Editing Threshing machine (section)

== Later adoption ==
[[Image:Rhof-stiftendrescher.ogv|200px|thumb|Irreler Bauerntradition shows an early threshing machine (Stiftendrescher) at the [[Roscheider Hof Open Air Museum]]]]
[[Image:Rhof-windfege.ogg|200px|thumb|Irreler Bauerntradition shows a [[winnowing machine]] at the [[Roscheider Hof Open Air Museum]]]]
Early threshing machines were hand-fed and horse-powered. Some were housed in a specially constructed building, a [[gin gang]], which would be attached to a threshing barn. They were small by today's standards and were about the size of an upright [[piano]]. Later machines were [[steam engine|steam-powered]], driven by a [[portable engine]] or [[traction engine]]. Isaiah Jennings, a skilled inventor, created a small thresher that does not harm the straw in the process. In 1834, John Avery and Hiram Abial Pitts devised significant improvements to a machine that automatically threshes and separates grain from the chaff, freeing farmers from a slow and laborious process. Avery and Pitts were granted United States patent #542 on December 29, 1837.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=0000542.PN.&OS=PN/0000542&RS=PN/0000542 |title=United States Patent: 0000542 |access-date=18 July 2013 |archive-date=9 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211009202914/https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=0000542.PN.&OS=PN%2F0000542&RS=PN%2F0000542 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=When threshing machines were harvest kings|publisher=Small Business Advances|url=http://www.ledgersentinel.com/article.asp?a=6393|access-date=2010-10-03|archive-date=2010-12-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101228221134/http://ledgersentinel.com/article.asp?a=6393|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[John Ridley (inventor)|John Ridley]], an Australian inventor, also developed a threshing machine in [[South Australia]] in 1843.<ref name=ADB>{{cite book |url=http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020334b.htm |title=Ridley, John (1806–1887) |access-date=2007-08-19 |first1=H. J. |last1=Finnis |series=[[Australian Dictionary of Biography]] |volume=2 |publisher=[[Melbourne University Press|MUP]] |year=1967 |pages=379 |archive-date=2007-06-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070621010816/http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020334b.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Household Cyclopedia|1881 ''Household Cyclopedia'']] said of Meikle's machine:

:"Since the invention of this machine, Mr. Meikle and others have progressively introduced a variety of improvements, all tending to simplify the labour, and to augment the quantity of the work performed. When first erected, though the grain was equally well separated from the straw, yet as the whole of the straw, chaff, and grain, was indiscriminately thrown into a confused heap, the work could only with propriety be considered as half executed. By the addition of rakes, or shakers, and two pairs of fanners, all driven by the same machinery, the different processes of thrashing, shaking, and [[winnowing]] are now all at once performed, and the grain immediately prepared for the public market. When it is added, that the quantity of grain gained from the superior powers of the machine is fully equal to a twentieth part of the crop, and that, in some cases, the expense of thrashing and cleaning the grain is considerably less than what was formerly paid for cleaning it alone, the immense saving arising from the invention will at once be seen."

:[[File:1926 Threshing Machine.png|left|thumb|1926 threshing machine]]"The expense of horse labour, from the increased value of the animal and the charge of his keeping, being an object of great importance, it is recommended that, upon all sizable farms, that is to say, where two hundred acres [800,000 m²], or upwards, of grain are sown, the machine should be worked by wind, unless where local circumstances afford the conveniency of water. Where coals are plenty and cheap, steam may be advantageously used for working the machine."

Steam-powered machines used belts connected to a [[traction engine]]; often both engine and thresher belonged to a contractor who toured the farms of a district. Steam remained a viable commercial option until the early post-WWII years.

[[File:Batteuse - St-Michel 1.JPG|thumb|right|Open-air museum in [[Saint-Hubert, Belgium]].]]