953 nut 55,218 #1 Posted March 20 The grain Reaper/Binder Harvesting grain crops by hand was an extremely labor-intensive operation. Men with a grain cradle, a type of scythe with long fingers attached on one side, would cut, gather, and bundle the grain stems by hand. This is the first function performed by modern combines. The grain reaper/binder was invented in 1872 by Charles Baxter Withington, a jeweler from Janesville, Wisconsin. In addition to cutting the small-grain crop, a binder also 'binds' the stems into bundles or sheaves. These sheaves are usually then 'shocked' into A-shaped conical stooks, resembling small tipis, to allow the grain to dry for several days before being picked up and threshed. This was a vast improvement over the McCormic reaper of 1834 which only cut the stems and deposited them in a windrow. Workers would have to gather enough stems to form a sheave and tie them by hand. Withington's original binder used wire to tie the bundles. There were problems with using wire and it was not long before William Deering invented a binder that successfully used twine and a knotter (invented in 1858 by John Appleby). Early binders were horse-drawn, their cutting and tying-mechanisms powered by a bull-wheel, that through the traction of being pulled forward creates rotational forces to operate the mechanical components of the machine. Later models were tractor-drawn and some were tractor-powered. Binders have a reel and a sickle bar, like a modern grain head for a combine harvester. The cut stems fall onto a canvas bed which conveys the cut stems to the binding mechanism. This mechanism bundles the stems of grain and ties the bundle with string to form a sheaf. Once tied, the sheaf is discharged from the side of the binder, to be picked up after drying. Prior to meccanization it took around 300 manhours to produce 100 bushels of wheat. The grain binder and thrashing machine cut this time of back breaking labor to less than 20 hours. With today’s combines it takes about three manhours to harvest 100 bushels of wheat. 10 1 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
