each  provided 
with  from  three  to  nine  flanges,  according  to  the  length  designed  to  be  cut. 
A  straight  stationary  knife,  made  of  the  best  material,  and  of  great  strength, 
is  placed  between  the  flanged  cylinders,  and  arranged  in  such  a  way  that 
the  feed  to  be  cut  is  caught  by  the  flanges,  passed  between  the  cylinders, 
and  is  cut  off"  as  it  is  brought  in  contact  with  the  knife.  The  flanges  are 
made  spiral,  and  make  a  smooth  shear  cut,  cutting  off  the  hay  or  other  feed 
with  the  greatest  ease  and  perfection.  By  this  simple  arrangement  it  will 
be  seen  a  perfect  self-feeding  machine  is  produced,  without  the  aid  of  a 
separate  feeding  apparatus." 

Large  numbers  of  these  implements  v/ere  made  and  sold,  and  they  still 
hold  a  respectable  place  in  the  eastern  markets.  In  1850,  or  thereabouts, 
Warren  Gale  invented  a  cutter  known  since  as  Gale's,  the  knives  cutting 
against  metal  instead  of  rawhide.  This  was  a  self-feeder,  and  was  made  by 
the  firm  of  Belcher  &  Taylor,  at  Chicopee  Falls,  Mr.  Taylor  having  come 
into  the  firm  in  1861. 

Feed-cutters,  like  corn-shellers,  were  made  at  first  in  a  small  way  at 
many  places,  for  the  trade  in  vicinities,  for  any  mechanic  could  make 
a  practical  hand-lever  cutter;  indeed,  all  that  was  wanted  was  a  piece  of 
scythe  pivoted  at  one  end  and  handled  at  the  other,  to  be  moved  up  and 
down  before  a  V-snaped  trough,  in  which  the  fodder  is  laid  and  fed  by  one 
hand,  as  with  the  scythe  lever  it  is  cut  off  by  the  other.  Anybody,  with 
the  assistance  of  a  country  blacksmith,  could  make  this  sufficiently  well  to 
be  thoroughly  practical. 

As  far  back  as  1844,  in  central  Pennsylvania,  a  machine  consisting  of  a 
rotary  disk  having  curved  knives  upon  one  side  and  a  roughened  grinding 
surface  upon  the  other,  revolving  close  to  a  stationary  disk  with  a  rough 
surface,  was  considerably  used.  It  was  without  feed  rolls,  and  the  feeding 
of  it  was  not  only  exceedingly  dangerous,  but  very  hard  work,  as  the  vibra- 
tions due  to  the  knives  striking  the  fodder  were  passed  through  the  arms  of 
the  operator  with  such  ill  effect  as  to  cause  numbness. 

As  population  moved  westward  grass  and  pasture  lands  became  scarcer, 
or  more  were  put  under  cultivation,  and  stock-raising  increased  largely 
because  of  the  growing  demand  for  beef  and  dairy  products.  It  became 
essential  to  study  the  economies  in  feed  and  its  preparation.  Eastern 
farmers  who  moved  west,  and  British  and  German  farmers  who  immigrated 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS.  131 

here,  had  been  familiar  with  fodder-cutters  for  hay,  straw  or  vegetables  "  at 
home;"  hence  when  they  became  possessed  of  stock  in  numbers,  they 
would  naturall}'  look  out  for  feed-cutters,  having  known  their  advantages. 
So  these  machines  were  ordered  westward — at  first  by  those  who  had  been 
familiar  with  their  use,  and  then  by  others  who  became  converted  by  obser- 
vation, but  the  movement  was  slow.  In  the  meantime  factories  in  the  west 
hegan  making  them,  and  since  1880  the  discussion  and  adoption  by  many 
of  the  ensilage  system  increased  largely  the  interest  of  farmers  and  stock- 
raisers.  Intelligent  feeders  saw  that  a  great  saving  in  fodder  could  be  made 
through  proper  preparation,  careful  experiments  indicating  a  large  per- 
centage of  gain  over  the  old  loose  way. 

Increased  demand  has,  of  course,  resulted  in  active  competition,  and 
the  latter  has  stimulated  invention,  so  as  trade  in  cutters  has  extended,  vari- 
ous improvements  have  followed,  especially  in  devices  for  adding  to  capac- 
ity and  facility,  but  the  markets  are  pretty  evenly  divided  now  between  the 
two  chief  classes,  and,  as  in  other  lines  of  machinery,  what  began  in  the  east 
has  culminated  in  the  west,  both  in  extent  of  trade  and  perfection  of  con- 
struction, and  some  eastern  manufacturers  have  also  followed  "the  march  of 
empire"  westward. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Grinding  Mills. 


No  one  kuows  when  grcmnd  grain  was  first  fed  to  domestic  animals. 
Sheep,  swine,  and  animals  for  milk  and  meat  were  in  domestication 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  stone  age,  when  man  began  first  to  cultivate 
cereals,  to  grind  and  convert  the  same  into  primitive  bread;  and  they  would 
naturally  eat  the  refuse  with  relish,  which  man  observing  would  therefore  give 
to  them— the  morv.  thoroughly  to  subject  as  well  as  to  provide  for  them.  So 
the  practice  of  giving  to  stock  ground  feed  was  coeval  and  has  been  current 
with  grinding,  since  man  began  to  do  either;  but  it  is  not  probable  that  any 
mill  or  grinder  was  made  especially  to  prepare  grain  for  such  purpose 
before  our  own  times.  The  stones  of  the  old-fashioned  grist-mills  were  set 
so  as  to  crack  wheat  or  oats  or  make  coarse  corn  meal  for  feed,  as  farmers 
desired,  and  it  is  not  probable  that  any  portable  mills  for  farm  use  were 
made  until  after  metallic  burrs  had  been  invented  and  successfully  used  for 
grinding  grain.  At  first,  hand  mills  with  iron  plates  were  made  to  do  coarse 
work  where  regular  mills  were  not  accessible,  as  in  the  army,  to  crack  grain 
for  slaves  on  plantations,  and  later,  as  enlarged  and  fitted  for  powers,  to  pre- 
pare food  for  stock.  These  were  varied  and  improved  to  meet  requirements 
and  changes  that  time  had  rendered  necessary,  and  finally  they  have  come 
into  general  use  as  portable  feed  grinders.  The  demand  for  mills  for  such 
purpose  stimulated  invention,  so  various  crunching,  crushing,  cracking  and 
grinding  mills  with  metal  crushers  or  grinders  have  been  produced,  and 
burr  stones  also  have  been  simply  arranged  and  adapted  in  several  forms  to 
farm  and  plantation  uses,  of  all  which  now  there  is  a  great  variety. 

In  the  east,  and  wherever  grist  mills  were  common  and  convenient, 
farmers  and  feeders  of  stock  could  get  their  grain  prepared  without  diflS- 
culty;  so  there  they  have  longer  been  disposed  to  use  ground  feed,  and  more 
generally  than  in  the  west,  or  in  other  places  where  water-power  was  scarce 
and  mills  few;  but  the  advent  of  cheap  portable  grinders,  coupled  with  im- 
proved systems  of  stock -farming,  reversed  these  conditions.  In  the  west 
where  grain,  especially  corn,  was  cheap,  or  where  methods  were  primitive 
on  account  of  remote  location,  ear-corn  was,  and  to  some  extent  is  yet, 
dumped  upon  the  ground— in  the  mud  which  the  weather  so  frequently  pro- 
vides—for the  stock  to  eat,  as  well  as  they  might,  what  of  it  was  not  neces- 
sarily wasted.  This  was  the  rule  all  over  the  settled  portions  of  the  west 
thirty-five  years  ago.  During  the  Crimean  war,  which  began  in  1853  and 
ended  in  1856,  prices  for  grain  advanced  considerably,  and  a  bushel  of  corn 
was  of  so  much  value  that  the  farmer  disliked  to  feed  it  out,  especially  to 
throw  it  upon  the  ground,   where  a  considerable  portion   must  be  wasted. 

132 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMEXTS.  133 

Economy  in  feed,  unthought  of  before,  became  a  subject  for  stud}-.  He 
measured  and  scrimped  where  before  he  had  thrown  out  hap-hazard,  and 
"he  fed  to  avoid  useless  waste.  He  soaked  the  grain ;  he  carefully  saved  the 
tailings;  he  bought  bran;  he  invested  in  patent  steamers  for  cooking  vegeta- 
bles and  other  fodder,  mixed;  in  fact  he  did  what  he  could  to  fill  and  fatten 
his  stock  with  something  cheaper  than  grain. 

It  was  not  then  a  question  of  proper  feeding  so  much  as  of  cheap  filling, 
that  engrossed  the  farmer's  mind.  About  this  time  the  cob  and  corn-mill 
man  came  around  and  he  was  made  welcome;  and  the  shrill  shrieks  of  me- 
tallic disk  grinders  were  borne  upon  the  breezes.  But  this  war  closed  the 
crash  of  1S57  followed;  in  18-58  continuous  rains  destroyed  the  crops;  in  1859 
frost  killed  the  corn  generalh-;  in  1860  there  were  splendid  crops,  but  prices 
were  so  low  in  the  winter  of  1860-61  that  corn  was  quite  commonly  burned  as 
ordinary  fuel.  During  these  years  the  feed-grinder  man  disappeared.  In 
18(11  grain  began  to  feel  the  effects  of  the  civil  war;  prices  went  up  and  up 
year  after  year,  and  again  the  feed-grinder  man  appeared,  this  time,  how- 
ever, to  sta}',  for  he  brought  around  better  mills,  and  the  farmer  had  begun 
to  ::Ludy  methods  of  feeding  for  the  purpose  of  improving  the  size  and  qual- 
ity of  his  stock  as  well  as  economizing  food.  Progress  was  slow  at  first 
a^ter  this  reaction,  for  grinders  were  still  imperfect;  but  as  the  advan- 
tages of  ground  feed  over  grain  in  the  natural  state  became  apparent,  the 
demand  increased,  and  this  of  course  stimulated  inventors  and  manufact- 
urers to  improve  and  perfect  their  various  devices,  and  so  the  trade  has  in- 
creased. 

The  first  known  use  of  metallic  disks  or  grinding  plates  was  by  the 
French  during  the  time  of  Napoleon  I  and  in  the  army.  The  mill  adopted 
by  this  great  general  to  provide  meal  for  his  soldiers  "  while  on  the  road  to 
IIoscow"  isdescribed  as  follows:  "Itconsistedof  two  circular  cast-iron  plates, 
about  twelve  inches  in  diameter,  placed  in  a  vertical  position.  One  was  fixed, 
the  other  rotated  by  a  hand-crank:.  The  plates  were  indented  all  over  with 
radiating  grooves,  and  the  corn  [grain]  was  conducted  to  the  center,  or  eye, 
by  a  lateral  hopper.  The  meal,  as  it  was  ground,  was  projected  from  the 
periphery  by  the  centrifugal  force  of  the  revohnng  plate."  Another  mill, 
of  French  invention  also,  stands  on  a  tripod  or  three  legs,  It  has  two 
hand-cranks,  each  for  a  man,  to  drive  the  grinders — the  meal  being  delivered 
in  a  sack  suspended  beneath  and  between  the  legs.  Francis  Devereux,  in 
France,  obtained  a  patent  for  a  military  mill  in  1824;  but  it  seems  to  be 
substantially  the  same  as  those  used  a  dozen  3'ears  before  in  the  Russian  cam- 
paign, already  described,  except  that  the  grooves  cut  in  the  metallic  plates 
radiated  regularly  from  their  centers.  From  these  or  like  originals  the 
disk  grinders  have  emanated. 

Feed  grinding  mills,  with  metallic  grinders  or  burrs  of  the  conoidal  or 
conical  form,  with  correspondent  shell  or  "  bell  "  turning  on  a  vertical  axis, 
on  the  principle  of  old-fashioned  pepper  mills,  were  prefigured  in  form  to 
some  extent  by  mills  found  at  Pompeii,  as  also  by  some  of  the  ancient 
querns.  Hand  mills  on  this  principle  were  made  and  used  by  soldiers, 
pioneers  and  others  requiring  them  for  grinding  grain,  but  not  to  the  same 
extent  as  those  of  the  other  class. 


13-4 


AMERICAN   AGRICUIvTURAI.  IMPI.KMEXTS. 


THE    BUCKEYE   MILL, 


VARIOrS  STYLES  OF  DISK  DRESS. 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAI.   IMPLEMENTS.  I35 

I\Ir.  Marsh  says  that  his  first  experitnce  with  a  feed-grinder  was  at  the 
close  of  the  Crimean  war,  but  before  the  reaction  had  fairly  set  in.  Grain 
was  still  high  and  economy  in  feed  was  an  important  consideration.  The 
mill  he  then  used  was  known  as  the  "  Little  Giant."  It  was  built  at  Cin- 
cinnati, O.,  and  was  the  production  of  J.  A.  Hedges,  who  gave  it  the  name  by 
which  Senator  Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  familiarly  known  in  the  west.  It 
was  a  sweep  mill,  low  speed,  not  unlike  in  appearance  others  of  the  class  as 
made  now,  and  was  intended  only  for  crushing  and  coarsely  grinding  cob 
and  corn  for  stock.  The  ears  were  thrown  into  the  hopper,  spike  teeth 
directly  under  in  revolution  seized  and  crushed  them,  and  then  they  were 
ground  between  the  lower  portion  of  the  conoidal  burr  and  its  correspond- 
ent shell— the  meal  falling  into  a  box  below.  In  direct  evolution  the  "Big 
Giant"  came  next,  with  blades  for  crushing,  and  ribs  decreasing  in  size  and 
increasing  in  number  toward  base  of  the  cone  and  shell — the  dress  resem- 
bling that  of  a  burr  stone. 

C.  Leavitt,  in  1855,  patented  a  mill  of  this  class  which  was  built  at 
Mansfield,  Ohio.  Mr.  Leavitt  died  several  years  ago,  but  his  feed-grinder, 
with  various  improvements,  is  still  built  by  several  manufacturers. 

Freeport,  111.,  is  noted  for  the  invention  and  manufacture  of  feed-mills 
of  this  class.  Several  years  ago  the  Morgan  Bros,  began  making  them, 
and  to  obtain  greater  capacity  thoy  invented  the  triple  gear,  whereby  the 
cone  was  made  to  revolve  three  times  as  fast  as  the  shell,  a  combination 
that  became  very  popular.  The  Stover  Manufacturing  Company  then  com- 
menced to  make  a  sweepgrinder  of  similar  style.  Stover's  patent.  At  about 
this  time  George  K.  Smith  invented  a  combined  horse-power  and  feed-mill, 
which  he,  in  connection  with  H.  C.  Staver,  of  Chicago,  introduced  under  the 
name  of  the  "Buckeye."  Mr.  Smith  afterward  invented  a  new  combined 
power  and  mill  which  he  called  the  "  Victor." 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

Wind-mills. 


THE  use  of  wind,  like  the  use  of  water,  for  power  purposes,  was  first 
suggested  by  the  observation  of  its  natural  force  and  capacity  to  move 
objects,  and  its  tendency  to  turn  or  whirl  them  around  under  certain  con- 
ditions. Probably  the  original  wind-mill  was  made  by  primitive  man  as  a 
toy  for  his  child,  and  the  fir.st  water-wheel  ma}^  have  had  its  origin  in  the 
same  way;  then  as  form  and  action  were  improved  by  frequent  construction, 
their  utility  for  the  convej-ance  of  power  became  apparent,  and  simple 
experiments  for  such  purposes  were  made.  We  can  only  imagine  how  the 
forces  of  wind  and  water  may  have  been  originally  used  to  give  motion 
to  wheels,  but  when  or  for  what  practical  purpose  first  applied  even  im- 
agination fails  to  give  us  any  conception.  Wind  and  water,  the  moving 
forces  of  nature  with  which  man  was  in  common  contact,  gave  him  the 
first  ideas  of  mechanical  power.  Probably  water  was  put  in  service  before 
wind,  but  the  use  of  both  elements  for  power  began  far  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  records  or  traditions  to  which  we  now  have  access;  and  when  we  come 
down  to  historic  times  we  find  much  uncertainty  and  some  contradiction 
among  old  as  well  as' modern  writers  on  the  subject. 

Wind-mills  for  grinding  grain,  according  to  various  accounts,  were  used 
in  the  east  long  before  the  Christian  era,  but  the  earliest  recorded  application 
of  wind  power  was  for  another  purpose.  A  description  is  given  in  the 
"Spiritalia,"  by  Hero  of  Alexandria,  B.  C.  150,  of  a  wind-mill  which  worked 
the  piston  of  an  air-pump  to  blow  an  organ. 

The  world  was  set  back  many  centuries,  and  arts  were  lost  that  may 
never  again  be  found,  when  the  Alexandrian  library  and  museum  were 
destroyed  by  the  fanatics  of  the  times;  but  fragmental  descriptions  of 
what  was  there  have  come  down  to  us,  and  show  that  the  genius  of  inven- 
tion had  traversed  every  line  in  the  remote  past  and  long  before  our  era,  in 
which  latter  there  has  been  chiefly  a  great  revival  of  old  devices  and  an 
adaptation  of  them  to  practical  uses  far  beyond  that  of  any  previous  age. 

Johann  Beckmann,  a  German  professor  of  natural  sciences,  in  his 
"History  of  Inventions,"  written  1780-1805,  and  translated  into  English  in 
1817,  discusses  wind-mills  largely  and  learnedly.  He  says:  "Mabillon  men- 
tions a  diploma  of  the  year  1105,  in  which  a  convent  in  France  is  allowed 
to  erect  water  and  wind-mills  molendina  ad  ventuni.  In  the  year  1143  there 
was  in  Northamptonshire  an  abbey  situated  in  a  wood,  which  in  the  course 
of  180  years  was  entirel)'  destroj'ed.  One  cause  of  the  destruction  was  said 
to  be,  that  in  the  whole  neighborhood  there  was  no  house,  wind  or  water- 
mill  built,  for  which  the  timber  was  not  taken  from  this  wood. 

13G 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS.  137 

"In  the  twelfth  ceutur}-,  wheu  these  mills  begau  to  be  more  common,  a 
•dispute  arose  whether  the  tithes  of  them  belonged  to  the  clergj-,  and  Pope 
Celestine  III  determined  the  question  in  favor  of  the  church.  In  the  j-ear 
1332  one  Bartolommeo  Verde  proposed  to  the  Venetians  to  build  a  wind- 
mill. When  his  plan  had  been  examined  a  piece  of  ground  was  assigned  to 
him,  which  he  was.to  retain  in  case  his  undertaking  should  succeed  within 
a  time  specified.  In  the  year  1393  the  city  of  Spires  caused  a  wind-mill  to 
"be  erected,  and  sent  to  the  Netherlands  for  a  person  acquainted  with  the 
method  of  grinding  by  it.  A  wind-mill  was  also  constructed  at  Frankfort, 
in  1442,  but  I  do  not  know  whether  there  had  not  been  some  there  before." 

Wind-mills  seem  to  have  been  common  throughout  the  more  civilized 
portions  of  Europe  during  the  middle  ages.  Besides  in  Germany  and  Hol- 
land, the}-  were  mentioned  as  used  at  a  very  earlj-  time  in  Bohemia,  in  France, 
and  later  in  England,  Italy  and  Spain.  The  Spanish  author,  Cervantes, 
who  wrote  "Don  Quixote"  about  A.  D.  1600,  in  relating  the  adventures  of 
"his  crazy  knight,  tells  of  his  encounter  with  one  of  thirty  or  forty  wind- 
mills that  stood  in  a  plain  through  which  he  traveled. 

An  incident  relating  to  the  erection  of  a  wind-mill  in  the  Netherlands, 
which  shows  the  condition  of  the  times,  and  the  assumption  and  rapacity  of 
the  ruling  classes,  is  quaintly  told  by  the  chronicler,  Jargow,  and  is  men- 
tioned in  Wolff's  "The  Wind-mill  as  a  Prime  Mover.  '  "As  our  monastery 
had  not  a  mill  to  grind  corn,  they  resolved  to  build  one.  When  the  Lord 
of  Woerst  heard  this  he  did  everji;hing  in  his  power  to  prevent  it,  saying  that 
the  wind  in  Zealand  belonged  to  him,  and  that  no  one  ought  to  build  a  mill 
there  without  his  consent.  The  matter  was  therefore  referred  to  the  Bishop 
of  Utrecht,  who,  as  soon  as  the  affair  was  made  known  to  him,  replied  in  a 
violent  passion  that  no  one  had  power  over  the  wind  within  his  diocese  but 
himself  and  the  church  at  Utrecht;  and  he  immediately  granted  full  power, 
by  letters  patent,  dated  1391,  to  the  convent  at  Windsheim  to  build  for  them- 
selves and  their  successors  a  good  wind-mill  in  anyplace  which  they  might 
find  convenient."  In  like  manner  the  city  of  Haarlem  obtained  leave  from 
Albert  Count  Palatine  of  the  Rhine  to  build  a  wind-mill  in  the  year  1394. 

Wind  power  for  drainage  or  drawing  water  off  land  was  used  in  Holland 
several  hundred  years  ago.  There  is  an  account  of  a  mill  of  that  kind  which 
was  built  at  Alkmaar  in  1408;  of  another  at  vSchoonhoven  in  1450;  of  still 
another  in  Enkhuysen  in  1452,  and  undoubtedly  many  others  were  built  for 
such  purpose  about  that  time. 

The  earliest  wind-mills  were  stationary,  and  were  therefore  set  for  the 
prevailing  wind,  because  they  could  receive  it  from  one  direction;  and  later, 
some  were  placed  on  floats  upon  the  water,  so  that  the}-  could  be  easily 
moved  around  to  catch  the  wind  .from  whatever  quarter  it  might  blow; 
next  "post"  mills  were  erected,  in  which  the  whole  building,  with  the 
wind  sails,  shaft  and  the  machinery  is  supported  upon  a  vertical  post  or 
column  upon  which  it  revolved  when  actuated  by  a  lever,  but  not  auto- 
matically. Later  on,  "  tower  "  mills  were  constructed,  in  which  only  the 
head,  cap,  or  dome  of  the  building,  with  the  shaft  which  it  contained, 
revolved.  These,  after  automatic  regulators  for  turning  them  to  the  wind 
had   been   applied,   became   the  standard  European   wind-mill.      Quoting 


138  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAI,   IMPI.KMKNTS. 

from  Wolfi's  work:   "European  wiud-mills  have  been  divided  into  two  gen- 
eral classes,  according  to  the  inclination  of  the  shaft: 

"  1.  Horizontal  mills,  in  which  the  sails  were  so  placed  as  to  turn,  by 
the  impulse  of  the  wind,  in  a  horizontal  plane,  and  hence  about  an  axis 
exactly  vertical;  and 

' '  2.  Vertical  mills,  in  which  the  sails  turn  in  a  nearly  vertical  plane, 
i.e.,  about  an  axis  nearly  horizontal." 

In  "  vertical  "  mills  of  the  European  type  the  tower  or  building  which 
supported  the  wind-mill  proper  was  either  of  wood  or  stone;  if  of  stone,  the 
tower  was  commonly  in  the  form  of  a  frustum  of  a  cone.  The  principal 
parts  of  the  mill  proper  are: 

"  1.  An  axle  or  shaft,  either  of  wood  or  stone,  in  the  top  of  the  build- 
ing, inclined  to  the  horizontal  at  an  angle  of  from  ten  to  fifteen  degrees,  as 
observation  has  shown  that  the  impulse  of  the  wind  is  usually  exerted  in 
lines  descending  at  such  angles. 

' '  2.  The  sails  attached  to  near  the  outer  extremity  of  the  shaft,  and 
turning  in  nearly  a  vertical  plane.  The  planes  of  these  sails  are  placed 
obliquely  to  the  plane  of  revolution,  so  that  when  the  wind  blows  in  the 
direction  of  the  axle  it  impinges  upon  their  surface  obliquely,  and  thus  the 
effort  of  the  sail  to  recede  from  the  wind  causes  it  to  turn  upon  its  axle. 
These  sails  consist  of  wooden  frames  (arms  and  cross-bars),  with  canvas  cov- 
ering the  lattice  or  frame-work.  If  four  in  number,  as  is  the  rule,  though 
five  and  six  have  been  employed,  the  sails  are  fixed  in  position  at  right 
angles  to  each  other.  They  are  usually  constructed  from  thirty  to  forty 
feet  in  length,  though  fifty  feet  has  often  been  exceeded. 

"3.  A  large-toothed  wheel  upon  the  horizontal  axle,  the  teeth  of  which 
engage  with  those  of  a  pinion  upon 

"  4.  A  vertical  shaft  from  which  motion  is  imparted  to  the  machinery. 

"  It  will  be  understood  that  the  horizontal  shaft  is  supported  at  its  inner 
end  near  the  center  of  the  base  of  the  dome  or  cone  surmounting  the  mill, 
while  its  opposite  extremity  passes  through  a  perforation  in  one  side  of  the 
dome,  where  it  has  its  main  support,  and  projects  far  enough  to  receive  the 
ends  of  the  long  timbers  or  arms  of  the  sail.  The  pivot  at  the  lower  or 
inner  end  of  the  shaft  takes  up  but  a  small  part  of  the  weight  and  counter- 
pressure. 

"The  axle  is  constructed  of  some  hard  wood  like  oak,  or  of  wrought- 
iron,  with  cast-iron  flanges  of  large  diameter  keyed  on  the  front,  which  are 
furnished  with  recesses  for  receiving  and  holding  the  arms  of  the  sails. 

"The  sails  are  made  plane,  concave,  or  warped.  The  latter,  the  most 
efifective,  have  been  in  greatest  use;  and  the  angles  employed  in  the  Dutch 
type  of  mill  (' tower '  j  have,  on  the  whole,  approached  very  closely  to  those 
which  theoretical  analysis  proves  to  be  the  most  serviceable.  Where  plane 
sails  have  been  used  the  bars  have  all  had  the  same  angle  of  inclination, 
ranging  between  twelve  and  eighteen  degrees  to  the  plane  of  revolution." 

The  "post,"  also  called  German  mill,  as  mentioned  before,  is  supported 
upon  a  massive  central  column,  around  which  the  superstructure  is  revolved 
to  meet  the  M-ind.  This  type  is  not  used  to  any  extent  now,  if  at  all,  and 
need  not  be  described.  In  the  "tower,"  known  as  the  Dutch  mill,  thedome 


AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS.  139 

only  is  turned  with  the  axle  and  sails.  The  vertical  toothed  wheel  travels 
around  the  pinion  of  the  post,  so  the  connection  is  not  broken.  ''The  turn- 
ing of  the  dome  was  formerly  eflFected  by  a  toothed  wheel,  which  engaged 
in  a  rack  on  the  inner  side,  and  which  was  turned  by  an  endless  cord  pulled 
by  a  man;  but  at  the  present  time  Cubett's  method  is  employed.  This  con- 
sists of  a  set  of  small  sails,  or  an  auxiliary  wind-mill  placed  in  an  upright 
position  upon  a  long  arm  or  frame  projecting  in  the  plane  of  the  horizontal 
shaft,  but  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  dome,  the  plane  of  the  sails  of  the 
auxiliary  wind-mill  being  nearly  at  right  angles  to  the  plane  of  the  sails  of 
the  wind-mill  proper.  By  their  revolution  the  sails  turn  a  shaft  and  pinion, 
and  finally  act  upon  teeth  surrounding  the  exterior  of  the  dome,  turning  it 
until  the  wind  no  longer  moves  the  auxiliary  wind-mill  vanes,  when  the 
sails  proper  will  be  exactly  in  their  best  position  to  receive  the  impulse  of 
the  wind."  It  must  not  be  supposed  that  this  is  the  only  method  of  auto- 
matically turning  the  sails  or  face  of  a  wind-mill  to  position  for  best  receiv- 
ing the  wind,  for  in  "The  Complete  Dictionary  of  Arts  and  Sciences,"  pub- 
bli.shed  in  176<i,  may  be  found  a  cut  and  description  of  a  wind-mill  quite 
like  those  in  common  use  in  America,  with  a  vane  for  turning  the  face  of 
the  wheel — consisting  of  eight  sails  or  sections  on  as  many  arms — to  the 
wind;  and  wind-mills  of  various  types  other  than  those  just  mentioned  were 
long  ago  and  are  now  used  in  Europe,  and  for  different  purposes;  but  those 
we  have  described  represent  the  standard  European  mills,  such  as  have  been 
— as  primitively  constructed  and  as  improved — in  common  use  there  for 
hundreds  of  years. 

The  variations  in  the  intensity  of  the  wind  made  it  necessary  that  some 
method  of  governing  or  regulating  the  mill  be  provided.  This  was  accom- 
plished by  changing  the  extent  of  sail  surface  offered  to  the  wind;  that  is, 
by  furling  or  unfurling  the  sails.  At  first  much  trouble  and  delaj-  were 
occasioned  by  this  method  of  regulation,  as  the  mill  had  to  be  stopped 
while  it  was  done;  so  inventors  sought  better  plans.  In  1870  Andrew  Meikle, 
the  same  Scotchman  who  a  few  years  after  invented  the  first  successful 
threshing  machine,  devised  for  reefing  wind-mill  sails  when  in  mcJtion  '  'an 
ingenious  application  of  the  centrifugal  governor, "  viz. :  a  sliding  piece, 
which  operated  upon  rollers  placed  transversely  with  the  arms,  and  wound 
up  or  reefed  the  canvas  when  the  sails  attained  too  great  a  velocity.  The 
unfurling  of  the  sails  or  increasing  their  speed  was  accomplished  by  a 
weight  which  actuated  a  rod  passing  through  the  center  of  the  main  axle, 
and  operated  centripetally  on  the  sliding  frames;  and  then  unwound  the 
canvas  when  the  motion  of  the  sails  was  too  much  retarded."  This  was  the 
first  successful  reefing  apparatus  for  wind-mill  sails,  and  it  imparted  a  stead- 
iness of  motion  never  before  attained,  and  not  since  excelled  to  any  extent. 
Various  other  methods  for  governing  wind-mills  of  the  European  type  have 
been  devised  and  successfully  applied,  and  many  improvements  have  been 
made.  The  use  of  wind  power  is  as  old  in  Europe  as  civilization.  It  has 
been  applied  chiefly  to  grinding  grain,  and  next  to  pumping.  In  the  low 
lands,  as  in  Holland,  one  sees  wind-mills  everj-where.  Long  lines  of  them 
pump  the  waters  off"  the  sunken  lands,  and  others  grind  grain  or  furnish 
cheap  power  for  various  mechanical  and  manufacturing  purposes.     INIany 


140 


AMERICAX  ACRICULTURAIv  IMPLEMENTS. 


GERMAN  OR   "post"    WIXD-MILL,    A.   D.    1200.  THE  HALLADAY  STANDARD  WIND-MILL. 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  I41 

wind-mills  of  the  European  tj'pe  have  been  erected  in  the  United  States,  and 
in  German  or  Dutch  settlements  we  find  them  often. 

With  wind-mills,  as  with  other  classes  of  machines  and  implements, 
while  we  ma}^  find  traces  of  them  in  the  remote  past,  and  considerable 
development  in  Europe,  yet  in  the  United  States  only  have  they  been 
brought  out  in  such  practical  forms  and  perfection  of  operation  as  to  come 
into  common  use  for  various  purposes.  Wind,  though  furnishing  abundant 
force  as  a  motive  power,  is  uncertain  and  irregular  in  the  extreme,  hence  it 
has  taxed  the  ingenuity  of  man,  far  more  than  water  has,  to  provide  means 
by  which  this  unstable  and  violent  power  could  be  subjected  to  his  will;  and 
the  success  that  he  has  attained,  the  delicacy  and  perfection  of  action  with 
which  his  devices  adapt  themselves  to  the  varj'iug  moods  of  so  fitful  a  fluid, 
are  indeed  wonderful. 

The  purposes  for  which  wind  power  may  be  used  are  many  and  increas- 
ing, and  the  manufacture  of  wind-mills  has  become  one  of  the  important 
industries  of  the  United  States,  employing  the  very  best  inventive  talent 
and  mechanical  skill,  and  occupying  now  the  large  number  of  factories 
engaged  in  the  business  for  their  full  capacity.  Many  thousands  of  wind- 
mills or  wind-engines  are  annually  manufactured,  for  a  trade  not  limited  to 
particular  sections,  but  as  broad  as  our  countrj',  in  fact,  reaching  far  bevond, 
for  the  foreign  demand  takes  a  considerable  portion  of  this  annual  product. 
Where  moderate  force  is  required,  but  not  a  continuous  or  too  rapid  motion, 
wind-power  is  sufficiently  reliable  to  be  thoroughly  satisfactory^  and  it  is  the 
most  economical. 

The  main  difference  between  American  and  European  wind-mills  is  in 
the  form  of  the  wheel  upon  which  the  force  of  the  wind  is  received,  and  by 
which  motion  is  communicated  to  the  machinery  or  operating  parts  attached. 
Instead  of  a  small  number — usually  four — of  very  wide  sails  common  to  the 
foreign  mills  described,  the  American  wind-mill  consists  of  a  large  number 
of  narrow  and  comparatively  short  slats  or  blades  so  set  with  reference  to 
the  common  center  as  to  form  a  wheel  in  general  appearance.  By  this  plan 
sufficient  wind  surface  is  provided,  and  size,  capacity  and  strength  are 
obtained  with  a  minimum  of  weight,  as  well  as  symmetry'  and  convenience 
of  construction.  American  wind-mills  are  of  the  vertical  class,  chiefly, 
although  horizontal  mills  have  been  used  to  some  extent. 

The  wind-mills  now  used  in  the  United  States  may  be  divided  into  two 
general  classes: 

First,  in  which  the  wheel  is  composed  of  sections,  is  flexible  or  folding, 
and  is  commonly  known  as  "open"  or  "sectional,"  with  or  without  vane  to 
bring  wheel  around  to  the  wind.  Regulation  is  accomplished  bv  devices 
which  project  toward  the  wind  the  inner  ends  of  the  fans  or  sections  of  the 
wheel. 

