Late 1890s to Early 1900s Johnston & Linihan Improved Gem Grain Grader

Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, many farmers on the North American prairie used a fanning mill to help separate, grade, and clean seeds for the new planting season.¹  To separate meant to divide seeds into their various plant species.  To grade meant to sort the seeds to better ensure that the best quality seeds ended up in the ground for the next year’s crop.  To clean meant to remove weed seeds, chaff, and other debris so that only the desired crop seeds were left to be planted.  In order to accomplish the task of separating, grading, and cleaning the seeds, the farmer used a series of boards, screens, and sieves which he placed in notches inside the machine, into a hinged box called the shoe.  The boards, screens, and sieves have wire mesh with different sized spaces between the wires.  You can see examples of a screen and sieve on top of the machine on display.  Depending on the seeds being separated, graded, and cleaned, the farmer could follow the directions which came with the fanning mill, or the farmer could experiment to see which combination of boards, screens, and sieves worked best for the specific job.  As you may notice on the side of this machine, the Gem Grain Grader here has some directions for grading and cleaning certain seeds.

A view looking at the shoe holding several
screens and sieves.

In order to use the fanning mill, the farmer dumped the unsorted and uncleaned seeds into the hopper at the top of the machine and turned the crank handle on the side.  As the crank moved, so did the axle connected to the crank.  As the axle moved so did a series of paddles attached to the axle.  These paddles acted like a fan, creating an air current that blew across the boards, screens and sieves.  As the farmer turned the crank, the boards, screens, and sieves shook inside the shoe, causing the seeds which could fit between the spaces of one screen or sieve to fall down to the next.  The air current blew out light debris and moved around the lighter seeds to aide the sorting process.  By combining the air current with the shaking movement, the fanning mill separated seeds of different weights, shapes, and sizes much faster than a person separating them by hand.  This was a significant change from the hand sorting done by people up into the 1800s and, in many places, 1900s, especially when you consider a 1916 estimate that ‘there are from 700,000 to 1,000,000 wheat berries, about 12,500,000 alfalfa seeds, and as many as 120,000,000 timothy seeds in a bushel.”²  To get a feel for the operation of a fanning mill, along with its sounds, you can view a short video of two men cleaning barley seeds by clicking or touching here.  For a shorter video of a fanning mill being operated without seeds, click or touch here.

A sideview of the fanning mill. You can see the fan with one
of the paddles inside the machine. The wire running across
shakes the shoe as a person turns the crank.

The maker of this fanning mill, Johnston & Linihan of Kalamazoo, Michigan, appears to have come into business sometime in the mid-to-late-1890s.  In the 1895 Kalamazoo directory, William Hazel Johnston was listed as a “traveling man,” and Michael E. Linihan was listed as a laborer.³  In the 1899 directory, however, they were listed together as Johnston & Linihan, makers of the Gem Grain Grader.⁴  The 1904 Bradstreet’s Book of Commercial Ratings, Michigan listed them as makers of fanning mills, as did the 1906 Kalamazoo directory and the 1907 Michigan business directory.⁵  Further research is needed to uncover a more detailed identity for this company.  The Gem Grain Grader here at Stuhr Museum was used in the early 1900s on a farm near Gresham, Nebraska.

The worn instructions for setting up this fanning mill to
grade or clean a variety of seeds.

Notes

¹ A good early twentieth century source describing the use of a fanning mill is J. Brownlee Davidson, Agricultural Engineering: A Text Book for Students of Secondary Schools of Agriculture Colleges Offering a General Course in the Subject and the General Reader (St. Paul, MN: Webb Publishing Company, 1916), pp. 282-286.

² Davidson, Agricultural Engineering, p. 282.

³ The 1895 Kalamazoo City Directory pages for William H. Johnston and Michael E. Linihan can be accessed at www.kalamazoogenealogy.org/Directories/1895 Ci/100.htm and www.kalamazoogenealogy.org/Directories/1895 Ci/117.htm, respectively.

⁴ F.A. Corey’s Annual Directory of Kalamazoo City, Comprising a Street and Avenue Guide Together with Corporation, Co-partnership, Residence and Business Directory, vol. XVI (Kalamazoo, MI: Kalamazoo Directory Co., 1899), p. 289.

⁵ Bradstreet’s Book of Commercial Ratings, Michigan, Selected under Specific Agreement, from the General Volume, Which Is Copyrighted (New York: The Bradstreet Company, 1904); Ihling Bros. & Everard’s Kalamazoo City and County Directory, 1906, Comprising Miscellaneous Information Regarding City and County Officials, Churches, Societies, Etc., an Accurate Guide to the Streets of the City, an Alphabetical Record of Names, Occupations and Residences, a Classified List of Business and Professions, Concluding with a Complete Directory of the Villages of the County and the Farmers Owning Property Therein {Detroit: R. L. Polk & Co., 1906), pp. 337, 621; and the Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory also Containing a Business Directory of Windsor and Walkerville, Ontario, 1907-1908 (Detroit: R. L. Polk & Co., 1907), p. 1275.