An 1894 drawing of Appleby’s Binder and Knotting Device.
A Brantford, Ontario area heritage organization—the Canadian Industrial Heritage Centre (CIHC)—is putting out a call to the Canadian agricultural community in hopes of locating a rare piece of machinery that helped transform grain harvesting around the world.
The CIHC is preparing an exhibit on the history of the cordage industry—including Brantford Cordage, once one of the most successful binder twine producers in the British Empire. The proposed exhibit is still in its planning stage, and the CIHC is gathering materials and community input as it develops the final display. To tell that story properly, the group is hoping to find an example of John Francis Appleby’s Knotting Mechanism for Grain Binders, the breakthrough invention that created the global demand for binder twine and reshaped harvest practices in the late 1800s.
Before Appleby’s knotter, harvesting grain by hand could take nearly 15 hours per acre. With mechanical binding, that same acre could be harvested in a fraction of the time—roughly one tenth—helping fuel a dramatic rise in grain production and exports across North America.
By 1900, US grain exports had climbed from 5 million bushels in 1850 to 200 million, driven in part by the efficiency of binder twine machinery.
The CIHC hopes to display either a complete knotter mechanism or a model that demonstrates how the device worked. The group is open to borrowing a unit for the exhibit or purchasing one, if necessary.
The CIHC already maintains a significant collection of Cockshutt equipment housed at the Waterford Heritage & Agricultural Museum in Waterford, Ontario, and sees the binder twine story as a natural extension of its agricultural industry interpretation work.
Anyone who owns an Appleby knotter, knows of one in a private or museum collection, or has information that could help locate one, is encouraged to contact the CIHC.
Contact:
Bill Darfler
Canadian Industrial Heritage Centre
Email: info@canadianindustrialheritage.com
Farms.com will continue to share updates as the search progresses.