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Sunshine header-harvester, c.1935
Made 1935Summary
Object No.
B2400Object Statement
Header-harvester, ground drive, full size, 'Sunshine', made by H.V. McKay Pty Ltd, Sunshine Harvester Works, Sunshine, Victoria, Australia, 1935, used by the Hyland and Stapleton families of Cudal, New South Wales, Australia,Physical Description
Header-harvester, ground drive, full size, 'Sunshine', made by H.V. McKay Pty Ltd, Sunshine Harvester Works, Sunshine, Victoria, Australia, 1935, used by the Hyland and Stapleton families of Cudal, New South Wales, Australia,Short URL
https://ma.as/211927Dimensions
Height
2200 mmWidth
4200 mmProduction
Notes
The harvester was made by H.V. McKay Pty Ltd at the Sunshine Harvester Works, Sunshine, Victoria. It was first sold in 1916 both in horse-drawn and engine functioned types. The latter involved the harvesting machinery being driven by a petrol engine and the horses were only required to pull the machine along. A self-propelled auto-header was built at Sunshine from 1924.The header-harvester cut an 8 foot swathe through the crop and when horse-drawn required 5 to 6 horses to pull, according to the soil and condition of the crop. Generally 26 acres of crop could be harvested each day. The operation involved gathering, cutting, threshing, winnowing and cleaning the grain and making it ready for bagging. The comb first engaged the crop and guided it into reciprocating knives, which cut off the heads and some of the straw. The heads and straw were seized by the revolving spiral steel conveyors which carried them to the floating elevator and on to the threshing drum. The comb, knives and conveyors were adjustable to suit the crop. From the threshing drum the mass of grain and straw were delivered to the straw walker, which conveyed the straw to the rear of the machine and ejected it. The grain and chaff went on to the grain tray and then fell onto riddles and blown with a strong blast from fans which blew away the chaff. Any imperfectly thrashed grains which had reached the riddles were delivered to the seconds elevator and returned to the threshing drum for further treatment. The riddles delivered all the clean grain to the grain elevator and on to the revolving screen which rejected all the small or broken grains and dropped them into seconds box while the good grain passed into the large grain box ready for bagging.
Made
1935History
Notes
This harvester was purchased between 1935 and 1938 by the Hyland family of 'Noalmae' Cudal, in the central western area of New South Wales. The harvester was purchased from Western Stores in Orange from the salesman Mr Phil Morrisey. The harvester was horse-drawn but during the mid to late 1940s it was converted to tractor operation with the addition of a power takeoff converted at Henry's foundry at Parkes, New South Wales. The header was later sold to the Stapleton family of 'Gundamain', Forbes Road, Cudal, and presented to the Museum by Dr D. Stapleton in 1981.Source
Credit Line
Gift of D Stapleton, 1981Acquisition Date
10 June 1981Cite this Object
Harvard
Sunshine header-harvester, c.1935 2019, Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, accessed 22 September 2019, <https://ma.as/211927>Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://ma.as/211927 |title=Sunshine header-harvester, c.1935 |author=Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences |access-date=22 September 2019 |publisher=Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, Australia}}
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