170 years of the Hanson potato digger
This time of year as the potato harvest continues apace it’s a good time to remember John Hanson of Doagh in County Antrim who 170 years ago invented the world’s first spinning reel type potato digger. It was patented by him on the 30th July, 1855. John Hanson deserves far more recognition and a fitting honour for him would be the title father of mechanised potato harvesting as his invention was that important. He is another innovator and achiever a Harry Ferguson Museum of Innovation will pay tribute to.
Before John Hanson’s revolutionary potato digger, the hand spade or conventional single furrow plough or drill plough was used. A special potato plough was available to “split” each drill by cutting the potato drill in two or under the drill to harvest potatoes. All these methods were very inefficient and labour intensive as potatoes still remained in the ground having to be uncovered by hand.
The Hanson patented potato digger used a blade that cut the ground under the potatoes and a spinning reel driven by the gear drive of the carrying wheels of the digger. The spinning reel with forks attached was able to level the drill and toss out the potatoes in rows to aid the quick easy lifting by hand. It was designed to be pulled by two horses. This really did make a huge difference in the mechanisation of the potato harvest. Hanson would later develop a rotatory plough or soil improver as he called it to turn over and break-up the soil. Today we would call it a rotary tiller that worked on the same principle as his digger. By the turning reel it levelled out the ground and broke up the sod to make an ideal seed bed.
Within a few years all the major agricultural machinery manufactures across the world were building versions of John Hanson’s patented potato digger and paying him royalties for the right to do so.
In 1937 when Harry Ferguson was developing the first implement to make use of the power take off in his Ferguson System, he and William Sands his chief engineer chose the revolving reel potato digger based on John Hanson’s invention but fitted to the Ferguson System three point linkage and driven by the tractors engine for experimentation. So the reel type potato digger was the first power take off driven Ferguson System implement. Of all the implements Harry Ferguson built in his factory in Moria, County Down, Northern Ireland from 1944 to 1946 the Ferguson Belfast Potato digger designed by William Sands and Archibald Greer in 1943 at Belfast was the most successful with over 1,500 built.
Potato diggers or spinners as they are commonly called of the reel type can still be found in common use especially in times when the ground is wet and soft which prevents modern potato harvesters being used. 170 years after the rotary potato digger was first invented a number of machinery companies around the world are still producing versions.
The next time you see a spinning reel potato digger whether on display or in use spare a thought for another one of Ulster’s great innovators and achievers, John Hanson of Doagh.
Stevan Patterson, Castlederg, County Tyrone.