[SEL] (OT) Help to identify

[Greg Hass]

Hard to tell for sure without seeing a picture, but feel 98% sure that what 
you have is what was referred to around here as a bean sorter.  My uncle 
used to have an old one that we played with as kids.  Although it has been 
quite a few years, as I remember the canvas belt was 6" to 8" wide and 18" 
to 24" long.   As I remember it, on each side of the belt was an area 1-1/2 
" wide  and approximately a foot long with a wood bottom that sloped to the 
middle.  The wheel that the foot pedal attached to on the canvas roller was 
a cast iron wheel an inch or so wide and 8 or 9 inches diameter.  It was 
used to sort white edible navy beans.  The hopper would be filled with 
beans and the canvas would bring them out one layer deep.  As you moved the 
canvas you would sort the discolored or moldy beans and either roll or drop 
them into the 2 side hoppers.  The good beans would then roll off the belt 
and down the chute into a container.  I remember seeing pictures in our 
local newspaper during their centennial showing a picture of our local 
elevator with a room of 60 to 80 women, each sitting at one of these 
machines.  They were located in a second floor room so that as the beans 
were processed they would flow by gravity into containers on the first floor.

According to some of the older people around, these were replaced 50 some 
years ago by electric eye machines, which I mentioned in a post on water 
and air lines on the ATIS list a few weeks ago.   I hope this has been of 
help.  If I can be of any further help, e-mail me and I will try and jog my 
memory.

Greg Hass
Bad Axe, MI

PS:	If I am correct about this machine, one of the reasons you may have 
trouble finding information was that at that time navy beans in the US were 
basically only grown in a 5 county area of Michigan, and thus the equipment 
used was very localized.  In fact a town 10 miles north of me was for many 
years considerd the bean capital of the world.  There are now several 
states that grow navy beans.