The first grain-harvesting combine in the Russian Empire was created by a Belarusian native from Mogilev province

BELTA

On August 24, Belarus celebrates the birthday of the national combine-building industry. 27 years ago in the field near the village of Chistye Luzhi, Vetkov district, the President of the Republic of Belarus A.G. Lukashenko made a decision to establish the production of Belarusian combine harvesters in the country. Thanks to this, OAO “Gomselmash” can now produce up to 3 thousand units of self-propelled grain and forage harvesters per year, 70% of which are exported, and each workplace at “Gomselmash” provides 5-6 more jobs in Russia and 4-5 in Belarus.

At the same time, there is an interesting fact in the national history of combine building, which Belarusian inventors can be justly proud of - the first grain-harvesting combine in the Russian Empire was created by a Belarusian. The application for a 10-year patent for «Horse - drawn Root Grain Harvester» was received from a native from Mogilev Province, a graduate of the Goretsky Agricultural School, agronomist Andrei Vlasenko on November 18, 1868.

On this occasion, «Zemledelcheskaya Gazeta» (the official publication of the Ministry of State Property of the Russian Empire of that period) wrote that Vlasenko invented a machine that simultaneously performs the work of a reaper and a thresher. It not only replaced manual labor of reapers and threshing with a chain, but also reduced grain losses up to 30 poods per tithe by 8 times in comparison with the most perfect American reaper «McCormick».

Andrei Vlasenko justified his application for the privilege as follows: «Everyone knows how much labor is consumed by bread harvesting and threshing and how often these works are associated with difficulties and losses for the farm, especially in the steppe provinces, where it is not uncommon that the bread remains unharvested... After a long search for the best method that would suit the purpose, I finally achieved, apparently, the desired result, having arranged such a machine, which removes bread directly with grain, so that only one separation of grain from chaff is required».

The Belarussian's machine consisted of a comb for combing and tearing ears, a threshing drum, bucket-type conveyor belts, sieves for sifting the pile and a hopper for the harvested grain - an exact prototype of a modern combine, which was controlled with the help of a steering wheel. The combine was pulled (or rather, pushed, because it was harnessed behind) by 2-4 horses. It was operated by two peasants - one sat at the steering wheel and supervised the stacking of grain in the hopper, the second ruled the horses and controlled the threshing machine. For comparison: the American analog, presented in 1873 at the World Exhibition in Vienna, was driven by 24 mules and a team of 7 workers.

Vlasenko obtained a patent for the invention, built four copies of the machine, and secured the support of the agronomic community of tsarist Russia, but the matter never reached mass production because of the harsh resolution of the Minister of State Property of the Empire, Adjutant General Alexander Zelenov, who said: «Our mechanical factories are not able to perform this complex machine! We bring simpler reaping machines and threshing machines from abroad».

Based on the materials of BELTA

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