CURTIS MILLER AND THRESHERS, SE IOWA
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Buy the book The Harvest Story Recollections of Old-Time Threshermen
HISTORY OF THE STEAM THRESHING RIG 1880
| Greg, I am almost positive your great grandfather's engine was a New Giant built by the Northwest Thresher Company of Stillwater, Minnesota. The engine inthe photo is a very early one, probably built around 1890. I know of no links to engines of this type. A possible resource to find out more information would be to contact the Chamber of Commerce in Stillwater. They could possibly tell you of a historical society which would probably have all the details concerning the Northwest Thresher Co. Take Care, Jerred D. Ruble Steam Threshing Days August 15-16, 1998 | The steam traction engine was introduced in the 1890's, but it was not until the late 1890's that it replaced the horse-power and the treadmill as a means of power in the threshing of grain. Shortly after the turn of the century the hemp twine "Band Cutters," the "Self-Feeder," the "Automatic Grain Weigher" and the "Blower-Stacker?were added. A threshing machine with a thirty-six inch cylinder, powered by a twenty h.p. steam engine, could thresh 1,000 bushels of grain per day. They were usually operated with large crews of men that went from farm to farm threshing shocked or stacked grain for three of four months during the summer and fall. Approximately 500,000 steam threshing rigs were sold between 1890 and 1920. With every steam threshing rig went a water wagon, pulled by two horses, to supply water to the steam engine. The average steam engine would require from 4 to 6 tanks full of water per day, pumped from cisterns, water troughs and ponds in the vicinity, by the water-boy. NOTE: The above three paragraphs are from the book "A HISTORY OF MAN'S PROGRESS from 1830 to the Present" by Harold Warp. |
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