Innocents Abroad Or In England It’s Corn

Be that as it may, what interested me most was the use of steam
and the threshing tackle.

The railroads in England are still about 90% steam – and for
certain good reasons. Welsh steaming coals are so fine and abundant
that it is economical, no doubt – the alternate being to import oil
or other fuel. Then too, there is not the slightest smoke -I saw
only a white vapor from any British engine in operation.

We rode into London back of a steam locomotive and in the London
Waterloo Station there were some 20 express trains coming and
leaving -all steam without exception. The cog railroad up Mt.
Snowdon is powered by Swiss built steam locomotives -all over 40
years in service. When I sat in a coach on a 21% grade looking
right down the stack of that little giant, operating a cutoff and
200 pounds pressure I got an entirely new appreciation of the
tremendous power of steam.

Just one more incident. One early morning in Wales I sat on a
bank watching and listening to little two and three coach steam
trains make accommodation stops at villages about a mile apart. I
could have sworn I was a boy again in a bygone age listening to the
staccato exhaust as the trains started and then the sound of lost
motion in the reverse gear as the throttle was closed for a glide
into the next village. One sour note – I wonder why they didn’t
perfect the British whistle a bit further?

Threshing in England, what little is done, is hard to reconcile
with American practice. Just why sheaves have to be thrown 10 feet
high to the top of the threshing box, bands cut by hand and straw
handled several times I can’t explain.

We did see one Marshall outfit in operation that was a
revelation. The Marshall tractor was a single cylinder diesel of
about 1930 – running backward, like the Case cross-mounts. The
drive belt was about 5 inches wide and ran straight. The Marshall
thresher took sheaves at the top, blew chaff to the side, dropped
straw from the front (away from the tractor) and hung 4 sacks at
the rear or driven end. Most unusual also, the machine re-bound the
straw, using a binder knotter for the purpose which, shaggy bundles
were then re-stacked using a 4 man passing team. The owner stated
that this straw was in demand for thatching – as is still practiced
in some entire communities.

The fact that the Marshall had no cylinder teeth nor concaves
but worked on the rub-bar principle led to a little research at the
Museum of Science in London. The Curator kindly helped me examine
several models of early machines and a couple of models of later or
current design. We found only rub-bar cylinders in these models and
with the Curator’s concurrence I would conclude that the spiked
cylinder and concave was used very little, if ever, in British
threshing practice.

Turning to an old reaper standing near, the Curator, with some
little pride, called my attention to Bell’s original
experimental grain reaper. Now the Reverand Bell in 1827 did give
the world many new principles in cutting grain. The adjustable
reel, the revolving canvas for side delivery, the grain divider and
the shear principle for cutting were original with Mr. Bell. The
cutting head on his machine was, in principle a number of shears,
like hand sheep-shearing tools, mounted side-by-each and given
motion by a gear train and cam from the ground traction wheel. This
cutting device was fairly satisfactory and in use for a number of
years after 1827.

In examining this well preserved and historic machine I told the
Curator I was disappointed not to find Rev. Bell’s cutting
device. At this effrontery he whipped out his spectacles and read
from an explanatory card – which card admitted – in small print –
that the cutting device had been added at a later date. The Curator
then asked, in a less bellicose tone, whose cutting device this
was. My answer was to the effect that this, and every cutting bar
used in England and elsewhere was an American invention by Obed
Hussey – the Man who made bread cheap. I hastened to add that we in
turn generally credit the threshing cylinder to a Scot – by the
name of Andrew Meikle. My host then showed me some fine Fowler and
Marshall Steam Engines – not yet ready for exhibit.

This experience in England convinces me that we have a fine
hobby going here, Boys. It is best enjoyed at home with good
friends and hearty fare, but travel as far as you will, there are
new and instructive machines to study and enjoy. At the Meets it
pulls together men and women who provide the bread of life and the
salt of good fellowship. Our hobby has moreover a patent that
issues from the gates of Eden.

I do really enjoy the letters from the old time threshers and
engineers who contribute to it. I have become acquainted with many
old and odd machines that I had never heard of before. Why is it
that so many of these old relics are just now coming to light, any
why have we not seen or heard of them before? Years ago I was a
reader of the old American Thresherman Magazine and I don’t
ever remember of seeing any thing like some of the odd machines
that come to life in the Album.

I was most interested in the odd combination thresher in a 1958
issue showing the blower and feeder on the same end of the machine.
I took it to an old thresher friend to look at and he would not let
me have it back until he had read the entire book so I do not have
it with me now. Every issue comes up with some interesting oddity.
I write to nearly every one who has letters or articles and have
built up a very large correspondence and have great fun swapping
yarns and experiences with men who have gone through the sweat,
dirt and heat of the threshing days. I find that they were the same
in every part of the country but we all loved every one of
them.