Manure spreader

A modern manure spreader

A manure spreader or muck spreader or honey wagon is an agricultural machine used to distribute manure over a field as a fertilizer. A typical (modern) manure spreader consists of a trailer towed behind a tractor with a rotating mechanism driven by the tractor's power take off (PTO). Truck mounted manure spreaders are also common in North America.

Operation

Manure spreaders began as ground-driven units which could be pulled by a horse or team of horses. Many of these ground-driven spreaders are still produced today, mostly in the form of small units that can be pulled behind a larger garden tractor or an all terrain vehicle (ATV). In recent years hydraulic and PTO driven units have been developed to offer variable application rates. Several models are also designed with removable rotating mechanisms (beaters), attachable side extensions, and tailgates for hauling chopped forages, cereal grains, and other crops. A typical (modern) manure spreader consists of a trailer towed behind a tractor with a rotating mechanism driven by the tractor's power take off (PTO).

History

An advertisement for a J.S.Kemp model spreader

The first successful automated manure spreader was designed by Joseph Kemp in 1875. Manure spreaders began as ground-driven units which could be pulled by a horse or team of horses. At the time of his invention, he was living in Waterloo, Canada, but thereafter, he moved to Newark Valley, NY and formed the J.S. Kemp Manufacturing Co. to manufacture and market his current and subsequent designs. In 1903, he expanded the company to Waterloo, Iowa before selling the design to International Harvester, in 1906.[1][2][3]

The original New Idea spreader design. Note the paddle system at the rear that creates the 'widespreading' effect.

Joseph Oppenheim of Maria Stein, Ohio was the inventor of the first modern 'widespreading' manure spreader[4] and is honored as such in the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame.[5] Originally manure was thrown from a wagon.[6] Later, “manure unloaders” used a drag chain at the bottom of the wagon to pull the load of manure to the rear where it was shredded by a pair of beaters.[7] Because the unloaders deposited manure directly behind the wagon but with very little spreading to the sides, farmers still had to take the time-consuming step of heading into the fields with peg-tooth drags or similar implements to spread the manure in order to prevent burning the soil.[8]

Oppenheim, a schoolmaster in the small town, concerned that his older male students often missed school loading and spreading manure,[9] patented a wagon that, behind the drag chain and two beaters, incorporated a steel axle with several wooden paddles attached to the shaft at an angle to throw the manure outward in a broad pattern eliminating the necessity for manual spreading.[10] On October 18, 1899, Oppenheim began to produce his new manure spreader, incorporating the “widespread” paddle device.[11] Neighbors soon referred to it as “Oppenheim’s new idea” and Oppenheim adopted this name for his business.[12]

Although Oppenheim died in November, 1901, the demand for the New Idea Spreader Company’s labor-saving “widespread” machines quickly grew and fifteen years later, under the direction of his oldest son, B.C. Oppenheim, and Henry Synck, one of Oppenheim’s first employees,[13] the company, had branches in eight states and an assembly plant in Guelph, Ontario. It had total sales in 1916 of $1,250,000.[14] Eight years later, in 1924, the factory was turning out 125 manure spreaders in an eight-hour day.[15] and “became the brand that set the standards for spreader performance, durability and reliability decade after decade.”[16]

During the 1920s, Henry Synck, who became president of the company in 1936 when Joseph’s son, B.C. Oppenheim, died,[17] patented several improvements to the spreader.[18] In 1945 the Oppenheim family sold its controlling interest in the closely held New Idea Company to AVCO Manufacturing.[19] AVCO later sold the company to White Farm Equipment Company which in 1993 sold it to AGCO (Allis-Gleaner Corporation), the current owner.[20]

It is clear, however, that there were other competitors in this field, each of whom spread the manure by a slightly different technique. One of these is the Great Western Farm Equipment Line, produced in Chicago, IL.[21]

