Route 1, Assaria, Kansas 67416
When I bought the machine, I also received the patent papers for
it. This gave me a chance to see what the machine was about. As
strange as it looks, the machine is really quite simple. Basically,
Mr. Yockers did the same thing Jerome I. Case and the Pitts
Brothers did. He took a threshing device and connected it to a
cleaning device. The threshing device is a threshing machine
cylinder, but the cleaning device looks quite different than the
usual threshing machine cleaning section. The machine was made to
handle only small, not large quantities of material, so the beater
cylinder, shoes, and fishbacks are missing and really not needed.
The resulting device is nothing more than a fanning mill, and if
one would compare this cleaning device to a fanning mill or seed
cleaner, he would find the two to be very similar, Mr. Yocker’s
fanning mill even employing the side to side vibratory motion some
fanning mills used; rather than the usual up and down rocking
motion. So the machine is a cylinder connected to fanning mill,
just like the earliest threshing machines.
The patent papers describe the object of the invention to thresh
cane, Kafir corn, etc. and accomplish this result without topping
the material and without cracking the grain. The invention is then
described in detail and also how it works to the detail. At the end
of the papers, the invention, what is new and discovered, is
claimed, here I quote: ‘In a thrashing machine, a housing, a
fan casing communicating therewith, a fan in the casing, a screen
frame, means for suspending the frame, a lower screen within the
frame, a middle screen extending over part of the lower screen, an
upper screen extending over portions of both of the other screens,
and means for vibrating the frame, the main portions of the upper
and middle screens extending on opposite sides of a vertical plane
passing through their free and overlapping edges, and adjacent
edges of these screens constituting discharge edges terminating
approximately in said vertical plane, the flow of material over the
discharge edge of the middle screen being retarded at that edge by
material flowing from the upper screen.’
As a result, the method of feeding the cylinder, eliminating
topping the cane is rather novel, but not novel enough to be part
of the patent. The major objective was to construct a machine which
wouldn’t crack grain. In talking to old thresher men, what
determines what cracks the grain is the cylinder setting and the
number of concaves used, the cleaning or separating section having
no effect on cracking what so ever. But the invention, what is
described as new and different, is the cleaning part, a housing
with vibrating screens and a fan enclosed to blow trash from the
seed. So all Mr. Yocker’s invented that was new and different,
was a different variation of the fanning mill.
Nothing is mentioned about the threshing cylinder which
determines the condition of the grain. But then, nothing more was
used here than an old threshing cylinder and concaves from a
threshing machine. An old neighbor of mine who threshed wheat as
late as the early 1950’s said he threshed milo a few times with
his threshing machine and came out with good results. So what was
the problem back in 1920 with the cracked grain? The machine should
have been able to do a good job. Maybe the thresherman didn’t
know his machine that well or had a poor machine. Also the
possibility arises that whole bundles were put through the machine
and all of the extra material made it impossible to get a good
cylinder setting. But then, topping of the cane was tried, but
without success. So Mr. Yockers really didn’t come up with
anything radically new and different and maybe this was why he
wasn’t able to sell his patent. I hope one can follow my
reasoning and so-so analysis of the invention. 1 don’t mean to
tear down the invention, but when it is studied, discrepancies do
appear. But in spite of all that, the machine is a masterpiece. It
accomplished what Mr. Yockers wanted it to and did it well. The
machine is homemade, but is not a collection of junk. It is a
well-built, well-designed machine that could and did take years of
use. I think the machine is also a tribute to the American farmer
and his inventive spirit, taking materials at hand and building a
device, something nobody else has, but suited to fit the
farmer’s own particular need or needs.
As I have said before, the machine I have is the original one
Mr. Yockers built. However, it is a little different than the one
portrayed in the drawings. The front end of the middle screen
pivots on a rod and the back of the screen can be lowered or
raised, regulating the amount of trash being thrown out. The bottom
screen ends in a trough, chaff and trash settling in here are
shaken to the tailings elevator and returned to the cylinder. That
weird thing on top of the cylinder is a blower fan. Feeding the
machine was quite dirty. Mr. Yockers mounted this fan to suck up
some of the dirt and dust floating around and keep the feeding
operation cleaner. One old farmer said it helped, but it was still
a dirty job. At first, the machine was mounted on Model T Ford
axles with steel wheels on the spindles. Later this was changed to
the present arrangement of later Ford axles with roller bearings
and rubber tires. The original engine was a Model T, this was later
changed to the present engine, a 1927 Waukesha engine from an
International combine. The old Waukesha runs alright but could use
an overhaul, also the machine needs a new coat of red paint, but
outside of this, the machine is in fine shape and is always
shedded. I showed and ran the machine at the annual Wheat
celebration at Goessel, Kansas in August of 1976 and it sure drew a
lot of curious spectators. My apologies to those who saw it -1
didn’t have a sign as to what it was. With the new paint job it
is going to get, some lettering on the sides should remedy this.
