BC Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 I was round past the Heritage Museum at Alford in Aberdeenshire a while back and took some photos of a bruiser which my father has on display. It one made by Watson Bros from the North East of Scotland costal town of Banff. I have no idea when or around which period the bruiser would have been made. Anyone any idea ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerrabbit Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Most of these bruisers were made around the turn of the 20th Century and would have been part of the barn machinery driven by the belt pulley system that was in most barns at that time and earlierdriven by either a large stationary petrol engine or connected to the pulley and belt system of the barn thresher that would have been steam driven. Later ones had a kibbler mounted on them which when the grinding plates were set at various distance from each other would either just crack the corn or field beans, if the plates were set really close together would grind the grain down to dust or meal for pigs and would mill wheat down to flour. Bamfords of Uttoxeter and Albion in Lancashire made the majority of these machines and other manufacturers dabbled in making them. They come in all sizes from just a small basic 'two peck' hopper size to quite large industial sized ones. The most asthetic ones have very nice wooden hoppers. Notice in the second picture the handle under the frame below the driving pulley, this is a scraper that you would operate to scrape off any grain that was a bit damp that would stick to the roller wheels, these wheels would shine like mirrors if used regularly. The driving pulley on this one should be a flat belt type originally. When tractors came about with the belt pulley on them farmers tended to drive their bruisers from them a little bit too fast and if a stone went through it it and the leaf spring on the winding wheel tension was too tight to give enough sometimes caused the roller wheels to shatter and fly like shrapnell and many a life was lost because of this, the whole unit being made of cast iron. We always used a bruiser and I still have one with a kibbler, have put hundreds of tons of barley and oats through one over the years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BC Posted June 3, 2009 Author Share Posted June 3, 2009 Many thanks for so much informative information on bruisers Tim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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