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Charles Thurston's Reaper and Seed Striper
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In January 1878 Charles Thurston purchased in Christchurch a reaper and binder manufactured by Wood's in New York, (Walter A. Wood Mowing and Reaping Machine Manufactory). The implement was seen to be a "useful and economical" addition for farmers in the district.
Reapers or crop harvesting machines were used for cutting grain. Sickle knives swept, conveying the grain to and from the machine in a way to regulate the delivery of the gavels. Grain could be set to one side in gavels ready to bind into sheaves or placed onto a platform where men would perform this by hand. A combined machine could automatically bind the sheaves with wire. On land where crops were lighter in growth this regulation was important for size of the gavels. Sometimes the various parts were removed from the machine turning it simply into a mowing device. For this reason they were also called a mower and reaper or harvester.
In 1871 Walter Abbott Wood invented a binder that was capable of creating a twisted wire sheaf every ten feet progressed. The average crop harvested between ten and fifteen acres a day. Prior to the automatic binding, so much time was spent when men did this manually. However there were disadvantages as wire would be left in the grain moreover damaged machinery as well as injured animals. Twine came into use after John Appleby in America developed the idea in 1874. The strongest competition though came from Cyrus McCormack another American inventor who developed a reaper with a serrated reciprocating cutter bar. McCormack went on to become the International Harvester Corporation.
The Appleby Knotter was used in crop fields with the reaper and developed into combines. From the mid 1880's combines gradually made the binder obsolete having the capability to harvest and thresh the grain whilst in the paddock. Wood passed away in 1891 and his Walter A Wood Harvester Company went into receivership in March 1895.
By 1889 the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in Chicago was reputed to turn out 80,000 reaper and binder machines they called the McCormick light draft steel harvester. The savings in labour were considerable to the Otago farmers who could purchase these through the only New Zealand agent, Morrow, Bassett and Co,. in Dunedin. Trials showed cutting wheat by sickle, binding and stooking cost between 11 shillings and 15 shillings per acre. With a scythe about 8 shillings and a machine reaping and binding about 5s 9d.
Other implements were available through Massey-Harris Company, and one produced by Reid and Gray who manufauctured in Oamaru and Dunedin and showed the Deering pony all-steel reaper and binder the first harvesting machine to apply the roller bearing principle. Donaghy and Company supplied binder twine.
Charles Thurston also introduced the first grass seed stripper into the Crookston District in January 1881. Crops were flourishing for the Crookston farmers. The wheat yield averaged 45 to 50 bushels per acre and oats 55 to 75 bushels. John Wrathan Bull an Australian farmer, invented the first mechanical seed stripper in 1843. It did not work well but was improved by John Ridley a flourmiller. Bull and Ridley unfortunately failed to patent their designs but it was a labour saving device, drawn by horses, that collected the seed heads with a comb like design as it moved through the crop. A rotating beater placed behind the comb 'beat' the wheat or grain heads off before holding them in a special box. The grain was a mixture with chaff, which was then separated by a stationary winnower. Ridley returned to England in 1853 where he improved the machine and by 1880 it was used extensively throughout the world.
The Ridley stripper continued to remain the method of harvesting grain until 1885 when the Sunshine Harvester was invented by Hugh Victor McKay in Victoria, Australia. This was based on the Californian Combine Harvester and drawn by horses used a bull wheel for power.
The above article is part of my book West Otago - 150 Years, Farming and Families. If you would like to read more about Charles Thurston the book will be available towards the end of 2008. You can contribute and have your family included in the book if they lived or worked in West Otago.
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