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86-782: Corn dollies or corn mothers are a form of straw work made as part of harvest customs of Europe before mechanisation. Scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries theorized that before Christianisation , in traditional pagan European culture it was believed that the spirit of the corn (in American English , "corn" would be "grain") lived amongst the crop, and that the harvest made it effectively homeless. James Frazer devotes chapters in The Golden Bough to "Corn-Mother and Corn-Maiden in Northern Europe" (chs. 45–48) and adduces European folkloric examples collected in great abundance by

172-535: A biofuel substitute to coal. Straw, processed first as briquettes , has been fed into a biogas plant in Aarhus University , Denmark, in a test to see if higher gas yields could be attained. The use of straw in large-scale biomass power plants is becoming mainstream in the EU, with several facilities already online. The straw is either used directly in the form of bales, or densified into pellets which allows for

258-540: A combine , is a machine designed to harvest a variety of cultivated seeds. Combine harvesters are one of the most economically important labour-saving inventions, significantly reducing the fraction of the population engaged in agriculture. Among the crops harvested with a combine are wheat , rice , oats , rye , barley , corn (maize), sorghum , millet , soybeans , flax ( linseed ), sunflowers and rapeseed (canola). The separated straw (consisting of stems and any remaining leaves with limited nutrients left in it)

344-563: A plait of three straws and tied into a loose knot to represent a heart. It is reputed to have been made by a young man with straws picked up after the harvest and given to his loved one. If she was wearing it next to her heart when he saw her again then he would know that his love was reciprocated. Three straws can be plaited using the hair plait or a cat's foot plait. Favours can be made with two, three, four or more straws. Other examples include: These are representations of animals or humanoid beings made from an entire sheaf. They are known by

430-421: A straw bale , which is a bale , or bundle, of straw tightly bound with twine, wire, or string. Straw bales may be square, rectangular, star shaped or round, and can be very large, depending on the type of baler used. Current and historic uses of straw include: Straw may be fed as part of the roughage component of the diet to cattle or horses that are on a near maintenance level of energy requirement. It has

516-428: A class 7 combine in the year 1980 would only have 270 horsepower and been one of the largest machines available in the world at that time but in the 21st century the same machine would be considered small. The Association of Equipment Manufacturers recognizes Class 10, which came into being in 2013, as the largest combine class. However, there are combines with horsepower and threshing capacity that could argue for creating

602-610: A commercial composting environment. Straw can be pulped to make paper . Rope made from straw was used by thatchers, in the packaging industry and even in iron foundries. Saekki is a traditional Korean rope made of woven straw. The Chinese wore cailu or caixie , shoes and sandals made of straw, well into modernity. Koreans wear jipsin , sandals made of straw. Several types of traditional Japanese shoes, such as waraji and zōri , are made of straw. In some parts of Germany like Black Forest and Hunsrück people wear straw shoes at home or at carnival. Heavy-gauge straw rope

688-449: A cross auger. Draper headers allow faster feeding than cross augers, leading to higher throughputs due to lower power requirements. On many farms, platform headers are used to cut wheat, instead of separate wheat headers, so as to reduce overall costs. Dummy heads or pick-up headers feature spring-tined pickups, usually attached to a heavy rubber belt. They are used for crops that have already been cut and placed in windrows or swaths. This

774-637: A cut width of 4.57 m (15 ft); by 1839, over 20 ha (50 acres) of crops were harvested. This combine harvester was pulled by 20 horses fully handled by farmhands. By 1860, combine harvesters with a cutting, or swathe , width of several metres were used on American farms. A parallel development in Australia saw the development of the stripper based on the Gallic stripper, by John Ridley and others in South Australia by 1843. The stripper only gathered

860-409: A day. This newer kind of combine is still in use and is powered by diesel or gasoline engines. Until the self-cleaning rotary screen was invented in the mid-1960s combine engines suffered from overheating as the chaff spewed out when harvesting small grains would clog radiators, blocking the airflow needed for cooling. A significant advance in the design of combines was the rotary design. The grain

