threshing

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Wheat threshing in Nepal

Threshing means the mechanical process of leaching of the grains in the harvest of Druschfrüchten . From the resulting mixture of straw, chaff and grains, the straw (long and short straw) is first sieved, then the chaff and grains are separated. The threshing of the seeds of legumes from the pods takes place in a similar way, including by riding. To do this, a horse pulls a weight over the grain.

history

Burial chamber of Menna , the king's scribe, scene: threshing grain (Egypt, 1422–1411 BC)
Flail threshing in the
Roscheider Hof open-air museum

Since the earliest grain processing in the Neolithic , the question of the devices for threshing has arisen. The simplest tool is the threshing stick . Threshing sticks are first documented in the settlement of Egolzwil 3 at the time of the Egolzwil culture (around 4200 BC). The threshing sledge is also a very old device that can be archaeologically proven by the flint scratches used . The oldest images of threshing sleds come from Uruk (4th millennium BC). There is no evidence of its use in Central and Northern Europe.

The "riding out" by cattle is evidenced by representation in Egypt and in the Iliad :

As when a man yokes broad-foreheaded bulls ,
white barley to be threshed on a leveled threshing floor ;
The grain is easily crushed by the step of the roaring cattle .

The flail is an improvement over the threshing stick in terms of effort, since the flail can be rotated with less force than striking with a threshing stick. Flails have already been proven in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, among other things as an attribute of fertility on images of Osiris . They were used - also in parts of Europe - until the middle of the twentieth century.

The threshing block (also called threshing roller) further simplifies the work. It is a conical roller that is pulled in a circle over the grain by a horse. Such a device is shown and explained in the museum village of Cloppenburg .

In modern times, these devices were replaced by threshing machines , which ultimately led to the development of the mobile combine harvester . Today this has different harvest attachments depending on the fruit to be harvested.

procedure

Ear after removing the kernels by threshing

Whether with a threshing stick, sledge, roller, flail or by riding out - it is important to loosen the dry fruit from the ears , husks or pods . This is done on a reasonably flat, smooth surface, e.g. B. an open-air threshing floor laid out with stone slabs or the threshing floor of a farmhouse. Then the long straw is removed with a fork . The remaining mixture of short straw, fruits and dust must be cleaned. This is done by hand by air classification using a Worfel or in a Rotationsworfelmaschine (also winnowing or dust mill called). With the latter, the light straw and dust are blown away by the wind generated. The heavy fruits fall through sieves and slide over an inclined plane into a container, from which they can be filled into a sack with the shovel.

Threshed fruits

The various types of grain ( barley , wheat , rye , maize , triticale ) or panicles ( oats ) are primarily referred to as threshing fruits. Other threshed fruits are legumes ( beans , peas ) and oil plants ( rapeseed , sunflowers , soy ).

Threshing grain in Međimurje , Northern Croatia

In a broader sense also all the seeds of agricultural crops, such as grass, hemp, tobacco or different intermediate crops Druschfrüchte.

Threshing types on threshing machines

With the advent of the combine, it became possible to harvest and thresh the fruit to be threshed at the same time, the combine . It is also possible to equip the combine harvester with a pick-up rather than a cutting unit that picks up grain that has already been cut but not yet threshed. This form is known as a swath threshing . A crouch threshing is the threshing of bundles of grain with a free-standing thresher , while free- standing threshing usually involves placing loose grain in the thresher and threshing it out. Stand threshing, crouch threshing and swath threshing are more time-consuming and less economical than combine harvesting when harvesting grass seeds.

Colloquial language

Colloquially, the term is used for hitting such as threshing balls or thrashing children and in certain fixed formulations such as threshing phrases .

literature

' Franz Olck : Threshing . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume V, 2, Stuttgart 1905, Col. 1700-1706.

  • Heinrich Beck , Günter WiegelmannThreshing. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 6, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1986, ISBN 3-11-010468-7 , pp. 180-184.
  • Alfons Eggert: Threshing. A little history of the grain threshing . Ardey, Münster 1997, ISBN 3-87023-086-X
  • Hermann Kaiser: Flegel - Göpel - threshing machines. How hard work was made easier and jobs were lost . (= Materials & studies on everyday history and folk culture in Lower Saxony; issue 28). Museumsdorf Cloppenburg, Cloppenburg 1997, ISBN 3-923675-66-6
  • Johann Georg Krünitz : The art of threshing both older and more recent times, described mechanically and viewed economically . Pauli, Berlin 1776 ( digitized version )
  • Jutta Meurers-Balke , Jens Lüning: Experiments on processing spelled grain. Experimental archeology in Germany. Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Nordwestdeutschland, Beiheft 4, 1990, pp. 93–112.
  • Ralf Vogeding: wage threshing and machine threshing. A folklore study on the mechanization of agricultural work in Westphalia, 1850-1970 . 1989 ( full text as PDF )
  • Horst Eichhorn: The combine harvester in the grass seed harvest . In: Landtechnik . tape 16 , no. 21 , 1961, ISSN  0023-8082 , p. 752-758 .

Web links

Commons : Threshing  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Jutta Meurers-Balke 1985: Experiments on the cultivation and processing of prehistoric grains. Archaeological Information 8, pp. 8–17.
  2. Jutta Meurers-Balke, Jens Lüning 1990: Experiments on early agriculture. An overview of the experiments in Cologne from 1978–1986. Experimental archeology in Germany. Archaeological Communications from Northwest Germany, Supplement 4, pp. 82–92.
  3. Christmann, E. 1985: Recovery of antique farm equipment. Philological and factual information about the Trier and the Rhaetian threshing floor as well as the Roman threshing stick . In: Trier Journal 48, pp. 139–155.
  4. Jens Lüning: The band ceramics. First stone age farmers in Germany. Pictures from an exhibition at the Hessentag in Heppenheim / Bergstrasse in June 2004. 2005, p. 89.
  5. Homer : Iliad , 20, 495
  6. "Threshing roller passes baptism of fire" - A replica is shown for threshing.
  7. Replica of a threshing cone in Aperberg
  8. A drawing of a threshing block can also be found on the website "Threshing and cleaning" ( memento of the original from August 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . There this invention is assigned to the mill builder Andrew Meikle . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bauernhilfe-russland.de
  9. Eichhorn, p. 754, Fig. 4