132 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



April 30, ISai. 



TBaaSNSBSS FARMER. 



SATURDAY, APRIL 30. 1831. 



THRESHING MACHINES. 



Remarks on the importance to the farmer, of a 



good, cheap, and durable. Threshing Machine, 



and a comparative view of the merits of those 



now in use. 



It seems to be admitted on all hands, that 

 nine times in ten, the fail market for the far 

 mers' produce is altogether preferable, at least 

 to those in the Western District, and who live 

 within one or two day's drive of any conside- 

 rable market town, the canal, or other naviga- 

 ble waters ; for it not only brings the better 

 price, (this year is an exception, but wars and 

 revolutions will not often happen as oppor- 

 tunely) but it furnishes him with ready means 

 to meet his engagements, and enables him to 

 lay in all the necessaries to go through the 

 winter months, secures it against loss by ver 

 min, and other casualties — gives him an op. 

 portunity to visit distant friends, which he has 

 not leisure to do at nny other season, and al- 

 lows him time, during the winter months, to 

 enjoy his home and fire side, and attend to 

 those duties and pleasures which compose the 

 happiness and enjoyment of the whole human 

 family. 



If. therefore, it is important to the farmer, 

 to get his grain to market before the closing 

 of the canal navigation, or before the 16th of 

 November, when the great flouring establish- 

 ments cease operations — then it becomes of 

 the utmost consequence that he should huve 

 some cheap, labor-Baving machine, to pel form 

 the threshing operation ; which, in the ordina- 

 ry process of treading with horses or cattle, or 

 beating with the hand flail, is tedious and time- 

 consuming, to get the grain to market in the 

 fall, and during the great press and competi- 

 tion for wheat, seriously interferes with the 

 farmer's most important avocations, of plow- 

 ing and sowing, and gathering his fall crops ; 

 but if he has a machine that can daily thresh 

 GO or 100 bushels with one team, and do it 

 well, it becomes important, as ordinarily one 

 week's work will do alia majority of the farm- 

 ers will have to spare. 



In the first place, before we come to remark 

 upon the merits of those now in use,we would 

 observe, that one of the great and principal 

 causes of failures, in many kinds of machines, 

 is the flimsy, cheap, and do-for the-presont 

 manner in which they are made. They are 

 not unfrcqnently constructed by carpenters, or 

 rather by those who are only an apology for a 

 <Tood one, and who could hardly construct a 

 button to a barn-door, or as is frequently the 

 case, by patentees, or their agents, a set of 

 speculating cut throats, alike ignorant of me« 

 chanical powers, of motion or matter, whose 

 only talents consist in the rigmarole with 

 which they recommend their wonderful disco- 

 veries. 



By the operation of these causes the farmer 

 often gets an ill-constructed, weak, and ricke- 

 ty machine, which needs wedging, nailing, 

 and bracing, at every revolution, and as much 

 power to drive it as would operate a run of 



mill stones ; and I havo known many tolera 

 bly good machines condemned, from having 



connected with it a weak, ill-contrived, and 

 tjisflfective horso power. 



The machinery that generates the motion, 

 whether horse or water power, ought to be as 

 well constructed, and of as good materials, as 

 a flouring mill ; and it is worse than useless to 

 make the main wheel and pinion gearing of 

 wood. Nothing but cast iron, and that of the 

 softest and best kind, can be depended upon. — 

 If the main and moving power is good, and of 

 sufficient strength to apply as much power as 

 is ever needed, almost any of the modern ma- 

 chines, if tolerably well made, will do a good 

 business. 



There seems to be but two principles, that 

 now or ever has prevailed to any exlent,in the 

 construction of threshing machines, and upon 

 these two principles.nearly all, of two hundred 

 kinds which have been patented, (thirty-five 

 of which have been granted within the last 

 year) are predicated, viz — percussion — where 

 the straw is passing over a sharp edge.or edg- 

 es, is struck by a seto! bars, or beaters, under 

 rapid motion, with 6uch force that the momen- 

 tum it gives to the heavy body, or kernel, of 

 the grain, forces it from its resting place, in 

 the straw or chaff. 



The other principle is a process analagous 

 to rubbing, and is effected by a revolving cyl- 

 inder, with more or less cogs, spikes, or teeth, 

 of different shapes and lengths ; which pass 

 through corresponding ones, placed in a con- 

 cave, or bed-piece, which is stationary. The 

 number of spikes vary from 100 to 3000, ac- 

 cording to the whims of the projectors. 



Various modifications of these two princi. 

 pies have been brought forward, tortured into 

 as many shapes and torms, as yankee ingenui 

 ty and the prospect of gain could invent ; all 

 of which have had their day ,and "strait were 

 seen no more." 



