General Information

Serial #

68-22195

Part Number

1

Total Parts

5

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

metal body and parts/ synthetic seat covering, steering wheel covering and parts/ rubber belts, hoses

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

525.0 cm

Width

322.0 cm

Height

212.0 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Agriculture

Category

Crop handling

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Versatile

Country

Canada

State/Province

Manitoba

City

Winnipeg

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

This example: late 1960s to 2008

Canada

A Canadian made agricultural implement used on a farm in Ontario. The Seed property consists of approximately 200 hundred acres, with about one half being set aside for hay production. According to the auctioneer the vast majority of that hay was shipped the short distance south to supply a number of the race tracks in the Toronto area. The close proximity of that market would certainly have provided an excellent rationale for Mr. Seed to have purchased the swather. Again according to the auctioneer he operated the swather himself up until his death in the Spring of 2008. His widow attempted to keep the farm as a going concern by renting out land to a farmer from the Halton Hills are but decided last Fall to sell off all the equipment and possibly sell the land to developers. This implement is significant because it is Canadian-made, it was manufactured in Western Canada and it was manufactured by Versatile. In addition, its production and sale went against the common trend of eastern manufactured agricultural equipment being shipped and sold into the western retail market. It also represents an important technological benchmark in the development of hay harvesting technology. In terms of social context, it is a product that appealed to that niche of the agricultural implement market that was attracted by simple value and was willing to forgo design in order to be able to acquire the desired technology. Finally, it was very popular in both Canada and the American Midwest with the same very basic model 103 being produced from the late 1950s to the early 1970s

Function

A piece of equipment used to cut hay or some cereal grains; the green crop was cut by the swather and dropped in a windrow to cure before it is harvested. With hay, a baler would be used to pick up the windrows and form the loose hay into bales for storage. For grain crops, a combine would be run along the windrows picking up and processing the crop on the move.

Technical

A swather consists of a header made up of a reel, cutting blade and a pair of moving canvases. The rotation of the reel directs the crop into the cutting blade, it falls onto the canvases which carry it from the two ends of the freshly cut swath to the centre of the header where it is drops on the ground in a windrow for collection at a later point. In the instance of a self-propelled model all mechanisms including drive are powered by a gasoline engine. Pakosh and Reynolds began experimenting with the design of their self-propelled swather in the late 1950s. As with many of their other products they made a point of using readily available off the shelf components in its manufacture. In the case of the 103 swather it is powered by a Wisconsin air-cooled engine. The rest of the unit was manufactured in their Winnipeg facility. Although Hesston gets credit for introducing the first self-propelled swather in the mid 1950s, its lever steering mechanism limited acceptance by the farm community. When the 103 was introduced much was made of the fact that it was equipped with a normal steering wheel such as that found on most other traction farm equipment. As with their early line of tractors, Versatile swathers placed greater emphasis on functionality than on bells and whistles Unlike the current generation of swathers, the operator sat on an open platform as opposed to inside a climate controlled cab. As with its competitors, the 103 offered a variety of reel speeds to suit different crop types and harvesting conditions. The story of Versatile is interesting in that its two founders Pakosh and Robinson went against conventional wisdom and established what would eventually become a sizable manufacturing concern in western Canada, namely Winnipeg, Manitoba. There were quite a few small firms manufacturing specific pieces of equipment such as swath rollers and grain dryers. The rationale was that it cost just as much to ship parts from their American manufacturers to Winnipeg as Toronto and the former was much closer to their potential market. They also touted the fact that repair parts warehoused in Winnipeg were more readily available than those needing to come from eastern Canada or the American Midwest. It started out in the late 1940s based in Toronto where Pakosh was still employed by Massey-Harris as the Hydraulic Engineering Company with its products being sold under the Versatile marque. In 1952 the manufacturing operation was moved to Winnipeg. In 1968 the name was changed to the Versatile Manufacturing Company. Subsequently the firm was purchased by Buhler Corp. which has manufacturing plants both in the United States and Canada. Writers in the popular press have made much of Versatile=s challenges to the large established agricultural equipment manufacturers.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

plate on side reads 'Versatile [script]/ MADE IN CANADA/ BY/ VERSATILE MANUFACTURING LTD./ WINNIPEG MONTREAL/ MOD. 103 SER. 68-22195'/ yellow lettering with black edging on front reads 'Versatile [script]/ 103'/ yellow lettering with black edging on sides reads 'Versatile'/ plate reads 'MADE IN CANADA BY/ Killbery Industries/ WINNIPEG 31, MANITOBA/ PATENTED 1968/ SERIAL 25358'/ plate on motor reads 'WISCONSIN/ HEAVY-DUTY ENGINE/ Air-Cooled/ MODEL VG4D SIZE 3 ½ X 4/ SERIAL No 4384523 SPEC No 273003/ WISCONSIN MOTOR CORPORATION - MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, U.S.A.', with operating instructions/ label on motor reads 'WARRANTED 1 YEAR/ MOST/ ??HOURS/ WISONSIN/ HEAVY-DUTY/ AIR Cooled [script]/ ENGINES'

Missing

unknown

Finish

body and parts painted glossy red/ part painted glossy light green/ wheel rims painted glossy yellow/ black rubber tires, belts, hoses/ yellow synthetic seat covering/ black synthetic steering wheel covering/ black synthetic tines

Decoration

N/A