Ground Hog Thresher, circa 1830
date: label: Date made
content: ca 1830
label: Associated Date
content: Ground Hog Thresher patented
name: label: Maker
content: Pitts, Hiram A.
label: Maker
content: Pitts, John A.
notes: label: Description
content: The Ground Hog Thresher got its name from its squat posture and from the rumbling and growling noises it made as it ground the grain. Threshing, the separation of the stalk and chaff from the grain, was a manual chore for centuries. Methods included flailing the grain-using two pieces of wood joined at a hinge-and having animals walk over it to break it from its husks. The grain was then thrown in the air or placed in the wind, saving the heavier grain and allowing the chaff to blow away.
label: Description
content: Early threshers attempted to replicate and mechanize these methods, but flailing machines proved ineffective. This Ground Hog used a rotating iron cylinder filled with finger-like projections to break the grain into its parts. This process combined with an endless apron of wooden slats, fixed on two chains, to carry the grain through a fanning basket. It was the first machine to combine threshing with fanning.
label: Description
content: The Ground Hog was patented by Hiram A. and John A. Pitts, of Winthrop, Maine, in 1837. Farm mechanization during this time was pioneered by innovators, both mechanics and progressive farmers. These risk-takers were usually not as wealthy as those who chose to play it safe by sticking to the old manual-labor methods of flailing and winnowing. Instead, they subscribed to "scientific farming" methods advanced by societies and clubs in the 1830s, including mechanization. By the Civil War, threshing had become widely mechanized.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: Maine, Winthrop
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Agriculture
label: See more items in
content: Agriculture
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AG.59A11.01
label: catalog number
content: 59A11.01
label: accession number
content: 230579
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Thresher, Groundhog, Ground Hog
label: Object Name
content: thresher, groundhog