LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

By Farm Collector Staff
Published on July 1, 2002
1 / 9
 Three sets of gears make
Three sets of gears make
2 / 9
 Bill CastellonStrange spokes on the wheels
Bill CastellonStrange spokes on the wheels
3 / 9
 Paul GerstPhiladelphia egg grader
Paul GerstPhiladelphia egg grader
4 / 9
 Ralph R. LookFarm near Stockton
Ralph R. LookFarm near Stockton
5 / 9
 Front tires move
Front tires move
6 / 9
 A manure spreader;
A manure spreader;
7 / 9
 A wagon hoist
A wagon hoist
8 / 9
 Robert Rauhauser,Restoring some old farm grinders
Robert Rauhauser,Restoring some old farm grinders
9 / 9
 A corn wagon
A corn wagon

I recently became infatuated with a machine displayed in a jigsaw puzzle picture and decided to see if I could reproduce it in an operating miniature. I installed a small crank on the drive roller of the treadmill in order to drive the gear train (three sets of gears that make an 8:1 ratio) and it pulls the barn quite easily. I call it a pre-steam or diesel heavy puller. I asked one Amish elder what it is called and he didn’t know. He asserted that he had seen various treadmill power units but had never seen anything like this.

When I was a child, my dad and some neighbors moved a barn and pulled some Osage orange stumps with a capstan that was nothing more than a heavy square platform with a cable drum, mounted in a vertical position, around which a cable was wound.

They would haul the capstan out to the end of the cable, the other end of which was attached to the barn and then anchor the capstan firmly to the ground. A long, boom pole was fastened to the top of the cable drum, and a horse, Old Molly, was hitched to the pole. Molly walked around and around the thing, winding up the cable and quite easily moving the barn. It took about eight hitches to move the barn a quarter of a mile.

If anyone knows what my miniature horse power is actually called, I would really like to know.

-Jack Woolard, 1009 Morningside Dr., Blmmfield, IA 52537

1934 egg grader information sought

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