Design requirements of an experimental combine-harvester

This seminar begins by outlining the history of wheat cutting and threshing, briefly tracing these operations from early primitive methods to to-day's modern combine-harvester. An equally brief description is then given of the principal components of a combine-harvester. Following this, several trials conducted to evaluate the perfarmance of combine-harvesters are discussed in relative detail. From this it was revealed that the major cause of damage to grain during threshing was high threshing drum speeds. An analysis of the characteristics of some experimental machines is then made, followed by a discussion of the design features that would be preferable when considering the building of an experimental combine-harvester. A summary of the more unusual threshing methods is then presented together with several experimental methods at present in the stage of research. A conclusion was drawn from these, that possibly the best value of further investigations would be gained in perfecting the method most commonly used at present, that is, of the rasp-bar cylinder and concave method of threshing, since, taken all round, there does not appear to be any superior method at present in use, or is there likely to be in the immediate future.