Second,  where  the  wheel  is  "solid,"  that  is,  the  sections  or  fans  of  the 
wheel  are  secured  firmly  to  the  arms  and  do  not  fold  as  in  the  open  wheel, 
with  vane  so  placed  and  arranged  as  to  regulate  and  govern  the  mill. 

There  are  many  types  which  scarcely  belong  to  either  class,  but  are 
departures  from  one  or  the  other. 

Wind-power  is  now  largely  used  for  the  following  purposes:  For  water- 


142  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAI.   IMPLEMENTS. 

ing  stock  on  dairy  or  stock  farms;  for  domestic  and  ornamental  uses;  for 
water  supply  and  for  protection  in  towns  and  villages;  for  ^jumping  water  at 
railroad  stations;  for  irrigation  and  drainage;  small-geared  wind-mills  are 
used  for  grinding  feed  and  running  light  machinery  on  dairy  and  stock 
farms,  and  large-geared  for  running  custom  flouring  mills,  and  shafting 
and  machinery  of  various  kinds.  It  does  not  follow  in  any  of  these  applica- 
tions of  wind-power  that  a  suspension  of  work  during  a  calm  materially  in- 
jures its  usefulness,  hence  it  is  peculiarly  adaptable  to  them.  But  it  can  be 
applied  to  work  where  accumulated  power  can  be  stored  for  future  use, 
besides  the  storage  of  water;  for  instance,  for  compressing  and  storing  air, 
and  for  driving  djaiamo  machines  to  charge  electrical  accumulators.  Mr. 
Wolff,  in  his  "Wind-mill  as  a  Prime  Mover,"  sa3's  regarding  the  latter  prop- 
osition: "This  was  first  suggested  in  1881  by  Sir  William  Thomson.  The 
application  of  the  wind-mill  to  this  purpose  will  soon  come  actively  into 
plaj-  when  storage  batteries  have  been  developed  to  a  greater  success  than 
is  attained  at  the  present  time."  Wind-mills  have  made  many  sections  in- 
habitable, and  enjoyable  also,  where  streams  and  springs  are  lacking.  They 
provide  fresh,  pure  water  for  stock,  and  for  domestic  as  well  as  ornamental 
purposes.  They  have  been  the  means  of  rapidly  increasing  the  dairy  inter- 
ests of  this  country  by  furnishing  supplies  of  the  limpid  liquid,  making  it 
possible  for  every  farmer  to  have  a  "living  spring"  at  his  door  and  under 
his  control.  The  health  of  animals  depends  upon  having  pure  water  to 
drink,  hence  wind-mills  aid  and  regulate  the  sanitary  conditions  of  the 
household,  and  of  the  barn  and  farm  yard  largely.  No  power  can  more 
economically  store  water  in  towns  and  villages  for  fire  protection,  and 
domestic  uses;  in  fact  no  power  is  so  generally  desirable  and  satisfactorj', 
counting  cost  and  results,  where  the  conditions  are  such  that  it  can  be  suc- 
cessfully applied. 

The  Halladay  "standard"  wind-mill  is  generally  recognized  as  the  pio- 
neer in  the  first  class.  It  was  the  invention  of  Daniel  Halladay  and  John 
Burnham,  and  the  story  of  its  birth  is  as  follows. 

"Going  to  Ellington,  Conn.,  Mr.  Burnham  engaged  there  with  Henry 
McCray  in  the  pump  business,  and  soon  began  the  sale  of  the  now  well- 
known  'hydraulic  rams.'  He  continued  in  this  business  until  he  was 
nearly  thirty  years  of  age,  and  during  that  time  found  so  many  who  wanted 
running  water  where  they  had  not  fall  enough  to  use  the  ram,  that  his  at- 
tention was  directed  to  wind  as  a  motive  power.  Here  was  the  power  of 
millions  of  horses  sweeping  through  the  heavens  over  every  man's  farm 
throughout  the  known  world,  that  might  be  utilized  to  the  saving  of  human 
— the  dearest  of  all — labor.  It  was  this  thought  that  inspired  him  and 
urged  him  on  to  the  prosecution  of  that  invention  which  has  more  than  met 
his  hopeful  expectations.  There  was  at  that  time  no  factory  making  self- 
regulating  wind-mills  in  this  country,  and  probably  none  in  the  world;  and 
this  was  the  reason  Mr.  Burnham  divined  why  there  was  such  great  diffi- 
culty in  producing  a  machine  that  could  stand  the  strong  winds,  and  he  felt 
that  if  this  difficulty  could  be  obviated  the  success  of  such  a  machine  would 
be  certain.  Feeling  that  he  had  but  limited  abilities  as  an  inventor,  he  ap- 
plied to  Daniel  Hallada}*,  then  conducting  a  small  machine  shop  in  the 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS.  143 

village,  and  after  several  times  calling  his  attention  to  the  subject,  secured 
from  him  the  reply:  'I  can  invent  a  self-regulating  wind-mill  that  will  be 
safe  from  all  danger  of  destruction  in  violent  wind  storms,  but  after  I  should 
get  it  made  I  don't  know  a  single  man  in  the  world  who  would  want  one.' 
Being  assured  by  Mr.  Burnham  that  he  would  find  men  who  wanted  them, 
he  began  and  soon  produced  a  self-regulating  wind-mill.  The  two  now 
united  in  the  enterprise,  and  in  the  summer  of  1854  organized  a  joint  stock 
company  in  South  Coventry,  Conn.,  with  Mr.  Halladay  as  superintendent 
and  Mr.  Burnham  as  general  agent.  The  wonderful  growth  of  the  enter- 
prise is  abundantly  shown  in  the  fact  that  when  the  machine  was  first  en- 
tered at  the  state  fair  for  a  premium  it  had  to  be  entered  as  a  miscellaneous 
article,  as  no  such  thing  had  ever  been  entered  on  a  fair  ground  for  a  pre- 
mium, while  to-day  there  are  dozens  at  every  state  and  county  fair  through- 
out the  country,  and  millions  of  dollars  are  invested  in  their  manufacture." 

There  is  probably  no  important  invention  in  the  history  of  the  agri- 
cultural implement  industry  that  has  more  romance  in  the  circumstances 
connected  with  its  conception  than  the  "solid  wheel"  wind-mill.  Its 
inventor  was  a  missionary  named  Wheeler  who  had  settled  in  northern 
Wisconsin  in  1841  and  was  laboring  patiently  to  Christianize  the  Indians 
and  to  teach  them  the  habits  of  civilized  life.  It  is  said  that  the  idea  of  a 
wind-mill  to  grind  corn  and  wheat  and  pump  water  for  the  Indians  occurred 
to  him  in  1844,  but  it  was  not  until  1866  that  he  took  steps  to  put  his  idea 
into  practice.  He  had  fallen  from  a  ladder  at  this  time  and  broken  his 
wrist,  and  to  keep  his  mind  engaged  while  the  fracture  was  healing  he 
drafted  with  his  uninjured  hand  the  plan  of  his  invention,  using  a  jack- 
knife  and  a  board  laid  across  his  chair.  The  same  day  that  his  wrist  was 
broken,  his  son,  who  had  started  on  a  journey  to  St.  Paul,  200  miles  away, 
was  brought  back  with  a  broken  leg  caused  by  a  falling  tree.  The  father 
had  a  good  pair  of  legs  and  the  son  a  pair  of  sound  hands,  and  as  soon  as 
they  were  able  they  made  the  wood  parts  of  their  wind-mill.  The  govern- 
ment blacksmith  nearby  became  interested  in  the  project,  and  made  the 
necessary  mountings.  April  26,  1866,  the  new  invention  was  put  in  opera- 
tion and  worked  successfully  at  first,  but  a  storm  soon  after  tore  it  to  pieces. 
This  led  to  a  deeper  study  of  the  problem,  and  Wheeler  then  conceived  the 
idea  of  a  "side  vane"  set  against  the  wind,  with  the  wheel  pivoted  so  a 
strong  wind  would  blow  it  around  at  an  angle  or  entirely  out  of  the  wind. 
In  two  months  a  mill  of  the  self-regulating  type  was  in  operation.  The 
inventor,  however,  was  failing  fast  in  health,  and  that  fall  he  moved  to 
Beloit,  Wis.,  surrenderina:  his  missionary  work.  In  the  spring  of  1867  a 
wealthy  banker  from  the  east,  a  relative,  visited  them,  and  he  recognized 
what  had  never  occurred  to  Wheeler,  the  value  of  a  patent  on  the  inven- 
tion. At  his  solicitation  Wheeler  began  on  a  model,  but  his  strength  only 
permitted  him  to  work  a  few  minutes  at  a  time,  and  it  was  not  finished  for 
two  months.  It  was  then  sent  on  to  Washington,  however,  and  a  patent 
was  granted  in  due  time.  Manufacturing  was  begun  soon  after  at  Beloit, 
laying  the  foundation  for  the  business  of  the  Eclipse  Wind  Engine  Com- 
pany. 

The  revolution  in  the  wind-mill   industry  which  has  resulted  from  the 


H4  AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 

introduction  of  the  steel  l»ck-geared  mill  (the  Aermotor)  is  noticed  in  detail 
in  the  historical  sketch  of  the  Aermotor  Company  of  Chicago.  The  change 
consisted  in  substituting  a  lesser  number  of  wide  steel  slats,  curved  in  cross 
section,  in  place  of  the  thick  wooden  slats  common  to  the  old  style  mills. 
This  change  has  eliminated  the  obstruction  to  the  wind  that  was  inevitable 
in  the  old  form  of  construction,  and  has  greatly  increased  the  efficiency  of 
a  wheel  of  the  same  size.  A  steel  wind-mill  is  thus  able  to  run  in  light 
winds  that  would  bring  no  response  from  the  heavy  wooden  wheels,  and  its 
usefulness  on  the  farm  is  correspondingly  increased.  In  fact,  the  change 
has  opened  up  new  possibilities  in  the  use  of  power  mills  for  feed-grinding, 
wood-sawing  and  the  performance  of  other  work  in  which  light  power.is 
required.  The  durability  of  the  new  form  of  mill  has  been  insured  by  a 
process  of  galvanizing  each  section  after  it  has  been  assembled.  Ever}-  part 
of  the  mill  thus  receives  the  protective  coating.  The  same  galvanizing  pro- 
cess is  applied  to  the  steel  towers. 

The  revolution  resulting  from  the  introduction  of  steel  has  not  yet  gone 
far  enough  to  demonstrate  fully  what  may  be  done  in  irrigation,  but  the 
experiments  of  recent  years  would  indicate  that  this  field  is  full  of  possi- 
bilities. The  cumbrous  Dutch  mills  have  played  an  important  part  in  the 
history  of  Holland,  in  reclaiming  from  the  ocean  and  keeping  clear  of 
water  a  large  part  of  the  land  under  cultivation  in  that  country,  and  it  may 
be  that  the  sprightly  steel  mill  of  the  western  continent  will  perform  an 
equally  important  task  in  watering  the  arid  regions  west  of  the  Mississippi 
and  Missouri  rivers. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

Miscellaneous  Agricultural  Implements 


THERE  were  exhibited  at  the  Columbian  Exposition  many  interesting 
and  useful  implements  whose  manufacture  has  not  assumed  the  im- 
portance of  the  classes  that  have  been  noticed  in  the  preceding  chapters. 
It  v/ould  be  impossible  in  the  scope  of  this  work  to  give  historical  informa- 
tion regarding  any  of  these  implements,  and  the  best  that  can  be  promised 
for  them  is  a  brief  review  of  the  points  of  excellence  in  a  few  of  the  most 
important  of  them. 

THE   BEMIS   TRANSPLANTER. 

The  Bemis  Transplanter  was  exhibited  by  the  Fuller  &  Johnson  Manu- 
facturing Co. ,  of  Madison,  Wisconsin.  It  is  designed  for  setting  out  tobacco, 
tomatoes,  strawberries  and  other  plants  that  are  transplanted  from  a  hot 
bed  to  the  open  field.  The  dropping  is  done  by  hand  by  two  men  or  boj-s,  who 
ride  on  the  low  seats  in  the  rear.  The  planter  opens  a  furrow  and  drops  a 
quantity  of  water  for  each  hill,  and  the  droppers  place  each  plant  in  the 
water  and  allow  the  packing  plates  to  cover  and  press  the  dirt  around  it. 
The  row  is  thus  left  in  a  ridge,  about  one  inch  higher  than  the  level  of  the 
field.  A  check-rower  is  provided  when  desired,  to  drop  the  water  in  the 
same  manner  as  corn  is  dropped,  and  the  plant  is  then  set  just  as  the  water 
falls.  Many  advantages  are  claimed  for  setting  the  plants  by  this  machine, 
besides  the  saving  of  labor. 

THE   ASPINWALL   POTATO   PLANTER. 

The  transplanter  naturally  suggests  an  implement  that  was  not  on  ex- 
hibition, but  has  become  quite  well  known  during  the  past  few  years,  the 
Aspinwall  potato  planter.  This  implement  successfully  performs  a  task  that 
is  one  of  the  most  tedious  on  the  farm,  when  done  by  hand,  and  its  work  is 
quite  satisfactor}-.  The  furrow  is  opened  by  a  peculiarly  shaped  plow, 
and  the  cuttings  or  seeds  are  dropped  and  covered  automatically.  The 
dropping  device  is  the  most  interesting  feature  of  the  machine.  It  con- 
sists of  several  bars  or  spokes  hung  to  the  middle  of  the  revolving  axle 
of  the  planter,  each  having  a  peculiar  hook  or  claw  at  its  outer  end. 
The  potatoes,  which  are  carried  in  the  large  hopper  shown,  are  allowed 
to  pass  down  through  a  gate  upon  a  concave,  and  each  revolving  hook 
or  foot  passes  upwards  among  them  in  its  revolution,  and  grasps  a  cut- 
ting which  it  carries  and  drops  at  the  proper  time.  The  operation  is  quite 
simple,  but  a  difficult  one  to  describe.  The  dropping  mechanism  can 
be  adjusted  to  plant  at  any  distance  desired.  Five  to  eight  acres 
per  day  can  be  planted,  the  work  being  accurately  done  and  superior  to  hand 

work.     A  great  advantage  is  claimed  for  covering  the  seed  with  fresh,  moist 

145 


146  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 

earth,  rather  than  with  dry  soil,  as  is  often  the  case  when  planting  is  done 
by  hand. 

POTATO   DIGGERS. 

The  Hoover  potato  digger  was  one  of  the  few  implements  exhibited  in 
this  line  at  the  AVorld's  Fair,  and  was  the  only  one  that  has  become  gener- 
ally known  both  in  this  country  and  abroad.  It  has  a  strong  scoop-like 
plow  which  passes  under  the-  hills  and  throws  them  upward  upon  a  chain 
carrier.  This  carrier  passes  the  earth  and  potatoes  backward  and  upward, 
taking  the  dirt  through  and  leaving  the  potatoes  on  top  of  the  ground. 

THE   KEMP   MANURE  SPREADER. 

The  saving  of  manure  and  putting  it  upon  the  land  has  been  in  the  past 
a  disagreeable  feature  of  farm  work,  although  every  farmer  understands  the 
value,  and  in  manv  parts  of  the  country  the  necessity,  of  returning  to  the 
soil  as  much  as  possible  of  the  vital  elements  that  have  been  taken  from  it. 
Kemp's  manure  spreader  is  intended  to  simplify  this  work,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  do  it  more  efficiently.  A  revolving  toothed  cylinder  is  mounted  in 
the  rear  end  of  a  wide,  specially  constructed  wagon  box,  and  in  its  operation 
throws  the  manure  out  in  a  thin,  even  layer,  covering  every  part  of  the 
ground  traversed.  The  wagon  box  has  a  movable  bottom,  consisting  of  slats 
connected  with  each  other  by  a  link  belt,  and  moving  over  numerous  small 
rollers,  so  as  to  feed  the  load  to  the  cylinder. 

IMPLEMENTS   FOR  SUGAR  BEET  CULTURE. 

Our  manufacturers  are  giving  considerable  attention  to  the  production 
of  implements  needed  in  sugar  beet  culture,  and  at  least  three  of  them  had 
exhibits  at  the  Columbian  Exhibition.  The  Johnston  Harvester  Co.,  of 
Batavia,  N.  Y.,  exhibited  among  other  implements  a  beet  cultivator  and  also 
a  harvester.  The  peculiar  feature  of  their  cultivator  is  found  in  the  spiders 
used  in  place  of  shovels.  With  them  it  is  possible  to  cultivate  much  nearer 
to  the  growing  crop,  without  covering  up  the  plants,  especially  when  they 
are  very  small,  than  would  be  practicable  with  a  shovel  cultivator.  The 
spiders  do  not  drag  through  the  ground.  Each  spider  finger  is  forced  into 
the  soil  to  a  depth  of  three  or  four  inches,  and  when  withdrawn  brings  up  the 
weeds  without  interfering  with  the  roots  of  the  crop.  It  may  be  set  to  cul- 
tivate any  crop  two  rows  at  a  time,  provided  the  rows  are  not  less  than  six- 
teen and  not  more  than  twenty-four  inches  apart.  Knives  are  provided  to 
be  used  in  place  of  these  spiders  whenever  the}'  may  be  found  preferable. 

The  Johnston  beet  harvester  is  designed  for  digging  and  topping  sugar 
beets  at  one  operation.  The  shares  penetrate  the  soil  from  four  to  six 
inches  on  either  side,  and  loosen  the  beet  without  wounding  it  or  breaking 
the  tap  root,  the  top  being  meantime  cut  off  and  carried  out  of  the  way  by 
an  ingenious  device. 

The  Moline  Plow  Company  have  a  beet  harvester  quite  different  in  the 
frame  that  carries  it  and  in  the  topping  device,  but  the  same  principle  is 
used  in  the  digging  share. 


PART   II. 


PIONEER    MANUFACTURING    CENTERS. 


Chicago. 


WILLIAM   DEERING   &    CO.  AND    THE   TWINE   BINDING 
HARVESTER. 

CHICAGO  may  well  be  proud  of  the  beautiful  Columbian  "White  City," 
the  magnificent  four-century  plant  that  has  opened  its  petals  on  the 
shores  of  Lake  Michigan  before  the  admiring  people  of  all  nations.  The 
most  marvelous  enterprise  ever  conceived  for  man's  entertainment  and  edu- 
cation, it  has  come  as  the  crowning  event  in  a  development  that  stands 
without  parallel  in  man's  history,  the  building  of  one  of  the  world's  great 
cities  and  the  settlement  of  an  agricultural  empire,  within  the  memory  of 
those  now  living,  almost,  we  might  say,  within  a  generation.  In  this  brief 
period  perhaps  the  greatest  migration  in  the  history  of  the  human  race  has 
taken  place,  with  Chicago  as  its  focus,  resulting  in  the  settlement  of  the 
vast  agricultural  area  of  the  Mississippi  valley. 

Two  factors  have  contributed  to  this  rapid  development:  First,  the 
railroads  built  in  response  to  the  demand  of  pioneer  settlers,  or  to  invite 
settlement  and  cultivation;  and  second,  the  improved  agricultural  imple- 
ments, by  the  use  of  which  the  settlers  were  able  to  pay  for  homes  and  to 
furnish  traffic  in  farm  products  that  would  sustain  the  railroads.  Which 
factor  was  the  more  important  it  would  be  difficult  to  determine,  but  it  is 
certain  that  not  one-half  of  the  roads  now  in  operation  in  the  Mississippi 
valley  would  have  been  built  without  the  prospect  of  the  traffic  that  would 
come  from  improved  agricultural  methods.  It  is  even  safe  to  say  that  with- 
out the  twine-binding  harvester  our  statistics  of  small  grain  production 
would  tell  an  entirely  different  stor3%  and  the  western  half  of  the  country, 
with  its  millions  of  fertile  acres  that  now  bear  abundant  harvests  and  sup- 
port a  thrifty  farming  people  and  prosperous  cities,  would  not  have  made 
one-half  the  progress  with  which  it  has  been  blessed. 

The  twine-binding  harvester  has  more  capital  invested  in  its  manufact- 
ure than  any  other  single  machine  in  the  world,  excepting  only  the  steam 
engine,  and  its  use  in  the  harvest  fields  of  the  world  saves  the  labor  of  any- 
where from  five  to  twenty  millions  of  men,  according  as  it  maybe  compared 
with  the  reaper,  the  cradle  or  the  sickle.  From  one- quarter  to  one- third 
of  the  world's  supply  of  this  eminently  useful  machine  is  made  in  one  fact- 
ory in  Chicago,  that  of  W^illiam  Deering  &  Co.     This  is  a  strong  assertion, 

147 


148  AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 

but  the  writer  is  in  position  to  know  the  facts,  and  he  makes  the  statement 
frankly,  especially  since  William  Deering  &  Co.  are  the  recognized  pioneers, 
first,  in  the  introduction  of  the  harvester,  and  later,  in  the  development 
of  the  twine-binder. 

The  hand-binding  harvester  invented  by  the  Marsh  Brothers,  of  DeKalb 
county,  thirty-five  years  ago,  and  first  put  on  the  market  from  Piano,  111., 
five  years  later,  was  the  beginning  of  this  industry.  Two  farmer's  boys, 
familiar  only  with  the  reapers  then  in  use  in  their  part  of  the  country, 
plunged  boldly  into  an  unexplored  field  of  invention,  a  field  from  which  so 
many  had  turned  back  unsuccessful  that  it  was  thought  to  be  barren  of  any- 
thing practical.  Undaunted  by  the  discouraging  advice  of  older  heads, 
who  said  a  harvester  was  impossible,  they  carefully  planned  their  invention, 
and  with  only  the  tools  available  on  a  farm  and  the  castings  from  an  old 
reaper,  they  built  complete  in  principle  and  successful  in  operation,  the 
first  Marsh  harvester,  an  invention  many  times  greater  in  value  than  other 
machines  produced  before  or  since  that  required  the  accumulated  efforts  of 
a  hundred  inventors  In  fact,  it  may  be  said  without  fear  of  contradiction 
that  in  the  history  of  invention  in  harvesting  machinery  there  is  no  case  on 
record  where  the  conception  of  the  principles  to  be  incorporated  in  a 
machine  entirely  new  in  form  and  purpose  was  so  clear  in  the  minds  of  the 
inventors,  and  where  the  first  machine  built  did  as  perfect  work  or  required 
as  little  later  improvement  to  make  it  a  fully  marketable  machine.  If  the 
invention  of  the  harvester  seems  romantic  in  the  incidents  surrounding  it, 
the  subsequent  introduction  and  manufacture  of  the  machine  for  general  use 
were  equally  so. 

No  one  took  a  deeper  interest  in  the  pioneer  efforts  at  Piano  than  did 
William  Deering,  and  when  a  few  years  later  he  became  actively  interested 
in  the  business,  bringing  into  it  ample  capital  and  new  ideas,  his  aggressive 
and  tireless  management  pushed  the  harvester  trade  out  into  channels  that 
it.had  hitherto  been  unable  to  reach.  By  1879  the  demand  for  harvesters 
and  wire-binders  had  grown  to  such  proportions  that  Mr.  Deering  saw  the 
business  could  not  longer  be  handled  with  the  facilities  available  at  Piano. 
Gammon  &  Deering  had  in  1874  begun  the  manufacture  of  Gordon  wire- 
binders,  and  Mr.  Deering  seemed  to  see  more  clearly  than  anj-  one  else  con- 
nected with  the  industry  the  impetus  that  would  be  given  to  the  demand 
for  harvesting  machinery  could  a  successful  twine  or  cord-binder  be  per- 
fected. He  had  been  following  closely  during  the  harvest  of  1878  the 
experiments  of  Appleby,  and  saw  in  the  twine-binder  the  machine  of  the 
future,  and  he  was  not  slow  to  undertake  what  may  be  considered  as  the 
pioneer  work  of  putting  Mr  Appleby's  invention  extensively  on  the  mar- 
ket. The  firm  of  Gammon  &  Deering,  having  followed  two  of  these 
machines  through  the  harvest  of  1878,  put  out  a  considerable  number  of 
them  in  1879,  and  they  worked  successfully.  In  the  fall  of  that  year  Gam- 
mon &  Deering  dissolved  partnership,  Mr.  Gammon  retiring  from  the  firm. 
The  following,  descriptive  of  the  later  developments  of  the  industry,  is  from 
the  pen  of  Mr.  Marsh,  who  had  been  so  long  associated  with  Mr.  Deering  at 
Piano: 

"The  year  1880  was  a  memorable  one  in  the  annals  of  the  harvesting 


AMERICAN-   AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 


149 


WILLIAM    DEERING   &  CO.'S  TWINE   BINDING   HARVESTER. 


SKELETON  OF  THE  DEERING  HARVESTER. 


150  AMERICAN   AGRICUIvTURAIv  IMPLEMENTS. 

machine  business.  The  old  hand-binding  harvester  had  been  pushed  from 
its  place  in  the  market  by  the  child  of  its  adoption,  the  automatic  binder, 
several  styles  of  which  binding  with  wire  were  built  and  successfully  put 
upon  the  market  to  supply  a  large  and  growing  demand.  Mr.  Deering  was 
now  the  sole  representative  of  the  vast  interests  of  the  old  concern,  and  he 
was  making  two  bold  movements;  he  was  building  new  shops  in  Chicago, 
and  removing  his  works  thereto  from  Piano,  thus  changing  his  base  and 
reforming  his  front  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  and  he  was  preparing  to  make 
a  charge  directly  upon  the  center  of  the  opposing  hosts.  The  position  was 
dangerous  and  required  a  leader  of  judgment,  nerve,  great  executive  ability 
and  force  of  character.  These  attributes  Mr.  Deering  possessed.  The  cam- 
paign of  l.'^SO  ended  in  complete  success;  his  Appleby  binders — manufact- 
ured and  put  upon  the  market  from  shops  on  wheels,  so  to  speak — swept 
everything  before  them.  The  harvest  of  that  year  was  a  Waterloo  defeat 
for  the  wire-binders,  and  sauve  qui  pent  might  well  have  been  the  cry  of  the 
leaders  thereafter  as  they  rushed  for  cover  under  the  Appleby  patents.  Mr. 
Deering  won  a  complete  victory;  he  established  twine-binding  machines  as 
the  grain-harvesters  of  the  time,  and  of  the  future,  and  himself  as  the 
acknowledged  leader  in  the  movement. 

"From  1880  onward  Mr.  Deering's  progress  has  been  steadily  and 
sweepiugly  upward.  The  shops  have  been  enlarged  year  after  year,  and 
new  departments  have  been  added  until  now  it  is  one  of  the  largest* and 
most  complete  institutions  of  the  kind  in  this  or  any  other  country.  In 
1883  Mr.  Deering  had  the  business  incorporated  under  the  title,  \Vm.  Deer- 
ing &  Co.,  and  by  this  change  he  is  enabled,  through  the  assistance  of  his 
sons  and  others  interested,  to  escape  somewhat  the  cares  of  constant  appli- 
cation to  the  details  of  such  an  immense  establishment  with  its  many 
branches,  and  one  would  think  that  a  physical  organization  apparently  not 
over-strong  would  have  sooner  required  relief.  His  two  sons,  Charles  W.  and 
James  E.,  who  have  been  interested  in  the  concern  since  1880,  and  have 
become  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  details,  have  abh-  seconded  their  father's 
efforts,  and  are  fully  competent  to  maintain  the  ground  that  he  has  won." 

"One  of  the  triumphs  of  the  19th  century,"  was  the  title  of  a  little  pam- 
phlet, copies  of  which  were  distributed  by  Wm.  Deering  &  Co.  at  the  Colum- 
bian Exposition.  It  told  of  the  triumph  of  inventive  ingenuity  and  mechanical 
skill,  embodied  in  the  twine-binder,  and  in  it  was  told  also  the  storj'  of  one 
who  had  visited  the  Deering  works,  and  had  made  notes  of  what  he  saw  in 
the  various  departments  of  the  wonderful  factory.  Twenty  years  ago  the 
iron  parts  of  a  machine  would  have  been  slowly  hammered  into  form  by  a 
blacksmith,  but  here  acres  of  machinery  were  set  up  and  were  grinding  out 
by  the  million,  with  the  accuracy  of  form  and  size  that  can  only  be  obtained 
by  a  soulless  machine,  the  parts  that,  when  assembled,  make  up  a  year's 
output  of  harvesting   machinery.     The  Deering  factory  is  a  large  subject, 

*This  was  wriUen  in  18S7.  Since  that  time  the  business  of  William  Deering  &  Co.  has 
more  than  doubled,  and  the  works  are  now  the  largest  agricultural  implement  factory  in 
the  world 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 


151 


THE  APPLEBY   BINDER,   AS   PERFECTED  BY   WILLIAM   DEERING  &  C<X 


152  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 

one  that  would  require  a  volume  to  treat  adequately.  It  would  be  a  depart- 
ure from  the  purpose  of  this  brief  sketch  to  attempt  even  the  most  hasty 
review  of  the  manner  of  making  a  binder.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  every  part 
of  the  Deering  machine  is  made  in  their  works,  thus  insuring  the  highest 
quality  of  material  and  workmanship. 

In  the  main  frame  of  the  Deering  binder  a  truss  form  of  construction  has 
been  adopted,  giving  the  necessary  rigidity  with  the  least  weight.  The  plat- 
form is  attached  to  this  frame  "by  long  double-grip  malleable  and  steel  joints 
at  front  and  rear,  and  further  strengthened  by  a  rigid  main  brace,  connecting 
the  main  frame  truss  and  the  inner  shoe  of  the  cutter-bar. " '  Next  to  a  strong 
frame,  a  properly  constructed  main  wheel  is  vital  in  a  harvester.  The 
Deering  wheel  is  of  bicycle  pattern,  with  suspension  spokes  bolted  in  a 
rigid  rim  of  wood  having  a  steel  tire.  The  grain  wheel  is  of  steel,  with  a 
malleable  hub  and  a  wide  tire.  A  simple  device  is  used  for  raising  and 
lowering  the  platform,  which  is  suspended  by  its  corners  so  as  to  prevent 
warping  or  sagging.  The  platform  is  forty-eight  inches  wide,  an  unusual 
width,  but  designed  to  give  the  machine  ample  capacity  in  long  grain. 
The  canvas  is  kept  taut  by  a  spring,  which  allows  it  to  contract  and  expand 
with  changes  of  the  atmosphere.  A  special  feature  claimed  for  the  machine 
is  in  the  elevator,  which  is  fifty-five  inches  wide  and  extends  seven  inches  in 
front  of  the  line  of  the  platform,  thus  doing  away  entirely  with  clogging 
and  choking  at  the  inner  end  of  the  cutter-bar,  heretofore  a  weak  point  in 
binders.  The  acme  of  adjustability  has  been  reached  in  the  Deering  reel,  a 
single  lever  being  arranged  to  raise  and  lower  it,  or  to  shift  it  forward  or 
back. 

The  illustration  shown  of  the  Deering  binder  represents  fairly  the 
improvements  that  have  been  made  in  this  marvelous  machine  since  it  was 
first  considered  perfect,  fifteen  years  ago.  A  comparison  of  this  illustration 
with  the  cuts  in  the  chapter  on  Automatic  Binders,  in  the  first  part  of  this 
book,  will  show  to  those  to  whom  it  may  never  have  occurred,  the  work 
that  master  mechanics  in  the  Deering  shops  have  expended  in  simplifying 
its  construction  and  improving  its  general  design. 


AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS.  153 

THE  Mccormick  reaper  works. 

The  name  of  McCormick  has  become  inseparably  connected  with  the 
invention  of  the  reaper,  and  a  monument  of  gratitude  has  been  erected  to 
the  memory  of  the  man  whose  work  as  the  pioneer  in  the  reaper  industry 
is  destined  to  pass  into  history  as  one  of  the  greatest  contributions  to 
human  progress.  This  book  is  not  written  to  decide  the  much-mooted 
question  "who  invented  the  reaper?"  any  further  than  the  comment  that 
appears  on  that  question  in  the  chapter  on  reapers.  It  is  sufficient  for  the 
purpose  of  this  sketch,  and  for  the  average  man  to  know,  that  of  the  score 
or  more  of  inventors  who,  before  McCormick's  time,  saw  the  vision  of  a 
reaper  that  would  harvest  the  grain  of  the  world,  not  one  was  able  to  arrive 
at  the  combination  of  mechanical  principles  that  would  make  the  vision  a 
reality.  Unfortunately,  the  discussion  of  McCormick's  invention  has  gen- 
erally been  confined  to  his  patent  of  1834,  when,  in  fact,  a  fully  successful 
reaper,  one  that  was  sufficiently  practical  to  be  used  by  the  farmers  gener- 
ally, was  not  produced  until  twelve  years  later. 

There  is  probably  no  case  on  record,  in  the  history  of  agricultural 
implements,  of  an  inventor  who  surmounted  greater  obstacles,  or  who 
showed  more  heroic  persistence  in  the  development  of  an  idea,  than  Cyrus 
H,  McCormick.  The  world  has  produced  few  such  men  in  any  branch  of 
industrial  life.  Mr.  McCormick  found  the  world  cutting  its  grain 
with  sickles;  he  left  it  with  reapers  in  use  on  a  million  farms.  After  a 
struggle  with  adverse  conditions  extending  over  fifteen  years,  during  which 
he  built  experimental  machines  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  he  suc- 
ceeded, in  1846,  in  making,  at  Brockport,  N.  Y.,  100  machines  that  were  put 
in  the  farmers'  hands  and  successfully  operated,  thus  laying  the  foundation 
for  the  industry. 

Robert,  father  of  the  late  Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  as  early  as  1816  built 
an  experimental  reaper  and  tried  it  on  his  farm.  It  was  on  the  "rotary" 
principle,  having  a  cylinder  or  drum  set  upright  with  a  knife  projecting 
from  its  lower  end  or  edge.  It  proved  unsuccessful,  but  it  is  said  that  he 
continued  the  experiments  in  later  j-ears  and  produced  a  machine  with  a 
reciprocating  knife,  the  idea  of  which  served  as  a  nucleus  for  the  invention 
of  his  son,  in  1831.  After  Cyrus  H.  McCormick  had  finally  demonstrated 
at  Brockport  the  success  of  his  reaper,  he  came  to  Chicago,  in  1847,  and 
began  his  remarkable  career  as  a  manufacturer.  This  business  was  con- 
tinued by  him  until  late  in  the  "fifties,"  when  he  was  joined  by  his 
brothers,  Leander  J.  and  Wm.  S.,  and  on  the  death  of  William  S.,  a  few 
years  later,  the  firm  became  C.  H.  &  L,.  J.  McCormick,  which  style  was 
retained  until  1879,  when  the  business  was  incorporated  as  the  McCormick 
Harvesting  Machine  Company-.  Later,  the  stock  of  L.  J.,  a  fourth  interest, 
was  purchased  by  the  estate  of  Cyrus  H.,  which  now  owns  the  business. 

