This assembly was found at an antique store in Eastern Ontario, probably part of some piece of farm equipment, what appears to be a roller with two sprockets, a baseball sized cast iron receptacle with a hole in the bottom- and what could be some provision for a wooden handle or mount. My first guess would be a seeder but the receptacle seems inadequate, guesses welcomed!
Anyways there was a whole line of the things, if someone wanted to corner the market...
I second the seed planter idea. They all have round hoppers with a hole in each side; I'm thinking the holes are for a shaft driven by the roller gear and attached to a paddle mechanism inside the hopper that pushed out the seed. Kind of like this, but much more rudimentary:
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There was only a hole in the bottom of the bowl of this one, but parts could well have been missing...
ReplyDeleteAfter extensive research :) into antique iron age row seed planters I concur with Dave and a tentative Mr. G that they are small seed planters with most of their parts missing. Interesting how all three have the same parts missing. Maybe those were the common failure items.
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