By 1926, farmers had already been using hay presses for between 40-50 years. Several manufacturers and inventors designed and built automatic versions of the hay press as well, but none of them functioned to expectations, so the automatic hay press didn’t make it to general use until the 1940s.
However, that didn’t stop inventive individuals from trying to make the automatic hay press a success. One such individual, William A. Seymour, was determined to build a better machine. The image shown here is from a pamphlet distributed in 1926 that describes Seymour’s invention and goals. The name of his creation?
The Seymour Automatic Hay Press.
According to Seymour, no one had designed a practical automatic hay press. He even referred to the prior designs as “crude, experimental machines.” The
Seymour design boasted a flexible construction that easily allowed changing out the tractor tires for truck tires or even removing the hay-harvesting equipment. Seymour’s plan, as laid out in the pamphlet, was to design other equipment that would slot onto the same base.
While the Seymour Automatic Hay Press didn’t become the revolutionary invention that it was dreamed to be, it does provide a great example of how hay presses were changing and developing over the years. FC
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