Agronomist, inventor of the world's first combine harvester

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

On January 4, 1869, "Zemledelcheskaya Gazeta" reported … The Department of Agriculture and Rural Industry … announces that on December 18, 1868, a petition was received from the learned manager of the Bezhetsk district of the Tver province, Andrei Romanovich Vlasenko, to issue him a 10-year privilege for a machine he had invented called " Equestrian harvesting on the vine ". Vlasenko invented a machine that immediately performs the work of two machines - a reaper and a thresher.

In July 1868 Andrei Vlasenko invented, manufactured and tested a prototype of a grain harvester. His machine of an original design, which he called "horse grain harvesting on the vine," successfully carried out the complex process of cutting ears, transporting them to the threshing drum and threshing on the go. The threshed grain, together with the chaff, was collected in a chest, where the grain with chaff was poured.

The purpose and purpose of such a machine, as the name itself indicates, is to harvest grain directly from the root. Anyone who is unfamiliar with agriculture knows how much it takes workers to harvest grain and threshing, and with what difficulties and losses for the economy are often associated with these works, especially in the steppe provinces, where it is not uncommon that the bread remains unharvested … After a long search for the best way, which would be consistent with the goal, I finally achieved, apparently, the desired result, having arranged such a machine that removes bread directly from the grain, so that only one winnowing of the grain from the chaff is required.

Advantages of the machine 1. Cleaning becomes less dependent on the weather. The enormous amount of losses incurred by farms in the event of unfavorable weather during harvesting is known to everyone.

2. The loss of grain, which is inevitable with the current methods of harvesting, due to sprinkling of grain both during harvesting or mowing, as well as during transportation of sheaves, is eliminated; and it must be taken into account that the economy always loses the best grain. In addition, one cannot but take into account the losses from animals, birds and mice during the holding of sheaves in the field and during their snoring in stacks or sheds.

3. Great savings in workers in the summer and autumn. The essence of the invention The machine of A. R. Vlasenko had a comb for cutting off ears, a thresher and a bucket conveyor for feeding the grain mass to the threshing drum, as well as a large wooden hopper, or, as it was then called, a chest, for collecting the threshed grain. The threshing drum turned the grain mass into a heap, consisting of grain, chaff, straw, weed seeds, small lumps of soil, sand and other incidental impurities. Manual threshers only threshed bread, but did not separate grain from the heap. It was a combined machine - a combine.

Machine device 1 - comb for combing stalks and plucking ears; 2 – threshing drum; 3 - conveyor; 4-sieves for grain cleaning; 5 - chest (bunker); 6 - device for lifting the comb and drum; 7 steering wheel; 8 - drawbar.

Action of the machine The car was pulled by the horses. They were harnessed to the drawbar, and they pushed the car in front of them. The comb of the machine combed the plants, tore off the ears and threshed them with a beating drum, which was set in rotation from the left running wheel. Grain, chaff, threshed ears and straw were fed by a bucket conveyor to the cleaning sieve, where the grain and chaff fell down into the hopper, and then into the bags suspended from it. The threshed ears and straw came off the sieve and fell into other bags. The bucket conveyor was driven by the right travel wheel. The thresher together with the comb could be raised and lowered depending on the height of the plants using a special device. The comb teeth could be placed less frequently or more frequently. The drum rotation speed was regulated depending on the yield of the bread. It should also be noted that this harvester was high-speed, since it did not cut the grain, but threshed it on the vine, leaving straw in the field. Its distinctive feature was a short harvesting period and low grain losses. The machine was set in motion by 3 horses, and with thick lodged bread - by 2 pairs of horses and was serviced by 2 workers.

Tests Tests of the machine were carried out in the presence of official representatives. On the first day, she removed four tithes of oats, and on the second, in 10 hours, she squeezed and threshed more than four tithes of barley. The commission that was present during the harvesting of oats and barley praised the work and design of the machine. Ten months later, "St. Petersburg Senatskie Vedomosti" wrote … October 24, 1869. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Industry gave Andrey Vlasenko a ten-year privilege for a machine he invented that immediately performs the work of a reaper and a thresher.

St. Petersburg Gazette of the 19th century A group of scientists and landowners petitioned A. R. Vlasenko to be assisted in the manufacture of the machine. Forbidden Resolution to Release Harvesters - Threshers

The execution of a complex machine is beyond the power of our mechanical factories! We, on the other hand, bring simpler reaping stretchers and threshers from abroad. Zelenoy A. A., Minister of State Property

THE HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN COMBINE HAS BEEN INTERRUPTED BY SO SPROCKING A FLOW OF A PEN. Under the conditions of tsarist Russia, A. R. Vlasenko's grain harvester did not become widespread. In 1870, the World Exhibition was opened in Austria-Hungary, where the latest designs of agricultural machines from all countries were demonstrated. American technology was widely presented. And Russia was unable to show A. R. Vlasenko's car, since the tsarist treasury did not release funds for its transportation. The homeland of the combine is considered to be the United States of America, but judge for yourself. The harvester appeared in the United States only in 1879, the US designers were 11 years behind Vlasenko. The advantage of the Russian harvester is indisputable. The American machine was propelled by 24 mules and serviced by seven workers, and was losing "a fair amount of grain," its productivity in a 10-hour workday was four tithes. The loss of grain for the expensive American novelty was 1.5-4.5 centners per hectare. In April 1887, A. R. Vlasenko was awarded the gold medal of the Free Economic Society "for his highly useful activity."

Vlasenko's two experimental cars, which he created with his own funds, moved by two horses with one driver, worked for a long time on the estates of the Bezhetsk district of the Tver province. BRIEFLY ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THE INVENTION There is very little information about Andrei Romanovich Vlasenko. It is unknown when he was born, where. It is known that in 1865 he graduated from the Gory - Gorky Agricultural School of the Mogilev Region. Having received a certificate. arrived in the village of Borisovskoe, Bezhetsk district, Tver province, in the estate of I. P. Novosiltsev, for whom he worked as a steward for 10 years. Andrey Romanovich died at the end of 1898 - at the beginning of 1899.