TH E RUKALi NEW-YORKER 
823 
The Hay Hoist. 
A Harvest-time Labor-saver. 
FTER the hay crop is cut and cured the prob¬ 
lem of getting it under cover confronts the 
farmer. In the olden days there was only one 
way to do this—the strong right arm and the pitch- 
fork—the hay loader and horse fork were unknown. 
With the advent of the horse fork however, farmers 
began to see the possibilities of large mows in which 
to store hay, the horse fork working to best ad¬ 
vantage in long narrow mows. It is not uncommon 
now in the hay-growing sections of the State to find 
barns ranging around 30 feet in width and 100 or 
more feet in length. Such a barn presents oppor¬ 
tunities for very rapid storage of hay. With the 
fork a load may be removed in four forkfuls and 
deposited anywhere along the length of track and by 
the use of slings a load can be handled in two parts, 
although perhaps this gain is more than counter¬ 
balanced by the slight delay in handling the slings. 
The horse fork, as its name implies, was prim¬ 
arily designed to be operated by horse power, the 
practice being to unhook the team from the load of 
hay, hitch to the hoisting rope of the fork and pro¬ 
ceed to unload, after which the team was again 
coupled to the wagon and returned to the field for 
another load. All this took time—a 
thing not to be wasted in the hayfield 
—and some one conceived the idea of 
a winding drum, similar to that on the 
hoisting engine of a derrick, connected 
to the farm gas engine by a control¬ 
lable friction clutch as a means of un¬ 
loading without the bother of unhitch¬ 
ing the team from the load. The ad¬ 
dition of a second and smaller drum, 
running in the opposite direction and at 
a higher speed for pulling the fork 
back, completes the hay hoist as it is 
in use today. These hoists are very 
simple and reliable. They consist es¬ 
sentially of a belt wheel and gear 
which, by means of a lever can be 
made to drive either of two drums— 
a large one for hauling the hay up 
into the mow and a smaller one run¬ 
ning at a higher speed for returning 
the empty fork. By pushing every¬ 
thing to its fullest capacity the hoist 
will aid in placing more hay in the 
mow with a given number of men and 
teams than can be done without it. 
Where the haul is short, by using two 
wagons and a hay loader, one crew 
can be kept hauling while the second 
is unloading. By no means the least 
feature of these hoists is the drum for 
returning the fork. In the old style 
hay forks the fork was returned by 
hand by pulling on the trip rope. The 
return was sometimes aided by means 
of a weight that was pulled to the top 
of the barn as the fork went up and 
which, in its return to the floor, aided 
in pulling the fork back. While help¬ 
ful this device had not sufficient force 
to pull the fork back alone, as will the 
hoist. When using a sling there is 
considerable trouble, when the mow be¬ 
comes nearly full, from the fact that 
the hay lies on the sling after it is 
dumped, and it cannot be returned by hand until 
this hay is removed from it. . The same trouble is 
also had with a fork, though not to so great an ex¬ 
tent. Here is where the return drum is an advan¬ 
tage. the sling or fork being quickly returned by it 
to the load. In the case of the fork when it is 
pulled back by the trip rope, it is returned points 
first and catches into all the loose hay in its way. 
When a hoist is used the return rope is attached 
directly to the car and in its back travel the points 
of the fork are free to point backward, easily slid¬ 
ing over the hay. Few repairs or adjustments are 
required other than occasional replacement of the 
wooden friction shoes—a job of only a few minutes. 
The hoists are used for other jobs such as unload¬ 
ing grain and feed from the barn floor to overhead 
granaries, removing heavy racks, boxes, etc., from 
the farm rigs, and any piece of work where heavy 
lifting is required. One man discharged the straw 
from thrashing machine onto slings and by means 
of his hoist whisked it away 100 feet into the 
other end of his barn, a piece of work almost im¬ 
possible without it. 
Because of their price—about that of a new mow¬ 
er—some farmers seeing their advantage and wish¬ 
ing to secure these advantages at a lesser cost, have 
constructed homemade hoists that are giving satis¬ 
faction at small cost. Such a one was made by a 
student in the New York State School of Agricul¬ 
ture at Canton. lie searched the junk pile and se¬ 
cured a couple of pieces of shafting, the balance wheel 
from a discarded sawing machine, two 20-inch cul¬ 
tivator disks and a piece of a pump log. A spool 
was made for the rope to wind on by drilling holes 
in the cultivator disks and bolting them to the ends 
of the pump log with the concave sides out. One 
of the pieces of shafting was passed through this 
and securely clamped by means of bolts. A 24- 
inch by six-inch pulley was fastened to the end of 
the piece of shaft to furnish a means of driving it. 
The balance wheel was mounted on the end of the 
other piece of shafting and was used as a belt 
wheel to receive the power belt from the engine. 
At the other end of the shaft, and in line with the 
big pulley mounted on the drum, was placed a 12x6- 
inch pulley. This was connected to the pulley on 
the drum by a six-inch slack belt; and a tightener 
provided so that the power could be applied to the 
winding drum or released, the shaft belted to the 
engine running continuously while the hoist was in 
operation. This device has been in use now for two 
years. It is driven by a five horsepower engine and 
gives excellent satisfaction. As now in use the fork 
has to be returned by hand but a second drum for 
returning it could easily be installed. The only 
cash outlay of this hoist was the small cost of the 
junk and the cost of the pulleys used making the 
price very low. A still more simple type consists of 
a drum mounted on the same shaft with a large 
pulley and the whole so made that the face of the 
pulley can be pressed against a small pulley on the 
gas engine shaft by means of a level-. This again 
has no return. 
