The Cowra Crankhandle
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The Cowra Crankhandle Volume 24 No. 12 May 2017 Cowra Crankhandle Page 2 COWRA ANTIQUE VEHICLE CLUB INC. POSTAL ADDRESS: PO BOX 731 COWRA NSW 2794 ABN: 95 035 591 220 Public Liability Insurance No. AS A172000 PLB Fair Trading Registration No. Y1784746 Shannon’s web page http://carclubs.shannons.com.au/cavc Facebook web page http://www.facebook.com/CowraAntiqueVehicleClub?ref=hl Name: Cowra Antique Vehicle Club BSB: 032820 Acc. 283380 PATRON: MAURICE RANDELL Molonglo' Woodstock 2793 Ph. 6345 0283 [email protected] PRESIDENT: MR RUSSELL DENNING – 39 Dawson Drive Cowra 2794 Ph. (02)6342 3117 Email: [email protected] Mob. 0402078142 VICE-PRESIDENT: MR. WAYNE REEKS - 170 Seymour St Bathurst 2795 Ph. 02 6331 1553 Email: [email protected] SECRETARY/ CMC DELEGATE: KATHY DENNING – 39 Dawson Drive Cowra 2794 (02) 6342 3117 Email: [email protected] TREASURER/PUBLIC OFFICER: IAN REID -19 Gower Hardy Circuit Cowra 2794 Ph. 6342 1699 PLATES REGISTRAR/EDITOR: MR RUSSELL DENNING – 39 Dawson Drive Cowra 2794 Ph. (02)6342 3117 Email: [email protected] Mob. 0402078142 SCRUTINEERS: MR. KEN MASTERS MR. STEVEN BARKER MR. JIM FAZZARI MR. RUSSELL DENNING MR. IAN REID MR. VIC BOWER PROPERTY OFFICER: VIC BOWER - 17 Whitby St Cowra 2794 Ph. 0448079490 [email protected] 14051 EVENTS / FUND RAISING COMMITTEE: All Financial Members The Cowra Antique Vehicle club meetings are held on the 3rd Monday of each month at 7:30 pm at the Cowra Railway Station Clubroom Opinions expressed in this magazine/newsletter are not necessarily those of the club or the committee. Information supplied to the editor for inclusion is published in good faith; therefore responsibility for its accuracy cannot be accepted by the club, its members or the editor. Materials are invited for inclusion in the magazine and should be forwarded to the editor bearing the name of the author. Materials submitted may be edited to improve clarity or for space purposes. Cowra Crankhandle Page 3 Editor’s/Plates Notes As most know that my poor little Renault is no more, it was T boned at an unmarked intersection at Yoogali just out of Griffith. Kathy spent 6 days in Griffith Hospital with 3 broken ribs, a punctured and collapsed lung and air in her chest cavity. It took an hour to get Kathy out of the car. Both of us were bruised all over and pretty sore. Kathy is getting better, but it will be a long slow road to full recovery. Fees Now Due $25 Hugh Victor McKay 1865 – 1926 Hugh Victor McKay was born 21 August 1865, and grew up on a farm in Drummartin near Elmore, Victoria. Driven by frustration with the slow and laborious nature of farm work, and fuelled by a persistent and inventive mind, McKay searched for a better and more efficient way of harvesting wheat. At the age of 18 he developed the Sunshine stripper harvester, a machine which revolutionized farming. This interactive collection of photographs and moving footage illustrates the activities and impact of the agricultural enterprise created by HV McKay from 1900 to the late 1960s. History of Tractors in Modern Agriculture of Australia Tractors have a rich history all over the world among the most effective and most good-used tools of modern man. In this informative article, we delve into a few of the early tools and the history of farming the way they immediately revolutionized agriculture and afterward get into the source of tractors. There is a good deal to it that most folks might not understand. Sure, a lot people have played tractors as children and we all know they’re used in farming. But if you did not grow up in a rural setting, you mightn’t be comfortable with how significant so many of us are in growing most of the food. Early on in colonial times the most significant matters to a farmer in the United States of America, was his oxen and horses. Oxen were pretty much the first tractors. Farmers have consistently wanted to till the earth to sow seeds and make sure it stays productive. The most effective instrument for this occupation was a beast of burden like a horse or an oxen. Thus, until tractors were invented, animals were the primary tool for farming. Cowra Crankhandle Page 4 Oxen will pull more weight and are more powerful than horses. Horses do a great job but occasionally can founder should ploughs get worked too difficult after an extended layoff, a bit. Oxen can pretty much only get up and go. As procedures and trains of steam technology grew, we started to devise machines that could do the job of our beasts of burden. These were exceptionally heavy steam powered machines that went slowly. The traction was also called road locomotives. A number of traction were not even self-propelled but rather were