By all accounts this combine, the Model 21, was the first self propelled combine to go into mass production. The first self propelled combine, the Model 20, which saw limited production, was a larger prototype for the Model 21. Developed just before World War II, Massey Harris had it in production by 1941. In spite of wartime restrictions on materials used for machinery construction, Massey, able to convince the War Production Boards of both Canada and the US to allow them to produce the Model 21 in large numbers had, by the end of the war, a huge jump on the competition. This meant that immediately after the war, the Model 21 sold in large numbers and by the end of the 40s, most farmers wanted self-propelled combines. By 1949 Massey Harris was selling 10,000 Model 21s annually.
The combine had a twelve foot cut and used a six cylinder Chrysler gasoline engine for power, as Massey never made large engines themselves. Only the earlier production machines, such as this one, were clad in galvanized sheet metal. Later combines used sheet metal painted in the familiar
Massey Red.
Given the changes in farming methods brought about by this single machine, we can honestly call it an iconic piece of machinery.
BTW - have you ever wondered why they are called
combines? It is because they
combined several different processes, previously requiring a different machine for each, into a single operation. It was Massey Harris who, in their sales literature, first used the word to describe a
combined harvester.
Here's a great
article on the history of combines, both pull type and self propelled.
Massey-Harris Combine
Donated by Scott and Linda Heuston
George Ramseier brought this Massey-Harris combine to the Creston Valley in 1942 - the very first self-propelled combine in the Valley. This model also happens to be the first self-propelled combine to be mass-produced - ever, anywhere. That makes it not only a great object from local history (it harvested grain on Nick's Island for many years), it's also a pretty fantastic example of changing farm technology.
It comes to us in a pretty direct way, too: The combine went with the property when Ramseiers sold to Charmans, and was still on the property when the Heustons bought it from Charmans.
From the Creston Museum