The hoist shown by the drawings is of simple 
construction and can be made in any farm shop. It 
provides a return as well as a hoisting drum and 
by means of control ropes may be operated from the 
load. Only the principal dimensions are shown be¬ 
cause the use of supplies on hand might call for 
changes in the dimensions to adapt the drawings to 
their use. The material for this hoist if bought out¬ 
right will cost about $16, but much of it, es¬ 
pecially the material for the frame, can be found 
about the farm, materially lessening the cost. It 
consists of two frames, one of which is free to 
slide back and forth for a short distance within 
the other. The outer frame consists of the side 
sills made from 2xl2-incli plank and shown at A in 
Fig. 302, side view and the top guides made from 
2x4-inch maple, and shown at B. These are held 
rigidly at the proper distance apart by the cross 
sills HDD and the cross pieces E E. In this frame 
the shaft carrying the belt and friction pulleys is 
securely fastened by the one-half inch bolts which 
pass through the pillow blocks F, the sills A and the 
top guide B. The inner frame is made with 2x4- 
inch maple sills. These are shown by the dotted 
lines in the side view. This frame is made about one- 
quarter inch narrower than the inside measurement 
of the outer frame and is connected across by the 
2x8-inch cross sills shown by the dotted lines H II 
II, in the side view. To the top of this frame, and 
projecting two inches out on each side of it, are 
fastened the pillow blocks I I in which the hoisting 
and return drums revolve. These are fastened at 
such a distance apart that when the frame is pushed 
so that one pulley bears against the friction pul¬ 
ley the other will be about one inch from it. The 
pillow blocks are fastened to project two inches to 
provide a bearing between the top of the sill A 
and the bottom of the top guide B. The winding 
drum is made at the local shop by turning up a 
hard wood cylinder six inches in diameter and 16 
inches long. A two-inch hole is bored through this 
to accommodate the shaft and four one-half inch 
holes to take the rods with which the flanges are 
bolted on. The flanges are 20 inches in diameter 
and are made from two thicknesses of board bolted 
together with the grain at right angles to prevent 
warping. These of course should be placed with the 
bolt heads to present a smooth surface 
to the rope. The construction of the 
second spool is similar, only the flanges 
are made 12 inches in diameter instead 
of 20. 
To assemble, the outer frame is 
made and the inner frame placed with¬ 
in it, the pillow blocks lying on top 
of the side sills. The shaft carrying 
the friction and belt pulleys is now 
placed in position and the top guides 
bolted in jxlace. The control lever J 
is pivoted to the side sill by a bolt at 
K and connected to the inner frame at 
L. Pushing this lever forward en¬ 
gages the large pulley of the winding 
drum with the fx-iction pulley while 
pulling it back x-eleases this pulley and 
engages the pulley of the return drum, 
the whole inner frame sliding between 
the top guides and the top of the sill. 
A center position of the lever disen¬ 
gages both pulleys. The winding drum 
can be stopped and held at any desired 
point by means of the foot brake N 
shown in the side view. This is piv¬ 
oted at O by means of a bolt passing 
through the side sill and the piece M 
which is bolted to the cx-oss sills. A 
liberal application of graphite gi-ease 
to the wooden beax-ings and sliding 
sui-faces of this machine will make it 
far easier to operate. 
To install it, bolt to the floor by 
means of the bolts shown passing 
through the ends of the cross sills in 
the plan and connect to a four or five 
horsepower engine by means of a five 
or six-inch belt. Note which way the 
hoisting drum runs and attach the 
rope so that it winds properly. The 
last pxxlley through which the x-ope 
passes before reaching the drum should 
not be too close to it as it sometimes 
causes the rope to wind unevenly when 
this is the case. The return rope should pass from 
the car through a pulley near the head block and 
from there to the return drum. Other pulleys may 
be introduced to change its course and keep it out 
of the way. 
Suppose the fork is set and ready to ascend, the 
lever is pushed forward and the pulley of the wind¬ 
ing drum is engaged with the friction pulley, at the 
same time the return drum is i-eleased. After the 
fork reaches the latch and the car starts back along 
the track the return drum is unwound. When the 
fork reaches the end of its run it is tripped by the 
operator and the lever J pulled back, this engages 
the i-eturn drum and i-eleases the winding drum. As 
the fork is drawn back the hoisting rope is un¬ 
wound from the drum and after the fork is again 
set the process is x-epeated. If for any x-eason it is 
desired to stop the fork at any point it can be done 
by pushing the lever to the middle position, x-eleas- 
ing both drums and holding down on the foot bi-ake. 
Although it increases the cost slightly the grip of 
the pulleys is incx-eased by covei-iug them with belt¬ 
ing—leather belting, stretched and nailed on while 
wet makes the best covei-ing. The pulley on the 
drive shaft should be of metal with a smooth face 
and all three pulleys should be of the flat-faced 
type—not crowned. The belt pulley should be 
crowned. bobekt h. smith. 
End View of the Hoist. Fig. 303. 
