Who invented the threshing machine?

Who invented the threshing machine? Scottish engineer Andrew Meikle invented the first widely credited threshing machine around 1786.

A threshing machine separates grain seeds from stalks and husks by beating or striking harvested plants. Before mechanization, farm workers performed this exhausting task by hand with flails. Threshing could consume a large share of agricultural labour, so mechanizing it greatly increased productivity and reduced seasonal drudgery.

Meikle’s machine was developed during the British Agricultural Revolution. Early versions were commonly hand-fed and powered by people or horses; later threshers were driven by steam engines and became common fixtures on farms and at threshing barns.

The attribution is sometimes qualified because earlier designs and claims existed. Scottish farmer Michael Stirling was said to have used a rotary threshing machine in the 1750s, and Meikle may have improved earlier ideas. Nevertheless, Andrew Meikle is the standard canonical answer for the invention of the threshing machine. His work should also not be confused with Cyrus McCormick’s mechanical reaper, which cut standing crops rather than separating grain.