Higgins, Texas
The ‘Wind stacker Story’ in November-December issue of
the ALBUM, brought me memories of long ago. As concerns the wind
stacker, or, as often referred to as the ‘Blower’, – I was
a boy not quite ten in Henderson County, Illinois, spring of 1892,
when our neighbor farmer and local thresher, Wyatt Stanley, shipped
Indiana Manufacturing Co. built and attached a wind stacker. Some
time later, I was in Strong Hurst with my father when the machine
was returned with its attached blower and was being unloaded. To
me, the ‘Blower’ looked as big as the Separator before the
Blower was attached.
To describe this wind stacker, the straw as it left the machine
cascaded into a hopper just ahead of a fan running a speed of 1800
r.p.m. to blow the straw through a square metal tube and required a
man to operate it for a half circle stack. Blower pipe was hinged
at half-way point, the outer half was pulled over on top of the
Separator for transport. Some time later, that same year, they
threshed a large stack yard for my father. I remember how it made
the twelve (12) horse power Birdsell Engine ‘blast the
sky’. But it did its work well. J. R. Stanley, (then 21), was
the Engineer. (Died two years ago at age 86.) He told me years
later, the number of that Blower was No. 34.
About the close of World War I, I wrote Indiana Mfg. Co. and
they confirmed this, but stated they started numbering from 100.
The above mentioned blower did not carry the label as shown on
cover of current ALBUM and this Trade Mark did not appear until
1893 as stated in Mr. St Clair’s writing — as when Indiana
Mfg. Co. started to license thresher builders to manufacture and
sell blowers.
When we bought our Advance outfit in 1904, the wind stacker was
a separate contract costing $250.00. When Indiana Mfg. Co. bought
Buchanan’s patent rights, they made sure of no competition or
infringement, their patent stipulating, ‘- any device to convey
straw via Air Blast from a thresher’ (or words similar). I
believe Mr. Buchanan carried on his wind stacker venture at New
London, Mo. However, I am not positive as to this.
Referring again to the Wyatt Stanley machine, I remember hearing
that Blower roar at a distance of four miles of an early morning.
It, being a new device, created considerable public interest in
Western Illinois and throughout our section in particular.
It’s probable I am the last man living to have seen a Blower
built by ‘Indiana Wind Stacker Co.’ 1892, as stated above.
They, in 1893, issued licenses to Thresher Companies to build
Blowers.