From  the  beginning  the  house  has  confined  its  attention  to  machinery 
for  harvesting  grain  and  grasses.  In  1875  they  began  making  harvesters, 
and,  soon  after,  automatic  wire-binders  were  put  out.  In  1881  they  took  a 
license  under  the  Appleby  patents,  and  have  since  been  making  twine- 
binders  of  the  standard  type,  substantially  the  same  as  those  made  by  all 
manufacturers  who  have  operated  under  the  Appleby  patents. 


l.')4 


AMERICAN   AGRICUI/rURAI.   IMPl,EMENTS. 


'Sf'-- 


-^-..--r-.-. 


THE   ORIGINAL   McCORMICK    REAPE:R    OK    1831. 


THE   MCCORMICK   REAPER   OK   TO-DAY. 


AMERICAN  AGRICUtTURAIv   IMPLEMENTS.  15o 

THE  "AERMOTOR"  AND  THE  AERMOTOR  COMPANY. 

The  latest  branch  of  the  agricultural  implement  industry  to  experience 
a  revolution  is  the  manufacture  of  windmills.  The  change  has  been  brought 
about  by  the  invention  and  introduction  in  the  trade  of  the  steel  back -geared 
mill  and  steel  tower,  and  the  results  promise  to  be  far-reaching.  Since  the 
first  introduction  a  generation  ago  of  the  two  classes  of  wooden  wheels 
generally  manufactured  in  America,  the  sectional  and  the  solid,  there  has 
been  little  change  in  their  general  design,  improvements  being  possible 
only  in  details  and  in  adaptations  of  their  fundamental  principles.  To  the 
casual  observer  the  recent  revolution  may  not  seem  so  clear,  as  the  solid 
form  of  wheel  and  the  vane  have  been  retained  in  the  new  style,  in  the 
smaller  sizes  at  least;  but  the  change  has  come  through  the  addition  of  two 
new  principles  to  the  old  combination,  increasing  the  efficiency  of  a  mill 
of  a  given  size  50  per  cent  or  more,  and  materially  lessening  the  cost  of 
manufacture.  In  brief,  this  new  principle  consists,  first,  in  eliminating  as 
far  as  possible  all  obstructions  to  the  wind  that  arise  from  the  use  of  wooden 
slats  and  arms,  and  substituting  for  the  thick,  narrow  slats  of  the  old  form  of 
construction  a  lesser  number  of  wide  steel  slats  or  fans,  curs-ed  so  as  to  con- 
vert into  power  the  full  force  of  the  wind,  but  presenting  as  an  obstruction 
to  its  passage  only  a  thin,  knife-like  edge  of  steel;  and  second,  in  gearing 
back  the  wheel  so  it  will  expend  three  revolutions  in  one  stroke  of  the 
pump,  thus  taking  advantage  of  the  lightest  wind,  and  getting  a  higher 
rate  of  efficiency  out  of  a  moderate  or  strong  wind;  without  strain  upon  the 
framework  or  tower.  The  pioneers  in  this  revolution  are  T.  O.  Perry,  the 
inventor  of  the  new  principles,  and  L.  W.  Noyes,  the  founder  and  present 
head  of  the  Aermotor  Company,  the  new  windmill  having  become  known 
in  the  trade  as  the  Aermotor. 

It  may  be  said  in  advance  that  the  Aermotor  is  the  invention  and  design 
of  a  mechanical  engineer,  in  sharp  contrast  with  many  other  inventions  in 
the  agricultural  implement  industry  that  are  the  result  of  a  moment's 
inspiration  or  a  crude  experiment,  often  on  the  part  of  an  unlettered  farmer. 
It  is  said  that  in  the  exhaustive  experiments  that  were  conducted  to 
determine  the  best  design  for  the  Aermotor,  over  5,000  dynamometrical  tests 
were  made  on  sixty-one  different  forms  of  wheels,  propelled  by  an  artificial, 
and  therefore  uniform,  wind.  By  these  experiments  many  questions  relat- 
ing to  the  proper  speed  of  the  wheel  were  determined:  the  best  form,  angle 
and  curvature  and  amount  of  sail  surface;  the  resistance  of  air  to  rotation; 
obstructions  in  the  wheel,  such  as  wooden  arms;  obstructions  before  the 
wheel,  as  in  the  vaneless  mill,  and  numerous  other  more  abstruse,  though 
not  less  important,  questions. 

Exhaustive  work  of  this  character  might  be  expected  to  bear  fruit,  and 
that  it  has  done  so  in  this  case  maj^  be  seen  in  the  enormous  demand  that 
has  developed  for  the  new  wind  engine,  an  expansion  of  manufacture  that 
can  only  be  compared  to  the  development  of  the  harvesting  machine  trade 
following  the  invention  of  the  twine  binder. 

The  first  Aermotors  were  put  on  the  market  in  1888  by  L.  W.  Noyes,  of 
Chicago,  but  as  only  forty-five  mills  were  made  in  that  year,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  beginning  pfthe  industry  was  in  1889.  Mr.  Noyes  was  well  equipped 


156  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 

for  the  trying  work  of  "pioneering"  the  new  invention.  He  had  begun  in 
1876  in  the  implement  and  hardware  trade,  establishing  in  that  year  a  line 
of  manufacture  that  is  still  successful. 

In  1879  Mr.  Noyes  invented  a  dictionarv  holder,  coining  the  term  for  it, 
and  began  its  manufacture  on  a  scale  that  has  brought  it  into  general 
use.  Altogether  Mr.  Noyes  has  taken  out  a  hundred  or  more  patents,  many 
of  them  in  the  harvesting  machine  industry.  His  experience  in  the  wind- 
mill industry  extended  over  .several  years,  with  one  of  the  pioneer  houses  in 
this  line,  and  gave  him  a  knowledge  of  the  field  that  has  since  proved 
invaluable. 

Soon  after  the  busine.ss  was  established  it  was  incorporated  under  the 
name  of  the  Aermotor  Company.  The  name  Aermotor  had  been  selected  by 
Mr.  Noyes,  and  the  business  was  organized  and  has  grown  up  under  his 
able  management.  The  popularity  of  the  new  mill  is  well  shown  by  the 
growth  of  its  manufacture.  At  first  only  one  floor  was  occupied,  the  fourth 
at  42  and  44  West  Monroe  street,  in  Chicago.  The  next  year,  1889,  the 
business  was  moved  to  the  six-story  building  at  110  and  112  South  Jefferson 
street,  the  company  taking  a  five-year  lease,  and  believing  the  building 
large  enough  for  several  years  to  come.  Within  a  year,  however,  the 
facilities  were  found  inadequate,  and  in  November,  1890,  the  company 
moved  to  its  present  location,  at  Rockwell  and  Fillmore  streets.  A  much 
larger  building  was  erected  here,  but  still  further  extensions  were  needed, 
and  in  1891  four  acres  of  land  adjoining  were  purchased  to  make  room  for 
new  buildings.  The  facilities  for  manufacturing  are  now  complete,  com- 
prising a  foundry,  a  galvanizing  plant,  and  a  full  equipment  of  special 
machinery  for  stamping,  shearing,  punching,  riveting  and  the  various  pro- 
cesses through  which  the  steel  plates,  angles  and  other  materials  must  pass 
to  become  parts  of  complete  Aermotors. 

An  inspection  of  this  plant  forces  upon  one  the  conclusion  that  the 
greatest  field  for  inventive  and  organizing  ability  at  the  present  time  is  in 
factory  methods  and  processes.  Once  a  revolution  has  passed  in  the  princi- 
ples and  construction  of  an  implement,  but  little  improvement  may  be  made 
for  a  generation  except  in  minor  details;  but  in  the  factory  producing  that 
implement,  if  it  is  under  progressive  management,  there  is  a  continual  change 
in  methods  for  accomplishing  a  certain  result.  Machinery  must  replace 
slow  and  tedious  hand  labor  at  every  point,  and  machines  that  have  not 
been  used  enough  to  wear  them  appreciably,  must  be  discarded  for  some- 
thing new  of  greater  capacity  and  efficiency.  In  this  way  only  can  the  cost 
of  manufacture  be  reduced  to  a  minimum,  so  the  factory  in  question  may 
lead  in  competition  in  its  industry.  The  Aermotor  factory  is  remarkable 
for  the  improvements  that  have  been  made  in  every  department.  In  the 
foundrv,  for  example,  devices  for  expediting  the  moulder's  work  have  been 
adopted,  increasing  a  workman's  product  from  six  to  sixteen  pieces  per  day 
in  one  case,  and  from  twelve  to  forty-five  in  another  instance;  these  devices 
also  improving  the  qualit}' of  the  product.  In  every  detail  of  the  work  carried 
on  in  this  factory  the  same  sj'^stem  and  organization  appears,  looking  to 
decreased  cost  of  production  and  higher  quality  of  the  product.  As  a  result 
of  these  improvements,  and  of  the  advantages  inherent  in  the  new  princi- 


AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 


157 


THE  AERMOTOR  STEEL  BACK-GEARED   WIND-MILL. 


THE   STEFI,    TOWER. 


THE  TILTING   TOWER. 


15S  AMERICAN    AGRICULTURAL,   IMPLEMENTS. 

pies  of  the  Aermotor,  the  claim  is  made,  with  reason,  that  the  cost  of  wind 
power — the  cheapest  power  known — has  been  reduced  to  one-sixth  of  what 
it  was  a  few  years  ago.  It  has  been  made  possible  to  greatly  increase  the  use 
of  windmills  by  bringing  the  price  within  the  means  of  a  greater  number  of 
purchasers. 

No  agricultural  implement  serves  the  farmer  in  more  varied  ways,  or 
makes  itself  more  generally  useful  than  the  windmill.  Its  chief  mission 
in  the  past  has  been  the  pumping  of  water  for  the  household  and  for  stock, 
and  in  this  it  has  proved  a  blessing  indeed  to  humanity.  But  the  intro- 
duction of  the  steel  mill  promises  to  bring  within  the  reach  of  every  farmer 
a  source  of  power  that  will  be  of  inestimable  value  to  him,  in  grinding  feed 
for  his  stock,  and  in  a  dozen  other  lines  of  farm  work  for  which  light 
power  is  required.  Wooden  w'indmills  have,  in  fact,  been  applied  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  to  these  uses,  but  the  ability  of  the  Aermotor  to  run  in  light 
winds  more  than  doubles  the  average  time  when  the  power  is  available. 

The  decreased  cost  of  wind  power  that  has  conae  from  the  introduction 
of  steel  has  given  a  new  interest  to  the  question  of  using  windmills  in 
irrigation.  The  farmers  of  the  far  west,  and  especially  in  the  arid  regions, 
where  they  already  depend  upon  irrigation,  have  been  experimenting  for 
many  years  with  windmills,  but  the  cost  of  a  pumping  outfit  for  a  farm  has 
been  too  great  for  profitable  results.  It  has  been  demonstrated,  however, 
that  millions  of  arid  acres  in  the  western  half  of  the  United  States  are 
underlaid  with  strata  of  water-bearing  sand  or  gravel,  furnishing  an  abund- 
ant supply  of  water,  often  quite  near  the  surface.  Undoubtedly  the  steel 
windmill  will  play  an  important  part  in  the  near  future  in  reclaiming  this 
vast  area.  It  is  generally  conceded  by  the  advocates  of  irrigation  that  all 
the  land  immediately  adjoining  streams  of  water  in  the  west  has  been  taken 
up,  and  that  the  opening  of  areas  of  any  extent  in  the  future  depends,  on 
the  one  hand,  upon  building  long  and  costly  ditches  and  other  engineering 
works,  and  on  the  other  hand,  upon  the  general  introduction  of  windmills. 

In  this  connection  it  is  of  interest  to  note  calculations  of  Prof.  R.  H. 
Thurston,  of  Cornell  University,  on  the  amount  of  energy  that  is  developed 
by  the  atmosphere.  Says  Mr.  Thurston:  "The  magnitude  of  the  store  of 
aerial  energy  upon  which  mankind  may  draw^  so  long  as  the  race  exists 
upon  this  earth,  is  be\-ondthe  reach  of  the  imagination  to  conceive,  but  not 
beyond  the  power  of  computation  of  the  mathematician.  *  *  * 
The  atmosphere  weighs  about  a  ton  to  every  square  foot  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face. *  *  *  Its  energy  is  that  due  to  motion  at  velocities  varying 
all  the  way  from  the  gentlest  zephyr  to  the  hurricane  and  cyclone,  rushing 
over  the  prairie  or  along  the  surface  of  the  sea  at  more  than  100  miles  per 
hour.  *  *  *  Assuming  the  moderate  velocity  of  16.7  miles  an 
hour  for  the  whole  atmosphere  of  the  globe,  its  energy  per  mile  is 
*  *  *  certainly  more  than  half  a  million  times  as  much  power  as 
have  all  the  engines  in  the  world  combined.  Each  cubic  mile  would  store 
40,000,000,000  horse  power;  and  ever}^  square  mile,  could  100  feet  of  its 
superincumbent  atmosphere  be  utilized,  would  yield  about  80,000,000  horse 
power,  which  is  not  far  from  the  aggregate  of  the  existing  steam  power  of 
the  world." 


xMERICAX    AGRICULTLRAL    IMPLEMENTS. 


lo9 


THE  STAYER    &    ABBOTT    MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

As  indicated  briefly  in  the  chapter  of  this  book  devoted  to  feed  grinders, 
the  Buckeye  combined  feed  mill  and  power  was  introduced  in  the  trade  by 
H.  C.  Staver,  of  Chicago,  founder  of  the  Staver  &  Abbott  Manufacturing 
Company.  Mr.  Staver  had  been  associated  with  Geo.  K.  Smith,  the 
inventor  of  this  mill,  and  recognizing  its  value  he  acquired  the  patents  on  it 
and  undertook  the  pioneer  work  of  putting  it  on  the  market.  The  H.  C. 
Staver  Implement  Company  was  organized  in  1884  to  manufacture  it  in 
connection  with  other  lines  of  agricultural  implements.  A  large  busi- 
ness was  built  up,  and  in  time  the  manufacture  of  road  carts,  buggies  and 


THE    BUCKEYE   COMBINED    FEED    MILL   AND    HOUSE    TOWER. 

othervehicles  was  added.  In  the  fall  of  1890  the  business  was  con.solidated 
with  the  Abbott  Buggy  Company,  and  its  operations  were  still  further 
extended,  the  capital  .stock  being  increased  to  $400,000. 

Mr.  Staver's  life  has  had  its  full  share  of  hardships  and  romance.  He 
began  in  the  agricultural  trade  in  Wisconsin  some  twenty- five  years  ago, 
where  his  first  emplo^-ment  was  as  a  canvasser  for  a  patent  clothes  line.  After 
working  two  months  and  earning|;l20in  commissions,  his  employer,  who  had 
looked  after  the  collections,  left  for  parts  unknown,  leaving  the  young  man 
with  a  board  bill  and  other  debts  he  had  incurred.  Securing  work  in  a  hotel, 
his  attention  was  one  day  attracted  by  a  party  of  men  in  the  street  who  were 
unsuccessfully  attempting  to  set  up  a  reaper.  He  showed  them  how  to  get 
it  together,  and  this  led  to  the  offer  of  a  position  as  canvasser  and  reaper 
expert  for  a  local  firm.  From  this  beginning  he  gradually  rose,  working  as 
traveling  salesman  for  the  Mar.sh  harvester,  and  later  in  1875  going  to  Kan- 
sas City  to  engage  in  the  jobbing  trade,  where  he  remained  until  1879.  He 
then  became  secretarj'  of  the  J.  I.  Case  Plow  Company  at  Racine,  Wis., 
remaining  there  until  he  began  manufacturing  in  Chitago. 


160  AMEB.ICAX  AGKICULTURAL    IMPLEMKXTS. 

THE    FAMOUS    MANUFACTURING    COMPANY. 

The  development  of  the  hay  press  industry  in  the  west  has  been  largely 
dependent  upon  the  growth  of  cities  like  Chicago.  This  city  has  more 
than  doubled  its  population  in  the  past  ten  years  and  other  western  cities 
have  grown  at  almost  as  rapid  a  rate.  The  market  for  baled  ha)'  has 
widened  in  a  corresponding  degree  and  absorbs  at  the  present  time  a  large 
proportion  of  the  hay  crop,  with  a  promise  of  taking  a  still  greater  share  in 
the  next  few  years. 

Quincy,  111. ,  is  the  pioneer  city  of  the  west  in  the  manufacture  of  hay- 
presses.  It  was  here  that  the  first  upright  large  bale-beater  presses  were 
made,  this  pioneer  step  leading  to  the  introduction  of  horse-power  horizon- 
tal presses  and  other  improvements. 

One  of  the  pioneers  who  began  at  Quincy,  was  Andrew  Wickey,  the 
founder  of  the  Famous  Manufacturing  Company,  now  of  Chicago,  the  oldest 
western  manufacturer  in  this  line  represented  at  the  Columbian  Exposition. 
Mr.  Wickey  had  been  engaged  in  the  jobbing  of  agricultural  implements  at 
Quincy,  and,  seeing  the  need  of  a  convenient  portable  press  that  could  be 
used  by  farmers  so  they  could  take  advantage  of  the  market  for  baled-hay, 
he  began  manufacturing  in  this  line  in  1881.  The  first  press  which  he  intro- 
duced was  known  as  the  Champion  side  discharge  press,  with  cogged- 
segment  double  acting  power.  The  chamber  was  fitted  with  a  pressure- 
gauge  and  when  the  bale  had  reached  its  full  size  and  had  been  tied,  it  was 
discharged  by  the  rotation  of  the  pressure-gauge,  which  presented"  its 
reverse  end  for  a  new  bale.  This  press  was  manufactured  on  quite  a  large 
scale.  Following  the  introduction  of  the  Champion  side  discharge,  Mr. 
Wickey  designed  an  upright  pattern  of  press  known  as  the  Common 
Sense.  It  had  many  devices  in  common  with  the  Champion  side-discharge 
horizontal  press,  but  used  a  capstan  power.  The  next  and  most  important 
change  consisted  in  dispensing  with  the  side-discharge  principle  and  the 
pressure-gauge  and  substituting  a  perpetual  bale-chamber. 

In  1887  <:he  Famous  Manufacturing  Company  brought  out  the  Champion 
belt-power  press,  being  the  first  steam-power  press  manufactured  in  the 
west,  and  in  1888  the  Champion  four-hor.se  detached  power  press,  and  also 
an  attached  power-press.  In  the  same  year  the  company  introduced  the 
Champion  two-horse  full-circle  press,  a  machine  constructed  entirely  of  iron 
and  steel,  which  has  had  a  large  sale.  Having  from  time  to  time  greatly 
increased  the  number  of  styles  and  sizes  as  demanded  by  the  trade,  they  now 
make  upwards  of  twenty  different  st34es  of  presses. 

In  the  fall  of  1892  they  perfected  the  self-tying  attachment  for  the 
Champion  press,  a  radically  new  invention  in  the  hay-press  industry,  and 
one  that  promises  to  have  far-reaching  results.  It  takes  the  wire  from  the 
coil,  passes  it  around  the  bale  and  fastens  the  ends  together,  the  entire  oper- 
ation being  automatic,  thus  reducing  the  help  required  as  also  the  cost  of 
the  wire. 

The  business  established  by  Mr.  Wickey  was  incorporated  in  1883  as  the 
Famous  Manufacturing  Company  and  so  continues.  In  1889  the  company 
removed  to  Chicago,  increasing  its  capital  stock  to  |100,000,  and  erecting 
large  and  complete  works. 


AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 


161 


THE  CHAMPION  BELT  POWER  BALING  FRESS- 


CHAMPION  DETACHED  POWER  BALING  PRESS. 


CHAMPION  T^VO 


.-,   i.ALi:.U   I'RESS. 


Rockford,  111. 


EMERSON,  TAIvCOTT  &  CO 

JH.  MANNY  laid  the  foundation  for  the  reaper  business  of  Rockford, 
•  111.  At  the  time  of  the  invention  of  his  reaper  he  was  farming  with 
his  father  at  Waddams'  Grove,  111.,  near  Rockford.  They  had  a  large  crop 
of  wheat,  and  wanted  a  machine  to  cut  it,  and  they  heard  that  Geo.  Esterlv, 
of  Wisconsin,  was  making  machines  that  would  harvest  grain.  Thej' vis- 
ited Esterly  to  buy  one  of  his  machines,  but  found  that  he  would  probably 
not  be  able  to  get  one  finished  for  them  in  time  for  their  harvest.  John  H 
Manny,  who  was  then  a  very  young  man,  remained  with  Esterly  at  his  shop 
to  help  him  complete  the  "header,"  which  he  undertook  to  furnish  for  them, 
and  thus  had  his  first  insight  into  the  construction  of  harvesting  machinery. 
They  brought  this  header  home  and  used  it  successful!}',  making  a  number 
like  it  for  sale  the  next  year.  Subsequently  John  H.  Manny  conceived  the 
idea  of  making  a  reaper,  and  after  the  trials  incident  to  an  inventor  who 
undertakes  so  great  a  task  he  succeeded  in  bringing  out  a  practical  machine. 
There  were  no  railroads  through  the  country  at  this  time,  except  a  line  to 
Rockford,  and  John  H.  Manny  and  those  interested  with  him  in  building 
his  machine  came  to  Rockford  to  buy  their  hardware,  which  was  furnished 
to  them  by  the  firm  of  Blinn  &  Emerson.  This  was  in  1852  or  1853.  In 
the  fall  of  1853  they  concluded  to  locate  at  Rockford  permanently,  John  P. 
Manny  coming  with  his  brother  as  an  employee.  Subseqiiently,  in  the  spring 
of  1854,  Wait  and  Sylvester  Talcott  became  interested  with  Mr.  Manny 
under  the  firm  name  J.  H.  Manny  &  Co.,  and  they  manufactured  a  consid- 
erable number  of  combined  reapers  and  mowers  for  the  harvest  of  1854  In 
the  summer  of  1854  a  new  firm  was  organized  under  the  name  of  Manny  &  Co. , 
consisting  of  John  H.  Manny,  Wait  and  Sylvester  Talcott,  Jess  Blinn  and 
Ralph  Emerson,  who  manufactured  for  the  harvest  of  1855  and  1856  about 
6,000  machines.  John  H.  Manny  died  in  1856,  and  the  manufacture  of  his 
machines  was  then  carried  on  by  Wait  and  Sylvester  Talcott  and  Ralph 
Emerson  until  1860,  when  Mr.  Emerson  bought  out  his  partners  and  associ- 
ated himself  with  Wm.  A.  Talcott.  Following  the  death  of  Mr.  Manny  the 
firm  was  known  as  Talcott,  Emerson  &  Co.,  until  the  change  in  the  person- 
nel of  the  firm  in  18(50,  when  it  became  Emerson  &  Co.,  who  continued  the 
business  under  this  style  until  seventeen  years  ago,  when  it  was  incorpo- 
rated under  the  name  of  Emerson,  Talcott  &  Co. 

Encouraged  by  the  success  of  their  enterprises  in  building  reapers, 
mowers,  binders  and  Marsh  harvesters,  various  other  concerns  have 
at  one  time  or  another  engaged  in  the  same  business  in  Rockford,  the  prin- 
cipal of  whom  was  John  P.  Manny,  who  .started  for  himself  soon  after  the 
death  of  his  brother.     The  Fountain   Bros,  also  began  in  this   line   about 

163 


AMERICAN    AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS,  163 

1856  and  built  a  considerable  number  of  reapers,  but  became  involved  and 
retired  from  the  business.  W.  A.  Knowlton,  first  as  agent  for  John  H. 
Manny's  widow  and  subsequently  on  his  own  account,  carried  on  the  man- 
ufacture of  reapers  and  mowers  until  he  also  became  involved  and  retired. 
Various  other  attempts  to  manufacture  reapers  and  mowers  were  made,  but 
none  of  them  have  been  successful  except  the  continuous  enterprise  in 
which  Mr.  Emerson  became  interested  in  the  fall  of  1854,  and  with  which 
he  has  ever  since  remained  identified. 

In  lS{il  W.  W.  Burson  brought  to  Rockford  and  showed  to  Emerson  & 
Co.  a  wire-binder,  which  they  recognized  as  the  first  practical  machine  that 
had  been  produced.  The  result  was  that  about  1,200  binders  were  built  for 
Mr.  Burson  by  Emerson  &  Co. ,  proving  to  be  the  first  successful  grain 
binders  ever  put  on  the  market.  The  machines,  as  shown  by  the  illustra- 
tions in  the  chapter  on  "Automatic  Binders,"  were  made  as  attachments  to 
reapers.  The  cost  of  wire  at  this  time,  however,  was  very  high  and  the 
prejudice  of  the  farmers  very  great  against  it.  Still  the  manufacture  of  the 
Burson  binder  was  persevered  in  until  the  invention  of  the  Marsh  harvester, 
on  which  two  men  could  ride  and  bind  without  any  cost  for  binding  mate- 
rial. This  effectually  set  aside  the  attempt  to  construct  and  introduce  wire- 
binders.  The  first  Marsh  harvesters  built  by  Emerson  &  Co.  were  for  the 
harvest  of  1867.  Subsequently  they  became  ver}^  extensive  manufacturers 
of  harvesters  until  this  machine  in  turn  was  gradually  superseded  by 
improved  wire  and  twine-binders. 

Going  back,  now,  to  about  1870,  we  find  one  of  the  most  interesting 
events  in  the  history  of  Rockford.  Jacob  Behel  brought  to  Emerson  &  Co. 
the  first  twine-binder  in  which  the  twine  was  tied  into  a  successful  knot  by 
what  was  then  called  the  "duck's  bill"  tyer,  which  drew  the  two  ends  of  the 
twine  through  and  made  a  knot,  the  device  being  practically  the  same  as  is 
used  on  all  twine-binders  to-da}\  Recognizing  the  value  of  the  invention  if 
twine  or  cord  could  be  secured  at  a  reasonable  price,  Mr.  Emerson  spent 
many  weeks  going  all  over  the  United  States  in  the  search  for  a  manufact- 
urer who  would  make  the  twine  cheap  enough  for  general  use  in  the  har- 
vest fields  of  the  world.  He  met  with  disappointment,  however,  as  the 
cheapest  twine  he  could  find  would  cost  from  75  cents  to  $1  per  acre  to  bind 
the  grain,  and  this  a  poor  quality  of  twine,  the  cost  of  a  twine  that  he  con- 
sidered strong  enough  being  nearly  $2  per  acre.  This  was  fatal  to  Mr. 
Behel's  enterprise.  Had  he  brought  out  kis  invention  twelve  or  fourteen 
years  later,  when  the  cost  of  twine  had  materially  cheapened,  his  patent 
would  have  been  worth  several  millions  of  dollars,  as  it  would  have  con- 
trolled the  twine-binder  industry. 


Moline,  111. 


DEERE  &  COMPANY  AND  THE  STEEL  PLOW. 

NO  city  in  the  west  has  become  more  favora1:)ly  known  to  the  farmers  of 
America  and  the  world  as  a  manufacturing  center  than  Moline,  and 
certainly  no  city  could  be  more  deserving  of  a  high  reputation.  The  steel 
plow  laid  the  foundation  for  the  prosperity  of  the  vvestern  farmer,  and  he 
would  be  ungrateful  indeed  were  he  to  forget  the  place  in  which  was  devel- 
oped this  most  indispensable  of  all  implements.  In  commercial  importance 
the  manufacture  of  the  steel  plow  stands  second  among  the  branches  of  the 
agricultural  implement  industry,  harvesting  machinery  alone  taking  prece- 
dence over  it.  Considered  from  the  point  of  view  of  its  usefulness  to  the 
farmer  in  return  for  the  investment,  no  implement  has  conferred  greater 
benefits  upon  agriculture  than  the  steel  plow. 

While  John  Deere  was  the  pioneer  in  this  line,  others  were  in  the  field 
at  an  early  day,  and  there  are  now  a  score  or  more  of  prominent  houses 
engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  steel  plows.  Almost  invariably  the  pioneer 
in  an  industry  falls  to  the  rear  after  he  has  established  it  and  allows  others 
to  take  a  foremost  position  and  the  highest  honors;  but  to  the  credit  of  the 
house  Mr.  Deere  founded  it  may  be  said  that  the  discriminating  demand  of 
a  million  farmers  who  seek  the  best  has  kept  it  to  the  front  for  over  half  a 
century.  In  no  other  branch  of  the  agricultural  implement  industry  can  a 
house  be  found  that  has  made  as  favorable  a  record. 

The  manufacture  of  steel  plows  in  the  west  was  begun  in  1837  at  Grand 
Detour  by  John  Deere,  who  had  moved  to  the  west  from  Vermont,  bringing 
little  with  him  but  a  kit  of  blacksmith's  tools  and  the  skill  he  had  acquired 
during  several  years  spent  at  the  forge.  The  few  people  who  were  then 
living  in  Grand  Detour  were  not  long  in  discovering  his  abilit}^  as  a 
mechanic,  and  "  piled  upon  the  floor  of  his  shop  their  broken  trace  chains 
and  clevises,  their  worn-out  '  bull  tongues'  and  worse  worn  shares;  and 
while  the  young  blacksmith  hammered  out  lap  rings  for  their  chains, 
welded  their  clevises,  '  drew  out'  their  bull  tongues  and  '  laid'  their  shares, 
his  mind  dwelt  upon  the  improvement  of  the  plow,  the  implement  of  the 
greatest  importance  to  the  pioneer." 

Mr.  Deere  soon  began  to  make  plows,  in  partnership  with  Major 
Andrus,  and  this  gave  him  a  new  interest  in  the  problem  of  making  a  self- 
scouring  plow.  He  saw  that  the  wooden  mouldboard  plows  of  the  time 
entered  the  ground  with  difficulty,  clogged  up  and  failed  to  scour.  His 
first  plow  had  a  wrought-iron  landside  and  standard,  with  a  mouldboard 
and  a  share  of  steel  cut  from  an  old  saw-mill  saw  and  bent  over  a  log  shaped 
for  the  purpose,  the  beam  and  handles  being  made  from  white  oak  rails. 

]64 


AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAI,  IMPLEMENTS. 


165 


THE  JOHN  DEERE  PLC^'. 


DEERE    &  CO.'S   STEEL  FRAME   "RED  JACKET"   PLOW. 


DEERE   &  CO.'i?   STEEL  BE.'^M   STUBBLE   PLOTV. 


](;t;  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAI.   IMPLEMENTS. 

In  J  838  two  of  these  plows  were  made,  which  aroused  considerable  interest 
among  the  farmers  by  the  excellent  work  they  did.  Mr.  Deere  saw  by  this 
time  that  the  successful  scouring  of  a  steel  mouldboard  depended  largely 
upon  its  curvature,  and  his  next  experiments  were  with  a  view  to  making  a 
plow  that  would  scour  in  land  that  had  been  plowed  four  or  five  times, 
especially  the  black,  sticky  bottom  lauds.  lie  visited  points  in  Ogle,  Lee, 
Whiteside  and  other  counties  where  the  farmers  had  never  been  able  to 
make  a  plow  scour,  and  were  becoming  discouraged,  and  in  1839  built  ten 
plows.  In  1840  he  added  a  second  anvil  in  his  shop  and  made  fort)'  plows. 
In  1841  a  brick  shop  was  erected  and  seventy-five  were  built,  and  in  1x42 
100  plows.  In  184o,  by  erecting  a  two-story  brick  shop  and  adding  a  small 
foundry,  the  firm  of  Andrus  &  Deere  was  able  to  turn  out  400  plows.  B3'  this 
time  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  steel  in  the  quantity  and  quality  needed  had 
become  a  serious  obstacle  in  the  way  of  further  development.  In  the  course 
of  his  search  for  material  Mr.  Deere  wrote  Nailor  &  Co.,  importers,  of  New 
York,  explaining  to  them  the  demand  of  the  growing  agricultural  States  of 
the  West  for  a  cast-steel  plow,  and  stated  the  size  and  quality  of  the  steel 
plates  he  wanted.  They  replied  that  no  such  steel  could  be  had  in  America, 
but  they  would  send  to  England  and  have  it  rolled  specially  for  his 
purpose. 

In  the  tneantime  Mr.  Deere  had  becotne  dissatisfied  with  the  limited 
opportunities  for  manufacturing  at  Grand  Detour,  far  from  the  water,  then 
the  only  means  of  transportation  for  material,  coal  or  finished  products. 
Selling  out  his  interest  in  the  business,  in  1847,  to  Major  Andrus,  he 
removed  to  Moline,  where  he  found  the  advantages  of  water  power,  coal 
nearby  in  abundance,  and  cheap  river  transportation.  A  partnership  was 
formed  with  R.  M.  Tate  and  J.  M.  Gould,  shops  were  erected  and  700  plows 
were  turned  out  the  first  year.  About  this  time  the  English  .steel  arrived 
and  fifty  plows  were  made  of  it  and  sent  to  different  parts  of  the  country 
where  the  soil  was  known  to  be  the  most  difficult  to  plow.  So  successful 
were  they  in  the  field  that  the  demand  increased  rapidly,  and  in  I80O  1,600 
plows  were  put  out,  which  was  considered  a  remarkable  number  in  those 
early  daj's. 

