THE TWINE KNOTTER
RALPH HUSSONG
CAMP POINT, ILLINOIS 62320.
APPLEBY, JOHN FRANCIS (May 23, 1840-Nov. 8, 1917), inventor, was
born at Westmoreland, Oneida County, N.Y., the son of James and
Jane Appleby who had but recently come to New York from England. In
1845 the parents continued their migration to try to get a fresh
start in the newer country of Wisconsin, where they established
their farm home in Walworth County. Here Appleby grew up, obtaining
a district school education in the frequent intervals when he was
not needed for work at home or on some neighbors farm.
It was when only eighteen, in the employ of a farmer in Iowa
County, that he first conceived the idea of a binder. He was
assisting in the trial of a new reaping machine, binding the
sheaves as the grain was cut, when it occurred to him that a
machine could be made to do this work. His suggestion was received
with jeers from his employer. Nevertheless, during the ensuing year
he constructed a model of a twine binder which contained the
essential elements of the Appleby knotter which binds nine-tenth of
the grain grown in the world today.
Lack of funds prevented Appleby from further developing his
knotter and when the Civil War started he volunteered and served in
the 23rd Wisconsin Infantry. While in the trenches
before Vicksburg, he had time to whittle out a new device for
rifles. This mechanism provided a magazine for cartridges and an
automatic feed device. He received a patent for this the next year
(1864) which he sold for $500, only to see it resold for $7,000.
This incident, besides supplying funds necessary to continue
experimentation, impressed Appleby with the value of invention and
made him an inventor for life.
In 1867, he was able to demonstrate his first complete machine
at Mazomanie, Wis. The demonstration was unsuccessful and earned
him the reputation of being a crank. He was encouraged by one
spectator, Dr. E. D. Bishop, who invested $1,500 in the binder. In
1872 Appleby connected himself with Parker & Stone of Beloit,
Wis. and build in their factory a wire binding machine which was
successful as a binder, but failed because of the farmers'
prejudice against wire as a binding material.
In 1874 he organized the Appleby Reaper Works to build self rake
reapers at Mazomanie. The following winter he renewed his
experiments with the twine binder at the factory of Parker &
Stone, and the next year rebuilt the machine which was then
entirely satisfactory. On July 8, 1878 and Feb. 18, 1879, patents
were issued covering the perfected machine and binder.
In the winter of 1878, William Deering, of the firm of Gammon
& Deering, recognized the possibilities of the binder and
purchased the rights to substitute it for a wire binder which the
company had been using on the March Harvester. This was the first
manufacture of the Appleby Knotter on a large scale, and marked the
beginning of its general adoption on harvesters. The McCormick,
Champion, and Osborn companies procured rights and began the
manufacture of this type of binder and all others were soon
outdistanced by its superiority. It remains today the most popular
binding machine.
Appleby was married at Mazomanie, Wis. in 1867 and was the
father of three children.
OLD TIME READERS OF THE IRON-MEN ALBUM MAGAZINE - Pictures above
are ten of the most prominent agricultural inventors of the grain
harvesting phase of farming.
It is a recognized fact that Cyrus Hall McCormick invented the
reaper and in close conjunction Obed Hussey conceived the cutter
bar with its divider snake heads enclosing the pitman driven sickle
to cut the grain with the aid of the reel to throw the grain on the
platform in an orderly manner - where it was caught up by the
invention of the canvas elevator by the Marsh Bros, of Piano,
Illinois to a platform about waist high, besides which two men
stood ready to grasp and bind bundles of proper size.
My father was a horsepower thresherman, whereby I picked up
various excerpts of the harvesting and threshing phase of
agriculture including such great men as Walter A. Wood, M. Manny,
D. M. Os-borne, Lewis Miller and last but not least, John F.
Appleby. As a student of the mechanics of agriculture, I class John
Appleby as one of the greatest inventors of the 19th Century as he
invented the knotter on the grain binder. Courtesy of Ralph
Hussong, Camp Point, Illinois 62320