Posted 6 years ago
AnythingOb…
(1778 items)
Or at least that's what I've always understood this thing was supposed to be, because that's what Mom always called it. (I don't know why, but it doesn't seem illogical?) She is the one that actually got it someplace (I also have no idea where, nor when) and cleaned/painted its metal parts, sometime right abouts the same time I myself came into her and Dad's life...it (like me) then continued to hang around the house someplace (serving as a plant stand, shoved off to one side of the garage, or whatever?) during my entire childhood/etc., until it ended up getting advertised (and pictured) as 'for sale' in their downsizing auction last summer. (thus, I couldn't re-appropriate it beforehand <groan>) I think the auctioneers were intrigued with it too...the auction Co. owner and I talked about it briefly after the sale and he shared that he'd also tried to research what it was, with absolutely zero results. Oh and BTW, yes I did actually *buy* it (back) at the sale for just $25 or so, once the only other bidder (actually one of my distant cousins) realized he was bidding against me and quit...thank you cousin David... ;-) :-)
But back to the machine. It is a mostly wooden framed 'chute-shaped' thing, standing about 3' tall and slightly under 4' long. Turning the heavy cast iron crank handle causes the pair of wooden roller drums fitted with meshing metal 'knives' (? guessing they might have once been sharper than they now are??) to rotate around together via iron gear teeth on their ends, both rollers and the crank being fixed in a cast iron frame. There might have been something else mounted just outside of the rollers on two 'studs' which unexplainedly are also cast into the frame. There are absolutely no marks or maker's info on it.
It, again 'as I understand it, without any factual basis whatsoever', was something used in the late 1800's-early 1900's, when hemp was only a simple cash-crop (like cotton or wheat or whatever) with many very practical uses. (making rope, for example...) Before the "reefer madness" craze (1940's ish) which kinda turned "hemp" into (SCARY!!! BE AFRAID!!! BE VERY AFRAID!!!) "mar-i-ju-wanna" <sigh> the stuff grew by the fields-ful in the middle USA. (and still does in some places, waiting to be discovered by corn de-tasseling crews, maybe, who then gain nothing but major headaches if they try to smoke it...but that's all more total conjecture of course...?)
This thing was supposedly used to break up the stalks of the hemp plant into a more raw form of 'fiber' which would in turn become something else -- rope or fabric or paper or whatever. Indeed it seems like it would quite thoroughly "chew up" whatever would get fed into it...??
And one way or the other, especially since "medical marijuana" is soon coming to The Natural State, this just seemed like "a thing" which would be fun to still keep hanging around, now at my house instead of my folks'. :-) If anybody knows or recognizes *anything* about this, I'd SO VERY MUCH love to hear your thoughts?!!!
Thanks so very much to:
Anik
officialfuel
Brunswick
farmlady
pw-collector
SpiritBear
elanski
fortapache
irishcollector.
Collectables59
Horseradishman
blunderbuss2
&
fleafinder
for sharing your <likes> and <loves> for this strange old thing!! Thomas, the more I think about it, I do like the (inadvertent?) idea that some or other now-missing 'mechanism' bolted onto the end of this machine, which would perhaps have made it more of a "rope maker" than just "hemp stalk grinder"...such a hypothetical thing could have easily also meshed with the crank-driven gears, given the arrangement of those two unexplained 'mounting studs' in the metal casting...and the crank wheel itself *does* seem kinda a little 'over-heavy' just to drive the rollerknives...?
More THANKS for tapping the <love it> button to:
iggy
RonM
MountainGirl
&
leighannrn
I appreciate all y'all stopping by and having a look!! :-) :-) :-)
I've seen smaller tabletop versions of this that were used to cut clover for rabbit feed.
Szerintem azon a két csavaron egy véd?burkolat volt , hogy ne lehessen benyúlni a két henger közé , mert levághatja az ujját.Egy mez?gazdasági múzeumban dolgozok ott több ehhez hasonló gép van. Az a dolguk , hogy a kukoricaszárat, más növényi részeket összevágják vele a szarvasmarhák részére , mert nekik nincs metsz?foguk.
hotairfan az a kisebb nem nyulak számára készült , hanem kis csirkék , kacsák , libák számára vágják össze a lucernát . A nyulaknak van elég foguk ?k jól rágnak .
https://www.google.hu/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjcvqDG-JTeAhXB0aQKHbveCKkQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhirvivo.pazmand.hu%2F2014%2F07%2F30%2Fa-pazmandi-szecskavago%2F&psig=AOvVaw0AFaxC82Dn-jmXP8X1yaNI&ust=1540122130767013
https://www.google.hu/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjQuYSK-pTeAhWysqQKHdHxDH8QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Frackablog.blogspot.com%2F2013%2F&psig=AOvVaw3c9FNJr4NXuoWQkjshwwjy&ust=1540122302594226
The name for this device around here, in Hempfield Township no less, is a "Flax Breaker." Flax & hemp have a hard brittle shell, like a straw, around the inner fibers which are used to make thread (flax) or rope (hemp). The stalks are fed into the flax breaker and it crushes the shell and most of it falls off. Then what remains is pulled through a really nasty rectangular comb called a "heckle" or "hetchel," made with rows of dozens or hundreds of 3-4" long steel spikes with needle-sharp points. This combs out the remaining bits of the shell and the remaining product, which looks like beautiful blonde hair, is sent to the spinner and made into thread to make cloth, or twisted into cord to make rope. (This is where we get the term "flaxen haired" for a woman with lovely blond hair.).
nagyon szépen köszönjük Karl-Fodor, and thanks very much to UncleRon too!!
The machines shown in Karl-Fodor's links indeed seem to be similar (if maybe slightly larger) to mine. UncleRon, I appreciate all your further info too -- searching around for 'flax breaker' has revealed lots of interesting old machinery and information that I probably wouldn't have discovered otherwise. Though I haven't yet found pics of another machine *exactly* like mine, I'll sure be more confident answering if somebody ever points at it and asks "what's that thing?"
<lol>
THANKS ALSO for the continuing <love its> to hotairfan, Horseradishman1, Karl-Fodor, TheGateKeeper, ho2cultcha, and Vinyl33rpm!! :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
https://hu.museum-digital.de/portal/singleimage.php?objektnum=27229&imagenr=37754
https://www.google.hu/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwit4NOB7JreAhWSM-wKHShaCdwQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fonatokcsomok.eu%2Fgaleria.php%3Fid%3Dmagyar%2Fhagyomanyok%2Ffototar%2F2%26lang%3Dhu&psig=AOvVaw21DeYpYthDwvhBr5Groknm&ust=1540324670289232