In  1852  the  shops  were  enlarged  and  new  machinery  was  put  in,  and  by 
1857  the  annual  output  had  risen  to  10,000  plows.  Messrs.  Tate  and  Gould 
had  sold  their  interests  to  Mr.  Deere  in  1853,  and  he  continued  alone  until 
1858,  when  his  son,  Chas.  H. ,  who  had  completed  his  education  for  a  busi- 
ness career,  was  taken  into  partnership,  and  in  1863  Stephen  H.  Velie,  Mr. 
Deere's  son-in-law,  a  man  of  considerable  experience  in  mercantile  life, 
also  became  a  member  of  the  firm.  In  1862  the  manufacture  of  cultivators 
was  begun,  and  in  time  other  lines,  now  known  as  "plow  goods,"  were 
added.  In  1868  the  business  was  incorporated  under  the  name  Deere  & 
Company,  with  John  Deere  as  president;  Chas.  H.  Deere,  vice-president 
and  general  manager,  and  S.  H.  Velie,  secretary.  As  railroads  were  built 
through  the  west  a  flood  of  new  settlers  came  in  and  the  manufacture  of 
plows  expanded  enormously,  the  John  Deere  goods  maintaining  well  the 
position  they  had  won  in  the  pioneer  days.  In  1882  the  capital  stock  of  the 
company  was  increased  to  |1, 000, 000,  a  further  increase  in  later  years  mak- 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


167 


DEERE  &  CO.'S   "C.  H.  D.'*  CORN   CULTIVATOR. 


DEERE    &   CO."S    "kid"'    THREE    WHEEL    PLOW. 


ir.8 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL    IMPLEMENTS. 


ing  it  11,500,000.  In  1.S86  Mr.  Deere  died  at  the  ripe  age  of  82,  and  the 
presidency  fell  to  his  son.  Both  father  and  son  had  held  offices  of  honor 
and  public  trust,  John  Deere  having  served  as  mayor  of  Moline,  besides 
taking  an  active  interest  in  public  enterprise  and  in  banking.  Chas.  H. 
Deere  held  the  office  of  Illinois  labor  commissioner  for  several  years,  and 
has  been  honored  with  elective  and  appointive  political  offices.  He  is 
largely  interested  in  banking  and  in  other  investments,  still  finding  time, 
however,  to  give  general  direction  to  the  business  of  Deere  &  Company. 
Mr.  Velie  continues  to  hold  the  office  of  secretary. 

Deere  &  Company  have  probabl}'  the  most  complete  organization  of 
any  house  iu  the  we.st;  a  fact  that  augurs  well  for  the  future  of  their  busi- 
ness. The  following  are  the  officers  of  the  company:  Charles  H.  Deere, 
president;  Charles  C.  Webber,  vice-president;  Stephen  H.  Velie,  secretary; 
Charles  H.  Pope,  assistant  secretary;  Peter  C.  Simmon,  treasurer;  Willard 
L.  Velie,  superintendent  sales  department ;  William  Butterworth,  attor- 
ney. In  the  principal  jobbing  centers  strong  branch  houses  have  been 
built  up,  and  from  these  houses  the  John  Deere  plows  and  associated 
lines  are  distributed.  The  oldest  of  these  houses  is  the  John  Deere  Plow 
Co.  at  Kansas  City,  l\Io.,  which  was  established  in  1869,  under  the  style 
Deere,  Mansur  &  Co.,  and  continued  under  this  organization  until 
1889,  when  it  was  incorporated  under  the  present  name.  C.  H.  Deere 
is  president,  S.  H.  Velie,  vice-president  and  G.  W.  Fuller,  of  Kansas  City, 
secretary  and  treasurer.  At  St.  Louis,  the  firm  of  Deere,  Mansur  &  Co. 
was  established  in  1874  to  distribute  the  John  Deere  goods  and  a  general 
line  of  agricultural  implements  and  vehicles  in  the  southern  trade.  This 
business  was  conducted  under  the  name  Deere,  Mansur  &  Co.  until  1889, 
when  the  Moline  interest  was  purchased  by  the  St.  Louis  members  and  the 
firm  was  incorporated  as  the  Mansur  &  Tebbetts  Implement  Compan}-.  The 
Des  Moines,  la.,  branch  was  established  in  1877,  and  has  grown  to  be  a 
large  jobbing  house,  under  the  name  H.  H.  Sickles  &  Co.  The  members 
of  the  firm  are  H.  H.  Sickles,  Deere  &  Co.  and  the  Moline  Wagon  Co. 
Deere  &  Co. 's  house  at  Council  Bluffii,  la.,  Deere,  Wells  &  Co.,  was  organ- 
ized in  1881,  and  incorporated  in  1891,  and  is  one  of  the  best-known  jobbing 
houses  in  the  west.  C.  H.  Deere  is  president;  Morris  Rosenfield,  vice- 
president,  and  Lucius  AVells,  secretary  and  treasurer.  The  Minneapolis 
house  was  established  in  1881  under  the  name  Deere  &  Co.,  with  the 
parent  house  as  a  partner  with  C.  C.  Webber  and  W.  J.  Dean.  Lately  it 
has  been  incorporated  as  the  Deere  &  Webber  Company.  The  Deere 
Implement  Company,  of  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  incorporated  in  1892,  was 
established  in  1889.  C.  H.  Deere  is  president;  S.  H.  Velie,  vice-president, 
and  F.  W.  Vaughn,  secretarj-  and  treasurer.  Deere  &  Co.,  also  have 
branch  houses  at  Indianapolis,  and  other  jobbing  and  distribution  centers. 


Galesburgh,  111 


GEO.  W.  BROWN  &  CO. 

ONE  of  the  greatest  blessings  ever  conferred  upon  humanity  was  the  in- 
vention of  the  modern  corn-planter.  To  the  casual  observer  it  may 
only  seem  to  be  a  useful  implement,  saving  the  farmer  considerable  time 
and  labor  in  the  planting  of  his  corn,  but  to  the  student  of  agricultural 
history  it  is  far  more  than  this.  Viewed  in  this  light  it  may  be  seen  that 
the  corn-planter — with  the  "straddle-row"  cultivator  that  came  after  it — 
has  been  the  means  of  transforming  agriculture  in  the  west,  and  of  increas- 
ing the  production  of  corn  until  the  yield  in  the  United  States  in  a  favorable 
season  exceeds  two  billions  of  bushels,  enough  to  feed  the  bread-eating 
nations  of  the  world.  How  much  this  has  been  worth,  in  the  increased 
revenue  it  has  brought  to  the  farmer,  in  the  cheapening  of  food  for  the 
millions  in  the  cities,  and  in  the  employment  it  has  afforded  for  labor  in 
industries  dependent  upon  the  corn  crop,  no  one  can  estimate. 

It  has  almost,  if  not  altogether,  doubled  the  production  of  corn,  by 
doubling  the  efficiency  of  the  farmer's  labor  in  planting,  and  has  made  in- 
dependent farmers  on  free  land  west  of  the  Mississippi  of  men  who  would 
otherwise  be  farm  laborers  in  the  older  states.  The  corn  crop  of  the  west 
has  afforded  a  considerable  share  of  their  traffic  to  the  railroads  that  carry  it 
to  the  market,  and  it  has  increased  enormously  the  world's  supplj*  of  beef 
and  pork,  bringing  abundance  to  the  table  of  the  workingman  The  manu- 
facture of  implements  used  in  growing  the  crop  has  contributed  largely  to 
the  development  of  prosperous  western  cities  like  Galesburgh,  and  the 
handling  of  the  crop  or  products  representing  it  gives  employment  to  armies 
of  workingmen,  as  in  Chicago,  for  example,  where  the  meat-packing 
industries  require  the  labor  of  30,000  people,  and  support  four  of  five  times 
as  man}-. 

Important  inventions  in  the  agricultural  implement  industry  are  almost 
invariably  the  accumulation  of  the  efforts  of  a  number  of  inventors,  but 
the  vital  principles  of  the  corn- planter  were  all  the  invention  of  one  man, 
George  W.  Brown.  It  is  true  that  there  were  corn-planter  patents  issued 
before  his,  and  in  some  of  them  may  be  found  suggestions  of  the  devices 
that  he  afterwards  conceived  and  put  in  practice,  but  all  the  efforts  of  these 
early  inventors  were  given  to  the  production  of  automatic  planters  or  drills, 
while  Mr.  Brown's  invention  was  primarily  intended  for  dropping  by  a 
hand  lever  so  that  the  rows  could  be  placed  in  check  by  the  operator,  to 
permit  of  cross  cultivation. 

Mr.  Brown's  inventive  efforts  began  about  1848.  He  was  then  living  at 
Tylersville,  near  Galesburgh,  where  he  had  settled  twelve  years  before.  He 
was  a  carpenter  by  profession,  and  the  farmers  for  miles  around  brought 


3""  AMKRIC.->  V   AGRICUl/riKAI,   IMPLEMUXTS. 

their  iniplcmcuts  to  him  to  have  them  repaired.  His  first  idea  of  a  planter 
was  to  combine  a  hopper,  and  a  device  for  dropping  the  corn,  with  a  shovel 
plow,  a  section  of  log  rolling  behind  to  cover  the  hills.  In  the  spring  of 
1851  he  made  his  first  practical  planter,  of  the  type  shown  in  his  patent  of 
1803.  In  18.")'2  he  planted  sixteen  acres  for  himself  and  eight  for  a  neighbor, 
and  the  same  spring  began  the  manufacture  of  ten  planters.  He  only  had 
the  means  to  finish  one  of  them,  although  he  had  sold  everything  on  his 
farm  to  raise  the  money  necessary  for  it  and  for  securing  his  patents. 
Becoming  desperate  he  sold  his  farm,  went  deepl}'  into  debt  for  more  money, 
and  staked  ail  upon  the  success  of  his  invention.  Times  were  hard,  and 
soon  he  w^as  so  much  involved  that  had  he  been  called  upon  to  pay  his 
debts  he  would  not  have  had  a  dollar  left.  He  commenced  manufacturing 
at  Shanghai,  111.,  and  in  1853  completed  twelve  machines,  one  of  which  that 
season  planted  300  acres  of  corn.  In  1854  lie  made  100  planters,  and  in  1855 
300,  after  which  he  removed  to  Galesburgh. 

The  business  was  now  fairly  established,  but  it  was  of  slow  growth. 
Every  one  knew  that  corn  when  planted  with  a  hoe  would  come  up,  at  least 
if  the  seed  was  good,  but  would  it  grow  when  run  through  the  hopper  of 
this  new-fangled  machine?  All  could  see  that  the  machine  would  run  "very 
prettily"  through  the  field,  but  did  it  leave  the  corn  in  the  right  place,  and 
in  the  proper  quantities?  Was  it  well  covered  and  would  it  grow?  These 
questions  were  seriousl}-  asked,  foolish  as  they  may  seem  to  the  present 
generation.  For  ten  or  twelve  years  the  planters  could  only  be  sent  through 
the  country  on  wagons  and  sold  by  agents  or  canvassers,  who  w^ere  prepared 
to  demonstrate  in  the  field  the  operation  of  the  new  implement.  So  great 
were  the  expenses  of  introduction  that  ten  years  after  Mr.  Brown  had  begun 
manufacturing  he  did  not  consider  himself  worth  a  dollar.  However,  the 
planter  trade  was  gradually  developing,  and  he  was  building  a  firm  founda- 
tion for  the  future. 

During  the  war  the  thousands  of  planters  hat  had  gone  into  use  played 
a  part  by  no  means  unimportant  in  raising  corn  and  beef,  so  much  in 
demand  "at  the  front"  when  labor  was  scarce  at  home.  As  a  well-known 
public  man  has  said:  "Call  to  mind,  if  you  please,  a  military  hero  whose 
memory  humanity  has  so  much  reason  to  bless  as  that  of  George  vStephen- 
son.  The  mighty  deeds  of  Alexander  and  Hannibal,  of  Caesar  and  Napoleon 
—what  are  they  compared  with  the  triumphs  of  Galileo  and  Newton,  of 
Stephenson,  Fulton  and  Morse?  During  his  great  struggle,  comparing 
France  to  England,  Napoleon  said:  'We  must  overpower  her  in  the  end; 
we  havea  vastly  greater  population.'  Itdid  not  occur  to  him  that  England's 
steam  engines,  the  children  of  James  Watt,  represented  thirty  millions 
of  men.  It  was  these  iron  men,  and  not  the  armies  of  Wellington  at  Waterloo, 
that  overcame  him.  How  many  men  during  our  war  represented  in  the  army 
McCormick's  reapers  and  Brown's  corn-planters;  or  what  would  have  been 
the  difference  in  the  muster  rolls  if  the  wheat  had  all  been  cut  by  cradles 
and  the  corn  all  planted  with  hoes,  when  the  existence  of  our  great  armies 
depended  upon  wheat  and  corn?" 

In  1804  the  business  had  become  so  well  .settled  that  it  was  pos.sible  ta 
make  a  radical  change  in  the  system  of  selling  planters.     It  had  been  im- 


AMERICAN   AGKICLXTURAL    IMPLEMENTS. 


171 


THE    BKOWN    CuKN    1'i.ANTEK    IX    OPERATION. 


THE   IMPROVED    BROWN    PLANTER    AND   CHECK    ROWER. 


172  AMERICAN    AGKICn/rrRAL   IMPLEMENTS. 

possible  in  the  early  years  of  the  industry  to  get  local  dealers  interested  so 
they  would  become  active  agents,  but  it  was  decided  to  take  the  bold  step 
of  doing  away  with  hired  canvassers,  and  also  to  discontinue  the  practice  of 
placing  goods  in  the  hands  of  dealers  on  commission  The  times  were  good 
and  the  change  resulted  in  an  enormous  expansion  of  the  business,  which 
continued  until  the  factory  was  ©ne  of  the  largest  in  the  world  making 
agricultural  implements. 

The  record  of  Mr.  Brown's  most  important  patents  appears  in  Chapter 
IV  of  the  first  part  of  this  book.  It  will  be  sufficient  for  this  brief  sketch  of 
his  pioneer  work  as  a  manufacturer  to  mention  that  the  business  was  incor- 
porated under  the  name  Geo.  W.  Brown  &  Co.,  in  1880,  with  |oOO,000  capital. 
Mr.  Brown  took  the  office  of  president;  I.  S.  Perkins,  who  had  been  his 
business  manager  since  1804,  was  elected  vice-president;  Jas.  E.  Brown, 
treasurer,  and  Loren  Stevens,  secretary.  M.  T.  Perrin  is  now  (1893),  vice- 
president  and  James  E.  Brown,  secretar}- and  treasurer.  Mr.  Brown,  who  is 
now  in  his  seventy-eighth  year,  is  thus  able  to  escape  the  details  of  the  bus- 
iness, and  spends  a  part  of  each  year  in  California,  enjoying  the  rest  to  which 
lie  is  entitled  as  one  of  the  foremost  of  the  inventors  who  have  distinguished 
themselves  in  the  agricultural  implement  industry  of  America. 


Moline,  111. 


THE  MOLINE  PLOW  COMPANY'S  "FLYING  DUTCHMAN." 

THE  three-wheel  plow,  broiight  out  in  1884,  is  the  most  important  inven- 
tion that  has  been  contributed  to  the  plow  industry  in  the  past  twenty 
3-ears.  The  IMoline  Plow  Company's  Flying  Dutchman  was  the  pioneer  in 
this  class.  Its  distinctive  principle  is  in  pivoting  the  plow  at  the  heel,  so 
it  is  lowered  into  and  raised  out  of  the  ground  in  the  most  natural  and  easy 
way,  by  first  lowering  or  raising  the  point.  A  compound  lever  places  the 
control  of  the  plow  under  the  hand  of  the  operator,  so  it  can  be  lowered 
and  leveled  in  the  furrow  by  one  movement  of  the  lever,  or  raised  and 
leveled  for  traveling,  the  plow  taking  always  a  proper  position. 

The  Moline  Champion  corn  planter  was  the  first  full}- practical  "com- 
bined''check  row  planter  and  drill  put  upon  the  market  The  successful 
combination  of  the  drill  and  planter  in  one  implement  was  effected  by 
arranging  the  planter  plates  so  they  are  rotated  by  a  chain  driven  from  the 
main  axle  of  the  planter.  Each  hole  in  the  seed  plate  accommodates  but 
one  kernel  of  corn,  which  is  dropped  into  the  seed  tube  and  held  at  the  heel 
of  the  tube  ready  for  its  release.  For  planting  in  drill  the  wire  is  taken 
off  and  the  check  valve  tied  back  so  the  kernels  drop  directly  into  the  furrow. 

Candee,  Swan  &  Co.,  in  1806,  established  at  IMoline  the  house  that  was 
incorporated  in  1870  as  the  Moline  Plow  Company.  The  present  officers 
are  George  Stephens,  president;  G.  A.  Stephens,  vice-president;  F.  G. 
Allen,  secretar}',  and  S.  M.  Hill,  treasurer. 


AMERICAN   AGRICUL,TUR.-.L   IMPLEMENTS. 


173 


THE   MOLINE  PLOW  COMPANY'S  CHAMPION   COMBINED  CHECK-ROW  PIANTER   AND  DRILL. 


Decatur,  111. 


HA  WORTH   &  SONS  AND  THE  CHECK-ROWER. 

T^HE  most  remarkable  feature  of  American  life  may  be  found  in  the 
1  methods  of  our  western  farmers.  Spurred  on  by  the  ambition  to 
become  independent  land-owners  and  to  make  comfortable  homes  for  their 
families,  the  millions  of  toilers  in  the  Mississippi  valley  and  the  states 
south  and  west  have  provided  themselves  with  one  after  another  of  labor- 
saving  implements  and  machines,  until  to-day  they  each  do  twice  to  four 
times  the  work  of  a  farmer  in  the  older  states  of  the  east,  who  has  not 
equipped  himself  with  the  same  labor-saving  appliances. 

The  reaper  was  too  slow  for  the  western  farmer  and  he  demanded  a 
harvester  and  was  not  satisfied  until  the  automatic  binder  had  been  per- 
fected. So  it  has  been  in  the  case  of  implements  used  in  corn-growing,  the 
chief  of  which  is  the  check-row  corn-planter.  The  old-fashioned  corn- 
planter,  when  it  was  first  brought  into  use,  was  a  valuable  implement,  but  it 
required  two  men  or  a  man  and  a  boy  to  operate  it,  besides  the  labor  of 
marking,  and  thus  was  expensive  for  the  majority  of  farmers  who  had  no 
extra  labor  at  hand.  The  invention  of  the  check-rower  saved  three-fourths 
the  labor  of  planting,  and  proved  a  boon  indeed  tb  the  farmers  in  their  battle 
against  the  adverse  conditions  that  have  prevailed  during  the  last  fifteen  or 
twenty  years.  For  this  improvement  the  farmer  is  indebted  to  George  D. 
Haworth,  of  Decatur,  111.,  the  practical  inventor  who  developed  it,  and  to 
Haworth  &  Sons,  the  pioneer  manufacturers  who  brought  it  into  general  use. 

George  D.  Haworth  began  the  manufacture  of  corn-planters  at  Spring- 
field, Ohio,  in  185.3,  making  at  first  single-row  planters  or  drills.  Often  at 
this  early  day  his  thoughts  turned  to  the  problem  of  inventing  a  device  that 
would  plant  the  hills  in  check,  and  a  few  years  after  he  heard  of  the  effort 
of  Robbins,  a  resident  of  the  next  county,  and  this  gave  him  new  hope. 
Nothing  came  of  the  Robbins  effort,  however.  The  use  of  a  chain  was 
impracticable,  because  of  the  high  price  of  iron  and  steel,  and  Mr.  Haworth's 
experiments  with  iron  wire  demonstrated  that,  aside  from  its  great  cost, 
wire  wouM  not  last  to  plant  more  than  fifty  acres  and  was  liable  to  break 
and  cause  trouble.  Various  experiments  were  made  with  substitutes,  espe- 
cially after  Mr.  Haworth  removed  to  Illinois.  Hemp  rope  was  tried,  and 
three  or  four  hundred  check-rowers  were  made  and  sold  with  a  view  to 
using  it.  But  it  would  stretch  after  it  had  been  wet,  and  proved  unsatis- 
factory. However,  enough  had  been  done  to  develop  practical  devices  for 
use  in  a  check-rower,  and  it  was  only  a  question  of  time  when  a  practical  line 
or  wire  would  be  found.  At  this  time,  during  the  war,  cotton  rope  was  very 
high  in  price,  costing  about  thirty  cents  per  pound.     In  time  the  price 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTl-RAI.    IMPLEMENTS. 


175 


the  haworth  corx  planter  and  check  rower. 

Hopper 


THE    HAWORTH    DROPPER   AND    VALVE. 


176  AMERICAN   AGRICri^TlJRAI.   IMPI.KMENTS. 

declined  until  it  reached  fourteen  cents  per  pound,  and  by  1867  quite  a 
manufacturing  business  was  developed  by  the  Haworths,  which  grew  until 
ten  to  fifteen  thousand  check-rowers  per  year  was  sold,  the  number  running 
in  one  year  as  high  as  twenty  thousand.  In  1870  Bessemer  steel  wire  was 
introduced  at  a  price  that  made  a  still  larger  sale  for  check-rowers,  and  for 
combined  corn-planters  and  check-rowers,  which  were  first  put  upon  the 
market  about  this  time. 

In  addition  to  the  distinction  of  having  been  the  pioneer  in  check- 
rowers,  Mr.  Haworth  has  originated  several  valuable  improvements  and 
distinctive  principles.  The  most  important  of  these  is  the  principle  of  lay- 
ing the  wire  across  the  planter  so  as  to  obviate  all  "  side  draft"  or  weight 
on  one  side  that  would  cause  the  shoe  covering  it  to,run  deeper  than  the 
one  on  the  other  side.  This  feature  is  controlled  by  the  Haworths  by 
patents  which  they  hold  on  reversible  guides,  through  which  the  wire  runs 
across  tlie  planter.  Another  feature  is  the  spring  anchor,  by  which  the  wire 
is  held  at  the  end  of  th2  row.  An  improvement  that  has  come  into  general 
use  is  the  locking  device  for  preventing  the  recoil  of  the  slide  in  the  drop- 
ping mechanism.  Still  another  feature  of  the  Haworth  planter  is  that  the 
tappet  is  operated  by  the  direct  blow  of  the  knot  on  the  line,  and  requires 
less  power  than  where  it  operates  by  the  recoil  of  the  spring  against  which 
it  has  been  drawn  by  the  wire. 

The  conditions  under  which  corn  is  planted  vary  from  season  to  sea- 
son, and  a  planter  that  does  excellent  work  under  ordinary  conditions  is 
apt  to  meet  with  the  greatest  difficulty  in  an  unusual  year.  Geo.  D. 
Haworth,  the  founder  of  the  busine.ss  of  Haworth  &  vSons,  and  the  active 
head  of  the  house  to-day,  has  made  it  a  life  study  to  produce  a  planter  that 
should  be  able  to  meet  all  conditions  of  soil  and  planting.  As  a  result  of 
his  experience  the  Haworth  planter  has  many  principles  not  enumerated 
above  that  are  in  a  large  measure  accountable  for  its  success  in  the  trade. 

The  main  wheels  of  the  planter  are  aided  in  covering  by  two  small 
auxiliary  wheels,  which  run  directly  behind  the  shoe.  Some  of  the 
advantages  claimed  for  this  design  are  that  the  seed  will  not  wash  out 
on  rolling  land,  and  mice  or  vermin  cannot  follow  the  rows;  the  wheels 
work  near  the  runners  and  the  pulverized  soil  is  fed  in  so  as  to  completely 
envelop  the  seed,  leaving  it  packed  just  enough  to  insure  quick  germina- 
tion; and  in  a  depression  or  dead  furrow  the  planter  will  place  the  corn  at 
the  same  depth  as  on  level  ground.  With  this  covering  device  the  soil  is 
first  crowded  into  the  furrow  from  one  side,  the  covering  wheel  then  filling 
and  packing  from  the  other  side,  and  in  this  way  it  is  possible  to  completely 
fill  the  furrow  with  finely  pulverized  earth. 


Canton,  111. 


THE   PARLIN   &   ORENDORFF    COMPANY. 

ILLINOIS  stands  first  among  the  States  of  the  Union  in  the  manufacture 
of  agricultural  implements.  It  was  on  the  fertile  prairies  of  Illinois 
that  the  most  important  of  our  modern  implements  were  invented  and 
developed,  and  it  is  in  this  State  that  the  largest  factories  for  their  produc- 
tion have  been  built  up.  One  of  the  most  interesting  fields  of  work  for 
the  historian  of  the  future  will  be  found  in  the  development  of  agriculture 
in  this  and  other  western  States  during  the  past  half  century  and  the  sub- 
sequent development  of  industries  that  are  based  upon  agriculture.  In  the 
lives  of  our  inventors  and  pioneer  manufacturers,  for  example,  may  be 
found  much  that  is  interesting  to  the  general  reader  and  of  inestimable 
value  to  those  who  seek  the  sovirce  of  the  enormous  gains  the  west  has  made 
in  wealth  and  in  the  ability  to  produce  the  means  of  subsistence.  Volumes 
might  be  written  for  each  of  a  score  or  more  houses  that  were  established 
forty  to  fifty  years  ago,  that  have  sent  out  in  ever  increasing  streams  the 
implements  needed  by  the  farmer  to  lighten  his  labor  and  increase  his 
earnings. 

In  Canton,  Illinois,  is  located  the  oldest  permanent  steel  plow  factory 
in  the  United  States,  and,  so  far  as  the  writer  knows,  the  oldest  permanent 
agricultural  implement  factor}-  in  the  west.  It  was  established  in  1842  by 
the  late  Wm.  Parlin,  who  was  a  thorough  blacksmith,  having  served  a  reg- 
ular apprenticeship  in  the  east,  and  had  the  requisite  energy  and  ability  to 
rise  in  his  calling  and  become  a  leader  in  the  west  in  the  manufacture  of  a 
general  line  of  agricultural  implements. 

Mr.  Parlin  came  to  Canton  in  1840  from  Massachusetts,  after  hav- 
ing worked  at  his  trade  one  year  in  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  arriving  at  Canton 
with  only  25  cents  working  capital  and  his  tools,  but  with  a  determi- 
nation to  earn  his  way  to  success.  He  had  reached  Canton  by  way  of 
the  Mississippi  and  Illinois  rivers,  walking  ten  miles  from  the  nearest  land- 
ing to  the  village,  July  4.  He  immediately  established  a  blacksmith  shop 
and  began  doing  the  local  work  incident  to  his  "trade."  The  first  article 
that  he  made  was  a  "froe"  for  splitting  lath  from  oak  timber  for  building 
purposes.  From  this  beginning  his  patronage  grew,  and  during  his  leisure 
time  he  began  to  make  plows.  The  first  that  he  turned  out  had  wooden 
mouldboards,  with  steel  shares  cut  from  old  saws;  but  "boilerplate"  was 
^Iso  used  for  the  mouldboards  of  some  of  his  plows,  and  in  1842  several 
were  made  with  steel  mouldboards  and  landsides.  These  proved  so  wel- 
come to  the  farmers  that  he  found  it  necessary  to  employ  extra  help  in 
turning   out   plows,  and   the   original   shop,  a   small,    rude   building,  was 

enlarged  again  and  again,  until  in  1846  a  small  foundrv  was  added. 

177 


178 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


THE    CANTON    CLIPPER    STEEL    BEAM    PLOW 


THE   CANTON    CLIPPER    TRICYCLE    PLOW. 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  179 

In  the  winter  of  1847-48,  however,  his  entire  plant  was  swept  away  by 
fire,  and  he  found  it  uecessar}'  to  begin  again  in  a  small  way.  His  first 
brick  building  was  erected  on  the  site  of  the  present  works  in  1849,  a  20x60 
structure,  one  story  high,  and  Mr.  Parlin's  facilities  for  manufacturing  were 
thus  considerabl}-  increased. 

The  business  was  conducted  by  Mr.  Parlin  alone  until  1852,  when  \Vm. 
J.  Orendorif  joined  resources  with  him  under  the  firm  name  of  Wm.  Parlin 
&  Co.,  and  preparations  were  made  for  still  further  enlarging  the  business. 
The  horse-power  that  had  been  used  for  running  their  grindstones  and 
other  machinery  was  discarded  and  steam-power  employed.  About  this 
time  the  Clipper  style  of  plows  was  designed  and  introduced,  bringing 
before  the  farmers  of  the  west  an  implement  that  still  stands  at  the  head 
after  the  lapse  of  over  40  years.  But  as  their  output  increased  the  new  firm 
found  it  up-hill  work  extending  their  business  beyond  the  limits  the}-  had 
hitherto  worked.  Transportation  facilities  were  poor,  as  it  was  necessary  to 
get  material  from  and  finished  goods  to  the  Illinois  river,  ten  miles  away. 

"Selling  goods  at  that  time  was  quite  a  different  process  from  what  it 
is  co-day,"  said  IMr.  Orendorff"  a  few  years  ago  to  a  newspaper  man  who 
was  inter\-iewing  him.  '  'I  used  to  load  up  a  platform  wagon  built  for  that  pur- 
pose and  drive  out  to  the  principal  towns  seeking  customers,  until  my  plows 
were  either  sold  or  consigned  to  country  merchants,  when  I  would  return 
to  Canton,  catch  up  with  my  books  and  office  work,  and  do  the  same  thing 
over  again.  As  our  facilities  were  increased  we  had  to  go  farther  away  to 
sell  our  plows.  We  then  took  them  to  pieces  and  loaded  into  wagons  and 
drove  into  far-oflf  territory.  Upon  one  trip  with  three  wagon  loads  I  remem- 
ber driving  for  some  dajs  without  much  success.  Stopping  one  evening  at 
a  'tavern,'  I  noticed  a  stranger  with  his  feet  resting  against  a  jamb  of  the 
fire-place;  and  after  learning  with  what  we  were  loaded,  he  opened  up  the 
conversation  by  asking  me  what  I  was  going  to  do  with  those  plows.  Upon 
telling  him  my  purpose,  he  said,  '  Better  take  them  over  to  my  place  and  I 
will  sell  them  for  you;  my  place  is  at  Knoxville,  Iowa.'  A  few  days  later  it 
began  raining,  and  the  roads,  never  good,  were  abominable.  We  drove 
into  Knoxville,  found  Mr.  Cunningham  to  be  all  right,  left  three  loads,  or 
nearly  100  plows,  with  him  and  returned  home.  The  next  spring  he  sold 
them  all  and  paid  the  cash.  We  also  found  markets  for  our  product 
by  shipping  them  up  and  down  the  Illinois,  Mississippi  and  IVIissouri  rivers 
by  boat,  I  frequently  going  along  selling  or  consigning  a  few  of  them  at 
the  different  towns  as  the  boats  discharged  and  loaded  other  freight,  until  all 
were  disposed  of.  In  the  spring  of  1855  I  went  with  a  cargo  down  the  Illi- 
nois river  to  St.  Louis,  and  up  the  ^Missouri  as  far  as  Kansas  City,  then  little 
more  than  a  landing,  and  there  established  a  trade  in  that  country  that  has 
had  a  satisfactory  and  continuous  growth,  extending  all  over  the  great 
southwest  and  west  to  the  Pacific  coast." 

This  energetic  work  in  the  introduction  of  their  plows  naturally  led  to 
further  enlargements  of  the  shops,  and  they  began  the  manufacture  of  other 
agricultural  implements  than  plows,  beginning  with  walking-cultivators 
and  shovel-plows  in  1856,  stalk-cutters  in  1857,  and  other  implements  as  the 
necessity  arose  or  favorable  opportunities   presented.     In  1865  their  first 


180 


AMERICAN  AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


THB  CANTON   LISTER. 


THE  CANTON   STALK  CUTTBR. 


AMERICAN    AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  181 

riding-cultivator  was  put  on  the  market.  The  following  year  their  foundry 
was  enlarged  and  additions  were  made  to  other  parts  of  the  works.  The 
first  lister  ever  manufactured  for  the  trade  was  built  by  Parlin  &  Orendorff 
at  Canton.  It  was  the  invention  of  a  Missouri  blacksmith,  who  succeeded 
in  interesting  this  firm  in  the  new  method  of  planting  corn  in  the  west. 
So  great  was  its  popularity  that  during  the  first  year  the  listers  were  sent 
out  as  soon  as  finished,  some  by  express,  and  many  of  them  before  the 
paint  had  dried. 

In  1862  the  first  railroad  was  built  to  Canton,  the  Chicago,  Burlington 
&  Quincy.  This  made  them  independent  of  water  transportation,  and  their 
shipping  facilities  were  made  still  more  complete  by  the  building  of  the 
Toledo,  Peoria  &  Western  road  in  1868.  And  as  the  years  rolled  on  the 
demand  for  the  celebrated  Canton  goods  has  increased  and  the  factory 
enlarged,  until  they  employ  from  six  to  eight  hundred  men,  which,  together 
with  their  improved  niachinerj^,  give  them  almost  unlimited  capacity  in 
this  particular  line.  The  old  firm  was  merged  into  a  corporation  in  1880, 
taking  in  younger  members  of  the  two  families  under  style  of  Parlin  & 
Orendorff  Co.,  a  close  corporation.  They  have  this  year,  for  1894, 
added  many  new  features  to  older  style  of  implements,  and  some  new 
machines,  prominent  among  them  the  new  Canton  steel  corn-planter  and 
check- rower. 


Dixon,  111. 


THE  GRAND  DETOUR  PLOW  COMPANY. 