946-414: A hard winter as well as to use them as a trap for parasite insects. (see Komomaki ) It is also used in ponds to reduce algae by changing the nutrient ratios in the water. The soil under strawberries is covered with straw to protect the ripe berries from dirt, and straw is also used to cover the plants during winter to prevent the cold from killing them. Straw also makes an excellent mulch . Straw

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1032-539: A lighter-weight model began to be marketed widely by the company. Lyle Yost invented an auger that would lift grain out of a combine in 1947, making unloading grain much easier and further from the combine. In 1952 Claeys launched the first self-propelled combine harvester in Europe; in 1953, the European manufacturer Claas developed a self-propelled combine harvester named ' Hercules ', it could harvest up to 5 tons of wheat

1118-540: A low digestible energy and nutrient content (as opposed to hay , which is much more nutritious). The heat generated when microorganisms in a herbivore's gut digest straw can be useful in maintaining body temperature in cold climates. Due to the risk of impaction and its poor nutrient profile, it should always be restricted to part of the diet. It may be fed as it is, or chopped into short lengths, known as chaff . Bee skeps and linen baskets are made from coiled and bound together continuous lengths of straw. The technique

1204-403: A new class. Grain combine fires are responsible for millions of dollars of loss each year. Fires usually start near the engine where dust and dry crop debris accumulate. Fires can also start when heat is introduced by bearings or gearboxes that have failed. From 1984 to 2000, 695 major grain combine fires were reported to U.S. local fire departments. Dragging chains to reduce static electricity

1290-635: A perfect soil substitute. There are several styles of straw hats that are made of woven straw. Many thousands of women and children in England (primarily in the Luton district of Bedfordshire), and large numbers in the United States (mostly Massachusetts ), were employed in plaiting straw for making hats. By the late 19th century, vast quantities of plaits were being imported to England from Canton in China, and in

1376-400: A plate. A meter in the operator's cab displays the relative amount of grain loss proportional to speed. Measuring the amount of yield (bushels per acre or tonnes per hectare) has become increasingly important, particularly when real-time measurement can help determine which areas of a field are more or less productive. These variations can often be remediated with variable crop inputs. Yield

1462-447: A platform. In 1929, Alfredo Rotania of Argentina patented a self-propelled harvester. International Harvester started making horse-pulled combines in 1915. At the time, horse-powered binders and stand-alone threshing machines were more common. In the 1920s, Case Corporation and John Deere made combines, introducing tractor-pulled harvesters with a second engine aboard the combine to power its workings. The world economic collapse in

1548-406: A post-and-beam construction, to build straw bale houses . When bales are used to build or insulate buildings, the straw bales are commonly finished with earthen plaster . The plastered walls provide some thermal mass , compressive and ductile structural strength, and acceptable fire resistance as well as thermal resistance (insulation), somewhat in excess of North American building code . Straw

1634-415: A sidehill machine is the same height as a level-land combine. Hillside combines have added steel that sets them up approximately 2–5 feet higher than a level-land combine and provide a smooth ride. Another technology that is sometimes used on combines is a continuously variable transmission . This allows the ground speed of the machine to be varied while maintaining a constant engine and threshing speed. It

1720-624: A variety of names, depending on location and also the time of harvesting: Here the straw is not plaited, but tied with yarn, wool, raffia or similar. This type of straw work is particularly popular in Scandinavia and German -speaking countries. Examples of these are the Oro (Swedish Straw Crown); the Tomte or Nisse; and smaller versions of the Yule Goat . Straw Straw is usually gathered and stored in

1806-542: A wagon or truck, or had a small bin that stored the grain until it was transferred via a chute. In the U.S., Allis-Chalmers , Massey-Harris , International Harvester , Gleaner Manufacturing Company , John Deere , and Minneapolis Moline are past or present major combine producers. In 1937, the Australian-born Thomas Carroll, working for Massey-Harris in Canada, perfected a self-propelled model and in 1940,

