I. Cotton gin. Back in the Colonial Era, believe it or not Cotton material was far more pricey than Linen or even wool. The reasoning behind this was that it was an very tedious and daunting task to separate the seeds form the fibers they were attached to. Because of this one picker had the capability of separating the seeds from the cotton at a rate of about one pound a day.
Then comes the year 1793 and Eli Whitney's invention, the Cotton gin, this contraption was made of a wheels set very closely together with serrated teeth and the wheels came out through narrow openings housed in between metal bars into the hopper which held the cotton bolls. Then as the wheels rotated, the teeth would grab the fibers and pull them up thru the narrow slits that were made specifically to narrow for the seeds to pass through, thereby the cotton fiber was separated from the seeds.
Eli Whitney’s invention made it possible for thousand pounds of cotton to be extruded and cleaned in the same amount of time it took a single worker to do 5 pounds manually. Then and only then did the price of cotton go down and hence the cotton plantation culture of the Southwest born, and of course this caused the use of slave labor to become entrenched.
II. Reaper/binder. For years Sickles or Scythes were used to cut crops and then raked and bound into sheaths manually.
Some harvesting machines came onto the scene in Great Britain about 1800, and then decades later they came to the U.S.; however most of these failed.
Grain harvesting machines first appeared in Great Britain about 1800, and a decade or two later in the U.S., but most failed. In the Early 1830's, Obed Hussey and Cyrus McCormick both developed successful reapers. McCormick's machines quickly became the most popular and the reaper was given to his credit. These machines however still need the pre-bound sheaves. Fast forward 1857 the Marsh Brothers came on the scene and managed to attach the reaper to a moving canvas, a makeshift conveyor belt more than likely; it was then transported to a Rostrum where it was bound into the a passel a.k.a bundle by a worker atop the machine.
Ten years later John Appleby demonstrated the first twine knotter and seven years later Sylvanus Locke created the wire binder, which was later adopted by McCormick. This was well for a while but with the wire binding often times bits of wire got into the grain and would end up inside livestock and flour with pernicious results; realizing this William Deering, originally and investment farmer[1], partnered with Elijah Gammon and they funded the Marsh Brothers with $40,000 for the production of a horse-drawn grain harvester. His company, Deering Manufacturing, then incorporated the Twine Binder/Knotter mechanism for his popular Deering harvesters. During the 1880 harvest Deering produced and sold 3,000 of Appleby's twine-tie binder, showing profits upwards of $400.0002 . by this time Deering had relocated Deering Manufacturing[3] to Chicago and establish the Deering Harvester Works[2]. By 1881 McCormick had also incorporated Appleby's twine-tie binder as well.
Side-note: Deering was also responsible for building a modern twine factory to supply farmers with sufficient length and quality of twine to work with the binders, a move followed by most competitors.[4] He conducted several experiments and determined that the ideal binder twine would be made of manila, spun to 700 feet per pound.[5]
III. Thresher. As we know the original way of harvesting grain was by hand with a Sickle or a Scythe which was slow and labor intensive. It was then hauled to the bard, spread out and hand flailed or beat down by animals; doing this knocked the kernels off the straw and they were then raked away. then was was left was winnowed by air tossing and relying on the wind to blow the chaff and debris away to allow the heavier grain to fall to the floor.
Then along came the First thresher invented in 1786 in Scotland by Andrew Meikle. It was a machine with a rotating, cylinders with teeth and conclaves. Years later in 1830, brothers Hiram and John Pitts were credited with the first truly successful American separator, they also adapted a horse tread power to power it. Not long after this, Hiram soon added a fanning mill to the threshing drum and this allowed the grain to be separated and cleaned at the same time.
Of course, later improvements resulted in machines that extracted virtually all the grain from the straw, along with thoroughly cleaning it, while blowing the straw into a stack.
Come back tomorrow for more great Agriculture Innovations
1. Gravlin, Kristy Lawrie; Anne Sears, Jeanne Valentine and Plano Community Library District (2012). Plano (Images of America). Arcadia Publishing. pp. 51–52. ISBN 0738594040. Retrieved 06 December 2016.
2. "Northwestern Harvest". TIME magazine. February 24, 1936. Retrieved July 27, 2007.
3. Moore, Sam. "Let's Talk Rusty Iron". Farm Collector. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
4. ""Shaking Off the Shackles of Manual Toil" – The Story of the Binder". The Furrow
(The Friends of Howell Living History Farm). Autumn 2001 – Winter 2002. Ret July 27, 2007.
*Some of the information in this article was gleaned from FarmandDairy.com
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