THE  city  of  Dixon,  one  of  the  best  known  manufacturing  centers  in 
northern  Illinois,  enjoys  the  distinction  of  having  the  oldest  plow 
factory  in  the  west,  that  of  the  Grand  Detour  Plow  Company.  The  busi- 
ness of  this  compan}-  was  established  in  1837  at  Grand  Detour,  a  town  six 
miles  above  Dixon  on  the  Rock  river,  b}'  Major  Andrus  and  John  Deere. 
Major  Andrus  had  come  from  Vermont  and  settled  at  Grand  Detour  in 
1834,  and  in  1837,  when  Mr.  Deere  came  west,  the  two  formed  a  partnership 
under  the  name  Andrus  &  Deere.  During  this  year  they  began  to  make 
plows,  turning  out  nine  of  the  crude  implements  then  popular  with  the 
farmers.  Iron  and  steel  were  so  expensive  at  this  time  and  difficult  to 
obtain  that  the  early  settlers  were  obliged  to  do  their  work  with  wooden 
mouldboard  plows,  with  the  possible  improvement  of  covering  the  wearing 
surface  with  pieces  of  old  saws.  Soon,  however,  the  new  firm  were  able  to 
make  plows  with  successful  self-scouring  mouldboards,  an  achievement 
that  was  destined  to  make  Grand  Detour  famous.  All  over  the  Illinois 
prairies  the  farmers  were  meeting  with  the  greatest  difficulty,  especially  in 
the  black,  sticky  bottom  lands,  in  getting  plows  that  would  scour,  and  in 
some  sections  they  were  almost  ready  to  give  up  in  despair  and  leave  their 
land.  The  news  that  plows  could  be  had  at  Grand  Detour  that  would  scour 
in  any  kind  of  soil  soon  spread,  and  farmers  came  from  adjoining  counties, 
and,  if  the  firm  had  no  finished  plows  on  hand,  would  wait  until  they  could 
be  made.  The  writer  has  it  from  the  lips  of  an  early  settler  in  Lake  county, 
100  miles  away,  that  he  drove  with  his  father  all  the  way  to  the  shops  of 
Andrus  &  Deere  to  get  plows  for  their  neighbors.  From  this  may  be 
learned  the  value  to  the  farmers  of  a  perfect  self-scouring  plow. 

The  first  "factory"  was  merely  a  small  blacksmith  shop,  and  it  was 
only  in  the  third  year  that  they  added  a  second  forge.  Major  Andrus  having 
heretofore  done  the  woodwork,  while  Mr.  Deere  did  the  smithing.  In  time 
they  were  able  to  set  up  a  horse-power  grindstone  in  a  building  quite  a  dis- 
tance from  the  shop,  the  plows  being  carried  back  and  forth  bj^  the  work- 
men. From  time  to  time,  however,  their  facilities  were  improved,  and  in 
the  sixth  year  they  put  in  a  steam  engine  and  boiler,  other  machiner}-  and 
improvements  being  added  in  due  time.  Soon  they  were  able  to  supply 
the  demands  of  the  country  tributary  to  Dixon,  and  plows  were  loaded 
upon  wagons  and  sent  through  adjoining  counties,  and  farmers  were 
induced  in  some  cases  to  act  as  agents. 

In  1847  Mr.  Deere  withdrew  from  the  partnership — which  had  under- 
gone many  changes  in  the  parties  associated  in  it  with  Messrs.  Andrus  & 
Deere— and  removed  to  Moline.     The  business  at  Grand  Detour  was  then 


AMERICAN"   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  183 

run  for  several  years  by  Mr.  Andrus  alone,  but  in  time  Col.  Amos  Bosworth 
became  interested.  Col.  Bosworth  died  in  the  service  in  April,  18B2,  as 
lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Thirty-fourth  Illinois  regiment,  and  in  August, 
1863,  Theron  Cumins,  now  president  of  the  Grand  Detour  Plow  Company, 
joined  Major  Andrus.  In  October,  1857,  the  factory,  which  had  grown 
rapidly  and  was  now  of  considerable  size,  was  burned  down,  but  was  at 
once  rebuilt.  Ten  j-ears  later  a  still  greater  misfortune  visited  the  firm  in 
the  death  of  Major  Andrus.  Rising  to  the  occasion,  however,  Mr.  Cumins 
continued  the  business  alone  until  18(59.  at  which  time  Col.  H.  T.  Noble,  of 
Dixon,  became  interested  as  a  partner.  The  firm  name  changed  to  T. 
Cumins  &  Co.,  and  Col.  Noble  continued  actively  in  the  business  until  his 
death,  April  15,  1891. 

By  this  time  the  railroads  had  been  built  in  every  direction  through 
the  west,  except  to  Grand  Detour,  and  their  influence  could  no  longer  be 
ignored.  Dixon  had  been  fortunate  in  securing  two  roads,  and  had  grown 
to  be  a  considerable  city,  becoming,  in  fact,  the  "  railroad  town"  for  Grand 
Detour.  Aside  from  the  inconvenience  of  the  old  location,  transportation 
to  and  from  the  pathway  of  the  "iron  horse,"  on  materials  and  finished 
goods,  amounted  to  $4,000  per  year.  A  new  factory  was  therefore  erected 
at  Dixon,  and  the  business  transferred,  their  plows,  however,  retaining  the 
name  "Grand  Detour."  In  June,  1874,  Orris  B.  Dodge  took  an  interest 
in  the  business,  and  the  firm  became  Cumins,  Noble  &  Dodge,  continuing 
under  this  style  until  June,  1879,  when  they  incorporated  as  the  Grand 
Detour  Plow  Company.  The  present  officers  are:  Theron  Cumins,  presi- 
dent; Charles  H.  Noble,  vice-president;  Orris  B.  Dodge,  secretary  and 
treasurer. 

In  the  meantime  the  business  had  grown  enormously,  and  new  lines  of 
agricultural  implements  were  added,  the  most  important  of  which  was 
sulky  plows.  In  1874  they  acquired  the  Crossley  patents  on  a  sulky  that 
had  been  successfully  manufactured  since  1871  b}-  parties  at  Apple  River, 
111.  This  plow  became  one  of  the  best  known  of  the  pioneer  two-wheeled 
sulkies,  of  which  many  thousands  were  manufactured  and  sold  during  the 
"good  times"  the  farmers  experienced  in  the  years  following  their  intro- 
duction. This  style  of  plow  soon  gave  way  to  a  more  modern  iron  frame 
two-wheel  sulky,  named  the  Grand  Detour,  which  filled  a  popular  demand 
for  half  a  dozen  years,  until  it  made  way  in  turn  for  the  now  famous  and 
popular  three-wheel  plow  called  the  Little  Yankee.  The  manufacture  of 
cultivators,  spike-tooth  and  disk  harrows  and  other  implements  was  added 
in  time,  and  the  business  grew  until  it  became  one  of  the  largest  agricult- 
ural implement  factories  of  the  west,  a  position  it  has  since  more  than 
maintained. 

The  Little  Yankee  three-wheel  plow  made  by  the  Grand  Detour  Plow 
Company  was  the  first  three-wheel  plow  that  drew  from  the  end  of  the 
beam  instead  of  from  the  frame  in  which  the  beam  was  held.  This  manner 
of  hitching  gave  the  .same  adjustment  for  depth  and  width  of  furrow  in  a 
sulky  plow  that  could  be  had  in  a  walking  plow,  and  was  an  important 
improvement  in  riding  plows,  especially  in  making  it  possible  to  adjust  the 
suction  of  the  plow  to  hard  or  soft  ground  by  changing  the  hitch,  and  to 


184 


AMKRICAN    ACRICITI.TrRAI,    IMPLEMENTS. 


GRAND    DETOUR   PLOW   CO.'S    "LITTLE   YANKEE." 


GRAND   DBTOUR   PLOW  CO.'S   FOUR   HORSE   EVENER. 


GRAND   DETOUR    PLOW   CO.'S  WALKING    PLOW. 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS.  185 

bold  the  plow  in  the  ground  when  the  share  became  worn.  Another  im- 
portant feature  in  a  three-wheel  plow  that  was  introduced  in  the  trade  by 
the  Little  Yankee  was  the  inclination  of  both  furrow- wheels  against  the  land, 
so  as  to  make  the  plow  run  steadily,  to  cut  a  furrow  of  even  width,  to  do 
away  with  the  landside,  and  to  carry  the  entire  weight  of  the  furrow  on  the 
wheels. 

This  plow  is  also  made  with  two  bottoms,  known  as  the  Yankee  gang, 
and  for  use  with  it  a  four-horse  equalizer  has  been  provided  by  the  company 
that  is  in  itself  an  important  improvement,  one  that  required  a  tedious  and 
expensive  series  of  experiments  before  it  was  perfected.  The  difficulty  in 
hitching  four  horses  to  a  plow  is  in  keeping  one  horse  in  the  furrow  and 
three  horses  on  the  land  and  at  the  same  time  bringing  the  line  of  draft 
somewhere  near  the  end  of  the  beam,  so  as  to  obviate  "side  draft."  The 
illustration  shows  better  than  words  could  explain  how  this  has  been 
eflfected. 

In  corn  cultivators  the  Grand  Detour  Plow  Company  make  six  standard 
styles,  walking,  tongueless  and  riding,  and  have  lately  acquired  the  patents 
on  a  disk  cultivator  that  has  made  a  record.  Disk  cultivators  as  generally 
made  have  a  tendency  to  gouge  out  the  corn  when  it  is  small,  sometimes 
baffling  the  most  careful  driver.  This  has  been  overcome  by  pivoting  the 
carrying  wheels  of  the  cultivator  at  each  end  of  the  axle.  A  foot  lever  is 
attached  to  the  spindle  of  each  wheel,  and  the  direction  of  the  cultivator  is 
thus  under  the  perfect  control  of  the  driver,  so  that  crooked  corn  rows  can 
be  easily  and  successfully  cultivated. 

In  the  manufacture  of  disk  harrows  the  company  have  become  well 
known,  and  lately  they  have  perfected  a  steel  frame  harrow  in  which  the 
brace  is  of  square  hollow  steel.  The  company  make  numerous  styles 
of  spike-tooth  harrows.  A  distinguishing  feature  which  they  have  patented 
in  this  line  is  a  clip  for  holding  the  tooth.  After  a  tooth  has  become 
worn  on  its  front  edge,  the  bolts  which  secure  this  holding  clip  to  the  frame 
may  be  loosened,  and  the  tooth  turned  so  as  to  present  a  new  cutting  edge; 
and  the  tooth  may  be  set  up  or  down  as  desired  when  worn. 

While  these  new  implements,  and  many  others  we  have  not  the  space 
to  mention,  have  been  developed,  walking  plows  have  not  been  forgotten, 
and  as  complete  a  variety  of  wood  and  steel  beam  plows  as  the  farmers  of 
the  west  require  is  made  at  Dixon,  the  list  comprising  over  100  styles,  which 
"would  necessarily  require  a  volume  to  describe  or  illustrate. 


Sandwich,  111. 


THE  SANDWICH  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

WHEN  the  late  Augustiis  Adams  started  his  little  foundry  at  Elgin,  111., 
in  1840,  it  was,  so  far  as  known,  the  only  one  in  existence  west  of  the 
Great  Lakes.  A  small  one  had  been  projected  in  Chicago  a  year  or  two 
before,  but  could  not  be  maintained,  and  had  gone  down.  The  first  lot  of 
Lehigh,  or  hard  coal,  brought  to  Chicago,  was  on  an  order  from  him  exe- 
cuted by  a  Chicago  commission  house.  In  this  way  began  the  career  in  the 
west  of  a  pioneer  inventor  and  manufacturer,  who  is  entitled  to  the  first 
rank  among  the  benefactors  "by  whose  lives  and  genius  many  are  made 
wealthy  and  enjoy  greater  immunity  from  the  labor  and  drudgery  of  past 
ages;  and  who  have  conduced  to  make  business  a  pleasure  in  these  modern 
times."  His  career  as  a  manufacturer  for  more  than  sixty  years,  during 
fifty  of  which  he  was  identified  with  the  manufacturing  industries  of  Illi- 
nois, was  prominent.  Simultaneously  with  the  mention  of  his  name  are 
called  to  mind  many  of  the  more  important  inventions  of  which  he  is  the 
father,  and  for  which  the  great  west  is  indebted  to  him;  prominent  among 
which  may  be  listed  the  first  grain-cutting  machine  on  which  the  grain  was 
bound  and  carried  together;  the  "hinged  bar, "  now  used  in  mowing  ma- 
chines of  all  classes,  and  towering  above  all,  the  celebrated  Adams  self- 
feeding  power  corn-sheller,  which,  with  improvements  made  by  himself 
and  his  sons  in  following  years,  have  made  the  names  "Adams"  and  "vSand- 
wich"' household  words  wherever  corn  is  raised  expressive  of  the  highest 
excellence  in  corn-shelling  machinery. 

Many  curious  incidents  were  connected  with  I\Ir.  Adams'  beginning  as  a 
manufacturer.  The  first  iron  he  melted  was  in  a  little  "pocket  furnace," 
or  rudely  constructed  brick  melting  pot,  and  with  charcoal  burned  by  him- 
self for  the  purpose.  The  iron  came  from  a  small  pile  that  remained  in  Chicago, 
on  the  site  of  the  older  undertaking  above  referred  to,  that  had  run  for  a 
short  time  and  gone  down;  and  the  first  castings  that  ]\Ir.  Adams  made  were 
what  the  Hoosiers,  who  came  long  distances  to  buy  them,  called  "sled 
soles"  and  "plow  pints."  Seeking  to  improve  upon  this  first  crude  begin- 
ning, he  undertook  unaided  the  construction  of  a  melting  apparatus  some- 
what more  in  the  nature  of  the  modern  cupola,  and  believed  he  could  melt 
to  better  advantage  by  the  use  of  Lehigh,  or  the  hard  Pennsylvania  coal, 
than  by  charcoal,  if  he  could  procure  it.  There  was  no  stock  in  Chicago, 
and  so  far  as  he  knew,  never  had  been  any  brought  up  the  lakes,  and  he 
encountered  some  difficulty  in  getting  the  small  amount  he  required  to 
make  the  experiment.  His  limited  means  would  not  admit  of  any  invest- 
ment in  that  stock  beyond  what  was  required  for  such  an  experiment,  until 

186 


AMERICAN   AGRlCLO'LKAi,    IMFLEMKXTS. 


187 


188  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMEXTS. 

it  could  be  shown  that  it  would  be  available  for  further  operations.  He 
succeeded  in  interesting  the  shipping  house,  Norton  &  Grey,  of  Chicago, 
to  forward  an  order  for  him  to  Buffalo  or  Erie  for  a  small  amount,  say  a  few 
hundred  pounds,  to  enable  him  to  carry  out  his  undertaking  to  that  extent. 
It  was  well  understood  that  the  time  required  to  get  the  stock  around  to 
Chicago  on  such  an  order  would  be  greater  than  would  be  required  now  to 
order  and  receive  goods  from  England.  After  the  lapse  of  something  more 
than  two  months,  he  was  notified  by  the  house  Norton  &  Grey  that  the 
order  had  been  executed,  and  the  coal  was  on  the  way, but  by  some  mistake  ot 
the  shippers  a  larger  amount  had  been  sent  than  he  ordered,  in  fact  about  a 
ton,  which  was  contained  in  three  hogsheads,  and  as  'they  had  no  call  for 
that  stock,  and  did  not  see  any  immediate  prospect  of  disposing  of  the  sur- 
plus, they  had  to  ask  him  to  take  the  whole  lot,  which  he  did.  The  inci- 
dent was  one  that  pioneers  in  the  coal  trade  in  Chicago  often  referred  to 
afterwards  as  the  beginning  of  an  enormous  traffic,  which  at  the  present 
time  requires  several  miles  of  docks  on  the  Chicago  river. 

Mr.  Adams  at  a  verj'  early  date  become  convinced  that  the  corn  crop 
was  destined  to  be  the  most  important  of  the  agricultural  products  of  the 
Mississippi  valley,  and  that  great  wealth  and  traffic  would  develop  in  the 
raising  and  shipping  of  that  grain.  Elgin  was  then  one  of  the  few  growing 
towns  of  northern  Illinois,  and  a  few  years  after  came  into  prominence  as 
the  temporary  terminus  of  the  first  railroad  out  from  Chicago,  then  known 
as  the  Chicago  &  Galena  Union,  and  which  is  now  a  part  of  the  Chicago  & 
Northwestern  system.  Like  most  other  pioneers,  Mr.  Adams  suffered  con- 
siderable loss  in  the  development  of  his  machinery.  He  was  then  ser\'ing 
in  the  state  senate  and  came  into  acquaintance  with  parties  from  Sandwich, 
who  succeeded  in  interesting  him  to  remove  his  family  and  business  from 
Elgin  and  locate  in  this  then  new  town,  the  principal  inducement  thereto 
being  that  Sandwich  would  be  nearer  the  center  of  the  corn  belt,  and  was 
advantageously  located  on  the  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy  road,  which 
had  been  recently  completed  through  to  the  Mississippi  river. 

Removal  was  made  in  1857,  and  business  begun  there  under  the  firm 
name  of  A.  Adams  &  Sons.  The  venture  proved  successful.  The  small 
shop  established  grew  as  the  demand  increased  throughout  the  west,  and  a 
large  trade  was  developed,  especially  during  the  war.  By  1867  the  business 
controlled  by  the  firm  had  become  so  great  in  its  extent  that  incorporation 
was  deemed  advisable,  and  the  Sandwich  Manufacturing  Company  was 
organized  to  succeed  to  the  firm  of  A.  Adams  &  Sons. 

Mr.  Adams  did  not  remain  long  in  active  connection  with  the  company 
after  incorporation.  Early  in  the  "seventies"  he  withdrew  and  inter- 
ested himself  with  his  younger  sons  in  founding  and  developing  another 
manufacturing  business  at  Marseilles,  111.,  which  has  come  to  strong  stand- 
ing and  an  enviable  reputation. 

For  many  years  before  his  death,  which  occurred  in  October,  1892,  he 
had  practically  retired  from  all  business. 

Since  the  incorporation  of  the  Sandwich  Manufacturing  Companv  it 
has  been  under  the  immediate  direction  of  J.  P.  and  H.  A.  Adams  (the  oldest 
sons  and  members  of  the  original  firm  of  Adams  &  Sons),  to  whose  ability 
as  business  men,  manufacturers  and  inventors, the  success  of  this,  one  of  the 


AMERICAN    AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


189 


190  AMERICAN   AGRICLXTURAI.  IMPLEMENTS. 

oldest  and  best  known  manufacturintf  houses  of  the  interior,  and  its  world 
famed  power  corn  shellers,  may  be  ascribed. 

The  business  has  since  kept  step  with  the  development  of  the  interior 
and  western  states  in  the  production  of  corn,  and  the  Sandwich  shellers 
have  come  into  use  all  through  the  country.  While  power  corn-shellers  are 
not  so  generally  vised  in  the  eastern  states  as  in  the  Mis.sissippi  valley  and 
westward,  still  the  operations  of  the  house  are  important  east  to  the  Atlantic 
seaboard,  and  their  machines  have  an  export  sale  of  growing  volume  from 
year  to  year. 

From  the  two-hole  corn  sheller,  fed  by  hand,  with  which  manufacture 
begun  in  the  early  years,  has  been  developed  the  powerful  self-feeding  ma- 
chines of  the  present  daj',  made  in  such  sizes  as  the  smallest  farm  product, 
or. the  greatest  holdings  of  the  heaviest  corn  buyers  may  require,  machines 
with  a  capacity  to  take  from  the  crib  and  deliver  in  perfect  merchantable 
condition  into  warehouses  or  cars  anywhere  between  five  hundred  and  five 
thousand  bushels  per  day.  The  factory  has  grown  from  the  small  wooden 
shop  first  established,  and  though  twice  burned  down,  has  each  time  come 
up  with  still  greater  capacity  for  manufacturing,  until  to-day  it  ranks  among 
the  largest  institutions  in  the  west. 


Sterling,  111. 


THE  PIONEER  WORK  OF  THE  KEYSTONE  MANUFACTrRING 

COMPANY. 
"nPHERE  be  three  things, "  said  Bacon,  "that  make  a  nation  great  and 
1  prosperous;  a  fertile  soil,  busy  workshops,  and  easy  conveyance 
for  men  and  goods  from  place  to  place."  After  the  lapse  of  nearly  three 
centuries,  during  which  the  civilized  nations  of  the  world  have  made  greater 
progress  than  the  most  optimistic  dreamer  of  Bacon's  time  could  have 
predicted,  the  force  of  the  philosopher's  maxim  can  be  understood,  especially 
by  Americans.  A  soil  of  inexhaustible  fertility,  mammoth  workshops  and 
factories  to  furnish  the  farmer  improved  implements  and  machiner}-  for  carry- 
ing on  his  work,  and  a  network  of  steel  highways  traversed  by  the  '  'iron 
horse, ' '  have  contributed  to  the  building  up  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  of  a  vast 
empire,  the  wealthiest,  most  powerful  and  most  enterprising  in  the  world. 
How  much  of  the  progress  the  west  has  made  in  the  last  half  century  is  due 
to  the  resources  of  the  soil  and  the  industry  of  the  pioneer  settlers,  and  how 
much  to  the  inspiration  of  inventors,  who  have  produced  the  labor-saving 
implements  necessary  to  develop  those  resources,  no  one  can  measure,  but 
certain  it  is  that  the  inventors  and  pioneer  manufacturers  who  have  pro- 
duced these  mar^-elously  ingenious  implements  have  erected  to  themselves 
monuments  more  enduring  than  marble  or  granite  in  the  records  they  have 
made  in  the  development  of  this  country. 

Of  the  pioneer  manufacturers  who  began  prior  tolSGO,  only  one  is  left  in 
active  charge  of  the  business  he  established.  Thomas  A.  Gait,  president  of  the 
Keystone  Manufacturing  Company,  of  .Sterling,  111.,  enjoys  this  distinction. 
Mr.  Gait  began  manufacturing  at  Sterling  in  1857.  He  was  a  Pennsylvania 
boy,  born  in  1828,  brought  up  on  the  farm  with  meager  opportunities  for  an 
education,  and  thrown  upon  his  own  resources  at  the  early  age  of  fourteen 
by  the  death  of  his  father.  After  working  several  years  in  a  store  as  a  clerk 
at  Concord,  Pa.,  at  Strasburgand  Philadelphia,  he  began  business  for  himself 
at  Strasburg,  but  sold  out  in  1855  and  came  west  to  Sterling.  Here  he 
opened  up  in  the  hardware  business,  in  which  he  continued  several  years. 
In  1857  Mr.  Gait  started  a  small  14x16  shop  to  manufacture  broadcast 
seeders.  Only  two  men  were  employed  at  first,  but  the  business  grew 
rapidly,  not  only  in  the  manufacture  of  seeders,  but  in  other  lines  that  were 
added  soon  after.  Mr.  Gait's  was  one  of  the  first  seeders  put  on  the  market. 
In  18G3  he  began  the  manufacture  of  hand  corn-shellers,  and  also  of  cultivators 
and  wagons.  About  this  time  Mr.  Gait  formed  a  partnership  with  Geo.  S. 
Tracy,  who  had  been  conducting  a  planing  mill,  and  the  two  lines  of  busi- 
ness were  consolidated  under  the  name  of  Gait  &  Tracy.  The  facilities  of 
the  new  firm  for  manufacturing  implements  were  considerably  increased, 

191 


192 


AMERICAN  AGKICULTURAt,  IMPLEMENTS. 


AJIER1CA>-   AGKICLXTLRAI.   IMPLK-MKNTS.  193 

and  corn-shellers  were  put  out  in  large  numbers,  as  well  as  broadcast  seeders 
and  various  other  implements. 

The  Kej'stone  Manufacturing  Company  have  been  among  the  very  largest 
manufacturers  of  corn-planters,  beginning  at  a  very  early  day,  in  1867.  In 
fact  the  name  Keystone  was  derived,  at  the  time  of  incorporation,  from 
the  Keystone  planter,  which  had  been  introduced  in  the  trade  by  Gait  & 
Tracy.  It  was  made  on  the  "open  heel"  drop  pattern,  and  was  an  excellent 
implement.  The  prestige  gained  by  its  introduction  at  the  time  when  the 
west  needed  it  most  has  been  well  maintained  by  the  company,  who  have 
contributed  many  improvements  and  are  to-day  in  the  front  rank.  By  this 
time  their  factory  was  one  of  the  largest  in  the  west,  as  a  result  of  improve- 
ments which  they  had  contributed  to  the  various  lines  in  which  they  were 
engaged.  The  west  was  developing  rapidl}-,  and  their  business  under  the 
best  of  management,  was  more  than  keeping  pace  with  it.  Sterling  had 
become  one  of  the  foremost  manufacturing  cities  in  the  west,  and  imp- 
lements made  at  Sterling  were  in  use  wherever  corn  was  grown. 

About  this  time  the  Keystone  hay-loader  was  brought  out,  and  the 
company  undertook  the  pioneer  work  of  its  development  and  introduction. 
The  work  of  loading  hay  in  the  field  was  the  most  tedious  in  the  harvesting 
of  this  important  crop,  and  the  improved  mowers  and  rakes  that  had  been 
developed  made  it  seem  still  more  laborious  and  awkward.  The  Kev-stone 
loader  was  destined  to  play  no  small  part  in  expediting  the  hay  harvest,  in 
which  time  is  a  more  important  factor  than  in  any  other  work  done  on  the 
farm.  This  valuable  implement  is  illustrated  in  the  chapter  on  haying 
tools  and  machinery. 

In  1874  the  Keystone  power  corn-sheller  was  brought  out.  It  was 
made  under  the  Packer  patents,  covering  an  entirely  new  principle  in  this 
class  of  machiner}-,  the  purpose  of  which  was  to  give  large  capacity  and 
perfect  separation.  As  shown  in  the  illustration  of  this  shelling  principle 
the  shelling  picker  wheel  has  been  discarded  in  it,  and  a  "picker  shaft"  has 
been  substituted  for  it,  with  a  shelling  length  of  nine  inches,  this  shaft  pass- 
ing the  corn  through  rapidly  and  insuring  perfect  shelling.  The  shaft  is 
adjustable  for  damp  or  dry  corn  by  the  thumbscrew  above,  the  lower  end 
being  free  to  move  up  or  down  under  pressure,  regulated  by  the  coiled  spring 
above  it.  In  the  Keystone  sheller  the  corn  is  separated  from  the  cobs  by  an 
open-link  carrier  on  which  it  falls,  the  links  being  large  enough  to  allow  the 
kernels  to  pass  through,  but  retaining  and  carrying  over  the  cobs  with  the 
silk  and  bits  of  husks  that  would  otherwise  fall  in  the  shelled  corn. 

It  is,  however,  in  the  development  of  the  Keystone  corn-husker  and 
fodder-shredder  that  Ivlr.  Gait  has  shown  in  the  highest  decree  the  originality 
and  foresight  of  the  true  pioneer.  This  machine  is  without  doubt  destined 
to  hold  the  highest  place  in  the  near  future,  in  the  labor-saving  equipment 
of  the  corn-growing  farmer,  for  it  not  only  saves  labor  but  in  a  large  part  of 
the  west  will  double  the  value  of  the  corn  crop.  The  chemist  and  the  prac- 
tical stock  feeder  alike  agree  that  the  ears  of  corn  contain  only  a  little  more 
than  half  of  the  feeding  value  of  the  plant,  but  heretofore  the  farmers  of  the 
west  have  been  unable  to  save  their  fodder,  this  part  of  the  crop  going  gener- 
all\-  to  waste,  except  as  cattle  may  be  turned  into  the  fields  after  husking  to 


194 


AMKRIC.VX   AfrRICfLTrRAI,   I  MPIJ'.MRNTS. 


AMERICAN-   AGRICULTrR-\L   IMPLEMENTS.  195 

feed  upon  what  they  do  not  tramp  under  foot.  The  Keystone  corn-husker  and 
fodder-cutter  is  destined  to  revolutionize  corn-growing  in  the  west,  by  mak- 
ing it  possible  for  the  farmers  to  save  their  fodder  and  make  the  best  kind  of 
provender  of  it,  a  feed,  in  fact,  that  commands  when  baled  as  high  a  price 
in  our  city  markets  as  hay.  Incidentally  the  machine  saves  the  husks  sep- 
arate from  the  fodder,  and  for  them  there  is  a  demand  that  would  pay  for  the 
machine  itself,  in  some  cases,  in  a  season's  work.  The  fodder  is  either 
shredded  by  the  cylinder  mounted  in  front  of  the  feed  rollers,  resembling 
a  thresher  cylinder,  or  it  may  be  cut  by  a  cylinder  mounted  with  knives 
like  those  of  a  feed-cutter. 

The  Keystone  Manufacturing  Company  are  also  the  pioneers  in  the 
manufacture  of  disk  harrows  in  the  west,  they  having  begun  in  this  line  in 
1880.  Improvements  have  been  contributed  by  them  from  time  to  time, 
and  a  ver>-  large  business  has  been  built  up,  sales  in  a  favorable  season 
amounting  to  10,000  harrows.  An  important  improvement  which  they  have 
made  is  in  adopting  ball  bearings  to  carrj-  the  end  thrust  of  the  gangs. 


Piano,  111. 


THE  PIONEER  "HARVESTER  CITY." 

"OOYS,  you  are  on  the  right  track.  If  you  can  run  your  machine  suc- 
L)  cessfully  ten  rods  it  can  be  made  to  run  ten  miles,  and  there  is  a  man 
at  Piano  who  can  make  it  do  this."  These  encouraging  words  spoken  to 
the  Marsh  brothers,  in  the  harvest  of  1860,  by  Lewis  Steward,  made  Piano 
the  pioneer  city  in  the  manufacture  of  modern  harvesting  machinery. 

The  first  Marsh  harvester  was  built  in  June,  1858,  and  although  it  was 
rudely  constructed  it  worked  successfully  through  the  harvest  of  that  year. 
The  practicability  of  the  principles  embodied  in  the  machine  was  demon- 
strated, but  the  inventors  were  far  from  being  skilled  mechanics,  and  their 
efforts  in  1859  and  1860  had  resulted  in  the  break  down  of  their  experimental 
machine,  witnessed  by  Mr.  Steward.  That  the  inventors  were  discouraged 
may  be  readily  understood.  They  had  been  unsuccessful  in  getting  manu- 
facturers interested  in  the  machine,  and  situated  as  they  were,  many  miles 
from  the  railroad,  the  prospects  for  getting  it  established  on  the  market 
were  dubious  indeed. 

The  encouraging  advice  of  Mr.  Steward  led  to  the  building  of  an  experi- 
mental harvester  at  Piano,  for  the  harvest  of  1861,  and  this  was  used  and 
tested  under  varying  conditions,  until  1863,  when  the  machine  was  con- 
sidered "sufficiently  developed  for  the  test  of  sale."  For  the  harvest  of 
1864,  the  firm  of  Steward  &  Marsh  made  and  put  out  twenty-six  machines, 
the  first  harvesters  ever  put  upon  the  market,  and  thus  the  foundation  was 
laid  for  the  har\-ester  business  at  Ptano,  and  for  the  manufacture  of  har- 
vesters and  binders  for  the  market  of  the  world.  The  firm  of  Easter  & 
Gammon  were  at  this  time  engaged  at  Chicago  as  dealers  in  reapers  and 
mowers.  They  met  this  first  lot  of  harvesters  in  competition  in  the  field, 
and  soon  after,  in  1864,  they  obtained  exclusive  rights  for  the  sale  of  the 
Marsh  harvester  for  six  western  states.  This  arrangement  was  continued 
until  1868,  when  Easter  &  Gammon  dissolved  partnership  and  divided 
between  them  the  territory  they  held  under  the  Marsh  patents.  Mr.  Gammon 
then  took  James  P.  Prindle  into  partnership,  and  the  firm  of  Gammon  & 
Prindle  continued  the  business.  In  1869,  I\Ir.  Gammon  acquired  an  interest 
in  the  Piano  shops,  with  the  Marshes  and  Stewards,  and  early  in  1870,  Mr. 
Prindle  having  retired,  William  Deering  took  an  active  interest  in  the 
institution,  and  the  afterwards  famous  firm  of  Gammon  &  Deering  was 
organized,  becoming  in  time  sole  owners  of  the  Piano  shops,  and  gradually 
enlarging  the  sales  of  hars^esters  and  automatic  wire  binders;  the  firm  of 
J.  D.  Easter  &  Co.  having  failed  in   1877,  and  turned  over  their  territory 

under  the  Marsh  patents  to  Gammon  &  Deering.     In  the  fall  of  1879  Gam- 

1% 


AMERICAN   AG;;ICLXTI'KAIv   implements. 


197 


THE    PLANO    BINDER,    WITH    FLV    WHEEI.    ATTACHED. 


^^"^f^"    '  ^^«8SvT\\G*  CO  CAN. 

THE   CHAIN'    DRIVE   OI'   THE    JONES    MOWER. 


rj8  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 

mon  &  Deering  dissolved  partnership,  and  the  business  of  the  firm  was 
removed  to  Chicago  and  continued  by  Mr.  Deering,  whose  remarkably  suc- 
cessful career  since  that  time  is  told  elsewhere. 

THE  PLANO  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

During  the  winter  of  1880-81  the  works  at  Piano  were  idle,  but  in  April, 
1881,  steps  were  taken  to  organize  a  company,  with  a  view  to  carrying  on 
the  manufacture  of  twine  binders,  in  the  town  that  had  acquitted  itself  so 
well  during  the  development  of  the  industry.  William  H.  Jones  took  the 
lead  in  the  new  enterprise,  Mr.  Gammon  and  Lewis  Steward  promptly 
coming  to  his  support.  Mr.  Jones  was  well  qualified  for  the  difficult  task 
of  launching  the  new  business.  He  had  begun  in  1866  in  the  sale  of  reapers 
and  mowers,  in  Wisconsin,  and  had  been  identified  with  the  Piano  interests 
since  1870,  at  which  time  he  entered  the  employ  of  Mr.  Gammon.  Until 
Gammon  &  Deering  dissolved  he  served  in  the  capacity  of  superintendent 
of  agencies,  remaining  with  Mr.  Deering  until  1881,  when  the  Piano  Manu- 
facturing Company  was  incorporated,  with  Mr.  Jones  as  president  and 
executive  officer.  The  old  shops  had  suffered  from  business  changes,  and 
were  so  fire-scarred  and  dismantled  when  the  new  organization  took  posses- 
sion that  only  250  binders  could  be  manufactured  for  the  harvest  of  1881, 
but  so  well  acquainted  was  the  new  organization  with  every  detail  of  the 
business,  and  with  the  mechanical  construction  required  to  make  a  perfect 
harvester,  that  these  machines  were  eminently  successful,  and  ten  times  the 
number  were  put  out  the  next  year.  From  this  beginning  the  business 
grew  rapidly,  and  to-day  the  Piano  Manufacturing  Companj^  rank  among 
the  very  largest  manufacturers  of  twine-binding  harvesters. 

