Site Index Subscription Info

Combination tools and other oddities

Simple hand corn shellers continued to be made and even patented well into the twentieth century. Also, several rather bizarre patents were granted - one for a hand sheller made to resemble a cob, and one for a planter-mounted sheller which shelled the corn immediately before planting.


Henry Gilbert, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, patented the design for this combination tool, including a corn sheller on May 25, 1926.


D. Hartmann, of Mansfield, Ohio, patented a combination tool, including sheller on May 18, 1880.


William Elliott, of DeKalb, Illinois, patented this hand sheller, designed to resemble a corn cob, on Feb 25, 1908.


On Oct 15, 1889, Thomas Tabor, of Ellijay, Georgia, patented a sheller to be mounted on the hopper of a corn planter and driven by the planter's wheel. The idea was to shell the corn immediately before planting, thus preserving the seed's vitality by removing it from the cob only moments before planting.

Blue's shelling blade, patented May 20, 1884, by Lockrum Blue.

Return to article

© 1999, American Artifacts, Taneytown, MD.