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Geo. Esterly
| Name | Geo. Esterly |
| Ortssitz | Whitewater (Wisconsin) |
| Art des Unternehmens | Maschinenfabrik |
| Quellenangaben | [Wiley: American iron trade manual (1874) 172] [Bishop: History of American manufacturers 2 (1868) 554] |
| Zeit |
Ereignis |
| 1809 |
Geburt von George Esterly in Ulster County, New York |
| 1837 |
Umzug nach Wisconsin, wo er sich über 1000 acres Land in der Heart Prairie, Walworth County, sichert. |
| 1844 |
Erteilung des ersten Patent; später werden es fünfzehn. |
| 1845 |
Esterly geht nach Milwaukee und beschäftigt geschickte Mechaniker, um ihm fünf Mähmaschinen zu bauen; aber das Ergebnis ist ein Verlust von $1200. |
| 1856 |
Patentierung eines zweirädrigen Kornkultivators |
| Produkt |
ab |
Bem. |
bis |
Bem. |
Kommentar |
| Erntemaschinen |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
Vorgabe: Reapers |
| landwirtschaftliche Maschinen |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
Vorgabe: agricultural machines |
| Zeit |
gesamt |
Arbeiter |
Angest. |
Lehrl. |
männl. |
weibl. |
Kommentar |
| 1874 |
150 |
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| ZEIT | 1868 |
| THEMA | Firmenbeschreibung |
| TEXT | Belongs to the limited class of ingenious men who have become inventors by the force of necessity, and extensive manufacturers in consequence of the merits of their inventions. He was born in Ulster county, New York, in 1809, and raised on a farm, with only the ordinary school advantages. In 1837, he removed to Wisconsin, secured over a thousand acres of land on Heart Prairie, Walworth county, and engaged extensively in growing wheat, cultivating as many as three hundred and fifty acres in a year. He soon ascertained that wheat could not be grown profitably in the Far West, if harvested in the ordinary way, and set about inquiring how far the inventive genius of the country had supplemented or superseded manual labor. Obed Huzzy, of Baltimore, had invented a harvesting machine which was talked about, but he ascertained that it required four horses and ten men to cut and bind twenty acres per day, which was not a satisfactory exhibit as a labor-saving contrivance. Similar objections applied to other machines that were announced, and some which he purchased and tried proved total failures, involving a loss greater than he could afford. He was thus induced, by the pressure of necessity, to attempt the invention of something better than any of which he had knowledge, and commenced by experimenting on a style of Reaper where the horses were placed behind the cutting apparatus, and steered by a tiller, on the principle of steering vessels. He made many fruitless and costly experiments in hia bam, which he had converted into a machine shop, but succeeded in producing a machine the first season that would cut successfully ten acres of wheat in half a day. This was in 1844, and in the succeeding year he went to Milwaukie and employed what were called skilful mechanics to build for him five machines of the kind just described; but the result of this was a loss of 1200, which he was compelled to pay for machines that were only partially finished, and of no practical value. The next year he again converted his barn into a machine shop, and began the construction of harvesting machines, which proved so entirely successful that he was induced to engage in the business of manufacturing them for sale, and which has resulted in his becoming the proprietor of one of the largest manufactories of Mowers and Reapers in the west. Esterly's Reapers and Mowers, as now manufactured by him, consist of a truck wheeled single geared machine, resting on four large wheels (instead of two small ones), and the length of crank, sickle guards, and sections being so arranged as to bring the sickle sections irregularly to the guards in cutting, so as to have the sickle cutting all the time, but no more at one time than another. The truck wheels enable the team to manage and work the machine with much greater ease to themselves than on stiff-tongned machines. The single gear creates less friction, and consequently less power is required to work it. Dividing the weight and placing it on four large wheels enables the machine to pass obstructions much more easily than when all is on two smaller ones. The arrangement of the length of the stroke of the sickle in connection with the distance the guards are apart, so as to have no more cutting done one time than another, is a great improvement on the common mode, which is so arranged as to have the cutting edge of each sickle section come to the guards at the same time, thus cutting all at a blow, as it were, and consequently requiring much more power. His