In popular culture

In the post-bellum AMC TV series Hell on Wheels, the muck wagon is a vehicle used to collect dead bodies, animal carcasses, and filled chamber pots. When The Swede is disgraced, Durant demotes him from head of security to driver of the muck wagon.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Encyclopedia of American Farm Implements & Antiques - Charles H. Wendel - Google Books
  2. ↑ Full text of "History of Black Hawk County, Iowa, and its people"
  3. ↑ The International harvester co: March 3, 1913 - United States. Bureau of Corporations, Luther Conant - Google Books
  4. ↑ U.S. Patent Office, Patent No. 648,519, Manure Distributor and Spreader for Joseph Oppenheim, Maria Stein, Ohio, Filed February 17, 1900. None of the contemporary books, local newspaper articles, magazines, trade publications, or company pamphlets cited herein indicate that any person other than Oppenheim invented or helped invent the spreader. In “Memories of New Idea,” Mercer County Chronicle, August 4, 1988, Sophia Synck Bomholt says that her grandfather, Joseph Oppenheim, invented the spreader and her father, Henry Synck, “engineered” it.
  5. ↑ “New Idea Founder Inducted in Agricultural Hall of Fame,” Mercer County Chronicle, September 4, 1969, page 1. See also: AVCO Dealer News Vol. 15, No.10, October 1969, p. 5; See also: Ohio Agricultural Council, 4th Annual Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame, August 27, 1969. Program, page 7; Oppenheim’s portrait, identifying him as inventor of the manure spreader, hangs in the Ohio Historical Building on the State Fairgrounds
  6. ↑ Cindy Birt, “New Idea: Its Start and the First 75 Years,” The Celina, Ohio Daily Standard, May 16, 1974, p. 18.
  7. ↑ Tharran E. Gaines, “100 Years of New Ideas,” FieldHAND, Spring 1999, p.8; See also: Birt, “New Idea: Its Start…” p. 18.
  8. ↑ Brian Wayne Wells, “The New Idea Spreader Company of Coldwater, Ohio (Part 1 of 2 Parts),” Belt/Pulley Magazine, Vol. 11, No. 5, September/October 1998 (accessed Nov. 8, 2010)
  9. ↑ “100th Anniversary, A Century of Excellence, New Idea 1899-1999,” Pamphlet, AGCO Corporation, 1999, p.3
  10. ↑ Wells, “The New Idea Spreader Company … Part 1”; Birt, “New Idea: Its Start…” p.18; U.S. Patent Office, Patent No. 648,519, Manure Distributor and Spreader for Joseph Oppenheim, Maria Stein, Ohio, Filed February 17, 1900.”
  11. ↑ Birt, “New Idea: Its Start…” p.18. For photographs of Oppenheim’s “widespread” new idea see: “New Idea Celebrates 100th Anniversary,” Mercer County Chronicle, September 2–8, 1999, p.9 ; See also: “100th Anniversary, A Century of Excellence, New Idea 1899-1999” Pamphlet, AGCO Corporation, pp. 1,3 and 4; See also: AVCO Dealer News, Vol. 15, No. 10, Coldwater, Ohio, October 1969, P.4
  12. ↑ Birt, “New Idea: Its Start…” p.18
  13. ↑ “Henry Synck,” Nevin O. Winter, Litt.D., History of Northwest Ohio, vol. 2, p. 874, reporting that Synck had “a genius for machinery and mechanics of all kinds” and ...”in 1899, he entered the employ of Mr. Joseph Oppenheim of Maria Stein, and gradually familiarized himself with the technique of the business until he became one of the heads of the New Idea Spreader Company.” See also: “100th Anniversary, A Century of Excellence, New Idea 1899-1999” Pamphlet, AGCO Corporation, p. 4, stating that after Joseph’s death, his widow “continued the family business with the help of heir oldest son, B.C., ... and Henry Synck, a neighbor boy who helped build the factory.”
  14. ↑ In 1917 it was said that “the New Idea Spreader became dominant and competitors were obliged to change their machines or cease business altogether.” The New Idea Spreader Company.” Nevin O. Winter, Litt. D., History of Northwest Ohio,” vol. 3, p. 1672, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago & New York, 1917.
  15. ↑ Tharran E. Gaines, “100 Years of New Ideas,” FieldHAND, Spring 1999, p.8; See also: Birt, “New Idea: Its Start…” p. 18, The company sold over 10,000 spreaders in 1926, and over 17,000 spreaders in 1927. Brian Wayne Wells, “The New Idea Spreader Company of Coldwater, Ohio, (Part 1 of 2 Parts)”
  16. ↑ ”Manure Spreader Product Review,” American Cattlemen, June 2010, Spencer, Iowa. (reviewing spreaders manufactured by six companies)
  17. ↑ Birt, “New Idea: Its Start…” p. 19.
  18. ↑ Between 1921 and 1937 the U.S Patent office issued eight patents for New Idea manure spreaders to Henry Synck (accessed February 8, 2011)
  19. ↑ “Scope Broadened by Aviation Corp., ”New York Times, October 30, 1945 stating that AVCO “will purchase slightly over 50% of New Idea’s outstanding shares from the four managing officers of the company, Henry Synck and J.A., J.H. and T.H. Oppenheim.”
  20. ↑ , Brian Wayne Wells, “The New Idea Spreader Company (Part 2 of 2 Parts)” Belt/Pulley Magazine, Vol. 11, No.6, November/December 1998, (accessed Nov. 8, 2010), American Cattlemen, June 2010, Spencer, Iowa.
  21. ↑ ^ Smith Mfg. Co. "Great Western" farm equipment line

Bibliography

External links

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