INSTALLMENT FOUR - MEJ's BIO (Threshing Time)

Threshing time
 

The thresher was powered with steam using the belt system.

During the teens and the twenties, the work of harvesting and threshing grain was somewhat different than it is in the sixties. Horses were of course used to pull the grain binder, and as soon as it was cut down it had to be shocked up again. This job almost always came during the hottest part of the summer with the thermometer somewhere between 90 and 105 degrees. After the grain had stood in shocks for a week or so, anywhere from eight to twelve neighbors would band together to form a threshing ring. Then a steam threshing rig would be hired to do the threshing job. It was always a highlight in a small boy’s life to see the enormous steam engine pulling the threshing machine into the farmyard. It was big and black, it belched a lot of black smoke, and it had many mysterious little gadgets on it, such as a system of water pipes to inject water into the boiler, the governor, the big belt wheel and all the other little wheels, to say nothing of the most interesting part of all – the WHISTLE.

Pitching bundles into the steam thresher.

                  For a steam rig like the ones that used to come to our place, the crew consisted of an engineer, separator man, and water boy. The engineer was kept busy seeing to it that the steam pressure in the boiler was kept at the proper level, somewhere around one hundred and twenty pounds, if my memory is reliable. The separator man’s job was to keep all the bearings and axles on the threshing machine oiled, adjusting the straw blower from time to time to build a nicely shaped straw pile, and seeing to it that the grain wagons did not run over. The water boy was responsible for getting the water needed for the steam engine. His equipment consisted of a team of very tame horses. They were hitched to a wagon on which was mounted a three or four-hundred gallon tank. The engine usually required two tanks of water every day. That meant the water boy had to scout around and locate either a pond full of water or perhaps a creek where he could fill his tank by the use of a hand-operated force pump. If he was slow in getting back with his load, the engineer would summon him with three long blasts on the whistle.

This machine is more indicative of the machines running in the 40's and 50's.

                The whistle on the engine was also used for other signals. For instance, two long blasts meant that the men unloading grain at the bin were taking too much time; the wagon at the threshing machine was in danger of running over. A series of short toots was to tell whoever was next in line to unload bundles into the machine that he had better get on his load, even if he wasn’t quite satisfied with its size, and tear for the rig or take a lot of ribbing from the rest of the crew later on.

                After the day was over, the fire would be allowed to go out in the fire box of the engine. That allowed the steam pressure to drop to zero. In the morning the engineer was on the job long before daylight, to start the fire in the engine. Just as soon as he had enough pressure to make any kind of noise with the whistle, he pulled the string. This was to notify any other engineer of any other rig within hearing distance, “I’m here and I’ve got steam pressure up, how about you?”

                Another noticeable thing was the rivalry between the ladies who did the cooking for the crews. The meals that were placed on the tables were cooked with one idea in mind: “this dinner has to be better than the men got at so-and-so’s place yesterday.” Since the entire crew consisted of either eight or ten bundle-pitchers, two grain scoopers, the engineer, the separator man and the water boy, it had to be a fairly large dining room to accommodate everyone.

*** Stay tuned for Installment #5.