Farming or Mining equipment, or what is it they are sitting on?

[Emjaybee]

Parts coloured =suggested wheel

Well Grandad took a wheel with a crank, he got the old saw bench then joined them up together

and guess what he found he had made a wim wom for a mustard mill.

[Rian]

I think that the triangular bit (for want of a better description, not being as inventive as previous posters) is a brake of some sort, or even a log holding device, rather than part of a wheel.
I quite like the saw mill suggestion: if the log was on the ground at the far side of the machine, you could have the saw wheel running from the axle that goes through the holes at the top of the piece.
Anyway, we're all waiting with bated breath to find out for sure!
 

[stockman fred]

I'm still convinced it's a saw.  There was a very similar one in use on the Old Machinery programme on Rural TV the other night (on the satellite). It was an American show and they were running restored woodworking machines and steam engines from around 1900.
I love the photo archive on the Wisconsin website, I saved it on my Favourites. Great Grandad had his first International Harvester tractor in 1917 and there are several pictures of them in the archives. We're still trying to prove a connection between Great great granny Case from Wiltshire and J.I. Case, the famous tractor man from Racine (so we can get a family discount on the next tractor )
Fred

[mike175]

I just had another look at the Wisconsin picture (see the link on my last post) . . . and it even has the strange curved/triangular "thing", except that it is hanging down instead of being upright as in Darlene's photo . . .

I'd love to know exactly what that bit is for but, like Fred, I'm still convinced it's a saw.

Mike.

[I4Favre]

I can't access the site they told me to post the picture on ,so I emailed them and asked for clarification on the site address. Hope to have some news soon on what this is!

[I4Favre]

Well, I may have some answers! My brother has been helping me to find out what this was and he came this morning with this  description:
It is a device that you put on the frozen river to break up the ice. You pull the lever down and it attaches it self to the chunk of ice, then you hitch up a team of horses and pull the ice out of the river.
So does any one think this is the answer? I may not have the wording quite right, but that is the jest of it.
Hoping to get some responses!
Darlene

[mike175]

Hmmmmm . . . .

That would be way outside my personal experience, but as a practical sort of chap I can see a few flaws in the suggestion:

First off, I can't see anywhere to attach the horses. Secondly, it doesn't explain the purpose of the 2 bearing blocks on the top of the A-frames, or of the cradle that the boy is sitting on. I admit the bottom rails do slightly resemble sledge runners, but they have very little upturn on what might be the front ends.

I might be persuaded if anyone has evidence that such operations were in fact carried out, but it's not something I've heard of; maybe they collected the ice for preserving food?

Until some more convincing evidence to the contrary shows up I'm, sticking with the logging saw theory.

Mike.

[robbo43]

I think the saw bench idea is the more likely from the look of the machine.

However, in UK & rest of Europe pre refrigerators, ice blocks were cut from lakes and rivers in winter and stored in underground icehouses.  The ice was then used through the summer months in the kitchen.  Usually associated with big houses but there were commercial operations.  I assume the same thing happened in the USA.  I get the impression the ice was cut by saw & axe, but there might have been other specialised equipment.

Robert

[mike175]

Hi Robert,

Well, I knew about icehouses but always assumed the ice was cut by hand in modest quantities. I never realised it was such a huge industry for our 'colonial cousins'  . . . s'pose I should've guessed 

I just had a look at some web sites, and there was some horsedrawn ice harvesting machinery, but nothing remotely resembling the one on this topic. I remain in the sawbench camp.

http://www.museum.state.il.us/RiverWeb/harvesting/harvest/ice/ice_harvesting.html
http://www.myhamilton.ca/myhamilton/LibraryServices/Localhistory/Ice+Harvesting.htm

RootsChat is a great way to extend your education 

Mike.