Several  features  distinguish  the  Piano  "light  running"  binder  from 
the  standard  Appleby  machines.  A  peculiar  stjde  of  chain  drive  has  been 
adopted,  which  contains  many  meritorious  features.  In  the  reel  a  radical 
improvement  has  been  made  in  adapting  to  it  a  friction  clutch  that  allows 
the  reel  to  turn  back  when  it  meets  an  obstruction  in  the  grain  or  overhead, 
thus  avoiding  breakage.  Most  important  of  all,  however,  is  the  application 
of  stored  power,  obtained  through  the  use  of  a  "fly  wheel."  In  the  best 
adjusted  binders  in  the  hands  of  an  expert  there  is  a  slight  variation  in  the 
draft  of  the  machine  at  the  moment  of  tying  a  bundle,  and  in  the  average 
machine  in  the  farmer's  hands,  the  difference  in  draft  at  this  point  is  quite 
appreciable. 

In  their  mowers  the  Piano  Manufacturing  Company  have  "pioneered  " 
or  introduced  in  the  trade,  the  chain-drive  principle,  the  advantage  of 
which  is  that  wear  does  not  impair  its  efficiency,  or  cause  loss  of  power.  As 
the  sprockets  do  not  require  as  perfect  alignment  as  gears,  they  therefore 
run  more  freely  and  are  less  liable  to  get  out  of  order.  The  great  problem 
in  agricultural  machinery  is  to  perfect  devices  that  give  a  high  rate  of  effi- 
ciency when  new,  and  at  the  same  time  are  not  easily  deranged  by  abuse 
or  neglect  on  the  part  of  the  operator,  or  by  the  wear  of  two  or  three 
seasons. 

These  and  other  distinctive  features  of  the  Piano  machines  are  the  result 
of  a  lifetime  spent  in  the  field  by  the  president,  Mr.  Jones,  who  was  one  of 


AMERICAN    AGRICULTURAL   IMPLKMKNTS.  199 

the  pioneers  in  the  introduction  of  the  ^larsh  harvester.  His  life,  in  fact, 
from  field  expert  and  canvasser  to  president,  would  make  as  romantic  a 
story  as  could  be  found  in  the  machine  trade.  As  Mr.  Marsh  has  observed: 
"  Probably  no  one  knew  as  well  as  he  what  were  the  essentials  of  a  thor- 
oughly satisfactory  harvesting  machine  to  run  in  the  field.  Mechanics,  no 
matter  how  skillful  or  sensible,  consider  a  machine  always  from  a  mechani- 
cal point  of  view,  and  even  if  they  have  had  much  field  experience,  their 
shop  training  will  govern,  and  the3-  are  ever  inclined  to  sacrifice  operative 
qualities  to  mechanical  construction  when  these  points  seem  to  interfere. 
To  thoroughly  combine  and  fuse  these  attributes  into  one  machine 
required  the  master  hand  and  strong  will  of  Mr.  Jones.  In  the 
construction  of  the  original  Piano  harvester  and  binder,  he  made 
practical  operative  qualities  paramount,  and  mechanical  science  subsers'- 
ient  to  their  production;  and  he  ruled  out  peremptorily  every  device  or 
suggestion  that  did  not  have,  in  his  opinion,  that  end  in  view.  This  course 
he  has  maintained  right  along,  and  its  result  is  manifest  in  the  excellence 
of  the  Piano  machines  and  the  phenomenal  success  of  the  Piano  Manu- 
facturing Company." 

We  may  here  leave  to  some  future  historian  of  the  agricultural  imple- 
ment industry,  the  sad  duty  of  writing  the  last  chapter  in  the  historj'  of 
Piano.  With  a  record  of  thirty  years,  beginning  with  the  pioneer  work  of 
introducing  the  jNIarsh  harvester,  Piano  has  yielded  the  scepter  to  Chicago, 
and  will  be  known  no  more  in  the  manufacture  of  harvesting  machinery. 
Within  the  past  year  the  Piano  Manufacturing  Company  has  erected  at 
West  Pullman,  a  suburb  of  Chicago,  one  of  the  most  labor-saving  and 
completely  equipped  for  the  manufacture  of  Piano  machines,  more  than 
doubling  its  facilities  and  has  abandoned  the  Piano  shops,thus  ending  the 
career  in  this  industry  of  the  town  which  has  earned  the  laurel  of  "Har- 
vester City." 


South  Bend,  Ind. 


THE  OLIVER  CHILLED  PLOW  WORKS. 

THB  world  is  ever  ready  to  do  honor  to  men  who  have  been  successful  in 
war,  or  in  political  or  professional  life,  but  it  seems  to  give  credit 
grudgingly  or  not  at  all  to  those  who  in  practical  pursuits,  by  power  of  mind 
over  their  surroundings,  have  conceived  inventions  that  affect  the  destiny 
of  nations.  The  one  who  directs  an  army  and  destroys  life  and  property  is 
idolized,  but  the  inventor  who  adds  to  the  wealth  of  the  world  by  increas- 
ing man's  power  of  production,  and  who  lengthens  the  life  of  the  farmer  by 
lightening  his  toil,  is  too  often  destined  to  be  forgotten.  How  few  there  are 
to-day,  for  example,  who  are  familiar  with  the  names  of  Chas.  Newbold  and 
Jethro  Wood,  the  inventors  who  conceived  and  made  practical  the  cast- 
iron  plow. 

As  soon  as  the  farmer  of  fifty  years  ago  had  been  taught  to  use  some- 
thing better  than  his  old  wooden  "bull"  plow,  he  turned  his  attention  to 
labor-saving  problems  in  other  lines  of  farm  work,  and  the  reaper,  the 
threshing  machine,  the  mower  and  other  modern  implements  were  brought 
forth  in  due  season.  The  cast-iron  plow  awoke  the  fanner  from  his  lethargy 
of  eighteenth  century  methods,  but  as  the  country  became  settled,  condi- 
tions arose  that  it  could  not  master.  The  soil  in  which  it  had  at  first  worked 
satisfactorily,  became,  by  repeated  stirring,  dense  and  sticky,  so  cast-iron 
would  not  scour;  and  it  was  also  found  that  many  kinds  of  soil  could  not  be 
plowed  with  it  at  all.  Besides,  the  farmers  had  become  more  ambitious, 
led  on  by  widening  markets  for  their  crops,  and  would  wear  out  a  plow  in 
one  season  that  under  the  old  conditions  might  have  lasted  ten. 

The  invention  of  the  chilled  plow  by  James  Oliver,  of  South  Bend,  Ind., 
was  destined  to  revolutionize  the  cast  plow  industry' and  furnish  the  farmer, 
at  a  moderate  price,  a  plow  with  a  mouldboard  that  would  scour  in  any  soil 
and  last  a  lifetime.  Mr.  Oliver  spent  years  in  experimenting  with  chilled 
metal  and  succeeded  eventually  in  making  a  perfect  chilled  mouldboard. 
This  was  his  greatest  achievement,  but  it  was  for  him  only  the  stepping- 
stone  to  other  inventions  that  revolutionized  the  construction  and  adjust- 
ment of  walking  plows,  constituting  as  a  whole  a  series  of  inventions  that 
can  scarcely  be  paralleled  in  the  record  of  any  inventor  of  agricultural 
implements.  Furthermore,  Mr.  Oliver  has  been  an  eminently  successful 
business  man,  and  the  Oliver  Chilled  Plow  Works  have  grown  under  his 
supervision  until  they  rank  not  lower  than  fifth  or  sixth,  in  the  number  of 
men  employed  and  the  value  of  the  annual  output,  among  the  agricultural 
implement  factories  of  the  world. 

The  manufacture  of  plows  was  begun  in  South  Bend,  in  1855,  by  Mr. 
Oliver,  he  having  previously  worked  for  some  years  as  a  moulder,  executing 
in  that  time  difficult  contracts  for  making  castings.     There  was  little  in  the 

200 


AMERICAN-    AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMEXTS. 


201 


THE  OLIVER  CHILLED   PLOW. 


THE   OLIVER    CHILLED    PLOW    WITH  WHEEL    AND   JOINTER. 


THE  OLIVER  CHILLED  PLOW  WITH   REVERSrPLE    POINT    AND   SH.\RE. 


202  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAIv  IMPLEMENTS. 

beginning  that  was  suggestive  of  the  present  Oliver  Chilled  Plow  Works. 
The  shop  was  a  small  one  and  uninviting  in  appearance,  and  the  casts  run 
but  three  heats  a  week,  with  1,500  pounds  to  a  ton  each.  Yet  even  at  this 
rate  the  capital  of  Mr.  Oliver  and  his  partner  was  soon  exhausted,  and  they 
were  in  straightened  circumstances,  when  an  unexpected  misfortune  visited 
them  in  the  form  of  a  tremendous  freshet  that  flooded  their  furnace.  After 
recovering  from  this  misfortune,  Mr.  Oliver  bought  a  team  and  wagon  and 
began  a  canvass  of  the  country  to  get  his  plows  introduced.  He  found  it 
uphill  work,  but  persevered  until  he  had  eighty  agencies  established  within 
a  radius  of  fifty  miles.  This  seemed  like  a  fair  beginning,  but  the  diflference 
between  the  cost  of  production  and  the  price  obtained,  after  deducting  com- 
missions and  the  expenses  of  selling,  left  a  very  narrow  margin  of  profit. 
However,  a  substantial  foundation  was  laid  upon  which  to  build  and  extend 
the  business  in  the  future. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Mr.  Oliver  began  to  investigate  the  possi- 
bilities of  a  plow  that  would  scour  in  all  kinds  of  soil  and  at  the  same  time 
be  more  durable,  especially  in  sandy  or  gravelly  land.  Naturally  his  thoughts 
turned  to  the  use  of  chilled  metal,  but  the  prospects  of  success  in  this  direc- 
tion were  poor  indeed.  Fortunes  had  beeti  spent  in  the  preceding  twenty- 
five  years  in  experiments  looking  to  a  perfect  chilled  plow,  and  those  who 
had  once  been  sanguine  liad  given  up  all  hope.  "Nothing  daunted, "  said 
Mr.  Oliver  in  an  interview  a  few  years  later,  "I  determined  to  solve  the 
mystery.  When  I  announced  my  determination  people  held  up  their  hands 
in  admonitory  horror,  and  regarded  me  with  feelings  of  astonishment,  not 
unmixed  with  contempt,  which  latter  they  were  free  to  express.  Plow  men 
who  had  spent  years  in  experimenting  and  had  abandoned  the  project  of  a 
complete  chilled  plow  advised  me  not  to  undertake  it.  Those  who  had 
aided  me  with  money  and  influence  forsook  me,  and  I  was  classed  with  the 
fools  who  pursue  the  fallacy  of  perpetual  motion.  Although  feeling  keenly 
the  cuts  of  former  friends,  I  determined  to  succeed.  Day  and  night  for 
years  I  thought  of  nothing  else,  and  made  everything  bend  to  this  one  great 
object  of  my  life.  My  first  success  was  attained  when  I  adopted  the  plan  of 
using  hot  water  in  the  chills,  which  dried  the  moisture  in  the  flasks  and 
prevented  blow  holes.  My  next  was  a  method  of  ventilating  the  chills  by 
grooves  along  the  face  of  the  mould,  which  allowed  the  escape  of  the  gases 
that  form  within  the  flask  when  melted  iron  is  poured  in,  and  thus  permitted 
the  liquid  metal  to  come  in  direct  contact  with  the  face  of  the  chill  and  all 
its  surface,  removing  all  the  soft  spots  in  the  mouldboard  and  leaving  the 
surface  smooth  and  perfect.  But  my  crowning  success  was  the  discover}'  of 
the  annealing  process,  which  deprived  the  metal  of  its  brittleness.  When  I 
made  that  I  could  justly  claim  that  for  the  first  time  a  fully  perfect  chilled 
plow  had  been  made." 

As  may  be  seen  by  reference  to  the  chapter  on  plows,  INIr.  Oliver's  inven- 
tions cover  a  number  of  important  features  in  a  walking  plow.  These  are 
the  slotted  handle-brace  for  holding  the  heel  of  the  beam,  so  it  can  be  set  for 
two  or  three  horses;  the  peculiar  form  of  standard  by  which  the  beam  is 
given  a  "center  draft"  position;  the  share  with  a  coulter  or  cutting  edge 
seated  directly  against  the  front  end  of  the  mouldboard,  thus  giving  a  new 
rnttinp  edffe  each  time  the  share  is  renewed;  the  wheel  for  a  wood  beam 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  203 

plow  having  a  standard  that  can  be  adjusted  closely  to  the  line  of  draft 
when  the  beam  is  shifted,  and  the  bracket  that  holds  the  coulter  or  share  to 
the  beam  by  the  use  of  only  one  bolt.  The  farmer  who  will  compare  the  work 
of  the  Oliver  plow  with  one  that  does  not  possess  these  features  can  under- 
stand how  much  they  add  to  its  efl&ciency.  These  improvements  explain 
the  enormous  business  of  the  Oliver  Chilled  Plow  Works.  It  has  been  but 
the  natural  course  of  the  "trade"  concentrating  upon  South  Bend  a  demand 
for  plows  that  has  built  up  a  factory  covering  a  good  sized  farm,  with  an 
enormous  foundry  and  a  blacksmith  shop,  wood  shops  and  other  depart- 
ments of  proportionate  size.  On  this  "farm"  a  thousand  men  find  emplov- 
ment  and  support  as  many  families,  and  from  it  goes  forth  to  all  parts  of  the 
Union,  aud  to  every  foreign  country,  the  American  chilled  plow,  emblematic 
of  American  ingenuity  and  skilled  workmanship. 

Associated  with  Mr.  Oliver  in  the  first  years  of  his  business  was  Harvey 
I/ittle  and  later  T.  M.  Bissell  and  George  Milburn.  His  partners  withdrew 
in  time,  however,  leaving  Mr.  Oliver  as  the  principal  owner  of  the  South 
Bend  Iron  Works,  the  business  ha\'ing  been  incorporated  under  this  name. 
Mr.  Oliver  is  now  president  of  the  corporation,  his  son,  Joseph  D.  Oliver, 
treasurer,  and  George  Ford,  secretary.  Branch  houses  have  been  estab- 
lished in  the  leading  trade  centers,  where  the  Oliver  goods  are  carried  in 
stock  and  distributed  under  the  direction  of  veteran  plow  men,  some  of 
whom  were  with  IMr.  Oliver  during  the  earh'  years  of  the  industry.  St. 
Louis,  Mo.,  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  Mansfield,  Ohio,  Harrisburgh,  Pa  ,  Roches- 
ter, N.  Y.,  Dallas,  Texas,  and  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  are  the  most  important 
of  these  houses. 

PIONEER  THRESHER  FACTORIES   AT  RICHMOND. 

The  Robinson  Machine  Works  were  established  at  Richmond,  Ind.,  in 
1842,  in  the  manufacture  of  "  chaff-piler"  threshing-machines.  A  traveling 
thresher,  designed  to  thresh  the  grain  as  it  was  drawn  through  the  field, 
was  also  made  for  a  time,  neither  of  these  machines  separating  the  grain 
from  the  chaff.  About  1860  they  commenced  making  portable  engines  and 
Pitts  separators.  In  1872  the  business  was  incorporated  under  the  name 
of  the  Robinson  Machine  Works,  and  in  1889  they  reincorporated  as 
Robinson  &  Co.,  with  F.  W.  Robinson  as  president  and  superintendent; 
A.  G.  Robinson,  vice-president  and  treasurer,  and  S.  E.  Swavne,  secretary. 

The  business  of  Gaar,  Scott  &  Co,  was  established  at  Richmond,  Ind., 
in  1835,  by  J.  M.  aud  J.  Hutton,  who  continued  until  1849,  when  A.  Gaar  & 
Co.  bought  them  out.  The  latter  firm  was  incorporated  in  1870,  under  the 
name  Gaar,  Scott  &  Co.  The  manufacture  of  portable  engines  was  begun 
in  1852,  and  traction  engines  in  1878. 

THE  HOOSIER   GRAIN   DRILL. 

The  manufacture  of  the  Hoosier  grain  drill  was  commenced  at  Milton, 
Ind.,  in  1857,  in  a  small  way  by  the  patentee,  Joseph  Ingels.  In  1868  the 
business  was  purchased  by  the  Hoosier  Drill  Company.  In  1870  the  manu- 
facture of  corn  drills  was  begun,  and  broadcast  seeders  in  1877,  and  in  1878 
the  company  removed  to  Richmond,  where  new  works  were  erected.  Many 
changes  have  taken  place  in  the  ownership  and  management  of  the  busi- 
ness. J.  M.  Westcott  is  now  president;  Omar  Hollingsworth,  treasurer;  B. 
J.  Westcott,  secretary,  and  J.  A.  Carr,  superintendent. 


Akron,  0. 


AULTMAN,  MILLER  &  CO.  AND  THE  BUCKEYE  MOWER. 

IN  accrediting  any  house  with  pioneer  work  in  the  industry  with  which  it 
has  been  identified,  it  is  implied  that  some  improvement  of  far-reaching 
importance  has  been  contributed  by  that  house,  or  that  a  revolution  has 
taken  place  in  the  industry  as  a  result  of  a  new  principle  it  has  evolved. 
In  some  cases  a  pioneer  invention  merely  substitutes  new  devices  for  old 
without  materially  increasing  the  usefulness  of  the  implement  or  machine, 
but  in  ever}'  industry  there  has  been  contributed  at  some  stage  of  its  devel- 
opment an  invention  that  entirely  changes  the  "standard"  and  so  increases 
the  usefulness  of  the  machine  that  the  result  appears  at  once  in  the  changes 
that  follow  in  the  area  and  yield  of  the  crop  or  crops  for  which  it  is  adapted. 
In  the  case  of  the  revolution  that  followed  the  invention  of  the  hinged-bar 
principle  in  mowers  (as  embodied  in  the  Buckeye)  this  change  appears  in 
a  striking  manner. 

For  example,  the  annual  hay  crop  for  ten  years  prior  to  1856,  the  date 
of  the  invention  of  the  Buckeye,  averaged  less  than  11,000,000  tons.  For 
the  ten  succeeding  years  it  exceeded  20,000,000  tons.  This  prodigious  in- 
crease, more  than  doubling  the  crop  production,  cannot  be  attributed  to  the 
growth  of  population.  Compared  with  the  rate  of  increased  crop  product, 
that  growth  was  so  small  as  to  be  almost  insignificant.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
this  enormous  stimulant  to  the  production  of  the  hay  crop  was  due  to  the 
invention  of  the  two-wheeled  hinged-bar  principle  of  the  Buckeye,  and  to 
the  general  introduction  of  mowers  and  reapers  embodying  that  principle. 

An  event  partaking  somewhat  of  the  dramatic  in  character  indicates  the 
incipienc}-  of  this  harvester  revolution  with  singular  clearness.  The  United 
States  Agricultural  Societj'  invited  a  general  field  competition  of  harvesting 
machines  at  Syracuse,  N.  Y  ,  in  July,  1857.  Every  machine  made  in  the 
countr}'  participated  in  the  trial,  the  record  of  which,  with  cuts  of  the 
machines,  is  preserved  in  the  report  of  the  judges.  Every  machine  present 
except  the  Buckeye,  whether  mower  or  reaper,  had  one  driving  wheel. 
These  machines  had  no  hinged-bars;  their  driving  gears  were  on,  or  inside 
of  the  driver,  and  not  on  the  axle;  this  gear  did  not  cease  to  impart  motion 
to  the  cutting  parts  when  the  machine  moved  backwards;  they  had  no  lead- 
ing wheels  with  brace  to  coupling-arms;  they  had  no  adjustable  track- 
clearers;  they  had  no  shoe-slides,  and  guards  with  steel-faced  cutting  edges; 
their  cutter-bars  could  not  be  lifted,  neither  could  they  be  folded,  nor  had 
they  any  foot-lifting  device. 

The  machine  which  was  destined  to  endow  agriculture  with  all  these 

advantages,  advantages  which  have  "finally  been  adopted  by  the  public  and 

2()-t 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


205 


the  world,"  and  which,  for  all  that  is  now  known,  "will  forever  afterward 
become  a  part  of  the  perfect  machine,"  was  the  Buckeye. 

The  Buckeye  was  also  at  Syracuse,  putting  in  its  first  public  appearance 
on  that  occasion.     Although  made  first  as  a  mower,  its  motive  system  was 

L.MileT. 

Jfower 

J\r769  Eeissued  Jul  9i659l 


TifS 


•>v* 


THE    "hinged    bar"    IN    DETAIL. 


immediately  adapted  to  reaping.  The  larger  portion  of  the  grain  and  sub- 
stantially all  the  grass  of  the  world  was  har\-ested  by  machines  modeled  on 
the  Buckeye  system  until  the  advent  of  self-binders  furnished  a  speedier 
method  for  grain. 


206  AMKRICAX    AGRICULTIRAL   IMI'I.KMKXTS. 

The  starting  point,  in  a  manufacturing  way,  of  the  Buckeye  industry 
was  made  at  the  viUage  of  Greentown,  Stark  county,  Ohio,  in  the  early 
"thirties."  John  Miller,  the  father,  and  Lewis  and  Jacob  Miller,  the  sons, 
also  C.  Aultnian  and  Kphraim  Ball,  were  interested  in  the  shop  which 
turned  out  plows,  harrows,  spinning  wheels  and  threshers.  Later  on,  about 
184S,  Hussey  reapers  were  made  under  a  royalty. 

Still  later  it  was  decided  to  add.  a  mower  to  the  output.  Negotiations 
were  entered  into  with  Mr.  Ketchum,  the  patentee  of  the  most  successful 
mower  of  that  day.  Mr.  Ketchum  fixed  his  roj'alty  at  $40  per  machine, 
and  was  inexorable.  The  young  firm  decided  that  such  a  figure  was  inad- 
missible, and  resolved  to  make  a  mower  of  their  own  invention.  That  was 
a  turjiing  point.  Had  the  price  fixed  by  Ketchum  been  satisfactory,  those 
revolutionary  modifications  which  are  classed  under  the  general  term  of 
the  "  hinged-bar"  might  never  have  been  made. 

After  the  above  action  had  been  taken  by  the  firm  there  ensued  a  series 
of  experiments  and  trials,  the  full  details  of  which  would  make,  if  space 
permitted,  a  wonderfull}-  interesting  chapter  in  pioneer  harvester  history. 
Lewis  Miller,  who  led  the  way  in  these  inventions,  is  still  living,  and  it  was 
from  him  that  these  particulars  were  obtained. 

The  first  experiment  ended  with  the  ma- 
chine here  shown,  the  first  successful  two-        |-'-»    ■ — • — — ■    ■■'~n 

wheeled  mower.  It  did  good  work  and  its 
inventor  was  very  proud  of  it,  so  much  so 
that  he  had  this  cut  made.  Its  gears,  how- 
ever, were  in  the  drivers,  and  it  had  a  stiff 


bar.      It  was  resolved  to  change  that.  '■t^''^^^  '^J^^^'lT^'^ 

This   brings   us  to   the   second    experi-        ;   '|$^1v^5^!■•'A;-^-'^-.^, 


ment,   which  also  ended  satisfactorily,  so .    .     y    '•■-■  "'-'■'^■■■^r^m. 

much  so  that  a  patent  was  applied  for.  An 

illustration  is  shown  of  the  drawing  that  was  used.  The  gears  had  now  been 
transferred  to  the  axle  and  the  bar  made  pliable  by  hinges.  Not  until  a  con- 
siderable time  after  this  stage  of  development  had  been  reached  was  it 
learned  thatSylla  &  Adams,  of  Illinois,  had  already  patented  a  device  which 
involved  this  principle  of  a  hinge  in  the  bar.  Though  very  unlike  the 
Buckeye  plan,  and  used  for  a  different  purpose,  it  still  involved  the  princi- 
ple.    The  exclusive  right  to  its  use  was  bought  for  a  modest  sum. 

The  third  and  last  effort  that  can  be  called  an  experiment  ended  in 
1857,  culminating  in  the  machine  shown  at  vS^-racuse.  The  period  covered 
by  this  evolution  reached  from  1S.'34  to  1857.  It  was,  as  has  been  intimated, 
a  period  of  severest  tension,  and  the  problem  was  only  wrought  out  bj-  the 
help  of  a  stout  heart  and  an  unbounded  faith.  The  story  in  detail,  like 
many  another  story  of  great  efforts  crowned  by  grand  successes,  will  never 
fail  to  win  for  its  heroes  the  profoundest  respect  and  the  highest  admiration. 

The  principles  embodied  in  this  machine,  generally  known  under  the 
term  '  'Buckeye,"  are  shown  in  a  drawing  filed  with  the  patent  of  July  9,  1859. 
This  illustrates  more  clearly  than  a  shaded  machine  picture  can  "do  some  of 
the  special,  and  now  indispensable,  devices  to  which  reference  has  just 
been  made.  The  folding  of  the  bar  as  shown  is  still  peculiar  to  the  Buckeye, 


AMKRICAX   AGRICL'LTURAL   IMPtEMEXTS. 


207 


although  the  latter  first  taught  the  lesson  of  folding  the  bar  in  any  shape. 
In  addition  to  that  feature  may  be  seen  the  brace  A^,  the  wheel  C,  with 
its  brace  S,  the  lifting  lever  and  quadrant  shown  bj'  figures  6,  7  and  8,  the 
adjustable  seat  T'  the  foot-lift  P,  all  of  which,  as  much  as  the  two  wheels, 
have  been  derived  from  the  Buckeye  and  constitute  part  of  the  "perfect 
machine"  of  to-day.  Another  device,  and  an  indispensably  important 
device  to  every  modern  mower,  is  the  knuckle-joint,  with  gag  e,  as  shown 
in  the  small  cut.  Another  of  the  Buckeye  devices  in  general  u.se  on  mow- 
ers is  the  "adjustable  sole,"  of  double-runner  form,  shown  in  cut.      The 


THE   SECOND   BUCKEYE    EXPERIMENT. 


THE   PAWL    AND  SPRING. 


pawl,  with  spring,  transmitting  the  motion  of  the  drive-wheels  to  the  cut- 
ters while  moving  forward,  but  not  backward,  is  invaluable  and  indispensa- 
ble on  all  mowers 

In  the  foregoing,  reference  has  been  had  only  to  the  pioneer  days  of  a 
pioneer  industry-;  in  other  words  to  those  successive  mechanical  achieve- 
ments by  means  of  which  one  of  our  great  industrial  establishments  entitled 
itself  to  the  honor  and  gratitude  of  mankind.  Space  forbids  farther  venture 
in  this  history  than  a  most  summary  outline.  All  manufacturers  were  com- 
pelled to  immediately  avail  themselves  of  the  Buckeye  inventions.  Serious 
objection  was  made  only  by  several  houses,  now  mostly  extinct,  to  the  front- 


208 


AMKKICAN    AC.RICUI/rUKAI,   IMPLEMENTS. 


THE    "original"    BrCKEYE. 


BUCKEYE  MOWER  OF  TO-DAY. 


'^'B^^^'^ 


BUCKEYE  TABLE  RAKE   REAPER. 


BUCKEYE  BANNER  BINDER. 


BUCKEYE    "FR.^MELESS  '   BINDER. 


AMERICAN   AGRICULXrRAL    IMPLEMENTS.  209 

cut,  but  its  greater  safety  in  connectiou  -with  otlier  advantages,  made  it 
invincible. 

During  the  era  of  the  reaper,  extending  from  IS-jti  to  1880,  the  Buckeye 
Avorks  were  large  makers  of  that  class  of  machines.  The  great  bulk  of  the 
reapers  bearing  the  brand  Buckeye  were  of  the  Table-rake  pattern.  The 
peculiarity  of  the  latter  was  a  fork  on  a  jointed  arm  which  .swept  around  a 
vertical  axis  in  the  centre  of  the  platform,  fir.st  across  the  sickle  end  and 
parallel  to  the  cutters,  then  gathering  and  compressing  the  grain  against  the 
circle-board,  then  delivering  the  gavel  in  a  compressed  form  at  the  side, 
and  out  of  the  way  of  the  machine  on  the  next  round.  The  reaping  part 
was  made  as  an  attachment  to  the  mower.  The  economy  of  this  arrange- 
ment, and  the  great  excellence  of  both  mower  and  reaper  made  the  Table- 
rake  exceedingly  popular  and  brought  the  house  a  very  large  trade. 

In  the  earlier  days  of  binders  the  Buckeye  house  placed  on  the  market 
the  Buckeye  Platform,  or  Low-down  binder.  Although  a  great  many 
machines  of  this  pattern  were  sold  about  1883  and  188-4,  it  was  found  that 
their  operation  left  much  to  be  desired.  Experiment  and  improvement  upon 
this  model  has  resulted  in  the  Buckeye  Banner  binder,  which  is  too  well 
known  in  the  markets  of  the  present  day  to  need  description.  Certain  of 
the  original  patents  on  the  earlier  low-down,  and  which  cover  devices  essen- 
tial to  the  success  of  that  type  of  machine,  inure  to  the  benefit  of  the  Ban- 
ner, which  has  as  its  specialty  farms  of  moderate  size,  and  harvesting  on 
hilly  land. 

For  large  work,  and  for  all  the  possible  conditions  of  crop  that  a  harvest- 
ing machine  is  liable  to  encounter,  the  Buckeye  Frameless  binder  is  placed 
on  the  market  as  the  embodiment  of  the  highest  tvpe  of  results  that  have 
been  approved  by  modern  experience  and  invention. 

Some  years  since  Aultman,  Miller  &  Co.  established  a  twine  factory  in 
connection  with  their  harvester  plant.  The  methods  of  the  twine  houses, 
and  the  inferior  twines  placed  on  the  market,  compelled  this  step,  which 
has  resulted  most  satisfactorily  both  to  their  customers  and  to  all  concerned. 

In  concluding  this  brief  survey  it  is  proper  to  name  the  man  to  whose 
inventive  genius  is  due  the  wide  and  well-grounded  reputation  of  the 
Buckeye  interests,  Lewis  Miller.  The  modern  mowing  machine  is  the  oflf- 
spring  of  his  brain.  The  Table-rake,  and  the  characterizing  features  of  both 
the  Frameless  and  Banner  binders,  were  his  inventions.  It  is,  however,  as 
the  inventor  of  the  Buckeye  mower,  the  pioneer  of  all  mowers  in  those  feat- 
ures which  constitute  their  controlling  recommendations,  that  he  will  for 
all  time  hold  the  highest  place  as  an  inventor  who  will  ever  deserve  the 
meed  of  gratitude  from  his  countn,'men  and  mankind.  Mr.  Miller  would 
have  been  entitled  to  rank  with  the  foremost  inventors  in  this  class,  had  he 
done  no  more  than  to  make  the  first  successful  two-wheeled  machine,  for 
this  was  an  improvement  of  fully  as  great  value  as  others  from  men  whose 
work  made  them  leaders  in  the  industry.  But  this  improvement  was  only 
the  first  step  in  the  series  of  inventions  conceived  by  him,  which,  when 
worked  out  in  practice,  produced  the  perfect  hinged  or  floating  bar  of  the 
standard  mower  of  to-day. 


Springfield,  0. 


THE   CHAMnOX   vSYvSTEM    OF   HARVESTING   MACHINERY. 

"/"^HAMPION  CITY  "  is  the  name  that  has  been  bestowed  by  common 
v_>  consent  upon  Springfield.  As  a  result  of  inventive  genius  and  busi- 
ness ability  combined  in  the  highest  degree,  Champion  reapers  and  mowers 
became  the  exemplification  of  their  name  during  the  earliest  years  of  the 
reaper  industry,  apd  the  subsequent  development  of  the  Champion  "83-8- 
tem  "  of  harvesting  machinery  has  made  vSpriugfield  one  of  the  largest 
cities  in  Ohio  and  the  second  city  in  the  world  in  the  manufacture  of  agri- 
cultural implements.  The  inception  and  rise  of  the  Champion  practically 
covers  the  period  of  development  of  improved  agricultural  implements  in 
America,  and  Springfield  enjoys  a  position  bj-  no  means  the  least  among  the 
centres  of  invention  and  development  from  which  have  gone  forth  the 
means  of  increasing  five  to  tenfold  the  producing  capacity  of  the  American 
farmer.  "  Champion  City  "  and  the  men  of  genius  who  have  controlled  the 
Champion  system  have  done  their  part  well  and  are  entitled  to  a  full  share 
of  credit  from  a  grateful  people. 

The  Champion  interest  was  fortunate  in  having  almost  from  the 
first  an  organization  that  was  unquestionably  the  strongest  in  the  reaper 
industr}',  and  the  result  was  that  the  production  of  Champion  reapers  and 
mowers  multiplied  until  it  reached  70,000  machines  per  j'ear,  giving  vSpriug- 
field the  first  position  in  this  class;  and  in  the  subsequent  evolutions  of  the 
trade  which  have  carried  down  more  than  half  the  capital  invested  in  this 
industrj'  in  the  United  States,  the  Champion  has  kept  to  the  front,  and 
to-day  its  organization  is,  if  possible,  stronger  than  before,  in  the  hands  of 
the  pioneer  house  that  established  the  reaper  industry  in  vSpriugfield. 

The  manufacture  of  reapers  was  begun  at  Springfield  in  1850  by  Benja- 
min H.  AVarder.  Mr.  Warder  had  come  to  Ohio  from  the  east  at  an  early  day 
and  settled  in  Springfield.  The  water  power  available  here  induced  him  to 
establi.sh  a  saw  mill,  later  a  grist  mill  and  woolen  mill,  and  a  factorj'  for 
making  small  agricultural  tools  which  was  soon  developed  into  a  reaper 
factory,  and  still  later  he  established  a  shop  for  making  wagons,  plows  and 
other  agricultural  implements.  The  introduction  of  the  hand- rake  reaper 
by  Seymour  &  Morgan,  of  Brockport,  New  York,  attracted  Mr.  Warder's 
attention  in  1S."J0,  and  he  bought  an  interest  in  the  patents,  paying  what 
was  then  considered  an  enormous  sum  for  an  investment  of  so  uncertain  a 
character,  |30,000.  He  at  once  began  manufacturing  this  reaper  on  a  large 
scale  and  introduced  it  throughout  Ohio  and  the  west;  and  a  few  years  later, 
when  Seymour  &  INIorgan  had  perfected  the  New  Yorker  self-rake,  he  took 
a  license  under  the  patents  on  it.     In  this  way  the  reaper  industry  began  at 


AMERICAN-   AGRICIXTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  211 

Springfield,  the  New  Yorker  reaper,  or  combined  reaper  and  mower,  as  it 
•was  made  by  Mr.  "Warder,  becoming  the  nucleus  of  the  Champion  system. 
As  the  countr\-  developed  the  business  grew  rapidly  and  taxed  I\Ir.  Warder's 
resources  to  the  utmost  to  extend  his  facilities  for  manufacturing  so  as  to 
keep  pace  with  the  demand  during  the  years  prior  to  18G0,  and  later,  during 
the  Civil  War. 

