Steam threshing

[olyinaz]

I know there's a few folks here who enjoy old farm equipment. This is a photo of steam threshing going on somewhere in Iowa around 1900, possibly Clarksville. From my maternal Great Grandmother's collection.




I wonder who the lucky guy is who gets to run the steam traction engine? Also, note the water wagon.

Oly

[6pt-sika]

Cool !

Unless I'm mistaken thats a Geiser engine and I'm thinking a Z1 or U2 .

Wish i could see the actual engine itself a little better and tell if it was a single cylinder or double cylinder !

[Pitchy]

Yep nice old picture

[Shasta]

Great photograph!

We used to attend an annual Steam Threshing Bee held on Labor Day weekend from 1963-1987 in Gerber, California. The old farmer that put on the event passed away at age 96, but in its heyday there were literally dozens of working pieces of antique steam-powered and gas-powered farm equipment. They did everything from threshing to plowing to sawing wood. At noon, every piece of equipment with a whistle would sound a unanimous blast, which was so loud you literally had to cover your ears. It truly was an event to see! Thanks for bringing back some fond memories.

SHASTA

[brucew44guns]

I always wondered how the threshers didn't get a good fire started in the wheat field in the dry of summer and burn up everything. They must have cleared off a space. Those guys worked for pennies a day doing some hard old serious work, yet they got by somehow.

[6pt-sika]

I always wondered how the threshers didn't get a good fire started in the wheat field in the dry of summer and burn up everything. They must have cleared off a space. Those guys worked for pennies a day doing some hard old serious work, yet they got by somehow.

Some of those old engines out in the midwest were actually fired with the straw as they threshed . When the engine was belted and at full load so to speak the firebox would literally suck the straw from the ground . I never fired with straw but I did plenty times with sawdust , wood or coal !

[clampdaddy]

Very cool! I just brought home a 1951 John Deere model A project tractor and all of the paint is worn off the belt pulley. If only that tractor could talk. It came out of hill country so I'm guessing it ran a belt powered saw.

[gamekeeper]

I had a couple of photos like that of my Dads step father threshing with steam power around the same time in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, I gave them to the local museum.
My Dad had a lifelong passion for old traction engines.