TRACTOR TRIVIA and other interesting stuff! 1/15/2024

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Corn Huskers

 

We ain’t talking about a Nebraska football team here; we are talking farm implements.

Prior to the mechanization of corn harvesting the ears of corn were picked by hand. A quick twist of the wrist freed the ear of corn from the stalk. The corn would be collected and stored in a corn crib.

Prior to shelling the corn from the cob, it had to have the husk removed. Unless you have manually removed the husks from thousands of ears of field corn you can not appreciate the importance of this invention.

Fifteen-year-old August Rosenthal, the son of German immigrants, began toying with the idea of a corn husker on his parents' farm near Reedsburg, Wis., in 1882. It took him seven years to get a good, working horse-operated model, with Prince, the family workhorse, powering a circle sweep.

Before long, a steady stream of ears of corn began sliding down the hopper of the machine into a waiting bushel basket. Meanwhile, the corn stalk was discarded intact on the ground behind the machine.

After that, young Rosenthal added chopping and shredding capabilities to the machine. By 1894, Cyclone Model 1 was perfected, and the modern corn husker/shredder was born. Despite sudden competition from other companies manufacturing corn husker/shredders, the Rosenthal Corn Husking Machine Co. continued to successfully manufacture and sell its models, each with increased improvements. Four-roller and eight-roller models were manufactured, eventually called the Rosenthal 40 and Rosenthal 80. By 1920 the company had begun to manufacture silo fillers. The company went out of business in the 1950s.

 

About 1840, horse power sweeps were developed which could be used to drive machinery. A  right-angle gear transforms the horse’s circular motion to a driveshaft to operate a machine connected to it. Daniel Massey started a machine shop and foundry and began to manufacture power sweeps around 1848. Massey went on to build other agricultural machinery and in so doing, laid the foundations of the Massey family involvement in agricultural machinery manufacture

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Prior to the mechanization of corn harvesting the ears of corn were picked by hand. A quick twist of the wrist freed the ear of corn from the stalk. The corn would be collected and stored in a corn crib.

 

Didn't the men harvesting the ears of corn use a hook of some kind in their hand?  It seems like I have seen some kind of "knife" that helped cut the ears from the stalk.  If I remember, the wagon, pulled by a team of horses, that the ears of corn were thrown into had a board higher on the opposite side of the workers.  This board was called a "bang board" because the men would throw the ears of corn and the bang board helped the ears to fall into the wagon.  Interesting topics!