During  these  years  the  industry  had  been  gathering  recruits.  Early  in 
the  "fifties"  Mr.  Warder  associated  with  himself  J.  C.  Child,  adopting 
the  firm  name  of  Warder  &  Child,  and  continued  under  this  style  until 
Januar}-,  1866.  In  the  meantime  Mr.  Warder  had  performed  a  duty  that 
few  of  the  manufacturers  in  his  line  undertook:  he  had  gone  to  the  front 
during  the  Civil  War  and  serv'ed  as  lieutenant  of  a  company  organized 
among  his  men.  In  his  absence  from  Springfield  the  business  interests  of 
his  firm  were  looked  after  by  his  partner,  Mr.  Child,  and  by  Ross  Mitchell 
and  J.  J.  Glessner.  While  in  the  ser\-ice  Mr.  Warder  became  intimately 
acquainted  with  A.  S.  Bushnell,  who  was  serv'ing  as  captain  of  the  next 
company  in  their  regiment.  The  friendship  thus  established  grew  stronger 
as  the  great  struggle  neared  its  close  and  led  to  Mr.  Bushnell  becoming 
actively  interested,  iipon  his  return  home,  as  a  partner  in  the  Springfield 
business,  with  which  he  had  been  identified  in  a  small  way  some  years 
before.  In  1866  Warder  &  Child  dissolved  and  a  new  firm  was  organized 
under  the  name  of  Warder,  Mitchell  &  Co.,  consisting  of  B.  H.  Warder, 
Ross  Mitchell,  A.  S.  Bushnell  and  J.  J.  Glessner.  This  arrangement  expired 
by  limitation  in  1879,  and  the£rm  was  then  organized  as  Warder,  Bushnell 
&  Glessner,  Mr.  Mitchell  retiring. 

The  reaper  industry  had  other  recruits  also  in  these  earh-  days.  In  1851 
a  reaper  trial  had  been  held  near  Springfield,  at  which  all  the  machines 
then  in  competition  in  the  trade  were  entered.  A  young  farmer's  boy  who 
witnessed  this  trial,  William  X,  Whitely,  w"as  destined  to  become  famous  in 
later  years  as  identified  with  the  Champion  system,  winning  in  fact,  the 
popular  title  of  the  "  Reaper  King. "  In  1852  he  built  his  first  machine, 
with  a  view  to  making  a  combined  reaper  and  mower.  An  improved 
experimental  machine  was  built  by  him  in  1853,  and  used  in  1854,  and  in 
1854-5  he  perfected  and  began  in  a  small  way  to  manufacture  the  first  suc- 
cessful combined  self-raking  reaper  and  mower  that  was  put  on  the  market. 
This  was  an  important  step  in  the  development  of  har^-esting  machinery, 
one  that  was  destined  to  win  for  its  inventor  a  foremost  place  and  a  full 
share  of  credit  in  the  development  of  the  Champion  system.  In  1856  Mr- 
Whitely  entered  into  partnership  with  Jerome  Fassler  and  O.  S.  Kelly, 
under  the  name  of  Whitely,  Fassler  &  Kelly,  and  thej'  began  the  manufact- 
ure of  Whitely' s  machine,  overcoming  gradually  the  difficulties  incidental 
to  pioneer  work,  and  becoming  firmly  established  by  1860.  From  this  time 
on  the  new  firm  grew  in  influence,  and  came  into  competition  with  the 
older  house  alongside  of  which  it  was  working.  This  competition  event- 
ually became  keen  and  continued  until  1867,  when  overtures  were  made  for 
a  division  of  territory  and  a  consolidation  of  their  machine  interests,  so 
that  each  house  could  conduct  its  business  without  demoralizing  rivalry-. 
Recognizing  valuable  features  in  Whitely' s  machine,  the  Warder  interest 


212  AMERICAN'  AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 

readily  assented  to  this  proposition  and  terms  were  agreed  upon  in  the  fall 
of  18C7.  In  carrj-ing  out  the  plan  the  Champion  Machine  Company  was 
organized  to  handle  territory  ceded  to  it  by  the  two  old  houses,  and  Mr. 
Whitely's  brother  became  prominent  in  it. 

This  consolidation  of  interests  was  a  fortunate  step.  It  gave  to  Spring- 
field a  strength  of  organization  that  was  possessed  b}'  no  other  pioneer 
manufacturing  center  in  the  entire  industrj-.  By  its  terms  Mr.  Warder  and 
his  associates  had  the  lead  in  the  biisiness  management  of  the  Champion 
interests,  Mr.  Whitely  was  placed  at  the  head  of  experimental  work  for  the 
three  houses,  and  Mr.  Fassler,  unexcelled  as  a  mechanic  and  superinten- 
dent, organized  their  factor}^  methods.  The  needs  of  the  west  for  harvest- 
ing machinen.'  gave  a  new  impetus  to  the  demand  for  the  Champion,  and 
after  eighteen  years  of  pioneer  work  Warder,  Mitchell  &  Co.  were  able  to 
accumulate  a  surplus  beyond  the  requirements  for  enlarging  their  facilities. 
Hitherto  their  business  had  absorbed  in  its  growth  all  the  profits  that  could 
be  made  from  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  their  machines.  Springfield 
sent  out  better  machines  than  ever  before,  and  was  able  to  market  them  to 
better  advantage.  The  good  points  of  both  systems  were  combined  in  the 
new  Champion  interest  and  a  series  of  improvements  was  begun  that  far 
increased  their  lead  in  the  reaper  industrj".  The  use  of  malleable  iron  in 
machine  construction  was  introduced  in  the  trade  by  the  Champion  inter- 
est, a  malleable  iron  foundrv-  having  been  established  in  1874  by  the  three 
houses.  A  few  years  later  an  equally  important  step  was  taken  in  the  intro- 
duction of  steel  construction  in  their  reapers.  The  Champion  interest  was 
also  noted  for  the  care  given  to  details  in  the  manufacture  of  their  machinery 
and  for  the  high  grade  of  materials  which  they  used.  Still  another  influ- 
ence that  has  operated  in  Springfield's  favor,  and  that  becomes  more 
striking  as  the  years  pass,  is  that  her  workmen  have  "grown  up  "to  the 
har\'esting  machine  industry,  and  are  familiar  with  its  details  from  their 
boyhood.  They  are  almost  entirely  American  born,  and  having  been  bred  to 
this  business  have  a  peculiar  adaptation  to  it,  and  their  industrious  habits 
and  high  character  have  without  doubt  imparted,  in  some  degree,  at  least, 
a  higher  character  to  the  machines  they  make. 

It  was  the  original  intention  of  the  parties  to  the  consolidation  of  1867 
that  the  Warder  interest  should  in  time  (after  a  certain  number  of  machines 
had  been  manufactured),  assume  control  of  the  business  management  and 
the  entire  trade  of  the  Champion  interest,  but  this  agreement  was  not  carried 
out,  and  the  three  divisions  of  territon,-  and  three  business  organizations 
were  kept  distinct  until  the  lamentable  failure  of  Whitely,  Fassler  &  Kelly 
in  1887,  and  the  withdrawal  of  the  Champion  Machine  Company  from  the 
business.  At  this  time,  however,  Warder,  Bushnell  &  Glessner  purchased 
the  rights  of  these  two  houses,  and  enlarged  their  facilities  to  provide  for 
the  increased  obligations  in  furnishing  Champion  machinery  for  the  entire 
countr}'.  To  strengthen  their  position  under  the  new  responsibility  the 
firm  incorporated  as  the  Warder,  Bushnell  &  Glessner  Company. 

The  business  of  the  Warder,  Bushnell  &  Glessner  Company  has  increased 
steadily  from  the  day  it  was  established  by  ]\Ir.  Warder,  in  1850,  having  had 
a  gradual,  conservative  growth,  without  strikes,  financial  difficulties  or  other 


AMEKICAX    AGKICLLTLRAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


21c 


OUTLINE   VIEW  OF   CHAMPION    MOWER  SHO-^'ING  THE  ONLY   GEARING   USED 
THE   POLE,    SKAT,    ETC.,    ARE   REMOVED. 


THE    NE%V  CH.AMPION    BINDER. 


ELEVATOR   ON    NEW   CHAMPION    HARVESTER.        THE    DEFLECTION   OF   THE     UPPER     CANVAS     CHANGES 
THE    DIRECTION    OF   THE    FLOW   OF   THE   GRAIN   AND    FEEDS   THE   GRAIN    INTO   THE    PACKERS. 


214  AMERICAN   AGRICUI.TURAI.  IMPLEMENTS. 

set-backs.  For  a,  generation  they  have  operated  one  of  the  very  largest  fac- 
tories in  the  world,  and  they  have  made  as  many  machines  during  their 
career  as  any  other  harvesting  machine  house.  Their  machines  have  always 
been  the  best  that  mechanical  ingenuity  and  skill  could  make  from  the  best 
material  obtainable,  and  the  company's  financial  position,  as  a  result  of 
their  long  and  successful  career,  is  second  to  none,  a  circumstance  that 
augurs  well  for  the  future  of  the  Champion.  Mr.  Warder  is  one  of  the  two 
survivors  of  the  pioneers  in  the  reaper  industry,  and  though  he  no  longer 
takes  an  active  part  in  the  management  he  retains  his  financial  interest. 

Their  facilities  for  manufacturing  have  been  enlarged  from  year  to  year, 
the  latest  step  in  this  direction  having  been  the  erection  during  the  past 
year  of  a  mammoth  foundry.  This  building  is  more  than  1,000  feet  in 
length,  covering  about  two  acres,  and  is  equipped  with  the  latest  mechan- 
ical devices  for  facilitating  work,  including  a  system  of  heating  and  ven- 
tilation that  changes  the  atmosphere  once  in  five  minutes  and  carries  away 
the  smoke  and  gases  that  have  hitherto  made  foundries  so  disagreeable. 
These  annual  improvements  are  necessary  because  the  Champion  is  increas- 
ing its  hold  upon  the  machine  trade  of  the  world,  and  Champion  machines 
are  now  supplied  only  by  the  Warder,  Bushnell  «Sc  Glessuer  Company. 

The  Champion  machines  are  noted  for  their  "distinctive"  features. 
For  the  purpose  of  this  sketch  mention  need  only  be  made  of  two:  the 
peculiar  gear  of  the  Champion  mower,  and  the  improved  elevator  which 
distinguishes  the  Champion  binder.  Their  mower  is  popularly  known  in 
the  machine  trade  by  the  name  "wobble  gear."  This  device  performs  with 
two  gear-wheels  the  work  of  multiplying  the  speed  of  the  driving-axle  to 
that  required  for  the  pitman.  These  wheels  are  in  mesh,  facing  each  other, 
and  one  revolves  with  the  driving-wheel,  while  the  other  remains  station- 
arv,  except  for  the  "wobbling"  or  winding  motion  that  is  transmitted  to  it 
bv  the  driving  gear,  of  which  only  a  portion  is  in  mesh  at  one  time.  One 
of  the  wheels  has  forty-eight  cogs  and  the  other  forty-six,  and  the  speed  is 
multiplied  twenty -three  times.  The  gear  is  simplicity  in  itself,  and  mini- 
mizes friction,  which  reduces  the  draft  very  considerably. 

The  illustration  shows  the  principle  of  the  new  Champion  elevator  quite 
clearly.  In  the  standard  elevator  the  lower  canvas  extends  above  the  table, 
and  the  straw  is  likely  to  fall  back  so  as  to  be  carried  down  by  the  slats  on 
the  returning  canvas.  In  this  new  elevator  the  lower  canvas  is  shorter,  and 
the  grain  in  its  upward  course  readily  passes  the  opening  between  the 
roller  and  the  curved  or  arched  extension  of  the  table. 

HAY  RAKES  AND  TEDDERS. 

The  business  of  the  Thomas  Manufacturing  Company  at  Springfield, 
O.,  was  established  by  J.  H.  Thomas  &  Sons,  in  1873,  in  the  manufacture  of 
the  Thomas  rake.  Other  styles  of  rakes  were  added  in  later  j-ears.  Hay 
tedders  were  introduced  in  1882;  lawn-mowers  and  iron  pumps  in  1886;  the 
Thomas  disk  harrow  in  1892;  and  for  1894  they  announce  the  Thomas  hay- 
loader.  The  business  was  incorporated  by  the  Thomas  INIanufacturing 
Company  in  1886,  with  John  H.  Thomas  as  president  and  W.  S.  Thomas, 
his  son,  as  secretarv  and  treasurer. 


AMERICAN   AORICULTIKAI.  IMPLEMENTS.  215 

IRON  TURBINE  WIXD-MILLS. 

The  business  of  ^last,  Foos  &  Co.,  at  Spriugfield,  O.,  was  established 
in  lalo,  the  firm  incorporating  under  the  present  name  in  1880.  Their 
product  at  first  was  the  Anderson  boiler,  which  they  afterwards  discon- 
tinued making.  In  1870  they  commenced  the  manufacture  of  the  iron 
turbine  wind-engine;  in  1877,  lawn-mowers,  and  in  1878,  Buckeye  pumps. 
Wrought-iron  fence,  cresting  and  ornamental  iron-work  were  introduced  in 

1882,  and  in  1892  the  Columbia  steel  wind-mill  was  brought  out.  P.  P. 
Mast  is  president  and  J.  W.  Crane  secretarj'  and  treasurer. 

A  PIONEER  THRESHER  HOUSE. 

The  manufacture  of  threshing  machinery  was  begun  at  Springfield,  O., 
in  1845,  by  John  A.  Pitts,  one  of  the  brothers  who  were  the  inventors  of 
the  "endless  apron"  thresher.  The  business  underwent  many  changes, 
having  been  conducted  by  Pitts  &  r^IcUennan,  by  IVIcLennan,  Cushman  & 
Rinehart,  b}'  Rinehart,  Ballard  &  Co.,  the  Springfield  Engine  &  Thresher 
Company,  and  now  by  the  O.  S.  Kelly  Company.  The  manufacture  of 
engines  was  begun  in  1883,  and  the  Kelly  duplex  grinding-mill  was  intro- 
duced in  1887.  The  O.  S.  Kelh-  Company  began  the  manufacture  of  steam 
road  rollers  in  1890,  and  this  is  now  an  important  branch  of  their  business, 
which  includes  the  manufacture  of  threshing  machines,  swinging  stackers, 
portable  and  traction  engines,  horse  powers  and  steam  road  rollers. 

GRINDING  MILLS  AND  CORN  HARVESTERS. 

The  Foos  Manufacturing  Company   was  established  in  Springfield,   in 

1883,  for  the  manufacture  of  the  Scientific  grinding  mills.  In  1890  they 
commenced  the  manufacture  of  sled  corn  hars^esters,  and  introduced  a  line 
of  corn  planters  in  1892.  G.  S.  Foos  is  president;  R.  H.  Foos,  vice-presi- 
dent; W.  F.  Foos,  treasurer:  H.  S.  Bradley,  secretary,  and  James  F.  Win- 
chell.  superintendent. 

PIONEERS  IN  ENSILAGE  CUTTERS. 

The  E.  W.  Ross  Company  of  Springfield,  are  pioneers  in  the  manufact- 
ure of  ensilage  cutters  in  this  country.  The  nucleus  of  their  present  business 
was  established  at  Fvilton,  N.  Y.,  in  1851,  by  E.  P.  Ross.  Hay  and  fodder 
cutters  were  manufactured  on  a  considerable  scale  at  that  time,  in  connection 
with  a  jobbing  and  repair  business  in  machinerj-.  A  few  years  later  Mr. 
Ross  became  interested  in  paper  mill  machiner)-,  but  continued  the  manu" 
facture  of  feed  cutters,  and  in  1877  or  1878  made  and  put  out  the  first  ensi- 
lage cutters.  In  1885  the  concern  removed  to  Springfield,  O.,  and  during  the 
past  five  years  has  added  a  large  line  of  sweep  and  tread  powers,  grinding 
mills  and  other  implements.  In  1890  the  business  was  incorporated  under 
the  name  of  the  E.  W.  Ross  Company,  with  E.  W.  Ross,  a  son  of  E.  P. 
Ross,  as  president.  Since  the  death  of  E.  W.  Ross  in  1892  the  presidency 
has  devolved  upon  his  widow,  M.  F.  Ross.  N.  Fitch  is  vice-president  and 
general  manager  and  S.  E.  Lincoln,  secretary. 


216  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 

A  PIONEER  GRAIN  DRILL  HOUSE. 
The  business  of  P.  P.  Ma.st&  Co..  at  Springfield,  was  established  in  1856 
by  John  H.  Thomas  and  P.  P.  Mast,  under  the  firm  name  of  Thomas  & 
Mast.  The  lines  of  manufacture  in  which  they  first  engaged  were  grain  drills 
and  cider  mills,  but  they  soon  after  became  interested  in  other  implements. 
Early  in  the  "sixties"  they  began  making  straddle  row  cultivators,  and  took 
out  many  patents  covering  improvements  in  this  line.  In  1871  Thomas  & 
Mast  dissolved  partnership  and  the  business  was  continued  under  the  pres- 
ent name,  P.  P.  Mast  &  Co.  The  firm  is  now  incorporated,  with  P.  P. 
Mast  as  president  and  C.  R.  Crain  as  secretary  and  treasurer. 

DOUBLE  DISTRIBUTER  GRAIN  DRILLS. 
The  business  of  the  Superior  Drill  Co.  was  established  at  Springfield  in 
18H7  by  Ferrell,  Ludlow  &  Rodgers,  in  the  manufacture  of  grain  drills  under 
the  "double  distributer"  patents  of  C.  E.  Patric.  In  1872  John  H.  Thomas 
purchased  the  interest  of  Ferrell  and  the  firm  became  Thomas,  Ludlow  & 
Rodgers.  A  reorganization  took  place  in  1883,  when  the  firm  incorporated 
as  the  Superior  Drill  Co.  INIany  improvements  have  been  made  in  force 
feed  grain  drills,  the  most  important  of  which  is  the  disk  wheel  for  regulat- 
ing the  amount  of  grain  to  be  sown.  This  device  was  patented  by  Mr 
Patric  in  1881. 


Mansfield,  0. 


THE  AULTMAN  &  TAYLOR  MACHINERY  COMPANY. 

THE  manufacture  of  Aultman  &  Taylor  threshers  was  established  in 
1867  at  Mansfield,  O.,  by  Cornelius  Aultman  and  H.  H.  Taylor,  under 
the  name  of  the  Aultman  &  Taylor  Company.  Mr.  Aultman  was  one  of 
Ohio's  pioneer  manufacturers  as  the  head  of  the  firm  of  C.  Aultman  &  Co., 
at  Canton,  where  the  Buckeye  mower  was  developed  and  for  many  years 
manufactured,  and  also  "endless  apron"  threshers,  horse-powers,  and 
other  lines  of  agricultural  implements.  Henry  Hobart  Taylor  had  taken 
the  general  agency  at  Chicago  for  C.  Aultman  &  Co.  in  I860,  and  had  built 
up  a  large  jobbing  business  in  agricultural  implements  at  the  time  the 
Aultman  &  Taylor  Company  was  organized.  Recognizing  the  elements  of 
success  in  the  new  "vibrator"  threshers,  Mr.  Taylor  succeeded  in  enlisting 
IMr.  Aultman  in  this  enterprise.  The  new  machines,  under  the  trade-mark 
name  of  the  "starved  rooster,"  soon  became  well  known,  and  the  company 
has  become  one  of  the  largest  in  the  thresher  industry.  The  house  is  now 
incorporated  as  the  Aultman  &  Taylor  Machinery  Company. 


Dayton,  0. 


THE  firm  of  WeusthoflF&.  Getz,  in  1870,  laid  the  foundation  of  the  busi- 
ness that  is  now  conducted  by  the  Farmers  Friend  Manufacturing 
Company,  at  Dayton,  it  having  been  incorporated  under  the  present  name 
in  1870.  Grain  drills  have  been  manufactured  from  the  first.  In  1879  a 
line  of  corn  planters  was  added,  spring  tooth  harrows  being  introduced  in 
18S6,  and  hay  loaders  and  lawn  mowers  in  1888.  The  only  important  change 
in  the  management  of  the  business  was  in  1887,  when  J.  W.  Stoddard,  of  the 
Stoddard  Manufacturing  Compan}-,  became  president  V.  P.  Van  Home  is 
secretary  and  J.  F.  Campbell,  treasurer. 

The  business  of  the  Stoddard  Manufacturing  Co.,  at  Dayton,  was 
established  in  1875,  by  J.  W.  Stoddard  &  Co.,  the  firm  consisting  of  J.  W. 
and  E.  F.  Stoddard  and  W.  A.  Scott.  The  Tiger  hay  rake  was  one  of  the 
first  implements  introduced  by  the  firm,  and  they  have  since  added  other 
styles  of  rakes.  They  were  among  the  earliest  manufacturers  of  disk  har- 
rows, and  it  is  still  a  large  department  of  their  business  Recently  the 
Havana  press  drill  has  been  introduced  and  also  the  Beck  side  delivery  hay 

rake. 

217 


Ashland,  0. 


HAYING  TOOLS  AND  PUMPS. 

FE.  MYERS  &:  BRO.  of  Ashland,  O..  were  one  of  the  pioneer  houses 
•     in  haying  tools,   represented  at  the  Columbian  Exposition.     One  of 
the  first  patents  issued  on  steel  track  was  to  P.  A.   ISIyers  in   1884,  and  a 

later  invention,  double 
rail    steel    track,    has 
been  generally   intro- 
duced by  this  firm,  as 
well  as  reversible  car- 
riers and    other  lines 
of   haying    tools.     F. 
E.  Myers   became   in- 
terested in  the  imple- 
ment   trade    in    1870, 
and  in  1876  he  and  his 
brother,   P.    A.,  estab- 
lished an    implement 
store  in  Ashland,  one 
of  the  most  complete 
of  its  kind  in  the  state. 
This  and  other  interests  led  them 
to   begin    manufacturing    a    few 
years   later.     They  became  inter- 
ested also  in  pumps,  and  in   1883 
P.    A.    Myers  invented   the  glass 
valve  seat   which  has  become  so 
well  known  in  the  trade  as  used 
in  ^Myers  pumps.     From  this  time 
on  their   manufacturing  interests 
enlarged  and  F.   E.  ^Myers  &  Bro. 
have  become   known    among  the 
leading   manufacturers   of    Ohio. 
They  are  largely  interested  in  the 
Bucher  &  Gibbs  Plow  Company, 
■^  f  A  I  \/  ^i^^ms  °^  Canton,  F.    E.  Myers  having 

^         '^  C.  become  identified  with  this  house 

THE   MYERS  GLASS  VALVE   SEAT.  ,  i  •  r  i-L  I, 

by  traveling  for  them,  becoming 
their  superintendent  of  agencies  in  1885,   at  the  time  of  their  incorporation. 


THE    MYERS    REVERSIBLE    UAY   CARRIER. 


Hoosick  Falls,  N.  Y. 


THE  WALTER  A.  WOOD  REAPER  AND  MOWER  INDUSTRY. 

NO  name  has  become  better  known  to  the  world  than  that  of  Walter  A. 
Wood.  The  highest  honors  that  can  fall  to  any  man  were  his,  and  at  his 
death  a  wave  of  sympathy  flashed  from  continent  to  continent,  finding  no- 
where a  community  iu  which  the  news  might  be  welcome,  as  would  be  the 
death  of  some  great  general  who  had  wrought  devastation  and  misery. 
Walter  A.  Wood  lived  the  peaceful  life  of  an  American  citizen;  and  the 
admiration  of  all  who  knew  him,  for  his  high  character  and  sterling  integ- 
rity, was  only  surpassed  by  the  homage  paid  him  as  one  of  the  foremost  of 
America's  inventors  and  business  men.  As  a  result  of  his  genius  and  indus- 
try Hoosick  Falls  has  become  one  of  the  best  known  manufacturing  cities 
in  the  world.  Beginning  iu  a  small  shop,  with  limited  capital,  the  manu- 
facture of  mowers  and  reapers,  established  by  him,  grew  until  the  shores  of 
the  American  continent  were  no  longer  the  boundaries  of  the  people  favored 
by  the  possession  of  his  improved  machinery.  Wherever  grass  and  grain 
were  grown  the  name  of  Walter  A.  Wood  became  known  and  his  machines 
were  foremost  in  foreign  lands  among  the  inventions  that  have  given  the 
American  people  the  reputation  they  enjoy  for  ingenuity  and  skill. 

Mr.  Wood  was  of  New  Hampshire  birth  and  in  his  earh' years  assisted 
his  father  at  wagon  and  plow  making,  developing  great  mechanical  skill 
and  taste.  When  twenty-one  years  of  age  he  left  home  for  Hoosick  Falls 
where  he  engaged  in  the  blacksmithing  department  of  the  manufacturing 
establishment  of  Parsons  «S:  Wilder.  Here  he  remained  about  four  years 
and  gained  the  reputation  of  being  the  best  workman  in  the  shop.  He  then 
went  to  Tennessee  and  after  a  time  engaged  in  wagon  making,  during  which 
ser\-ice  he  wrought  the  iron  work  for  a  carriage  of  President  James  K.  Polk. 
Returning  to  Hoosick  Falls,  he  entered  into  partnership  with  John  White, 
under  the  name  of  White  &  Wood,  in  the  manufacture  of  plows  and  other 
foundry  products,  continuing  until  the  fall  of  1852,  when  this  connection 
was  severed. 

At  this  time  Mr.  Wood  became  associated  with  J.  Russell  Parsons  in  the 
firm  of  Wood  &  Parsons,  for  the  manufacture  of  mowing  and  reaping 
machines  under  the  patents  of  John  H.  Manny,  of  Illinois,  the  firm  having 
purchased  the  rights  under  the  Manny  patents  for  the  state  of  New  York. 
The  following  year  Wood  &  Parsons  dissolved  partnership  and  the  business 
was  continued  by  Walter  A.  Wood,  who,  as  his  biographer  has  said,  "Had 
at  last  found  the  proper  field  for  the  exercise  of  his  inventive  genius,  indom. 
itable  energ}'  and  tireless  industry-."  In  1855  Mr.  Wood  purchased  the 
Tremont  cotton  mills  and  fitted  up  the  buildings  for  the  manufacture  of  his 

219 


*2l'0  AMERICAN   AGRICUI.TURAI,   IMPI.KMEXTS. 

reapers  and  mowers.  The  original  Manny  machine  was  a  crude  affair  and 
would  scarcely  be  recognized  as  a  reaper  by  the  farmer  of  to-day,  but  Mr. 
Wood's  inventive  genius  soon  wrought  important  changes,  amounting  to  a 
revolixtion,  in  its  design  and  construction. 

The  first  Walter  A.  Wood  machine  was  introduced  into  England  in 
1856,  where  its  initial  work  was  done  on  the  estate  of  the  late  Prince  Con- 
sort at  Windsor.  It  soon  becnme  well-known  in  England  and  an  agency 
was  establi.shed  in  London  for  its  sale,  this  laying  the  foundation  for  the 
enormous  foreign  trade  that  the  company  have  since  developed. 

In  18G0  fire  swept  away  their  buildings  at  Hoosick  Falls,  but  they  were 
rebuilt  in  time  for  the  next  harvest.  In  1861  the  first  self-raking  reaper  put 
on  the  market  under  Mr.  Wood's  patents  was  introduced,  important 
improvements  being  made  in  its  design  in  1863.  In  1865  the  demand  for 
Mr.  Wood's  machines  had  increased  so  considerablj'  that  it  was  necessary 
to  greatly  enlarge  their  facilities  for  manufacturing,  and  the  business  was 
incorporated  under  the  name  of  the  Walter  A.  Wood  Mowing  &  Reaping 
Machine  Company,  of  which  Mr.  Wood  became  president,  holding  that 
office  until  his  death  in  1892. 

In  1870  the  works  were  again  entirely  destroyed  by  fire,  but,  fortunately, 
an  adjoining  mill  building  had  been  acquired  the  year  previous,  and  it  was 
possible  to  fit  this  up  and  partially  supply  the  demand  of  the  harvest  of 
1870.  The  works  were  then  rebuilt  on  a  far  larger  scale  and  with  a  conven- 
ience of  arrangement  that  was  possible  in  laj-ing  an  entirely  new  plant. 
From  this  time  on,  as  the  influence  of  the  house  grew  throughout  the 
world,  new  buildings  and  additions  were  required,  until  to-day  the  works 
rank  among  the  very  largest  of  the  world's  factories.  In  the  meantime 
Mr.  Wood  had  brought  out  several  machines  that  were  destined  to  play 
an  important  part  in  the  history  of  harvesting  machinery. 

The  first  automatic  grain-binder  ever  put  on  the  market  was  the  Locke 
machine  made  by  the  Walter  A.  Wood  Company.  As  early  as  1861  Sylvanus 
D.  Locke,  to  whom  the  invention  of  the  machine  is  to  be  accredited,  began 
experiments  looking  to  a  machine  that  would  bind  grain  with  wire;  and  he 
continued  in  this  effort  until  1809.  In  1870  the  first  machine  of  this  type 
that  was  fully  successful  was  put  in  the  field  near  Hoosick  Falls,  INIr.  Wood 
having  arranged  in  1869  to  take  up  the  burden  of  introducing  it  on  the 
market.  The  fire  of  that  year  prevented  extensive  experiments,  but  in  the 
two  succeeding  years  considerable  work  was  done.  In  1874  twenty-five 
machines  were  built;  in  1875  three  hundred;  in  1876  twelve  hundred,  and 
in  1877  three  thousand  machines.  In  1878  the  Walter  A.  Wood  enclosed 
gear  mower  was  introduced,  the  sales  of  which  have  since  run  into  the 
hundreds  of  thousands. 

Many  other  important  machines  have  been  designed  and  perfected  at 
the  Hoosick  Falls  works,  making  the  line  of  the  Walter  A.  Wood  Company 
complete  in  mowers,  reapers  and  binders.  Probably  their  greatest  success 
in  pioneer  work  has  been  achieved  with  the  Holmes  twine-binder,  which 
divides  the  honors  with  the  Appleby  type  of  machine  in  the  harvest  fields 
of  the  world.  There  are  many  distinctive  features  in  the  Holmes  binder, 
the  chief  of  these  being  in  the  rotary  packer,  in  the  style  of  knotter  that 


AMERICAN-   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


?21 


WALTER   A.  WOOD   "ENCLOSED   GEAR"    MOWER. 


WALTER    A.     WOOD     "  TUBULAR     STEEL"     REAPER. 


222  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAI,   IMPI^EMENTS. 

is  used  and  in  the  dischargers.  The  packers  in  use  on  the  Appleby  binder 
are  reciprocating,  while  those  in  the  Wood  binder  rotate  and  are  contin- 
uously in  contact  with  the  grain,  causing  less  vibration.  The  knot-tying 
device  of  this  binder  is  reciprocating,  and  many  advantages  are  claimed 
for  it  in  simplicity  of  operation.  The  dischargers  operate  in  a  way  that 
does  not  permit  of  winding,  so  that  the  bundle  carrier  may  be  piled  high 
with  sheaves.  Still  other  important  features  are  noticeable  in  this  binder, 
but  it  would  be  impossible  to  describe  them  in  detail.  They  are  well 
known  to  all  who  are  in  the  field,  or  who  are  familiar  with  this  class  of 
machinery. 

The  company  have  lately  introduced  the  Walter  A.  Wood  tubular  steel 
mower.  The  remarkable  feature  of  this  machine  is  that  it  is  constructed 
almost  wholly  of  steel,  the  frame  being  made  of  steel  tubing.  The  wheels 
of  this  mower  are  of  steel,  made  under  special  machinery.  The  axle  is  of 
steel,  and  has  no  holes  to  weaken  it.  The  tread  of  the  machine  is  change- 
able, for  different  widths  of  cut,  this  adjustment  being  secured  b}'  apeculiar 
device,  the  Wood  "axle-exteusion."  The  bar  is  so  hung  that  the  guards 
rise  easily  over  obstructions,  and  at  the  same  time  the  sections  droop  in  front. 
Lightness  of  draft  is  a  special  aim  in  this  mower,  and  is  gained  by  the  large 
journals  used,  with  brass  bushings,  and  by  making  every  point  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  machine  conform  to  the  highest  possible  standard.  Asa 
result  the  tubular  steel  mower  has  become  known  as  the  leader  of  light 
draft  machines.  The  Wood  "tubular  steel"  reaper  has  become  favorably 
known  throughout  the  world,  and  scarcely  needs  comment.  It  is  an  excel- 
lent machine,  and  has  done  good  work  in  ever}- part  of  the  world  where 
grain  is  grown. 

It  is  doubtful  if  any  American  house  has  taken  more  medals  and  awards 
at  international  expositions  than  the  Walter  A.  Wood  Company.  Certainly 
no  manufacturer  of  harvesting  machinery  has  done  so.  In  1862,  at  the  first 
international  trial  of  harvesting  machines  held  in  England,  the  Wood 
machines  were  awarded  the  "medal  of  merit,"  the  highest  honor  conferred 
by  the  Society  of  Arts  of  England.  In  1867,  at  the  Paris  Universal  Expo- 
sition, the  Wood  machines  were  awarded  the  "iron  and  gold  medal  of 
honor,"  the  highest  distinction  conferred,  and  they  won  in  addition  the 
first  prize  in  the  great  international  field  trial.  The  next  victory  was  in 
Vienna,  in  1873,  at  the  International  Exposition,  where  a  "grand  diploma  of 
honor"  was  awarded  to  Wood.  A  like  award  was  made  at  the  Centennial 
Exposition  at  Philadelphia,  in  1876.  At  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1889  Mr. 
Wood  took  the  first  honors  for  his  standard  binders,  and  exhibited  and  suc- 
cessfully operated  his  straw-binder.  Altogether  the  Walter  A.  Wood 
machines  have  been  awarded  about  1,200  medals  by  various  expositions  and 
societies. 


