Andrew Meikle was born in Scotland in 1719. He was said to be descended from a line of ingenious inventors, his father having actually created a kind of winnowing machine that was not very successful. Andrew Meikle worked as a millwright at the Houston Mill, an estate owned by John Rennie. After seeing the success of Meikle’s threshing machine at the Houston Mill, Rennie got his machines installed at other mills in Scotland. Unfortunately, Meikle did not receive much compensation for his invention and was quite poor in his old age. Luckily, Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, who had been president of the board of agriculture, appreciated Meikle’s invention and raised money to help support him. Andrew died at the age of 92 in 1811.
Meikle’s most remembered for his creation of the threshing machine in 1786, used for getting rid of the outer husks of grain. Before creating the threshing machine, he made windmill spring sails. These could retract the fans on windmills quickly through the use of levers in case a storm was coming through.
Image of Andrew Meikle
http://www.todayinsci.com/R/Rennie_John/RennieJohnThm.jpg
Image of Threshing Machine
http://www.historylink101.com/lessons/farm-city/horse_powered_threshing_machine.jpg
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