THE FIRST WINNOWING MACHINE.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2463, 9 February 1881, Page 3

THE FIRST WINNOWING MACHINE.

Mr James Dawson contributes to tbe “ Australasian ” the following account of the invention of the winnowing machine, so useful to farmers Towards the end of the la§t century my mother’s uncle, Mr Meikle, a millwright and agricultural implement maker in Lasswade, near Edinburgh, being of a highly inventive disposition, and hearing from some of the captains of vessels trading between Leith and Holland, that a machine for winnowing the chaff from grain had been invented by a Dutch mechanic, determined to go over and get a sight of it, that he might make one and introduce it to his countrymen ; but to his chagrin and disappointment on arriving at his destination he found the doors of the workshop closed against all foreigners likely to pirate the invention. Not to be defeated Meikle dressed himself in mechanic’s clothes, and with a hammer stuck in the belt of his leather apron — blacksmith fashion —asked employment. And as he was willing to “ hold the candle ” or weild the fore-hammer, besides being a “ wandering Scot,” not a rara, avis in Dutch sea ports, he was at once engaged by the foreman of the manufactory. Meikle assumed such simplicity and canny ways that no

precautions were considered necessary to exclude him from the sanctuary of the winnowing machine. On the contrary, lie helped the mechanics to construct one, and such good use did he make of his opportunity that in a short time he returned toLa<swade and completed a “ fanner,” quite equal, if not superior, to the Dutch model.

Previous to this time, even the most advanced agriculturists in Scotland, and in every other country, depended on the wind to blow the chaff from the grain; and, that every advantage might be taken of a breeze, the standings were generally built on a knoll, and the barns containing the threshing-floor were constructed with a large doorway on each side to admit a free current of air to carry the chaff away. As the introduction of the “ fanner” by Meikle was destined to obviate this uncertainty of wind, and the occasional loss of time thereby, every intelligent farmer hailed with delight the advent of the new machine. But it was not so with the auld wives of the lower order, for apart from the blacksmith’s bellows, they looked upon any machine capable of raising the wind as a pure invention of “ Auld Nick’s,” and corn cleaned by such awful mears as “ Deevil’s wund” as quite unfit for man or beast; and such was the prejudice and the excitement caused by this infernal machine that the mealmonger could not sell a peck of oatmeal until, by stretch of conscience, their customers were assured that the corn had been cleaned in the usual way, by “ God’s wund.”