How much?

In John B's photos below, the last picture shows a steam tractor providing power to shell corn. How much wood and how much water would be used in a day when doing that kind of work??? Would they possibly recycle the cobs as they shelled? Or did they save the cobs for the outhouse.? lol gobble

tom
We never used one to shell corn but did a lot of wheat and oats with a steam engine and trashing machine. Of course I was only 9 years old +/- at the time. I remember the operator adding water to the engine from a tank up on the side and as to the wood, this one was coal fired. So I can't answer those questions. Know as to the out house, that hung around till I was 14. NO we did not use CORN COBS. LOL though last years Sears catalogs were often recycled. Now the $ 24 question , why was the sears catalogs preferred over others?? ( answer tomorrow )
Jo

I cant account for any of the amounts but I can tell you that corn wasnt really run through the thresher because most of them were spike tooth units rather than rasp bars. That would have made a mess of the corn.

Most corn was gathered on the ear and shelled with a hand crank sheller for the chickens and ground whole (on the cob) for the cows. Some folks had stationary shellers for corn to feed hogs.

Later on some folks got mounted or drawn picker with sheller attatchments.

Cobs had lots of uses. Fuel in the kitchen range and heating stoves. Cob burners in water tanks, livestock bedding. Nothing was wasted.

Sears used thin, cheap paper without the "slick" finish of other catalogs.

In the early Grampa Tatro had a corn sheller, thresheing machine and a clover huller which he powered with a Case Steam engine. Not sure of the sheller capacity (bushers per hour) at that time but maby 500 bph., well above the capacity of a hand crank sheller whose primary use was to shell the ears of corn the farmer had set aside for next years seed. The shellers I grew up with and used in the '60' and beyond (Ottawas, M&M,John Deere, Joliet, Western, ect.) had capacities of 1000 BPH with the Cook having a pontential of 2000 BPH. All of this was based on condition and mositure content, test weight of corn, and other factors. With the John Deere Model 6 powered by a Farmall 560D I could averege 1000 to 1200 BPH. Now after the cribs were full and there was still corn standing in the fields (before the combines got picker heads and could efficiently harvest and shell standing corn) Farmers would trade help the corn shellers would set up in the field and it would take 3 or 4 corn pickers to supply corn to the sheller to keep the sheller supplied with corn. By the way the corn shellers where usually owned by a farmer who would custom shell for different farmers maby shelling from 100,000 to 200,000 bushels per year. I started custom shelling in the late '60's and the combines were becoming more popular. Now the shelling is mostly done at farm shows as the combines have taken over. Armand

I need to edit a mistake and add a few thoughts. Grampa Tatro had his equipment in the early 1900's. The steam engines would burn whatever fuel was handy: cobs, coal, straw, wood, ect. Now keep in mind that you had to watch what was coming from the stack as the smoke could contain hot embers which could cause fires if you weren't careful! Maby somebody with a working steam engine will talk about the actual water and fuel comsumption. Done now (I think!) Armand

That is an interesting question! I can't answer your question directly because I don't know how much power is takes to run the sheller.

Summarizing from a recent reprint of "Case Steam Engine Manual":

4 gallons of water per Brake Horse Power developed per hour.

4.5 pounds of coal per Brake Horse Power developed per hour.

A cord of good hard maple or hickory wood = 1 ton of soft coal.

A cord of red or black oak = 1500 pounds of soft coal.

A cord of dry poplar or pine = 800 to 900 pounds of soft coal.

2.5 to 3 tons of dry straw = 1 ton of soft coal

2.5 tons of dry corn cobs = 1 ton of soft coal.

200 gallons of fuel oil = 1 ton of soft coal. (Does this sound accurate?) And 2 1/2 cents per gallon fuel oil = $5 per ton coal.

If that information is accurate:

A steam engine produceing 20 HP continuously at the pulley , or 25 HP on an 80 percent duty cycle (a big thresher?) would consume:
20 HP x 4 gallons water/HP-hr = 80 gallons of water per hour,
and 20 HP x 4.5 lb coal/HP-hr = 90 pounds of coal per hour.

The scary part is:
90 pounds of coal per hour x (200 gallons fuel oil per 2000 pounds of coal) = 9 gallons of fuel oil per hour for that 20 HP. I knew the old steamers were inefficient but I didn't think they were that bad.

2000 pounds/ton soft coal / 4.5 pounds coal/HP-hr = 444.4 HP-hr per ton of soft coal.

If 200 gallons of fuel oil equals 1 ton of soft coal:

444.4 HP-hr / 200 gallons of fuel oil = 2.22 HP-hr per gallon of fuel oil.

Modern diesel tractors produce around 16 Hp-hr per gallon of diesel fuel. The term fuel oil may have meant distilate or tractor fuel (all fuel?) rather than todays furnace fuel oil.

Would anyone who runs a steam engine tell us if those figures are in the ball park?

Mike
You are right ..