One of the first that the writer of this arti- 

 cle ever saw, was near thirty years ago; it 

 was an upnght hollow cylinder, about 4 feet 

 diameter, and 10 feet high, with large wooden 

 arms, or rounds, projecting to the centre; in 

 which revolved a shaft, having the like pro- 

 jecting arms, like spokes to a wheel, its whole 

 length, moving in the spaces between the oth- 

 ers ; the straw was put in at the top, and its 

 weight carried it down ; but it needed a cara- 

 van of horses to drive it, and did not do the 

 work well at all 



There were many experiments tried for sev- 

 eral years after, when a new contrivance was 

 brought forward, in which a great number of 

 beaters were made to rise and fall upon the 

 straw lying on a grated table, in imitation of 

 the hand-Hail. This proved equally inutile. 

 and was abandoned. 



Another plan, for the success of which great 

 expectations were raised, then had its " all 

 the go" for a period; in which the bars or 

 beaters were covered with rough punched 

 sheet iron, and were attached to the cylinder 

 by springs, which, by the centrifugal force of 

 great motion, were cauaed to eloDgatc, and 

 press upon the concave ; which was covered 

 with sheet iron, in the same form as tho bea- 

 tors. Its operation was liko rubbing, and not 

 unlike the principle of smut mills ; but from 

 the complication of its construction, it soon 

 went to pieces. It looked well upon paper, 

 and n good doal of money was made by selling 



gbts. 

 Soon after camo the spike, or tubbing ma- 



• 



chines, and wab them a prolific brood, which 

 multiplied like Macbeth's witches, enter here, 

 and exit there ; and it is not uncommon to see 

 a dozen different kinds in one town and neigh- 

 borhood ; many of which are brought to that 

 degree of perfection, that they are able to do 

 tolorable. and some of them excellent work. 



There seems to be a great diversity of opin^ 

 ion, on the subject of the comparative raer'ts 

 of the beaters and rubbers. It is urged against 

 'he beaters, that they require more speed, and 

 consequently more power than the rubber or 

 Bpike machines, and from the great motion 

 required, the gudgeons, boxes, and bearings, 

 heat and destroy the oils used to lubricate the 

 machinery, and finally destroy both box and 

 gudgeons, which has been an insuperable obs, 

 jection, until within a year past, an ingenious 

 mechanic has, by using very long bearings for 

 the guugeons, on a large single friction rolls 

 or, so reduced the friction as it is thought 

 will remedy that defect. 



Against the spike machines it is said that if 

 astune. limb, or root should pass through, that 

 the machine is very much injured, if not to- 

 tally spoiled ; and which, undoubtedly, is a 

 serious trouble. 



Tho spike machines or rubbers, in our opin- 

 ion, and we have had considerable opportuni- 

 ties of judging of their rela'ive merit*, and are 

 not now, nor ever went interested in any kind, 

 taking into consideration the lower «peed, 

 simplierty and strength of their construction, 

 that under some one of the present or future 

 modifications that they are o-jpable of, will e- 

 ventually supersede all others; although the 

 beaters from the decreased expense of con- 

 struction, and safety with which they allow all 

 extraneous substances to pass without injuring 

 the machine, will always recommend it to a 

 portion of the farming interest. 



Although both principles are the subbject of 

 a great number of patent rights; on neither of 

 which, as relates to the simple principle, can 

 one be maintained ; ae they have been used in 

 some bhape or other, a great many year*, both 

 in England and this country; and the paten- 

 tees do not generally pretend to predicate 

 their rights on any thing more than some pe« 

 cuiiar application or modification of the same 

 principles. 



Allowing a good machine with horse power 

 complete, to cost from 100 to 150 dollars— 

 which it ought to do to be good, and allowing 

 10 per cent for cost, wear and tear ; it will 

 then only cost the farmer ten to fifteen dollars 

 per year, for the use of the machine, and will 

 be a grent saving in time, labor, and the extra 

 quantity produced by the perfect separation of 

 the straw and grain, over any othor method. 



They are now constructed by a very simple 

 and neat addition, in such a manner as to rake 

 off I he straw, separate the chaff, and deliver 

 the wheat fit for market ; which improvement 

 may, at a small expense, ho added to any ma- 

 chine now in use. 



Farmers purchasing machines of any kind, 

 out'ht to be particular to see that they are well 

 and mechanically put together; with close 

 joints, of good and seasoned materials ; the 

 "udgeons well and correctly turned, with suf- 

 ficient shoulders to keep them from end chase 

 and dancing in their sockets. 

 Farmers who arc nnacqnainted with the op. 



