DOI article:
Collins, Edward John T.: The diffusion of the threshing machine in Britain, 1790-1880
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48999#0023
THRESHING MACHINES
21
Portable Thrashing Machines, for Steam Power, upon four
carriage wheels, complete for traveling.
Fig. 2. A portable-threshing machine for use with steam power manufactured by R. Hornsby & Son of Lin-
coln, c. 1851. Great Exhibition Catalogue (1851).
Tragbare Dreschmaschine mit Dampfantrieb, hergestellt von R. Hornsby & Son, Lincoln, ca. 1851. Great
Exhibition Catalogue (1851).
the winter period, October to March, and ab-
sorbed between 20 and 30 per cent of total
labour input, could now be completed inside
a few days with a much reduced labour force.
In 1850, a two-horse machine worked by 6 men
could thresh upwards of 160 bushels (c. 6
acres) of wheat per 10 hour working day (fig.
4), which compared with the 5-6 bushels of the
average flail represented a five-fold increase
in labour productivity. Also, it enabled the
farmer to take sooner advantage of high corn
prices, to conserve barn and barnfloor space,
and to reduce grain losses through pilfering,
spoilage and the depredations of birds and rod-
ents. Moreover, the machine could thresh out
more cleanly than the flail thereby increasing
net yields by 5-10 per cent. This was especially
true for damp straw which, with the flail,
required a great expenditure of time and effort
(‘more strength than man is possessed of’) to
obtain complete separation.
Compared to the machine, therefore, the
flail was slow, inefficient and expensive of
supervision time; a tool ‘fit only for the
savage state’. As was observed: ‘Few men are
dexterous at handling the flail. If it were not
that threshing was done in the winter, when
no outdoor work can be done, few labourers
would submit to its toil’ (Douglas 58, Mavor
135, Murray 1815, Rham 515). Indeed, if con-
temporary opinion is to be believed, the only
real advantage of the flail was that it gave
21
Portable Thrashing Machines, for Steam Power, upon four
carriage wheels, complete for traveling.
Fig. 2. A portable-threshing machine for use with steam power manufactured by R. Hornsby & Son of Lin-
coln, c. 1851. Great Exhibition Catalogue (1851).
Tragbare Dreschmaschine mit Dampfantrieb, hergestellt von R. Hornsby & Son, Lincoln, ca. 1851. Great
Exhibition Catalogue (1851).
the winter period, October to March, and ab-
sorbed between 20 and 30 per cent of total
labour input, could now be completed inside
a few days with a much reduced labour force.
In 1850, a two-horse machine worked by 6 men
could thresh upwards of 160 bushels (c. 6
acres) of wheat per 10 hour working day (fig.
4), which compared with the 5-6 bushels of the
average flail represented a five-fold increase
in labour productivity. Also, it enabled the
farmer to take sooner advantage of high corn
prices, to conserve barn and barnfloor space,
and to reduce grain losses through pilfering,
spoilage and the depredations of birds and rod-
ents. Moreover, the machine could thresh out
more cleanly than the flail thereby increasing
net yields by 5-10 per cent. This was especially
true for damp straw which, with the flail,
required a great expenditure of time and effort
(‘more strength than man is possessed of’) to
obtain complete separation.
Compared to the machine, therefore, the
flail was slow, inefficient and expensive of
supervision time; a tool ‘fit only for the
savage state’. As was observed: ‘Few men are
dexterous at handling the flail. If it were not
that threshing was done in the winter, when
no outdoor work can be done, few labourers
would submit to its toil’ (Douglas 58, Mavor
135, Murray 1815, Rham 515). Indeed, if con-
temporary opinion is to be believed, the only
real advantage of the flail was that it gave