But it sure was fun standing around and listening to all of the
wild notions and ideas as to what it was and how it worked! Some
speculated it was fed from the bottom, others said part of it was
missing and its use ranged from a peanut shelter to an alfalfa
huller!
In addition to having a weird-looking threshing machine, I also
have other threshing machines, tractors and engines, which I have
collected the last couple of years. One of these I would like to
share with you, the pride of my engine collection and a real jewel,
a 1905 (?) 7 HP. Monitor, ser. no. 9,981, Type V-J, manufactured by
Baker Manufacturing of Evansville, Wisconsin. According to one old
timer, this engine was originally bought and used in an elevator in
Fairmont (?), Oklahoma. After several years of use, the rod bearing
went out, knocking a hole in the back side of the base of the
engine in the process. The engine being old at the time, was
removed from the elevator and tossed in a junk pile. However, one
employee, recognizing that it could be fixed and several more years
gotten out of the engine, contacted his cousin, Fred Schroeder, who
had a farm four miles west of Goessel, Kansas. Mr. Schroeder’s
son was beginning to take full responsibility of the farm, so Mr.
Schroeder was putting together a blacksmith shop to service the
farm and other farms in the area. He had some equipment, but needed
a large engine to run his line shafts. This old Monitor his cousin
had located seemed perfect, so he hitched up his team to his lumber
wagon and drove down to Oklahoma. There he bought the engine for
ten dollars and hauled it back to Goessel. He repaired the engine
and hooked it up to his line shaft which drove his lathe, disc
roller, grinder and trip hammer. Mr. Schroeder operated this shop
from 1927 up to his death in the early 1950’s. The shop and
equipment remained intact until his son, Mr. Walter Schroeder, sold
it at his estate sale in August of 1974. There I had to put up a
battle to get the engine from some of the area collectors, but it
has been well worth it. The engine ran when I got it, so in the
next couple of weeks I cleaned most of the grease from it and
showed it at the Red Turkey Wheat Celebration in Goessel that year.
The next spring, I showed it at a gas-up of the Wheat Heritage
Engine and Threshing Company at Leigh, Kansas.
This year I have been going through the engine. I have had it
sandblasted, painted with a rustprimer paint and made up a set of
fancy trucks to move it around. Over all, the engine is in pretty
good shape, due to the excellent care the Schroeders gave it. I
have had the rod bearing repoured, the top head resurfaced, and am
having the piston done over. The engine was bored out years ago,
but the cylinder is still in good shape and the rings still pretty
thick, but the piston was sprayed with metal and run down to size,
an over sizing method that went over big in the 1930’s. This
zinc coating is peeling off and is being re-sprayed by an old
master machinist in the area.
The only other engine I have seen like it other than 6 HP.
Monitors, is a 7 HP. at Minden, Nebraska, in Pioneer Village. It is
exactly like mine, with ser. no. 6,-, but is painted blue, red and
green, which I doubt are the original colors. A fellow collector
thought that originally it was painted red with gold trim, but
wasn’t sure. So, I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has
one of these engines or has information about them.
The engine is a good show piece, runs very smooth for a
one-lunger, and is rather unusual. A few of the oddities are the
five-spoke flywheels, spark plug ignition (others at this time used
ignitors), overhead water hopper, 50 1b. cast iron gas tank, and
the engine itself, being in a vertical position with that large a
horsepower. Mr. Fred Schroeder left his mark all over the engine.
In one of the pictures you can see the patch he put over the hole
that the rod made. Also, the fly-wheel governor weight, the pulley,
the rocker arm that operates the exhaust valve, one of the side
plates over one of the main bearings, and some other small parts
seem to have been broken or missing when he obtained the engine,
and these handmade parts are examples of Mr. Schroeder’s fine
blacksmith craftsmanship.
