Is This The First Ever 2 Row Corn Planter
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This might be one of only two models left of the first corn planter ever built, according to a recent report in a newsletter published by the Corn Items Collectors Association. It's housed in a museum at the Illinois State University. The other one is reportedly at Pioneer Village in Nebraska.
The Corn Items Collectors Association (Rt. 1, Box 111, Canton, Mo. 62435) is a group of collectors from around the country who collect anything relating to corn, such as planters, pickers, huskers, and anything made out of corn or with corn logos on them such as lamps, door knobs, dishes, and so on. Here's an excerpt from the association's newsletter concerning the Brown corn planter.
Inventor George W. Brown was born in Saratoga County, N.Y., in 1815. He lived on the farm where he was born until he was 14 when he left to become a carpenter and then to work building railroad. Soon after marrying, in 1936, Brown headed off to Illinois in a covered wagon to seek a better life. After settling in on 80 acres near Tylerville, Brown again started working as a carpenter.
In 1848 he first got the idea of turning a cultivator into a corn planter. He reasoned that he could place the shovels of the cultivator as wide apart as he wanted the rows to be. He could also place boxes of corn on the back of each shovel, so that the center of each box would be over the middle of the furrows made by the shovels. By using an adjustable slide, Brown figured he could control the kernels which dropped through openings in the bottom of each box. The kernels would then fall into the middle of each furrow behind the shovels.
The seed slide was to be operated by a man walking behind the machine. Large wooden wheels were attached to the cultivator in back of the seed boxes to fill in the furrow and level the ground after the corn was dropped.
Brown's planter grew out of these ideas. It required two men to plant 16 to 20 acres of corn a day. In 1852, Brown planted 16 acres of corn with his perfected invention. In that year he planned to manufacture 10 planters but ran out of money. That's when he decided to stake all he had upon his invention. He went into debt and sold his farm to furnish money to secure his patents.
Times were hard and manufacturing facilities were poor. Had it not been for his upright character and good name, Brown would have gotten into serious trouble with his creditors. He began manufacturing at Shanghai, Ill. After 1855, however, he moved to Galesburg. His production rose from 12 machines in 1853 to 6,000 ma-chines in 1875.
After many lawsuits, the Supreme Court of the United States declared in May, 1974, that George W. Brown was the rightful inventor of the corn planter. Soon after-wards many who had manufactured planters using Brown's patent, came forward and paid him a royalty upon the machines they had made.
Brown had magnificent shops in Galesburg with a total of 30,000 sq. ft. of floor space consisting of a foundry, polishing rooms, blacksmith shops, a wheel building, an office and an immense main building. The factory was capable of producing some 20,000 planters per year. Brown actively managed the shops until 1892 under the name George W. Brown & Co. Later the buildings were enlarged to manufacture other types of farm machinery.
Of the two planters still known to exist, one was donated to Illinois State University by Earl and George Hovenden of Trivoli, Ill., in 1973. They said their family had purchased the planter in 1855. The planter was displayed for many years at the Hudelson Agricultural Museum but is now in storage due to remodeling. The otherplanter was purchased by Nebraska's Pioneer Village from a Williamsfield, Ill., farmer who found the old relic buried under his barn.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dave Kuntz, University Museum, Illinois State University, P.O. Box 6901, Normal, Ill. 61761-9984.
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Is this the first ever 2 row corn planter AG WORLD Ag World 14-5-18 This might be one of only two models left of the first corn planter ever built, according to a recent report in a newsletter published by the Corn Items Collectors Association. It's housed in a museum at the Illinois State University. The other one is reportedly at Pioneer Village in Nebraska.
The Corn Items Collectors Association (Rt. 1, Box 111, Canton, Mo. 62435) is a group of collectors from around the country who collect anything relating to corn, such as planters, pickers, huskers, and anything made out of corn or with corn logos on them such as lamps, door knobs, dishes, and so on. Here's an excerpt from the association's newsletter concerning the Brown corn planter.
Inventor George W. Brown was born in Saratoga County, N.Y., in 1815. He lived on the farm where he was born until he was 14 when he left to become a carpenter and then to work building railroad. Soon after marrying, in 1936, Brown headed off to Illinois in a covered wagon to seek a better life. After settling in on 80 acres near Tylerville, Brown again started working as a carpenter.
In 1848 he first got the idea of turning a cultivator into a corn planter. He reasoned that he could place the shovels of the cultivator as wide apart as he wanted the rows to be. He could also place boxes of corn on the back of each shovel, so that the center of each box would be over the middle of the furrows made by the shovels. By using an adjustable slide, Brown figured he could control the kernels which dropped through openings in the bottom of each box. The kernels would then fall into the middle of each furrow behind the shovels.
The seed slide was to be operated by a man walking behind the machine. Large wooden wheels were attached to the cultivator in back of the seed boxes to fill in the furrow and level the ground after the corn was dropped.
Brown's planter grew out of these ideas. It required two men to plant 16 to 20 acres of corn a day. In 1852, Brown planted 16 acres of corn with his perfected invention. In that year he planned to manufacture 10 planters but ran out of money. That's when he decided to stake all he had upon his invention. He went into debt and sold his farm to furnish money to secure his patents.
Times were hard and manufacturing facilities were poor. Had it not been for his upright character and good name, Brown would have gotten into serious trouble with his creditors. He began manufacturing at Shanghai, Ill. After 1855, however, he moved to Galesburg. His production rose from 12 machines in 1853 to 6,000 ma-chines in 1875.
After many lawsuits, the Supreme Court of the United States declared in May, 1974, that George W. Brown was the rightful inventor of the corn planter. Soon after-wards many who had manufactured planters using Brown's patent, came forward and paid him a royalty upon the machines they had made.
Brown had magnificent shops in Galesburg with a total of 30,000 sq. ft. of floor space consisting of a foundry, polishing rooms, blacksmith shops, a wheel building, an office and an immense main building. The factory was capable of producing some 20,000 planters per year. Brown actively managed the shops until 1892 under the name George W. Brown & Co. Later the buildings were enlarged to manufacture other types of farm machinery.
Of the two planters still known to exist, one was donated to Illinois State University by Earl and George Hovenden of Trivoli, Ill., in 1973. They said their family had purchased the planter in 1855. The planter was displayed for many years at the Hudelson Agricultural Museum but is now in storage due to remodeling. The otherplanter was purchased by Nebraska's Pioneer Village from a Williamsfield, Ill., farmer who found the old relic buried under his barn.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dave Kuntz, University Museum, Illinois State University, P.O. Box 6901, Normal, Ill. 61761-9984.
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