Threshing machine is a machine that farmers once used to thresh (separate) kernels of grain from stalks. The machine also winnowed (blew) the chaff from the kernels. Andrew Meikle of Scotland built the first practical water-powered threshing machine as early as 1788. Before then, farmers had threshed and winnowed by hand–a hard, slow task. Horse-powered threshing machines enabled farmers to process grain much faster than they could by hand. Since the 1930’s, combines have replaced most threshing machines (see Combine ).
Modern threshing machines were based on a type patented in 1837 by two brothers, Hiram and John Pitts of Winthrop, Me. Horses walking on a treadmill produced power for early threshers. A revolving cylinder knocked the kernels off the stalks, and a fan blew away the chaff. By the 1850’s, many farmers used threshing machines. These machines were costly, and so farmers sometimes joined together to purchase a thresher and shared it at harvesttime. By the late 1800’s, steam engines powered most threshers. Later, farmers used tractors to power their threshers.