transported to a place (occasionally by oxen or horse). However, these traction engines were clunky, slow, and due to their weight did not work very well on, tilled farm land that is rich. Traction engines did not continue long. Fortunately technology continued to improve and we got what’s known now as the modern day tractor. Steam power immediately gave way to the internal combustion engine that was strong. Although some used horses and oxen alongside their tractors. tractors may be turned into considerably lighter when compared to a traction engine and rapidly gained acceptance among farmers everywhere. Slowly, the cost of tractors fell as well as the quantity of hp whatever could output continued to increase. This along with the large quantity of hp they could output made horses and oxen basically out-of-date – at least with regard to pulling things like ploughs around a farm. Farm equipment dealers shortly appeared and tractor sales rapidly rose. Shortly the tractor became an essential element of life that was agricultural. Maybe this is the reason why so a lot people have a powerful affinity for classic tractors and gather things like toy John Deere tractors. Surely the John Deere brand carries weight with several folks because of this. Tractors have turned into an essential element of contemporary agriculture. Farmers cut a swath in complex designs and may also plot out things like a corn maze. Farmers illuminate whole fields with their enormous halogen lights and are even able to farm all night long. We have definitely come quite a distance from miniature hand ploughs. For every morsel of farm-grown food we have to give thanks to the modest modern marvel called the tractor! Tractors have become an indispensable part of modern agriculture. Today they have GPS guidance and using things like AutoTrac guidance technology can have crops in almost perfectly straight lines. Farmers can even plot out things like a corn maze and expertly cut a swath in intricate patterns. They can even farm all night long and illuminate entire fields with their huge halogen lights. We’ve certainly come a long way from tiny hand ploughs. So for every bite of farm-grown food we take, we should give thanks to the humble modern marvel known as the tractor! Early Innovations in Agriculture The first problems to overcome in the harsh new land was the provision of adequate food and shelter. Not surprisingly therefore, many of the country’s early innovations were to do with agriculture and food processing. Although many ideas, processes and tools were originally imported and adapted to local conditions and requirements, a good number were world first innovations that made significant impact on agricultural practices globally. English flour miller John Ridley arrived in Adelaide in 1839 with a James Watt steam engine and milling machinery, and set up South Australia’s first steam-driven flour mill. In 1843, the shortage of labour and a bumper wheat harvest led him, and a local farmer named John Bull, to develop the grain stripper that cut the crop, removed and placed the grain into bins. Ridley followed Bull’s unsuccessful first attempt at a working model two months later with a similar design that worked. The stripper was a major advance on the laborious harvesting of wheat by hand. It meant that four men could strip as much wheat grain from straw in one day as they used to in a whole harvest season. Ridley returned to England in 1853 to adapt the stripper to local conditions. Born in Renton, on Loch Leven in Scotland in 1815, James Harrison came to Australia in 1837, and became the editor of the Port Phillip Patriot in 1838. Eventually he established the Geelong Advertiser and prospered in his new land as a newspaper proprietor. While cleaning type with ether, he noticed that the metal became cold as the ether evaporated, and realised that this could be used to make ice. He built the world’s first mechanical Cowra Crankhandle Page 5 refrigeration plant, installed in a brewery in Geelong, Victoria. By 1857 his patented machine could produce 3 tonnes of ice a day, but people claimed they preferred ‘natural’ ice imported from the United States. The venture failed, as did his subsequent attempt to export surplus Australian beef to England aboard the sailing ship Norfolk, fitted with his cooling system. Now regarded as the father of refrigeration, Harrison returned penniless to Britain in 1873 to work as a journalist. Among the many expatriates who contributed much to the history of Australia was Scotsman William Arnott, who arrived in Sydney in 1848. A baker and pastry cook in Maitland, New South Wales, he eventually set up William Arnott Limited, a company which became synonymous with Australian biscuits.