Louden Hay Carrier
notes: label: Description
content: This is a hay carrier designed by William Louden of Louden Machinery Company. It is one of the first designs Louden patented for agricultural equipment. This device was used with a pulley and hayfork, so the hay could be lifted off a wagon and then moved into the barn loft for storage. The earliest designs ran on wooden rails, to be replaced later with steel.
label: Description
content: William Louden was born in 1841 in Cassville, Pa but his parents had moved to Iowa before he turned a year old. Louden had a small build and was often sick as a child, which made it harder for him to complete his farm chores. He learned at an early age he would have to change the tools he used since he could not change his physique to be better suited for farm work of that era. In 1867, he had applied for his first two patents, one was a device used to lift and stack hay and the other was used to carry hay into the barn. While not an instantaneous success, his device allowed barn architecture to dramatically change from single to two-level structures, therefore doubling the usable space.
label: Description
content: Louden started his first agricultural business in 1868, working out of space on his father-in-law’s farm. In 1870, he moved his operation into Fairfield, IA. He struggled the first few years and in 1877, he was forced to file for bankruptcy. Undeterred, he spent the next 7 years traveling to farms in the area, installing his equipment and developing a consumer base for his products. In 1887, he founded Louden Machinery Company and in 1892, he incorporated, naming his brother as President and himself as Vice-President in order to focus more on the invention and production side of the business. Over the next 40 years, Louden Machinery Company would apply for approximately 200 patents for various inventions and improvements, including the all steel cow stall, individual automatic drinking cup and the flexible barn door hanger. One of his most important inventions that would eventually over-shadow the agricultural side of the business was the supertrack overhead carrier. Manufacturing businesses quickly realized the potential for this product, and Louden quickly amended his design to better suit industrial needs. Even though Louden Machinery Company no longer exists and the agriculture line had been discontinued in the 1960s, the current owner still manufactures this overhead equipment under the Louden name.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Agriculture and Natural Resources
label: See more items in
content: Agriculture
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AG.75A09.03
label: catalog number
content: 75A09.03
label: accession number
content: 1987.0226
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Hay Carrier
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 16 in x 20 in; x 40.64 cm x 50.8 cm