Owens Seed Corn Grader & Sorter

On display is a Owens Seed Corn Grader & Sorter from the early 1900s that was manufactured potentially by the J.L. Owens Manufacturing Company, a company that was a prominent manufacturer of agricultural equipment, particularly fanning mills and seed graders, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This was used to separate seeds or grains based on size and weight, typically to prepare them for planting or storage. To operate you must pour the raw, unsorted grain or seeds into the top hopper of the machine, and the the grain or seed fall down the slit in the hopper, it passes through a screen with a variety of different size slits that is moved by a hand-crank on the side of the machine that shacks the screen to sort the grain or seed and anything that didn’t fits gets to ends the end where is is throw the machine, a second mesh screen is underneath the first screen that also sorts the grain or seed. Then you will have piles of sorted grain.

Artifacts Are Us