General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

1

Total Parts

1

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

WOODEN (OAK?) FRAME/ METAL FLYWHEELS, AXLES, NUTS & BOLTS

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

200.0 cm

Width

120.0 cm

Height

80.0 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Agriculture

Category

Crop handling

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Unknown

Country

Unknown

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Quebec

Period

1830-1840S/Info. from original catalogue record.

Canada

This thresher is one of the earliest threshers in collection and was probably used in Quebec.

Function

Threshers separate or "thresh" grain from the head. They also separate grain kernels from the straw and chaff, cleaning the grain. Threshers were first developed in Europe in the late 18th century and mechanized the separation of grain, which was previously done by hand with tools such as flails. The first threshing machines were stationary: powered by hand or treadmill, they increased the amount of grain a farmer could separate in a day. Wheeled threshing machines began to replace stationary threshers in the 1860s and further mechanized grain harvesting. Threshers were initially built of wood and powered by horse-powered windlasses; they were later built of steel and powered by steam traction engines and gas tractors. Threshers were in turn replaced through the twentieth century by combine harvesters, which merged harvesting and threshing operations in one machine.

Technical

"Bull" or "ground hog" threshers were so-called because they were secured to the ground and generated a lot of noise and vibration during operation. First developed in the late 18th century, ground threshers mechanized the separation of grain, which was previously done by hand with tools such as flails. They were powered by hand or by horse power, and were in use in Canada by the 1840s. These types of thresher had grain-separating cylinders that usually measured less than twenty-four inches in diameter. Unbound sheaves were fed headfirst into the machine by hand; the spinning cylinder caught the sheaves and threshed them between the teeth of the cylinder and the concave. Separated grain then had to be manually cleaned with a winnowing basket or fanning mill. This type of machine could process 70 bushels of grain per day — a tenfold increase over the daily output of a single labourer using a flail.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

None apparent

Missing

STRAW SHAKER MISSING (FROM ORIGINAL CAT RECORD) From CA of 07/23/1997 by Sue Warren: Undetermined

Finish

THIS ARTIFACT HAS BEEN REFINISHED IN BROWN PAINT/ ALL METAL PARTS PAINTED BLACK EXCEPT FOR 2 YELLOW PAINTED RIBBED ROLLERS INSIDE

Decoration

N/A