Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 146, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 June 1911 — Thrashing Machines. [ARTICLE]

Thrashing Machines.

The flail is the most ancient instrument for thrashing grain, although it is possible that the trampling of the straw under the feet of horses, oxen and men is a close second. The Romans used a machine called the “Trlbulum,” a sledge loaded with stones or iron, and drawn over the grain sheaves by horses or oxen. The first machine attempted in modern times for the work of thrashing was Invented by eno Michael Mengles, of Edinburg, about 1732. Some 30 years later Andrew Melkle built a similar machine. It was not until the latter half of the ninenteenth century, however, that the thrashing machine reached anything like its present perfection.