Artifact Articles Archive

This is one of the first “batch freezers” produced by Emery Thompson in the early twentieth-century. Based on a design he had originally patented in 1906, this device was in effect the first automated batch freezer, used for producing ice cream and gelato. Prior to this invention, and for many years before it finally caught on, ice cream freezers were usually powered by a hand crank. By adding an electric motor, this design helped to make ice cream the mass-produced consumer...

This is the F-110 model of the two-row checkrow planter produced by the International Harvester Company between 1936 and 1940. Like most pre-war planters, this model was adapted from a horse-drawn design and used the “cross-check row” practice. This practice used a series check-lines which cause trip-levers to activate the seed-drop mechanism, depositing hills of corn in a checkerboard pattern across the field. This method was seen as more amenable to horse-drawn cultivators, and...

This machine is a seed drill, or seeder. The seed drill essentially gave farmers a faster and more efficient method to plant their fields, which would require copious amounts of labour if it were to be done by hand. Before the invention of the seed drill in 1700 by Jethro Tull, an agricultural pioneer, farmers would have to do just that, carrying their seed in a bag around their shoulder and walking up and down the field, throwing or broadcasting the seeds. This method was both tiring and...

The manure spreader removed the tiring process of spreading manure by hand, making the work of fertilizing the fields much more efficient. The manure spreader would be drawn by a horse or, in later years, a tractor. The beaters (spikes or blades), located at the rear of the machine, and the web (conveyor belt) would be powered by the wheels. The speed of the web would determine how heavily the manure was spread onto the field. Canadian farmers of the early twentieth century could purchase...

This device combines the inventions of the barrel churn with an animal-powered wheel. While the exact year this particular device was made is unclear, it is based on a design developed in the late-nineteenth century. The animal-powered wheel was used to power everything from sewing machines to bicycles to washing machines. While dogs were the most frequently-used animal for this task, sheep were also sometimes used as a cheap and reliable alternative. The idea of using animal power to...

This artifact is a cant hook, a traditional logging tool that was used to assist lumbermen in working with logs in sawmills. It consists of a wooden lever and a hinged iron hook, called a dog or catch, at the end. The dog would pass over the log and grip it, which would allow the lumberman to roll or turn the log with ease, sparing them the effort of moving them by hand. Cant hooks could also be used to load logs onto sleds or dislodge them from piles. The cant hook is similar to the...

A very important aspect of pioneer life in Canada was home butter-making. This could be achieved with the use of this device, a rocking butter churn. Butter churning was a practice that involved agitating cream in order to separate the butter milk from the yellow butter fat. This would be achieved through the constant rocking motion of the rocking butter churn, which was operated by a simple lever or foot pedal. Churning usually took place twice a week during the summer. The rocking...

This is a treadle-operated grindstone used by blacksmiths, farmers, or any other profession who worked with iron tools. It is operated by sharpening iron on the sandstone grindstone which can be rotated at varying speeds by the foot pedals. The types of tools that required frequent sharpening included plows, scythes, knives, and axes. The original design for a treadle-operated grindstone dates back to the late 1400s. Prior to this, rotary grindstones were hand-crank operated, and before that...

The Cradle scythe, also known as the grain cradle, is a modification to a traditional scythe. The traditional scythe, used in the harvest of grain, had the disadvantage of scattering the grains haphazardly in the windrows. This had the effect of making sheaving and threshing the grains difficult and inefficient. The invention of the grain cradle allowed the mower to neatly set the cut grains in the windrow without even having to bend over, saving time and grain in the process. Although it...

This milker was designed by the Mehring Company. William Mehring’s major innovation was the inclusion of a foot treadle to power the milker. This type of design was first manufactured in 1890s and were commonly seen up until the 1920s. The treadle system made it instantly attractive. Larger commercial operations appreciated the increased efficiency and ability to milk two cows at once. Smaller mixed farms could take advantage of the low physicality by allowing women and children to...