Attempting to Identify Antique Combine

mkn4RR0

New User
Hello, all:

I work for a local museum in a small, agricultural community in West Texas. Unfortunately, neither my supervisor or I can claim expert knowledge of old farm equipment, so we're hoping that this site and discussion forum (along with online and book-based research) may be great resources for learning more about some objects in our collection.
This combine (see attached photos) is marked with a silver sticker that reads "Case Size 22 x 36/ #314340/ J.I. Case Company/Racine Wisconsin USA." Any information that y'all could share about this particular model or the manufacturer would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

-mkn4RR0
 
Oh, dear. Please forgive me, guys--I'm struggling with uploading the photos. Here's hoping this works.
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That is a Case Threshing machine. 22X36 means the cylinder is 22" wide and the separator is 36" wide. Google threshing machine and you will see many videos of them in use.
 
As mentioned, it is a thrasher. It separated the grain from the straw. Called that because it flogged the heck out of the whole plant to seperate
the grain from the rest.

A reaper would cut the grain from the field.

A 'combine' is both In one. Originally called a 'combined reaper and thrasher' it got shortened to 'combine'.

This is only the thrasher. They sat stationary someplace and the cut grains were brought to them. They spit out the grain in one tune, and blew
out the straw into a pile. The grain was used for feed or sold, and the straw was used for bedding mostly for livestock on the farm.

Paul
 
To further paul"s explanation...a reaper, or binder, would cut the standing stalks and bind them together into a bundle, tied with twine, and deposit them on the field. Typically, the binder would have a bundle carrier on the machine, and the operator would count bundles dumped onto the carrier, and use a foot pedal to trip the carrier, dumping all bundles in a group. Later, the bundles would be shocked...set up together to dry. When the thresher arrived at the farm, neighbors would work together to haul wagons loaded with bundles to the thresher. In some areas, the wagonloads were brought to the farmstead and stacked until later. Further info- google key words like grain bundles, grain shocks, grain binder, threshing bee, etc.
 
For some reason, most farmers thought that the grain shocks had to cure in the shock for 30 days before they could be threshed. A lot of farmers were still threshing at freeze up. When combines came in, they were amazed that the windrows could be threshed in about 3 days, depending on drying conditions.

My first duty on the threshing machine was as an oiler; I had to climb all over that machine and stick my arm between moving belts to reach the oil cups. It was a really dirty job. When I graduated to field bundle pitcher, Dad wouldn't let me pitch bundles into the thresher as he was afraid that I would fall into the feeder and get chopped up by the twine knives. I only got to pitch into the thresher the last year that we threshed before we switched to a combine.
 
1923Gleaner, Paul, JMS/.MN, and Dick2:

Thank you all for your assistance and input! Knowing that what we have is a thresher/thrasher as opposed to an actual combine will make researching this machine further that much easier. I'm especially grateful for the definition of what distinguishes a thresher from a combine and the explanations of what its function was and how it worked.

Dick2, you mention that you were only allowed to work on this type of machine once before your family switched to a combine. If you don't mind me asking, around what year was that switch made? And were many other farming operations making a similar swap around that time?

Thanks again for your help,

mkn4RR0
 
Last time anyone threshed (oats) in our part of central Indiana was 1946. Dad and I were the only ones there with horses on our bundle wagon. He pitched and I loaded (placed the bundles heads in) on the wagon. Had a larger than usual crowd that year - I guess most knew it would be the last time and wanted to get in on the action.

Stan
 
Dad bought a used pull type Gleaner about 1945; that machine was underpowered for taking in heavy straw windrows. Dad later bought two MM combines that were designed for use with windrows. The last year that we threshed was in 1946; we always threshed a big straw pile in the cow yard as winter shelter for the cattle. They would eat their way into the stack to get the grain kernels that were blown over - and at the same time make a cave that they could shelter in. During the winter we had to break down the cave when it got in danger of collapsing and suffocating the cattle. That system worked when we had nothing else coming out of the depression of the 1930's.

After harvest in 1946 Dad moved in an old single story house for cattle shelter and we no longer needed the straw pile. In 1950 we built a new barn and some pole sheds for cattle shelter.
 
The 22x36 was the smallest steel thresher that Case built. It sold back in 1914 for $415.oo FOB Racine Wi. Sorry for poor scan, my 1914 Case catalog is a bit big for the scanner. I have more info on this thresher if you are interested.
E-mail open in lower RH corner.
Loren
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The Amish still use them all the time. And they do carry a big price tag when one in working condition can be found.
 
I was born in Jan "44, and Dad bought his first combine, an AC model 60, and a Roto Baler, in 48 and 49....I"m thinking the combine came first, cuz Dad was supposed to get the first baler shipped in, but the neighbor"s son worked at the dealer, and when the baler came in, he told HIS dad that his baler had arrived so he got it. Bottom line, I do remember seeing a straw pile in the cow yard, like Dick 2 describes, so I was about 3yo then.

Regarding your pic, I see that the machine has an elevator for clean grain, maybe a paddle elevator, since it"s round? Some threshers had a grain tally, a trip mechanism, that measured and counted bushels going into the wagon. Sort of like today"s dump weigher.

Yes, the correct spelling is thresher. My uncles, with a German (Cherman) accent, just called them trash machines, but meant threshing. The word trash did not describe the output!
 
In 1971 we were looking for our first farm to buy. One place we looked at, the owner was still using his threshing machine...and others in that neighborhood were also. This was near St. Cloud, central MN. My uncle threshed til about 1960, then bought a self-propelled combine!
 
We ditched the threshing machine in the mid 30s. But we still used a binder to put up oat hay all the way up to 1965. Grandpa bought a new IH binder in 1950 and we still have it inside.
 
Thank you all for the continuing stream of feedback and personal anecdotes. They, along with your recommendations to look up videos of threshers in action on YouTube, have been extremely helpful. I was actually able to speak with a guest at our museum last Saturday about his personal experience with threshers, and he echoed a lot of what y'all have been saying. :)
 
Adirondack case guy, I'm so glad you shared that scan from the 1914 Case catalog! That does raise one question for me, though. On the list of Case thresher serial numbers at the website of the J.I. Case Collectors Association, our thresher's serial number is grouped with those dated to 1900. Would that mean our machine was manufactured around 1900, and what is shown in your later catalog is the same model still for sale by the company?
 
Also, Adirondack case guy, in another instance of my lack of tech savvy, I couldn't suss out how to find the email address you alluded to, but I would be very interested to know whatever additional information about this thresher you have. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can either Private Message me or look up my own email address under my Profile.
 
there was an earlier version of the same size thresher made from wood with a steel frame work.
To e-mail me just drop down to the lower RH bottom of my post and key the e-mail icon and proceed.
Loren
 
22 X 36's are little fellers, my granddad had a 36 X 60 Avery and my brothers and I now have a vintage 1931 Avery 28 x 46 we rebuilt and do
exhibition threshing with at several shows in our area every summer. One farmer in our tractor club has a very late MCCormick-Deering binder
and cuts several loads of bundles for wheat for threshing at 3 different shows our club participates in and we thresh for a couple other shows
that buy the bundled grain besides that....little work, but lotsa fun...... one Brother has a 1926 Rumely OIl pull tractor we now use for the
power....we get a lot of compliments on "our rig".
 

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