AMERICAN    AGRICULTURAL    IMPLEMENTS. 


22S 


.•ALTER    A.    WOOD    "SIN'GLE    APRON"     BIXPER   IN    GRAIN. 


Auburn,  N.  Y. 


THK  OSBORNE  SYSTEM  OF  HARVESTING  MACHINERY. 

AUBURN,  New  York,  has  been  known  for  nearly  forty  years  as  one  of 
the  leading  cities  of  the  world  in  the  development  and  manufacture 
of  grain  and  grass  cutting  machinery.  It  was  in  western  New  York,  in  a 
section  of  country  tributary  to  Auburn,  that  Ketchum  and  Eor1)u.sh  and 
Kirby  conceived  and  worked  out  in  practice  the  vital  principles  of  the  old 
rigid  bar  mowers,  and  it  was  here  that  features  vital  to  a  self-raking  reaper 
were  invented  and  perfected.  At  an  early  period  of  this  development 
D.  M.  Osborne  was  associated  at  Buffalo  with  Forbush  and  Kirby,  and  while 
he  was  not  an  inventor,  he  had  a  talent  as  indispensable  to  the  future  of  the 
reaper  and  mower  industry — the  faculty  of  discriminating  between  the 
good  features  and  the  worthless  in  these  various  inventions  that  were  con- 
ceived by  his  associates.  Under  Mr.  Osborne's  wise  leadership  and  guid- 
ance, whatever  was  good  in  these  machines  was  preserved  and  fused  into  a 
composite  design,  and  in  this  way  abortive  efforts  and  the  work  of  inventors 
who  were  ahead  of  their  time  were  made  to  bear  fruit.  Mr.  Osborne  proved 
to  be  a  born  leader  of  men,  and  his  business  and  mechanical  ability  were 
of  so  high  an  order  and  combined  in  so  rare  a  degree  that  within  a  few 
years  he  had  built  up  out  of  chaos  a  perfectly  organized  system  of  machinery, 
and  reapers  and  mowers  bearing  his  name  were  in  use  in  all  parts  of  the 
world. 

It  was  in  1855  that  Mr.  Osborne  met  \V.  A.  Kirby  in  BuflFalo,  about  the 
time  that  Kirby' s  patents  were  issued  on  a  new  style  of  mower  that  he  had 
invented.  Mr.  Osborne  encouraged  Kirby  to  persevere  in  his  efforts  to  get 
his  machine  on  the  market,  with  the  result  that  seven  machines  were  put 
out  in  the  harvest  of  185(5.  The  success  of  these  machines  was  such  as  to 
convince  Mr.  Osborne  of  their  merit  and  he  borrowed  the  money  necessary, 
$4,000,  and  purchased  the  interest  in  the  patents  of  parties  who  had  been 
associated  with  Kirby.  The  next  year,  1857,  two  hundred  machines  were 
built,  and  though  they  were  naturally  imperfect  in  mechanical  details  of 
construction  as  compared  with  machines  that  had  been  longer  on  the  mar- 
ket, the  second  prize  was  won  at  the  great  United  States  trial  at  Syracuse 
by  one  of  them.  At  the  end  of  the  year  Mr.  Osborne  had  made  enough 
money  to  pay  off  the  debts  that  he  had  incurred  and  arrangements  were 
made  to  manufacture  the  machines  on  a  larger  scale.  In  December,  1857, 
Oliver  T.  Holbrook,  of  Rushville,  N.  Y.,  became  interested  in  the  business, 
advancing  considerable  money  needed  to  carry  on  manufacturing  at  Auburn, 
where  the  machines  were  built  for  the  next  harvest,  in  the  shops  of  O.  H. 
Burdick.  In  the  fall  of  1858  Mr.  Osborne  associated  with  himself  Charles  P. 
Wood  and  Cyrus  C.  Dennis  as  partners,  under  the  firm  name  of  D.  M. 
Osborne  &  Co.,  and  they  took  possession  of  the  Burdick  shop. 

The  partnership  referred  to  lasted  four  vears.     In  November,  18G2,  the 

224 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPI.KMKNTS.  225 

firm  dissolved  and  'Sir.  Wood  retired  with  some  |2o,000  as  his  share  of  the 
profits.  Mr.  Osborne  and  Mr.  Dennis  then  formed  a  new  partnership  under 
the  old  name,  D.  M.  Osborne  &  Co.,  to  which  John  H.  Osborne  was  admit- 
ted in  1805.  The  close  of  the  civil  war  marked  an  important  change  in  the 
life  of  the  northern  people.  The  improved  agricultural  implements  that 
had  been  brought  into  use  had  taken  the  places  on  the  farm  of  the  soldiers 
who  were  at  the  front,  and  they,  returning  home  to  find  their  occupation 
gone,  turned  their  attention  to  the  nation's  undeveloped  resources.  They 
went  to  the  far  west,  and  with  the  aid  of  improved  machinery  such  as  had 
supplanted  them  at  home,  began  the  work  of  subduing  the  prairie  soil. 
Mr.  Osborne's  business  was  bound  to  grow  with  the  country,  and  his  atten- 
tion was  turned  early  to  this  new  development  in  the  west.  A  branch 
house  had  been  established  at  Philadelphia,  and  now  another  large  agency 
was  opened  in  Chicago.  Later  came  the  third  in  St.  Louis,  and  a  fourth  in 
Cleveland.  In  186'3  the  death  of  Mr.  Dennis  dissolved  the  partnership,  but 
a  new  firm  was  organized,  O.  H.  Burdick  taking  Mr.  Dennis'  place. 

In  1866  occurred  one  of  the  most  important  events  in  the  history-  of  the 
agricultural  implement  industry,  the  great  reaper  trial  at  Auburn,  held 
under  the  auspices  of  the  New  York  State  Agricultural  Society.  There 
were  entered  in  competition  44  mowers  and  30  reapers.  The  list  of  judges 
included  several  eminent  men,  among  them  Ezra  Cornell,  of  Ithaca.  D. 
M.  Osborne  &  Co.  won  the  first  prize  for  a  hand-raking  reaper,  and  second 
prize  for  a  one-horse  mower. 

In  1872  Mr.  Osborne  carried  out  a  purpose  he  had  long  kept  in  mind, 
to  take  an  extended  trip  abroad,  and  make  better  arrangements  in  the 
principal  foreign  countries  for  the  sale  of  his  goods.  As  a  result  of  this 
trip  European  agencies  were  established  at  Bremen,  Paris,  Liverpool  and 
other  points,  and  the  next  year  a  large  exhibit  was  made  at  the  Vienna 
Exposition.  This  laid  the  foundation  for  an  extensive  foreign  trade  that  is 
still  on  the  increase,  having  far  exceeded  the  boundaries  that  were  origin- 
ally in  view. 

In  1875  D.  jNI.  Osborne  &  Co.  absorbed  the  business  of  the  Cayuga  Chief 
Manufacturing  Company,  and  in  this  way  secured  an  important  addition  to 
the  Osborne  system  of  machinery.  The  organization  of  the  company  then 
stood  as  follows:  D.  M.  Osborne,  president;  J.  H.  Osborne,  secretary,  and 
A.  G.  Beardsley,  treasurer. 

In  the  fall  of  1876  Mr.  Osborne  met  at  the  Centennial  James  F.  Gordon, 
the  famous  inventor,  who  had  been  experimenting  since  1869  with  his  wire- 
binder.  Arrangements  were  made  with  Gordon  and  his  brother  by  which 
they  came  to  Auburn  to  build  a  self-binding  harvester.  The  success  of  their 
work  was  demonstrated  in  the  harvest  of  1877,  in  which  was  witnessed  an 
important  revolution  in  the  reaper  industry.  The  wire-binder  not  onlj- 
proved  to  be  a  successful  machine  in  the  field,  but  increased  largely  the 
demand  for  harvesting  machinery,  and  paved  the  way  for  the  introduction 
of  the  twine-binder,  which  brought  a  still  more  remarkable  increase  in  the 
number  of  farmers  who  undertook  to  equip  themselves  with  improved 
machinery. 

In  the  sudden  revolution  in  harvesting  machinerv  that  followed  the 


226  AMERICAN    AGRICLXTURAI<    I  MPI,KMKNTS. 

invention  of  the  Appleby  binder,  Mr.  Osborne  played  a  prominent  part. 
His  first  machine,  placed  on  the  market  in  1882,  was  a  modification  of  the 
Gordon  binder,  adapted  to  use  twine  instead  of  wire.  The  experience  of 
that  year,  however,  demonstrated  the  superiorit)^  of  the  Appleby  machine, 
and  Mr.  Osborne  took  a  license  to  build  it.  Not  content  with  the  standard 
machine  as  generally  made  at  that  time,  he  set  about  improving  it,  and  the 
remaining  years  of  his  life  were  given  to  its  development.  That  they  were 
fruitful  years  may  be  known  by  the  fact  that  the  Osborne  machine  was  the 
first  in  the  field  with  a  steel  frame,  an  improvement  of  far-reaching  impor- 
tance. It  has  ever  since  been  a  subject  of  remark  among  machine  men 
that  just  as  he  had  overcome  the  difficulties  incident  to  pioneer  work  with 
a  new  invention,  especially  after  the  change  to  steel,  in  which  he  led  the 
industry,  his  health  should  have  entirely  failed  him,  death  following  a  few 
months  after.  But  the  legacy  which  Mr.  Osborne  left  the  world  in  the 
Osborne  system  of  harvesting  machinery  is  a  sufficient  monument  to  his 
name,  one  that  will  endure  as  long  as  grass  and  grain  are  grown. 

The  new  Osborne  twine  binder  retains  the  distinctive  features  that  Mr. 
Osborne  left  upon  it,  with  improvements  that  might  be  expected  from  the 
fertile  minds  of  the  experts  who  survive  him,  and  whose  lives  are  pledged 
to  maintain  the  standard  that  he  set  up. 

The  peculiar  construction  of  the  steel  frame  is  retained  in  the  steel 
angles  put  together  with  malleable  corner  irons  and  held  by  steel  bolts  and 
nuts,  making  it  well-nigh  indestructible  and  preventing  any  sagging  or 
springing.  The  sickle  is  driven  in  front  by  a  straight  drive,  in  a  simple 
and  eflFective  manner,  directly  from  the  crank-shaft  in  front  of  the  drive- 
wheel,  thus  securing  great  power.  In  the  Osborne  knotter  a  swinging  disk 
or  twine-holder  is  used.  The  most  difficult  problem  in  a  knotter  is  to  be 
able  to  tie  successfully  the  different  qualities  of  twine  found  on  the  market. 
This  swinging  disk  enables  any  kind  of  twine,  large  or  small,  to  be  used. 
When  the  twine  is  closed  in  the  disk,  and  as  the  knotter  begins  to  tie,  the 
disk  rises  and  yields  the  twine  to  the  knotter-hook.  With  this  swinging 
disk  but  little  strain  is  left  on  the  twine,  except  that  due  to  the  expansion 
of  the  bundle  when  it  is  discharged  by  the  binder.  The  machine  is 
equipped  with  all  of  the  latest  devices  in  the  tilting  apparatus,  the  steel 
sheaf-carrier,  transportation  trucks  and  the  clover  and  flax  attachment. 

The  Osborne  No.  4  mower  has  many  points  of  excellence.  The  main 
frame  is  cast  in  one  piece,  and  is  compact  and  strong,  thus  insuring  easy  and 
steady  motion  of  crank-head  pitman.  There  are  four  pawls  in  the  drive- 
wheel,  which  are  interchangeable.  They  take  up  all  lost  motion,  the 
knives  are  kept  in  constant  motion,  clogging  cannot  occur,  and  the  knives 
are  set  in  motion  the  moment  the  horses  start.  The  gearing  is  completely 
inclosed,  excluding  all  wet  or  dust. 

At  Mr.  Osborne's  death  the  presidency  of  the  company  devolved  upon 
his  son,  T.  M.  Osborne,  who  has  risen  to  the  difficulties  of  his  position  with 
an  energy  that  augurs  well  for  the  future  of  the  Osborne  system.  J.  H. 
Osborne,  a  brother  of  the  late  president,  is  secretary,  and  E.  D.  Metcalf 
treasurer 


AMERICAN   AGRICrLTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


227 


THE   OSBORNE  NO.  4   MOWER. 


THE   OSBORNE  TWINE   BINDING   HARVESTER 


Brockport,  N.  Y. 


THE  OLDEST  REAPER  FACTORY  IN  THE  WORLD. 

THE  oldest  reaper  factory  in  the  world  is  located  at  Brockport,  N.  Y.  In 
1844  Seymour  &  Morgan  established  a  shop  at  Brockport,  known  as 
the  Globe  Works,  for  the  manufacture  of  agricultural  implements,  and 
quite  a  business  was  built  up.  The  beginning  of  the  manufacture  of  reap- 
ers on  a  successful  scale  dates  from  the  time  that  Cyrus  H.  McCormick  was 
induced  to  come  to  Brockport  to  build  his  machines. 

Mr.  McCormick  had  met,  while  in  W'ashington  attending  to  his  patents, 
the  Hon.  E.  B.  Holmes,  member  of  Congress  from  Brockport,  who  told  him 
about  these  new  works  and  of  the  men  in  charge,  and  advised  him  to  go 
there.  The  machine  which  he  brought  with  him  for  the  inspection  of 
Seymour  &  Morgan  was  very  crude.  There  was  no  driver's  seat,  and  the 
man  who  raked  off  walked  along  beside  Lhe  platform.  The  gearing  was 
imperfect,  and  the  sickle  was  but  a  thin,  straight  strip  of  steel,  on  the  front 
edge  serrated  reversely  every  four  or  five  inches  of  its  length,  and  liable  to  be 
clogged  at  the  slightest  provocation.  Yet,  though  so  coarse,  immature  and 
imperfect,  it  was  a  machine  with  which  it  was  possible  to  cut  grain  when 
the  conditions  were  all  favorable.  Various  trials,  however,  suggested  vari- 
ous improvements.  It  was  cut  down  a  little  here,  strengthened  a  little 
there,  and  generally  brought  into  better  form.  The  raker  sat  astride  a  sad- 
dle provided  for  him  in  rear  of  gearing  and  used  an  ordinary  hand-rake; 
but  the  driver  rode  a  horse  or  walked,  for  still  there  was  no  seat.  The 
result  of  the  negotiations  and  experiments  was  that  an  arrangement  was 
made  whereby  Seymour  &  Morgan  engaged  themselves  to  build  a  quantity 
of  IMcCormick's  reapers,  as  improved,  for  the  following  season's  harvest; 
and  in  pursuance  of  this  arrangement  there  were  built  at  the  old  Globe 
Works  by  Seymour  &  Morgan  for  the  harvest  of  1846,  one  hundred  of 
these  reapers,  the  first  quantity  of  harvesting  machines  ever  built  by  one  con- 
cern, put  upon  the  market  and  sold;  and  thus  the  old  Globe  Works 
became  the  first  reaper  factory  in  the  world. 

As  an  example  of  the  undeveloped  condition  of  manufacture  at  that 
time,  it  may  be  stated  that  a  portion  of  the  peculiar  spear-shaped  guard- 
fingers  of  this  first  hundred  machines  was  let  out  to  country  blacksmiths  in 
the  vicinity,  who  forged  them  for  twenty-four  cents  each,  and  the  machine 
bolts  also  at  four  and  a  half  cents;  the  iron,  cut  to  proper  length  for  each, 
having  been  furnished  them  by  Seymour  &  Morgan.  The  next  year  by  the 
use  of  swages  the  guard-fingers  were  made  at  the  shops  and  at  less  than  half 
the  cost.  A  little  later  they  made  them  of  cast  iron;  and  thus  the  first 
guard-fingers  were  brought  out. 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS.  229 

The  manufacture  of  these  crude  reapers  was  a  bold  venture  on  the  part 
of  Seymour  &  Morgan,  and  required  unusual  nerve,  which  both  had  in  a 
high  degree,  but  Dayton  S.  Morgan,  the  junior  member,  had,  in  addition  to 
his  push  and  energy,  a  prescient  eye;  he  saw  in  the  new  machine  its  promises 
and  possibilities,  and  he  took  his  share  of  the  risk  with  the  fullest  faith  in 
his  foresight.  Reaping  by  machiner\',  incredible  as  may  now  seem  the 
statement,  was  then  considered  by  most  people  who  claimed  an  average 
share  of  intelligence  and  common-sense,  entirely  impracticable,  and  it  was 
difficult  indeed  to  find  parties  with  sufficient  boldness  or  pluck  and  energy 
to  undertake  the  hazardous  enterprise  of  building  reapers,  and  quite  as  diffi- 
cult to  prevail  upon  farmers  to  take  the  chances  of  cutting  their  grain  with 
them,  or  to  look  favorably  upou  such  an  innovation.  But  the  hundred 
machines  made  that  year  operated  successfull}-;  they  were  sold  aud  settled 
for,  aud  their  advent  inaugurated  a  revolution  in  the  manner  of  cutting  and 
harvesting  grain,  for  up  to  that  time  the  cradle  had  been  the  most  improved 
implement  used  for  the  purpose. 

Seymour  &  Morgan  continued  the  manufacture  ofMcCormick  machines 
under  license  until  1848,  when  the  original  patent  expired.  They  then 
introduced  the  reaper  known  as  the  "New  Yorker,"  which  gained  a  world- 
wide reputation,  and  was  universally  acknowledged  as  the  best  machine  of 
its  day.  It  was  a  hand-raking  reaper,  with  stand  for  raker  and  forker,  seat 
for  the  driver,  aud  with  scalloped  serrated  sectional  sickle  substantially  the 
same  as  now  used.  For  the  harvest  of  1851  they  ventured  to  make  500  of 
these  machines;  and  people  wondered  how  and  where  they  could  possibly 
be  sold.  About  this  time  Mr.  Morgan  purchased  of  Mr.  Seymour  the  patents 
that  controlled  this  reaper.  Later  it  was  made  a  combined  reaper  and 
mower  and  was  put  upon  the  market  extensively.  Meantime  a  self-raking 
attachment  had  been  invented  and  developed  for  the  machine.  The  first 
application  of  the  quadrant  platform  aud  automatic  rake  to  the  New  Yorker 
was  made  in  1850,  and  the  first  in  use  in  the  harvest  of  that  year.  Further 
tests  were  satisfactorily  continued  in  1851,  and  in  the  years  following  by 
putting  out  a- few  which  were  the  first  successful  "self-rakers"  on  the  mar- 
ket; and  in  1854  the  manufacture  of  the  "New  Yorker  self-raker"  in  quan- 
tities for  the  trade  became  the  regular  business  of  the  concern. 

Sej^mour  &  Morgan  are  thus  entitled  to  the  rank  of  the  pioneer  house 
in  reapers,  as  they  not  only  built  the  first  lot  of  fully  successful  hand-raking 
machines,  but  were  the  first  also  to  make  and  introduce  self-rake  reapers. 


Shortsville,  N.  Y. 


THE  EMPIRE  DRILL  COMPANY  AND  THE  "FORCE  FEED." 

WESTERN  New  York  has  been  famous  for  fifty  years  or  more  as  a  wheat 
producing  centre,  and  at  one  time  stood  pre-eminent  for  the  quality 
of  the  flour  made  from  wheat  ejrown  there.  Until  the  decline  in  value  of 
this  cereal  in  recent  years  it  formed  the  principal  crop  of  the  western  New 
York  farmer,  and  Rochester,  commanding  the  Genesee  valley,  became 
known  as  the  Flour  City.  The  demand  for  land  in  this  garden  spot  led  to 
a  high  valuation  at  an  early  day  and  this  in  turn  stimulated  the  farmers  to 
more  careful  methods,  so  that  the  western  New  Yorker  became  noted  for 
his  thoroughness  and  scientific  farming.  These  were  ideal  conditions  for 
the  germination  of  new  inventions,  with  a  view  to  labor  saving  on  the  farm 
or  the  more  thorough  performance  of  farm  work,  and  hence  it  was  that 
western  New  York  produced  so  many  noted  inventors  like  Ketcham, 
Forbush,  Kirby,  Cyrenus  Wheeler  and  others  in  the  reaper  industry  and  at 
an  earlier  day  Jethro  Wood,  the  inventor  of  the  cast  plow. 

The  force  feed  is  the  most  important  invention  that  has  been  produced 
in  the  drill  industry  in  America,  and  this  has  been  developed  in  western 
New  York  from  the  crude  device  of  the  first  inventor,  who  conceived  the 
idea  and  gave  the  name  "force  feed"  to  his  invention,  down  to  the  latest 
mysterious  improvement,  by  which  the  same  adjustment  that  "sows  two 
bushels  of  oats  per  acre  will  sow  two  bushels  of  wheat  or  any  other  small 
grain,  upon  the  same  area."  To  the  practical  drill  man  the  feed  is  the  vital 
principle,  the  "life"  of  a  grain  drill,  and  the  invention  of  the  first  crude 
force  feed  may  be  said  to  have  begun  an  era  in  this  industry,  the  device 
having  been  improved  from  time  to  time  until  to-day  it  successfully  per- 
forms the  duty  indicated  by  its  name. 

Gilbert  Jessup  was  the  pioneer  inventor  in  this  line,  and  Foster,  Jessup 
&  Brown  were  the  manufacturers  who  introduced  his  invention  to  the 
world.  It  was  a  crude  affair,  having  only  a  rotary  disk  with  teeth  or  pro- 
jections for  carrying  the  grain  from  the  hopper  to  the  discharging  cup,  but 
it  furnished  a  skeleton  on  which  to  build  later  improvements.  Early  in  the 
'  'sixties' '  Jessup  patented  a  new  style  of  feed,  practically  a  double  distributer, 
having  internal  and  external  runs,  the  internal  chamber  or  run  having  been 
used  in  it  for  the  first  time. 

In  1854  H.  L.  and  C.  P.  Brown  withdrew  from  the  firm  of  Foster,  Jessup 

&  Brown  and  removed  to  Shortsville,   N.  Y. ,  where  they  established  the 

manufacture  of  drills,  operating  under  these  two  patents,  in  which  they 

were  interested.      In  this  enterprise   they  were  eminently  successful  and 

were  able  to  build  up  a  considerable  demand  for  the  new  force  feed  grain 

230 


AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 


231 


2;52  AMERICAN   AGRICULTURAL   IMPLEMENTS. 

drill.  In  1866  another  important  step  was  taken  in  the  invention  of  a  feed 
embodying  a  distributer  with  a  single  internal  chamber  or  run  adjusted  to 
sow  varying  quantities  of  grain  by  changing  the  .speed  at  which  it  was 
driven.  This  new  invention  at  once  became  popular  and  was  known  to  the 
trade  as  the  Empire  feed.  The  first  style  of  feed  which  they  made  under 
Jessup's  patent  had  been  known  as  the  Brown  run  and  Jessup's  second 
invention  as  the  Jessup  run  or  feed.  Improvements  in  this  new  Empire  feed 
were  made  from  time  to  time  with  a  view  to  making  it  a  mechanically  exact 
force  feed.  The  great  difficulty  to  be  overcome  was  that  in  this,  as  in  all 
other  devices  for  distributing  grain  in  measured  quantities,  there  was  a 
slight  variation  in  the  amount  sowed  per  acre  of  oats  as  compared  with 
wheat  or  other  small  grain.  After  a  long  series  of  experiments  this  diffi- 
culty was  overcome  and  in  1878  the  Empire  feed  was  introduced  in  substan- 
tially the  same  style  as  it  is  known  to-day. 

The  business  at  Shortsville  was  continued  under  the  style  H.  L.  &  C.  P. 
Brown,  until  1877,  when  Oliver  S.  Titus  and  others  became  interested  and 
a  partnership  was  formed  under  the  name  of  the  Empire  Drill  Company. 


Schenectady,  No  Y. 


A  PIONEER  THRESHER  HOUSE. 

THE  Westinghouse  Company,  of  Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  is  one  of  the  old- 
est thresher  houses  in  America,  having  been  established  in  1836  by 
the  late  Geo.  Westinghouse  The  first  product  consisted  of  tread-powers, 
"ground-hog"  threshers  and  fannmg-mills.  Various  improvements  were 
made,  and  in  time  "separators"  were  built,  and  other  implements  were 
also  manufactured.  The  business  was  conducted  by  Geo.  Westinghouse 
individually  until  1851,  and  from  1851  to  1883  by  G.  Westinghouse  &  Co., 
his  sons  joining  in  the  business  as  partners.  In  1883  the  house  incorpo- 
rated as  the  Westinghouse  Company,  the  surviving  sons  remaining  as  prin- 
cipals. Various  styles  of  threshing  machinery  are  manufactured  for  grain, 
beans  and  peas  and  other  crops,  and  also  a  rye  thresher,  with  binding 
attachment  for  the  straw. 


Buffalo,  N.  Y. 


THE  PITTS  AGRICULTUR-IL  WORKS. 

THE  Pitts  Agricultural  Works,  of  Buffalo,  were  established  in  1851,  by 
John  A.  Pitts,  the  noted  inventor.  Their  threshing  machines  became 
widely  known  as  the  Buffalo  Pitts,  the  company  manufacturing  separators 
and  horse-powers  on  an  extensive  scale.  They  incorporated  in  1877,  and  in 
1880  began  the  manufacture  of  portable,  traction  and  straw-burning  engines. 
John  A.  Pitts  died  in  1859  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  John  B.  Pitts,  and 
James  Brayley,  and  later  by  James  Brayley  as  proprietor  of  the  works. 
Carleton  Sprague  is  now  president  and  treasurer;  C.  M.  Greiner,  secretary 
and  J.  B.  Olmsted,  attorney. 


Macedon,  N.  Y. 


BICKFORD  &  HUFFMAN— FERTILIZER  GRAIN  DRILLS. 

BICKFORD  &  HUFFMAN,  of  Macedon,  are  pioneers  in  the  manufacture 
of  fertilizer  grain-drills.  They  began  in  1842  as  dealers  and  jobbers  in 
agricultural  implements,  conducting  also  a  repair  business  and  making  plows 
and  other  implements.  They  gradually  withdrew  from  other  lines  and  have 
since  made  a  specialty  of  grain-drills.  In  1870  Henry  Huffman,  the  junior 
partner,  died,  leaving  his  interest  in  the  hands  of  his  widow,  who  continued 
as  partner  with  Lyman  Bickford.  In  1885  Mr.  Bickford  sold  out  to  his 
partner,  then  Mrs.  Kirkpatricl:,  who  continued  the  business  under  the  old 
firm  name,  with  G.  W.  Kirkpatrick  as  manager,  until  January,  1893,  when 
they  incorporated  as  the  Bickford  &  Huffman  Company.  G.  W.  Kirkpatrick 
is  president  of  the  company  and  W.  P.  Thistlewaite  is  secretary  and 
treasurer. 


Philadelphia,  Pa. 


S.  L.  ALLEN  &  CO.  AND  THE  PLANET  JR.  IMPLEMENTS. 

THE  business  of  S.  L.  Allen  &  Co.,  of  Philadelphia,  manufacturers  of 
farm  garden  implements,  dates  from  1869.  At  this  time  S.  L.  Allen, 
who  was  a  farmer  and  market  gardener  living  a  few  miles  out  of  Philadel- 
phia, invented  a  number  of  improved  implements,  among  others  a  seed  drill, 
a  wheel  hoe,  a  garden  plow  and  a  horse  hoe.  These  he  had  made  for  a  time 
for  himself  and  his  neighbors  at  a  blacksmith  shop  near  by.  Soon  after  Mr. 
Allen  began  manufacturing  on  a  large  scale,  and  has  continued  to  the  pres- 
ent time,  having  associated  with  him  as  partners  Wm.  H.  Roberts  and  E.  H. 
Richie.  The  trademarks  "Planet  Jr."  and  "Firefly"  have  become  well 
known  throughout  the  world. 


Waynesboro,  Pa. 


THE  GEISER  MANUFACTURING  COIMPANY. 

IN  1866  Daniel  Geiser,  now  deceased,  established  at  Waynesboro  the  busi- 
ness that  was  incorporated  in  1869  as  the  Geiser  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, Mr.  Geiser  having  as  associates  J.  F.  Oiler,  Benj.  E.  Price  and 
Josiah  Fahrney.  They  originally  built  the  Geiser  self-regulating  threshers 
and  horse-powers,  beginning  the  manufacture  of  engines  in  1879,  when  they 
purchased  the  plant  of  F.  F.  &  A.  B.  Landis,  of  Lancaster,  Pa.  F.  F.  Landis 
took  at  this  time  the  position  of  superintendent  and  in  1889  designed  the 
New  Peerless  thresher.  The  company  also  make  portable  eiigines  and  saw- 
mills, and  have  for  several  years  past  had  steam  plowing  outfits  on  the  mar- 
ket, using  their  traction  engine.  A.  E.  Price  is  president;  B.  E.  Price,  vice- 
president;  A.  D.  Morganthal,  secretary;  J.  J.  Oiler,  treasurer,  and  F.  F. 
Landis,  superintendent. 


Albion,  Mich. 


THE  GALE  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

THE  nucleus  of  the  Gale  Manufacturing  Company's  present  business  was 
established  at  Albion,  in  1864,  by  Horatio  and  A.  J.  Gale  and  E.  C.  Hol- 
lingsworth.  The  Gale  family  had,  in  fact,  begun  making  plows  about  fifty 
years  ago  at  Hillsdale,  Mich.,  removing  later  to  Jonesville,  and  finally 
coming  to  Albion.  The  business  grew  rapidly  and  in  1874  was  incorporated. 
In  1885  the  plant  was  partially  destroyed  by  fire,  but  was  rebuilt  and  further 
enlargements  made.  In  1887  a  syndicate,  headed  by  H.  K.  White,  of  Detroit, 
and  several  members  of  the  Gale  family,  acquired  a  controlling  interest  in  the 
company  and  infused  new  life  into  the  management.  An  entirely  new  fac- 
tory was  erected  in  1888  on  the  site  of  the  old  shops,  with  about  150,000 
square  feet  of  floor  space,  and  the  best  of  machinery  and  facilities.  In  1890 
this  company  absorbed  the  business  of  the  Albion  Manufacturing  Company, 
of  which  Horatio  Gale  was  the  head,  and  added  the  Albion  riding  cultiva- 
tor, a  combination  of  seven  machines  in  one,  to  their  line,  as  well  as  the 
Daisy  cultivators  and  Daisy  hay  rakes.  In  1892  the  cultivator  interests  of 
the  re-organized  Castree-Mallery  Company,  of  Flint,  Mich.,  were  absorbed, 
making  an  important  addition  to  a  line  of  implements  already  large,  of 
which  Gale  plows  and  the  Big  Injun  sulky  were  the  nucleus.  The  present 
ofi&cers  of  the  company  are:  H.  K.  White,  president;  A.  E.  F.  White,  vice- 
president;  H.  R.  Stoepel,  secretary  and  treasurer,  and  E.  C.  Lester,  superin- 
tendent. 


Three  Rivers,  Mich. 


ROBERTS,  THROP  &  CO.— THRESHERS  AND  POWER  CORN 
SHELLERS. 

ROBERTS,  THROP  &  CO.,  of  Three  Rivers,  are  the  direct  successors  of 
the  firm  of  Cox  &  Roberts,  who  began  business  at  Belleville,  111.,  in 
1848.  Mr.  Roberts  was  the  inventor  and  patentee  of  the  "vibrator"  threshing 
machine,  and  began  its  manufacture,  removing  soon  after,  in  1855,  to  Three 
Rivers.  John  A.  Throp  and  Stephen  Hibbs  became  associated  with  Mr. 
Roberts,  and  in  time  the  firm  name,  Roberts,  Throp  &  Co.,  was  adopted.  The 
firm  incorporated  in  1875  and  Mr.  Roberts  became  president,  holding  that 
office  until  his  death,  a  short  time  since.  The  Invincible  vibrating 
thresher  was  their  leading  machine,  but  in  later  years  they  introduced  the 
Cyrus  Roberts  power  corn-sheller,  the  Happy  Thought  potato-digger  and  a 
line  of  railway  specialties. 


St.  Louis,  Mo. 


THE  KINGSLAND  &  DOUGLAS  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

THE  Kingsland  &  Douglas  Manufactuting  Company  are  one  of  the  oldest 
implement  houses  iu  the  west.  The  firm  of  Kingsland  &  Ferguson 
liegan  in  1844  in  the  manufacture  of  saw-mills  and  threshing  machinery, 
making  the  old  Phoenix  thresher  of  the  "  ground  hog  "  type,  and  later  the 
Cox  &  Roberts  vibrator,  and  also  manufacturing  Hedge's  corn-shellers.  In 
1863  they  began  making  the  Phoenix  cotton  gins,  and  in  186G  cotton  presses. 
At  the  present  time  their  leading  articles  of  manufacture  are  the  Kingsland 
direct  acting,  steam  cylinder,  self-packing  presses,  the  Reeder-Hercules 
self-packing  screw  presses,  the  Elliott  Douglas  cotton  gins,  feeders  and  con- 
densers, the  Schulze  patent  pneumatic  cotton  elevator  sy.stems,  besides  saw- 
mills, threshers,  cane-mills,  corn-shellers  and  castings  of  all  kinds. 

In  1874  the  death  of  George  Kingsland,  the  head  of  the  original  firm, 
led  to  the  incorporation  of  the  business  as  the  Kingsland  &  Ferguson  Manu- 
facturing Company.  In  1887  D.  K.  Ferguson  retired  and  the  style  was 
changed  to  Kingsland  &  Douglas  Manufacturing  Company.  L.  D.  Kings- 
land  and  E.  W.  Douglas  had  been  the  active  managers  of  the  business,  and 
have  remained  at  the  head  of  it. 


UnWersity  of  British  Columbia  Library 

DUE  DATE 

/i\j>-u  ^yhi  ^^'^^ 

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NOV  U  1986 

^OV  2  6  REco 

FORM    310 

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