Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/496

LEFT TOOLS AND MACHINERY 434 TOOLS AND MACHINEBY reaping machine was granted in 1803 to Richard French and T. J. Hawkins, of New Jersey. Peter Gaillard, of Penn- sylvania, in 1812, patented the first grass cutting machine. This was super- seded in 1822 by another grass cutter, patented by Jeremiah Bailey, also of Pennsylvania. The latter machine was built on the revolving-cutter plan, with side draft, arranged so as to keep the cutter at a uniform distance from the ground. Of various other machines in- vented during this period, that of Wil- liam Manning, of New Jersey (1831), possessed a cutting device which re- sembled very closely that used later by Hussey and McCormick. It was these two later inventors who, the former in 1833, and the latter in 1834, took out patents for improved reaping machines which combined the best features of all the various machines which up to that time had been brought out in England and in America. There was compara- tively little difference between the Hus- sey and the McCormick reaper. The latter had a serrated edge knife which, instead of the pointed sections of Hus- sey's machine, possessed a wavy outlina It also had a divider and reels, but no seat for the attendant. It was a side- draft machine and could be either drawn or pushed. These two machines formed the basis of later reapers which have now been brought to a high state of per- fection. Self-acting rakes date back to 1848, when Nelson Piatt patented such an im- plement. Great improvements have been made since then, some of the most im- portant appearing in a machine built by McCormick in 1861. Binding of grain by machinery was first attempted by John E. Heath, of Ohio, in 1850. His binder used twine or cord. Later machines used also straw and wire. The modern binder is based chiefly on a machine patented in 1858, and known as the Marsh harvester. The combined header and thresher is most likely the most complicated and at the same time the most advanced type of harvester. It heads, threshes, cleans, and sacks the grain at one operation. It is used extensively in certain parts of the western United States and Aus- tralia. Such machines are usually pushed through the grain either by a traction engine or by horses, a large number of the latter being necessary for each machine, the capacity of which ranges from 60 to 125 acres per day. Mowing machines have kept step with the development of reaping machines, and, indeed, many mowers are designed so as to be used as reapers also. Threshing machines are implements used to separate the grain or seed of plants from the straw or haulm. Not until the end of the eighteenth century did various attempts to supersede the primitive flail by mechanical imple- ments succeed. In 1786 a Scotch me- chanic, Andrew Meikle, designed a threshing machine which, in spite of the fact that many inventors have tried to improve it, remains today essentially the same. Practically all modem threshing machines are based on the principles first developed by Meikle. In America great- ly improved threshing machines are now in use, most of the improvements having been made since 1840. The most up-to- date threshing machine performs me- chanically practically all operations in- volving the cutting of the bands of the sheaves, automatic feeding, thorough separation of grain from straw, winnow- ing and weighing the grain, depositing it in sacks or loading it into wagons, and removing and stacking the straw. Although there are in existence special threshing machines adapted to different kinds of grain and to a large variety of conditions, the parts of the most modern thresher are so adjustible that one and the same machine can be used for all kinds of grain and under all kinds of conditions. Amongst the more important special threshing machines should be mentioned those for threshing beans, clover, pea- nuts, peas and rice, and others for husk- ing maize, and shredding fodder. As a rule, bean and pea threshers are equipped with two cylinders which run at different rates of speed. Still another additional cylinder for hulling is usually to be found in clover hullers. Many important and useful accessory devices have been invented which are used in connection with threshing machines. The most im- portant of these are automatic band cut- ters and feeders, loaders, stackers, and grain measurers. In the early days of the threshing machine, horse power was used most frequently and it is still used to a considerable extent. However, port- able steam engines and internal combus- tion engines are gradually superseding horse power. In those parts of the United States where rice is cultivated engines with straw-burning furnaces have been used and have given satisfac- tion. Nowhere else has more progress been made in the use of farming machinery than in the United States, and the re- markable productivity and prosperity which agriculkire enjoys in this country are to no slight degree due to this fact. The last United States census of the