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1892-442: A warning when they deviated beyond preset limits. Temperature sensors can also give warning when bearings overheat due to lack of lubrication, sometimes leading to combine fires. The job of monitoring how much grain is wasted by the thresher by being discharged with the chaff and straw used to require going behind the machine to check. Yield monitors work like a microphone, registering an electrical impulse caused by grains impacting

1978-444: Is an abundant agricultural waste product, and requires little energy to bale and transport for construction. For these reasons, straw bale construction is gaining popularity as part of passive solar and other renewable energy projects. Wheat straw can be used as a fibrous filler combined with polymers to produce composite lumber . Enviroboard can be made from straw. Strawblocks are strawbales that have been recompressed to

2064-501: Is being investigated as a source of fine chemicals including alkaloids , flavonoids , lignins , phenols , and steroids . In many parts of the world, straw is used to bind clay and concrete . A mixture of clay and straw, known as cob , can be used as a building material. There are many recipes for making cob. When baled , straw has moderate insulation characteristics (about R-1.5/inch according to Oak Ridge National Lab and Forest Product Lab testing). It can be used, alone or in

2150-437: Is coiled and sewn tightly together to make archery targets. This is no longer done entirely by hand, but is partially mechanised. Sometimes a paper or plastic target is set up in front of straw bales, which serve to support the target and provide a safe backdrop. Thatching uses straw, reed or similar materials to make a waterproof, lightweight roof with good insulation properties. Straw for this purpose (often wheat straw)

2236-477: Is desirable to keep the threshing speed constant since the machine will typically have been adjusted to operate best at a certain speed. Self-propelled combines started with standard manual transmissions that provided one speed based on input rpm . Deficiencies were noted and in the early 1950s combines were equipped with what John Deere called the "Variable Speed Drive". This was simply a variable width sheave controlled by spring and hydraulic pressures. This sheave

2322-446: Is determined by measuring the amount of grain harvested in relation to the area covered. Cameras placed at strategic points on the machine can eliminate some of the guesswork for the operator. The advent of GPS and GIS technologies has made it possible to create field maps, which can assist in navigation, and in the preparation of yield maps, which show which parts of the field are more productive. While all combines aim to achieve

2408-504: Is doubtless a rain-charm. In the district of Bruck in Styria the last sheaf, called the Corn-mother, is made up into the shape of a woman by the oldest married woman in the village, of an age from 50 to 55 years. The finest ears are plucked out of it and made into a wreath , which, twined with flowers, is carried on her head by the prettiest girl of the village to the farmer or squire , while

2494-409: Is grown specially and harvested using a reaper-binder . Dried straw presents a fire hazard that can ignite easily if exposed to sparks or an open flame. It can also trigger allergic rhinitis in people who are hypersensitive to airborne allergens such as straw dust. [REDACTED] Media related to Straw at Wikimedia Commons Combine harvester The modern combine harvester , also called

2580-501: Is initially stripped from the stalk by passing along a helical rotor, instead of passing between rasp bars on the outside of a cylinder and a concave. Rotary combines were first introduced by Sperry-New Holland in 1975. Around the 1980s, on-board electronics were introduced to measure threshing efficiency. This new instrumentation allowed operators to get better grain yields by optimizing ground speed and other operating parameters. The largest "class 10-plus" combines, which emerged in

2666-505: Is known as lip work. Straw is commonly used as bedding for ruminants and horses. It may be used as bedding and food for small animals, but this often leads to injuries to mouth, nose and eyes as straw is quite sharp. The straw-filled mattress, also known as a palliasse , is still used by people in many parts of the world. Rice straw, an agricultural waste which is not usually recovered, can be turned into bioplastic with mechanical properties akin to polystyrene in its dry state. Straw

