A little bit overdue but worth the wait.
The object is a boring tool for preventing spontaneous combustion in haystacks- that’s why I said that one or two of you were getting warm.
If the haystack was seen to be heating up (steam coming out of the top, or even smoke) then this borer was taken to the top of the stack and wound down to form a chimney and relieve the heat build-up within the stack. The bottom of the cylindrical piece is sharpened and it’s weight would take it into the stack if the handles were rotated. It would have to be lifted out every couple of feet to empty the cutter, then re-entered into the hole until the whole of the cutter had been inserted. Because it is so heavy you couldn’t use it in a horizontal way, it would have to be vertical.
Of course haystacks don’t normally heat up or catch fire if the hay has been made properly, but if the weather has been wet the farmer wouldn’t have much choice and would have had to make the hay with a higher than normal moisture content. It is then that the problems start with microbes within the stack starting a fermentation process which generates heat to such an extent that some stacks have been known to catch fire.
I hope that sheds a little light on this very interesting device; it certainly gives us an insight into old methods of haymaking.
Thank you all for participating in this little quiz. Maybe someone else would like to test our knowledge with another mystery item? The field is wide open……
