Bull and Ridley Grain Harvesting Machines - Historic Engineering Marker #5 Hindmarsh, South Australia, Australia
By Team MavEtJu on 30-Oct-15. Waypoint GA7727

Bull and Ridley Grain Harvesting Machines - Historic Engineering Marker #5

The fourth historic marker was unveiled at Rosewor thy College on August 25th by Walter Stamm, President of the Institution of Engineers, Australia. It commemorates John Wrathall Bull and John Ridley for their contributions to the development of early Australian grain harvesting technology with the stripper principle and harvesting machines. Controversy has raged for over a century as to whether Ridley had the concept before Bull and the issue still ruffles some people. Ridley was first to get a stripper to harvest wheat, but it ws John Bull who was credited publically for the stripper principle by the Praess and by displaying a mechanical model in September 1843 (while Jahn Ridley remained strangely silent at the time). Bull accordingly would appear to be rightly acclaimed as the first with the comb and beaters principle. He claimed to have struck on the idea around Christmas 1842, when he was faced with a labour shortage to harvest his wheat.

Actually, the Gauls in a Roman Province used the stripper comb on a wheeled machine around AD 70. Anyone intrigued enough to want to delve further into this subject can read about the Gallic stripper in "The Grain Harvesters. by Quick and Buchele (ASAE 1978) or can find further information about Bull and Ridley in Jones's paper, "John Ridley and the South Australian Stripper. • (History of Technology. 5:55-101, 1980).

When logging this virtual, please add a photo of yourself or your GPSr at the plaque.

For more information, please see the nomination PDF at the Heritage Register at the Engineers Australia website: https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/portal/heritage/bull-ridley-grain-harvesting-machines-1843