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2752-399: Is less useful for rebuilding soil fertility than previously believed. This meant that working pulverized straw into the soil became more of a hindrance than a benefit. An increase in feedlot beef production also created a higher demand for straw as fodder. Conventional combines, which use straw walkers, preserve the quality of straw and allow it to be baled and removed from the field. While

2838-448: Is particularly useful in northern climates such as western Canada, where swathing kills weeds resulting in a faster dry down. While a grain platform can be used for corn, a specialized corn head is ordinarily used instead. The corn head is equipped with snap rolls that strip the stalk and leaf away from the ear, so that only the ear (and husk) enter the throat. This improves efficiency dramatically since so much less material must go through

2924-469: Is resistant to being crushed and therefore makes a good packing material . A company in France makes a straw mat sealed in thin plastic sheets. Straw envelopes for wine bottles have become rarer, but are still to be found at some wine merchants. Wheat straw is also used in compostable food packaging such as compostable plates. Packaging made from wheat straw can be certified compostable and will biodegrade in

3010-434: Is the presence of airborne chaff and straw, which can accumulate causing a fire hazard and to radiators which can become plugged. Most machines have addressed these problems with enclosed engine compartments and rotary centrifugal inlet screens which prevent chaff buildup. First, the header, described above, cuts the crop and feeds it into the threshing cylinder. This consists of a series of horizontal rasp bars fixed across

3096-498: Is then either chopped onto the field and ploughed back in, or laid out in rows, ready to be baled and used for bedding and cattle feed. The name of the machine is derived from the fact that the harvester combined multiple separate harvesting operations – reaping , threshing or winnowing and gathering – into a single process around the start of the 20th century. A combine harvester still performs those operation principles . The machine can easily be divided into four parts, namely:

3182-421: Is used to this day). The Bell machine was pushed by horses. A few Bell machines were available in the United States. In 1835, in the United States, Hiram Moore built and patented the first combine harvester, which was capable of reaping, threshing and winnowing cereal grain. Early versions were pulled by horse, mule or ox teams. In 1835, Moore built a full-scale version with a length of 5.2 m (17 ft) and

3268-577: The Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest of the United States, where hillsides can have slopes as steep as 50%. The first leveling technology was developed by Holt Co., a US company in California, in 1891. Modern leveling came into being with the invention and patent of a level sensitive mercury switch system invented by Raymond Alvah Hanson in 1946. A leveling system was also developed in Europe by

3354-442: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and various state agencies recommend use of alternative sediment control practices where possible, such as silt fences , fiber rolls and geotextiles . They can also be used as burned area emergency response , as ground cover or as in-stream check dams. The use of straw as a carbon-neutral energy source is increasing rapidly, especially for biobutanol . Straw or hay briquettes are

3440-582: The folklorist Wilhelm Mannhardt . Among the customs attached to the last sheaf of the harvest were hollow shapes fashioned from the last sheaf of wheat or other cereal crops . The corn spirit would then spend the winter in this home until the "corn dolly" was ploughed into the first furrow of the new season. James George Frazer discusses the Corn-mother and the Corn-maiden in Northern Europe , and

3526-464: The intake mechanism , the threshing and separation system , the cleaning system, and finally the grain handling and storage system. Electronic monitoring assists the operator by providing an overview of the machine's operation, and the field's yield. In 1826 in Scotland , the inventor Reverend Patrick Bell designed a reaper machine , which used the scissors principle of plant cutting (a principle that

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3612-478: The 1930s stopped farm equipment purchases, and for this reason, people largely retained the older method of harvesting. A few farms did invest and used Caterpillar tractors to move the outfits. Tractor -drawn combines (also called pull-type combines) became common after World War II as many farms began to use tractors. An example was the All-Crop Harvester series. These combines used a shaker to separate

3698-410: The 4-speed manual transmission as before, but used a system of hydraulic pumps and motors to drive the input shaft of the transmission. The engine turns the hydraulic pump capable of pressures up to 4,000 psi (30 MPa). This pressure is then directed to the hydraulic motor that is connected to the input shaft of the transmission. The operator is provided with a lever in the cab that allows for