machine is warranted to do as much work with two horses as any double geared, small wheeled, stiff-tongued machine can do with four. Since he obtained his first patent in 1844, Mr. Esterty has received some fifteen patents for various improvements generally connected with agricultural implements. One of them is for a steel plow with a cast iron "Shin," which is designed to obviate the objection incident to ordinary plows that wear out in the part called the shin, while the remainder is good. He also patented, in 1856, a two-wheeled Corn Cultivator, arranged with adjustable plows designed to work on both sides of a row at the same time. With two of these cultivators, two boys, and two teams, he raised and thoroughly cultivated one hundred acres of corn in 1856. His was the first patent issued by the Patent Office combining these features, but since its issue many other similar improvements have been made, and now many thousand of these cultivators are made annually. Mr. Esterly's latest improvement consists in constructing a Reaper that will pick up lodged and tangled grain, and so arranged as to cut from two inches to two feet high, with a dropper attachment to the platform worked by the foot of the driver. By this arrangement the grain is carried from forty to sixty feet before being discharged, and the next time round the grain is dropped opposite the first row of bunches, thus leaving it in rows the other way. On the subject of preserving grain in this way he gives the following advice: "It should be cut in lands, say of five or ten acres, according to the weather, so as not to have too much down at any one time. As soon as one of these lands is cut, the grain should be taken up and stacked, which is done by a boy driving a wagon lengthwise of these rows with a large box on; two men, each with a barley fork, walking at the side of the wagon and pitching the bunches in without stopping, and when loaded is driven to the stack bottom previously provided, where it is to be stacked, well ventilated, and covered with hay. If very green, the stacks should not be more than six or eight feet wide, length not material, and ventilated once in ah out eight feet, which is done by stacking around boxes one foot square and six feet long, set up endways, and raised up as the stack progresses, and drawn out at the top when finished, thus leaving, as it were, chimneys every six or eight feet, and with a free circulation of air under it, and well covered, it would be about impossible to spoil or injure it. As to the expense, it is less than half the cost the usual way. In ordinary grain, three men, two boys, one machine, one wagon, and two teams are all that is needed to cut and stack from twelve to fifteen acres per day, whereas to do the same work the usual way will require eleven or twelve men, three teams, one machine, and two wagons. And not only so, but you will save nearly or quite enough to pay the expense of harvesting over the ordinary way, and in addition the straw is much brighter, softer, and worth more than when harvested the ordinary way, as it is not exposed for weeks to the dew, rain, and sun, and for the same reasons the grain is brighter, heavier, and will bring, more in market. Had the grain in the Northwest been thus harvested in 1866, it would have saved millions on millions that was worse than wasted, in consequence of the wet and grown wheat." In addition to the above machine, he has made great improvements on the Broad Cast Seeder and Cultivator, for which he is now applying for patents. The Seeder and Cultivator is fast taking the place of the Drill in the Northwestern States. Recently. Mr. Esterly had the misfortune to lose his principal machine shop by fire, but within four days after its destruction he had a temporary shop erected, and machinery in operation. He has since erected a Machine shop two hundred and twelve feet long by forty feet in width, with a line of shafting extending the entire length, and this, with a Foundry and Blacksmith shop, forty by one hundred feet, a setting-up shop thirty by one hundred feet, two paint shops thirty by one hundred feet, and other minor buildings, constitute his present works. Mr. Esterly manufactures a Reaper, Mower, and Dropper, Self-Raking Reaper, Reaper for Harvesting without binding, and also his improved Broad Cast Seeder and Cultivator. Of these he turns out a value of finished work equal to 2000 per day during a portion of the year. Mr. Esterly is the author of sundry pamphlets on the currrency, in which enlarged views of national importance are presented in a clear and forcible manner. |
| QUELLE | [Bishop: History of American manufacturers 2 (1868) 554] |
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