Winnowing
Winnowing is a process by which chaff is separated from grain. It can also be used to remove pests from stored grain. Winnowing usually follows threshing in grain preparation. In its simplest form, it involves throwing the mixture into the air so that the wind blows away the lighter chaff, while the heavier grains fall back down for recovery. Techniques included using a winnowing fan (a shaped basket shaken to raise the chaff) or using a tool (a winnowing fork or shovel) on a pile of harvested grain.
In Greek culture
The winnowing-fan (λίκνον [líknon], also meaning a "cradle") featured in the rites accorded
China
In ancient China, the method was improved by mechanization with the development of the rotary winnowing fan, which used a cranked fan to produce the airstream.
In Europe
In
The technique developed by the Chinese was not adopted in Europe until the 18th century when winnowing machines used a 'sail fan'.[6] The rotary winnowing fan was exported to Europe, brought there by Dutch sailors between 1700 and 1720. Apparently, they had obtained them from the Dutch settlement of Batavia in Java, Dutch East Indies. The Swedes imported some from south China at about the same time and Jesuits had taken several to France from China by 1720. Until the beginning of the 18th century, no rotary winnowing fans existed in the West.[7]
In the United States
The development of the winnowing barn allowed rice plantations in South Carolina to increase their yields dramatically.
Mechanization of the process
In 1737 Andrew Rodger, a farmer on the estate of
See also
References
- ^ Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 3rd ed. (1922:159).
- Karl Kerenyi, Dionysus: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life (1976:44).
- ^ The Question of the Transmission of the Rotary Winnowing Fan from China to Europe: Some New Findings, Hans Ulrich Vogel, 8th International Conference on the History of Science in China
- ^ Münzenberg, Hessen. Chapel and Palas (G.Binding, Burg Münzenberg, 1962)
- ^ M.W.Thompson, The Rise of the Castle, (Cambridge University Press, 1991), 5–6.
- ^ Broadcasting and winnowing, P. C. Dorrington
- ^ Robert Temple, The Genius of China, p. 24
- ^ Chambers, Robert (1885). Domestic Annals of Scotland. Edinburgh: W & R Chambers. p. 504.
External links
The dictionary definition of winnowing at Wiktionary