3784-404: The Corn-mother is laid down in the barn to keep off the mice. In other villages of the same district the Corn-mother, at the close of harvest, is carried by two lads at the top of a pole. They march behind the girl who wears the wreath to the squire's house, and while he receives the wreath and hangs it up in the hall, the Corn-mother is placed on the top of a pile of wood, where she is the centre of

3870-499: The Italian combine manufacturer Laverda . Gleaner , IH/Case IH , John Deere , and others all have made combines with a hillside leveling system, and local machine shops have fabricated them as an aftermarket add-on. Newer leveling systems do not have as much tilt as the older ones, as modern combines use a rotary grain separator which makes leveling less critical. Sidehill combines are very similar to hillside combines in that they level

3956-409: The United States most of the straw plait was imported. A fiber analogous to straw is obtained from the plant Carludovica palmata , and is used to make Panama hats . Traditional Japanese rain protection consisted of a straw hat and a mino cape . Straw is used in cucumber houses and for mushroom growing. In Japan , certain trees are wrapped with straw to protect them from the effects of

4042-406: The auger once it is cut. A variation of the platform, a "flex" platform, is similar but has a cutter bar that can flex over contours and ridges to cut soybeans that have pods close to the ground. A flex head can cut soybeans as well as cereal crops, while a rigid platform is generally used only in cereal grains. Some wheat headers, called "draper" headers, use a fabric or rubber apron instead of

4128-415: The basic operation of the combine harvester has remained unchanged almost since it was invented. Power requirements over the years have increased due to larger capacities and some processes such as rotary threshing and straw chopping take considerable power. This is sometimes supplied by a large tractor in a pull-type combine, or a large gasoline or diesel engine in a self-propelled type. A frequent problem

4214-505: The beginning of the 20th century. In the UK corn dolly making was revived in the 1950s and 1960s. Farm workers created new creations including replicas of farm implements and models such as windmills and large figures. New shapes and designs with different techniques were being created. In the 1960/70s several books were published on the subject. (see Lettice Sandford ) The simple origins of the craft had been lost and new folk lore stories were added to

4300-442: The belt would ride higher in the groove. This slowed the rotating speed on the input shaft of the transmission, thus slowing the ground speed for that gear. A clutch was still provided to allow the operator to stop the machine and change transmission gears. Later, as hydraulic technology improved, hydrostatic transmissions were introduced for use on swathers but later this technology was applied to combines as well. This drive retained

4386-432: The clearance and thereby control the size of material passing through. The top is set with more clearance than the bottom to allow a gradual cleaning action. Setting the concave clearance, fan speed, and sieve size is critical to ensure that the crop is threshed properly, the grain is clean of debris, and all of the grain entering the machine reaches the grain tank or 'hopper'. (Observe, for example, that when travelling uphill

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4472-517: The combine to the ground so that the threshing can be efficiently conducted; however, they have some very distinct differences. Modern hillside combines level around 35% on average, while older machines were closer to 50%. Sidehill combines only level to 18%. They are sparsely used in the Palouse region. Rather, they are used on the gentle rolling slopes of the midwest. Sidehill combines are much more mass-produced than their hillside counterparts. The height of

4558-463: The control of the hydraulic motor's ability to use the energy provided by the pump. Most if not all modern combines are equipped with hydrostatic drives. These are larger versions of the same system used in consumer and commercial lawn mowers that most are familiar with today. In fact, it was the downsizing of the combine drive system that placed these drive systems into mowers and other machines. Despite great advances in mechanics and computer control,

4644-448: The cylinder, the clean grain falls through the concave and to the shoe, which contains the chaffer and sieves. The shoe is common to both conventional combines and rotary combines. Hillside leveling, in which a hydraulic system re-orients the combine, allows combines to harvest steep but fertile soil. Their primary advantage is increased threshing efficiency. Without leveling, grain and chaff slide to one side of separator and come through

