ODDS AND ENDS/ AUGUST 21ST

For today’s “oddity”, we have a piece of farm equipment that was used to spread seeds before horse-drawn seed drills were used.

This piece, known as a hand seeder, was developed in 1888 by Silas B. Rittenhouse. We found this seeder interesting because it’s one step past throwing seeds by hand, and the way you work the machine makes it look like you’re playing the fiddle or violin!

On one of our demonstration days, Dave Little showed us how the hand seeder works. The apparatus is attached to the bottom of a cloth bag with a strap, the strap goes around your neck and gets filled with seeds. Once you have it set up, you simply draw the “bow” back and forth to start the flow of seeds. There is a mechanical piece in the apparatus that spins fast enough to launch the seeds great distances in controlled amounts, thus making the sowing process more effective than throwing the seeds by hand!

After doing a little digging, we even came across the original patent for the seeder and the history of the man who developed it! Silas B. Rittenhouse patented the device in the United States, but the technology eventually made its way to Canada where settlers found use for it seeding their smaller fields

Click this link to go to the original patent: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/61/cb/82/2872e389193ba9/US386497.pdf

Click this link to know all about the Rittenhouse family: http://www.nmanchesterhistory.org/liberty-mills-rittenhouse.aspx

Click this link to see the hand seeder in action (video of Dave Little):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yfbWQRQ4f0q1OLott5jL_tGpZcLC4gEi/view?usp=sharing

𝓗𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 & 𝓜𝓲𝓪