Forano Thresher

Current Location:

Collection Storage Facility

Provenance:

Purchase in 1979

History:

This thresher was used on a small farm in Cantley, Quebec, north of Ottawa, between 1937 and 1955. The Fonderie de Plessisville was incorporated in 1882 and changed its name in 1941 to Forano Ltée, and in 1978 to Forano, Inc. The company was dissolved in 1987.

Technical History:

Threshing machines separate grain from the harvested plant, which is reduced to straw and chaff. The first threshing machines were stationary: powered by hand or treadmill, they increased the amount of grain a farmer could separate in a day. Wheeled threshing machines began to replace stationary threshers in the 1860s and further mechanized grain harvesting. Threshers were initially built of wood and powered by horse-powered windlasses; they were later built of steel and powered by steam traction engines and gas tractors. Threshers were in turn replaced through the twentieth century by combine harvesters, which merged harvesting and threshing operations in one machine.

This thresher, bearing serial no. 368168, is a small thresher of wooden construction, made well after most firms had switched to metal construction.