4730-521: The cylinder. The corn head can be recognized by the presence of points between each row. Occasionally rowcrop heads are seen that function like a grain platform but have points between rows like a corn head. These are used to reduce the amount of weed seed picked up when harvesting small grains. Self-propelled Gleaner combines could be fitted with special tracks instead of tires to assist in harvesting rice. These tracks can be made to fit other combines by adding adapter plates. Some combines, particularly

4816-402: The cylinder/concave to the walkers. The drum speed is variably adjustable on most machines, whilst the distance between the drum and concave is finely adjustable fore, aft and together, to achieve optimum separation and output. Manually engaged disawning plates are usually fitted to the concave. These provide extra friction to remove the awns from barley crops. After the primary separation at

4902-417: The density of woodblocks, for compact cargo container shipment, or for straw-bale construction of load-bearing walls that support roof-loads, such as a "living" or green roofs . Craft usages of straw include: Straw bales are sometimes used for sediment control at construction sites. However, bales are often ineffective in protecting water quality and are maintenance-intensive. For these reasons

4988-406: The early 2020's, have nearly 800 engine horsepower (600 kW) and are fitted with headers up to 60 feet (18 m) wide. Combines are equipped with removable headers that are designed for particular crops. The standard header, sometimes called a grain platform, is equipped with a reciprocating knife cutter bar , and features a revolving reel with metal teeth to cause the cut crop to fall into

5074-430: The early eighties, most major manufacturers had settled on a "walkerless" design with much larger threshing cylinders to do most of the work. Advantages were faster grain harvesting and gentler treatment of fragile seeds, which were often cracked by the faster rotational speeds of conventional combine threshing cylinders. It was the disadvantages of the rotary combine (increased power requirements and over-pulverization of

5160-415: The end of the walkers, which temporarily hold the straw and then, once full, deposit it in a stack for easy gathering. For some time, combine harvesters used the conventional design, which used a rotating cylinder at the front-end which knocked the seeds out of the heads, and then used the rest of the machine to separate the straw from the chaff, and the chaff from the grain. The TR70 from Sperry-New Holland

5246-409: The fan speed must be reduced to account for the shallower gradient of the sieves.) Heavy material, e.g., unthreshed heads, fall off the front of the sieves and are returned to the concave for re-threshing. The straw walkers are located above the sieves, and also have holes in them. Any grain remaining attached to the straw is shaken off and falls onto the top sieve. When the straw reaches the end of

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5332-461: The feedstock to be transported over longer distances. Finally, torrefaction of straw with pelletisation is gaining attention, because it increases the energy density of the resource, making it possible to transport it still further. This processing step also makes storage much easier, because torrefied straw pellets are hydrophobic. Torrefied straw in the form of pellets can be directly co-fired with coal or natural gas at very high rates and make use of

5418-408: The grain from the chaff and straw-walkers (grates with small teeth on an eccentric shaft) to eject the straw while retaining the grain. Early tractor-drawn combines were usually powered by a separate gasoline engine, while later models were PTO -powered, via a shaft transferring tractor engine power to operate the combine. These machines either put the harvested crop into bags that were then loaded onto

5504-420: The grains and chaff from the straw through the action of the cylinder against the concave , a shaped "half drum", also fitted with steel bars and a meshed grill, through which grain, chaff and smaller debris may fall, whereas the straw, being too long, is carried through onto the straw walkers . This action is also allowed because grain is heavier than straw, which causes it to fall rather than "float" across from

5590-531: The harvest rituals that were being practised at the beginning of the 20th century: In the neighbourhood of Danzig the person who cuts the last ears of corn makes them into a doll, which is called the Corn-mother or the Old Woman and is brought home on the last waggon. In some parts of Holstein the last sheaf is dressed in women's clothes and called the Corn-mother. It is carried home on the last waggon, and then thoroughly drenched with water. The drenching with water

