R. R. 1, Clinton, Illinois
I am sending you a picture of my present rig, a 14 HP Port Huron
engine and 28 x 50 Keck separator. The following is a list of the
separators I have had the good fortune to have run and attended as
my father had four complete rigs and then I purchased my first rig
in 1928, then added another in 1929. I purchased my first combine
when I quit.
My father developed heart trouble in 1929 and until his death in
1940, it was my lot to keep all the rigs going. I would try to make
it to each rig daily to see if they needed any help or maybe I
could pull to the next job during the noon hour, or make some
repairs, so I never knew where or when I would eat dinner.
IRON MAN
May the eternal halo of steam engine smoke and hot cylinder oil
enshroud your labors with fun and joy that others on this sordid
earth may-learn to live like good men and canines struck by an
all-wise Creator.
May the Lord bless all Klopfers, Queenie’s and Case Engines,
world without end, and from Elmer, ‘AMEN’.’
Now for a list of the separators; Nichols & Shepard, Keck
Gonnerman, Huber, Aultman-Taylor, Minneapolis and Case.
The Nichols was a very good machine, good solid frame and was
put together well. I didn’t like the hangers on the straw racks
being on the inside of the machine, as straw would catch back of
them. It was a daily job to get inside the machine and clean out
all the straw and beards. It was not as good as it could have been
in the shoe or cleaning as light oats would give a separator man
fits. It wasn’t very good hulling clover for the same
reason.
The Keck Gonnerman was a good machine, a very smooth runner. It
would compare with the Aultman-Taylor in this respect. I didn’t
like the cylinder being so high from the ground. It made the feeder
much higher than any of the other machines. If you had to work on
the cylinder or change concaves as we always did from wheat to
oats, it was a man-sized job. Also the wind blower was very poor;
like when you were standing on the machine as the blower went to
the left, it would blow good but as it came back to the right of
the machine, it just roped the straw out in gobs. You couldn’t
build a good stack with either the 36 x 58 or 28 x 50 to save your
neck.
The Huber supreme 32 x 54 with raddle back of the cylinder was a
much better machine than the later ones that had a short jumper
rack in place of a raddle. You could work on this jumper rack all
the time and it would still knock. It was very hard to keep up as
it would tear itself up if you didn’t work on it. This machine
was very unhandy for separator man to run. It was hard to get on
the machine and to run the blower around . on the machine sure was
a chore as there was no place to stand. The castings on all Huber
machines were very rough. I don’t believe they had a grinder in
the whole plant. I didn’t like just set screws holding pulleys
on main shaft. The skeins on the axles were very poor. I never saw
a Huber separator that the wheels run like they should have.
The Minneapolis 32 x 54 with 12 bar cylinder was a nice machine
to run, with one exception; that being at the top of raddle back of
cylinder, they put a hump on deck with a lid on it. You
couldn’t keep it from leaking dust and in any dirty grain, such
as rust or smut, it was terrible. You had to put in new teeth every
year as the minute the corner was gone, it would back feed and kill
any tractor you had. I recall as if just yesterday, the first time
it did this and I couldn’t make any adjustments to correct it.
I called Ralph Jester at Peoria, Illinois (a lot a threshermen in
Central Illinois knew him – he was manager of Minneapolis in
Decatur, Illinois, and later Keck at Peoria) and told him my
trouble. He said, ‘Ray, put in new teeth,’ which I did, and
no more back feeding. You couldn’t crowd this machine like some
of the others, as you could get to its capacity over the racks very
easy; but day in day out you would thresh as much with it as any of
the other machines as we had 10 racks and 6 pitchers in the
field.
Now for the Aultman & Taylor which in my estimation was
truly a wonderful machine, and for that time, it was far superior
to any of the other machines. I would come from one of the other
machines and you would think it was going to stop it being so well
balanced, nothing running fast. The only place I would fault this
machine was the frame. It was sort of wiggly but it sure never kept
it from threshing. You could thresh timothy or hull clover with
this machine alongside a good huller and do as good a job and a lot
faster as I have done it, as we had a No. 4 Matchless which was a
very good huller.
Now for the Case 28 x 46 that I used on two smaller runs. This
was a nice machine to run as you could grease the entire machine
from the ground with the exception of the top of the weigher and
feeder. Many would say you could crowd this little machine easily
which was true, but if the rack men could cooperate, which they
did, you could do a lot of threshing in a season with eight
racks.
Now this is the way I saw it and I wouldn’t quarrel with any
man who would disagree with me, as we all had our preferences and
they would all work if given a chance.