Threshing machine

A machine that separates cereal grains from harvested stalks and husks by beating or rubbing the crop. It mechanizes threshing, a step between harvesting and winnowing.

Threshing: The process of separating cereal grains from harvested stalks and husks. The machine mechanizes this operation by beating or rubbing the crop.
Andrew Meikle: A Scottish millwright credited with inventing an effective mechanical threshing machine in the late eighteenth century. His design helped establish powered threshing as a practical farm operation.
Harvesting: The gathering of mature crops from fields for food, feed, or other uses. Threshing follows harvest by separating grain from the cut crop.
Agricultural mechanization: The use of machinery to perform agricultural tasks previously done mainly by human or animal labor. Threshing machines were an early and visible form of farm mechanization.
Threshing drum: A rotating cylinder fitted with bars or teeth that detaches grain from crop material. It supplies the beating action in many threshing machines.
Industrial Revolution: A period of major economic and technological change beginning in Britain in the eighteenth century. Threshing machinery emerged amid wider experiments in mechanizing production.
Reaper: A machine that cuts standing grain crops and lays the stalks for collection. Reapers supply harvested stalks that can then be threshed.
Swing Riots: A series of rural uprisings in southern and eastern England in 1830, including attacks on threshing machines. Some farmworkers targeted threshing machines amid fears of lost employment and reduced wages.
Concave: A curved grate positioned beneath a threshing cylinder, forming a narrow passage for crop material. The gap between drum and concave creates the rubbing and impact that release grain.
Agricultural Revolution: A long period of changes in farming methods, land use, and productivity, especially in Britain from the seventeenth century onward. Mechanical threshing formed part of the shift toward more productive farming.

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