5676-646: The harvest supper and dance. Many more customs are instanced by Frazer. For example, the term "Old Woman" ( Latin vetula ) was in use for such "corn dolls" among the Germanic pagans of Flanders in the 7th century, where Saint Eligius discouraged them from their old practices: "[Do not] make vetulas, (little figures of the Old Woman), little deer or iotticos or set tables [for the house-elf, compare Puck ] at night or exchange New Year gifts or supply superfluous drinks [a Yule custom]." Frazer writes: "In East Prussia, at

5762-508: The heads, leaving the stems in the field. The stripper and later headers had the advantage of fewer moving parts and only collecting heads, requiring less power to operate. Refinements by Hugh Victor McKay produced a commercially successful combine harvester in 1885, the Sunshine Header-Harvester . Combines, some of them quite large, were drawn by mule or horse teams and used a bullwheel to provide power. Later, steam power

5848-525: The machine in a large ball rather than being separated, dumping large amounts of grain on the ground. By keeping the machinery level, the straw-walker is able to thresh more efficiently. Secondarily, leveling changes a combine's center of gravity relative to the hill and allows the combine to harvest along the contour of a hill without tipping, a danger on steeper slopes; it is not uncommon for combines to roll over on extremely steep hills. Hillside leveling can be very important in regions with steep hills, such as

5934-418: The market with conventional models alongside their rotary line-up. A rotor is a long, longitudinally mounted rotating cylinder with plates similar to rub bars (except for in the above-mentioned Gleaner rotaries). There are usually two sieves, one above the other. The sieves are basically metal frames that have many rows of "fingers" set reasonably close together. The angle of the fingers is adjustable, to change

6020-546: The original ideas. The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading both have collections of corn dollies from around the world. With the advent of the combine harvester , the old-fashioned, long-stemmed and hollow-stemmed wheat varieties were replaced with knee-high, pithy varieties. However, a number of English and Scottish farmers are still growing

6106-608: The patented Sunshine Auto Header was one of the first center-feeding self-propelled harvesters. In 1923 in Kansas , the Baldwin brothers and their Gleaner Manufacturing Company patented a self-propelled harvester that included several other modern improvements in grain handling. Both the Gleaner and the Sunshine used Fordson engines; early Gleaners used the entire Fordson chassis and driveline as

6192-459: The path of the crop and in the shape of a quarter cylinder. Moving rasp bars or rub bars pull the crop through concaved grates that separate the grain and chaff from the straw. The grain heads fall through the fixed concaves. What happens next is dependent on the type of combine in question. In most modern combines, the grain is transported to the shoe by a set of 2, 3, or 4 (possibly more on the largest machines) augers, set parallel or semi-parallel to

6278-474: The principles of basic threshing have changed little over the years, modern advancements in electronics and monitoring technology has continued to develop. Whereas older machines required the operator to rely on machine knowledge, frequent inspection and monitoring, and a keen ear to listen for subtle sound changes, newer machines have replaced many of those duties with instrumentation. Early on, simple magnetic pickups were used to monitor shaft rotation, and issue

6364-513: The processing infrastructures at existing coal and gas plants. Because the torrefied straw pellets have superior structural, chemical and combustion properties to coal, they can replace all coal and turn a coal plant into an entirely biomass-fed power station. First generation pellets are limited to a co-firing rate of 15% in modern IGCC plants. Straw bale gardening is also popular among gardeners who do not have enough space for soil gardening . When properly conditioned, straw bales can be used as

6450-415: The pull type, have tires with a deep diamond tread which prevents sinking in mud. The cut crop is carried up the feeder throat (commonly called the "feederhouse"), by a chain and flight elevator , then fed into the threshing mechanism of the combine, consisting of a rotating threshing drum (commonly called the "cylinder"), to which grooved steel bars (rasp bars) are bolted. The rasp bars thresh or separate

