Agricultural Machinery Archive · Threshers
For more than 75 years, the core product of the Buffalo Pitts Works was the stationary belt-driven grain separator—evolving from wooden-frame apron threshers in the 1850s to the high-capacity steel-reinforced 'Niagara Second' threshers of the early 1900s.
Driven by a long canvas or leather flat belt connected to the flywheel of a steam traction engine positioned 50 to 75 feet upwind, the Niagara separator used a spiked threshing cylinder and concave bars to beat grain from the straw, followed by oscillating straw racks, chaffer sieves, a centrifugal cleaning fan, and a pneumatic 'Farmers' Friend' telescoping wind stacker.
Surviving Buffalo Pitts threshers—such as the 1899 Niagara models preserved at regional steam shows—feature stenciled yellow-and-vermilion woodwork, babbitt cylinder bearings, and cast-iron side brackets bearing the 'Buffalo Pitts Co., Buffalo, N.Y.' foundry mark.