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Combined thrashing and stacking machine, 1861. Creator: Unknown. Combined thrashing and stacking machine, 1861. 'The well-known firm of Wilkinson. Wright, and Co., engineers and millwrights, of Boston, Lincolnshire, obtained the prize medal for their thrashing-machine at the Highland Agricultural Society's Show at Dumfries last year; and the firm gained further celebrity at the Royal Agricultural Society's Show held at Leeds for a new instrument called the Patent Self-acting Straw-Elevator...It consists of an endless net, revolving on four points of a framework made in appearance somewhat like that of a fire-escape. The action of the net running upwards carries away the straw as it is delivered from the thrasher, rolling it up by the vibration and holding properties of the network as it ascends into something like what haymakers call a "windrow," the narrow longitudinal proportions of which make it tolerably safe against the action of the wind, and finally delivering it on the top of the stack, apparently at any distance, point, direction, or elevation that may be required...it is so portable as to make no perceptible addition to the draught of the thrashing-machine, that it can be set to deliver its work in any direction from the machine; and that its cost is only about half that of other elevators'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861. (KEYSTONE/HERITAGE IMAGES/THE PRINT COLLECTOR)