6536-624: The raddle and the walkers onto the shoe, while the straw, being longer and lighter, floated across onto the walkers to be expelled. On most other older machines, the cylinder was placed higher and farther back in the machine, and the grain moved to the shoe by falling down a "clean grain pan", and the straw "floated" across the concaves to the back of the walkers. Since the Sperry-New Holland TR70 twin-rotor combine came out in 1975, most manufacturers have combines with rotors in place of conventional cylinders. However, makers have now returned to

6622-411: The rotor on axial mounted rotors and perpendicular on axial-flow combines. In older Gleaner machines, these augers were not present. Those combines are unique in that the cylinder and concave is set inside feederhouse instead of in the machine directly behind the feederhouse. Consequently, the material was moved by a "raddle chain" from underneath the concave to the walkers. The clean grain fell between

6708-513: The rye or wheat harvest, the reapers call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, “You are getting the Old Grandmother....In Scotland, when the last corn was cut after Hallowmas , the female figure made out of it was sometimes called the Carlin or Carline , that is, the Old Woman." The mechanisation of harvesting cereal crops probably brought an end to traditional straw dolly and figure making at

6794-429: The same result, each machine can be classified based on its general throughput which is based upon the rated horsepower rating of the combine. Currently combine classifications, as defined by Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), are as follows (metric horsepower, which is approximately 735.5 watts, is used) While this classification is current, the classes themselves have and will evolve over time. For instance,

6880-405: The straw by-product) which prompted a resurgence of conventional combines in the late nineties. Perhaps overlooked but nonetheless true, when the large engines that powered the rotary machines were employed in conventional machines, the two types of machines delivered similar production capacities. Also, research was beginning to show that incorporating above-ground crop residue (straw) into the soil

6966-402: The traditional varieties of wheat, such as Maris Wigeon , Squarehead Master, Elite Le Peuple. mainly because they are in great demand in thatching , a craft which is enjoying a renaissance, with customers facing long waiting lists for having their roofs thatched or repaired. Corn dollies and other similar harvest straw work can be divided into these groups: A countryman's favour was usually

7052-435: The walkers it falls out the rear of the combine. It can then be baled for cattle bedding or spread by two rotating straw spreaders with rubber arms. Most modern combines are equipped with a straw spreader. Rather than immediately falling out the rear of the combine at the end of the walkers, there are models of combine harvesters from Eastern Europe and Russia (e.g. Agromash Yenisei 1200 1 HM, etc.) that have "straw catchers" at

7138-415: Was attached to the input shaft of the transmission. A standard 4-speed manual transmission was still used in this drive system. The operator would select a gear, typically 3rd. An extra control was provided to the operator to allow him to speed up and slow down the machine within the limits provided by the variable speed drive system. By decreasing the width of the sheave on the input shaft of the transmission,

7224-408: Was brought out in 1975 as the first rotary combine. Other manufacturers soon followed, International Harvester with their " Axial-Flow " in 1977 and Gleaner with their N6 in 1979. In the decades before the widespread adoption of the rotary combine in the late seventies, several inventors had pioneered designs which relied more on centrifugal force for grain separation and less on gravity alone. By

7310-511: Was one method employed for preventing harvester fires, but it is not yet clear what if any role static electricity plays in causing harvester fires. The application of appropriate synthetic greases will reduce the friction experienced at crucial points (i.e., chains, sprockets and gear boxes) compared to petroleum based lubricants. Engines with synthetic lubricants will also remain significantly cooler during operation. Obsolete or damaged combines can be converted into general utility tractors . This

7396-522: Was used, and George Stockton Berry integrated the combine with a steam engine using straw to heat the boiler. At the turn of the twentieth century, horse-drawn combines were starting to be used on the American plains and Idaho (often pulled by teams of twenty or more horses). In 1911, the Holt Manufacturing Company of California, US produced a self-propelled harvester. In Australia in 1923,

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