Richard Hornsby, a blacksmith (died 1864), founded this firm as Seaman & Hornsby in 1815. Ploughs and seed drills were the products Richard Hornsby set up to make, and these remained the foundation for his firm’s reputation throughout its independent history.
In 1828 the firm became Richard Hornsby & Sons, and by 1834 the business was expanding into the manufacture of winnowers, chaff cutters, cultivators and small threshing machines.
During the 1840s threshing machines for steam-power, straw elevators and stationary steam engines were added to the product range. Portable steam engines followed by the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851, and traction engines a few years later. Mowers, reapers and binders, introduced in the 1870s and 1880s, gained a reputation as some of the best harvesting machinery. With this range of products Hornsby was one of the most reputable agricultural engineers in Britain by the time of the merger with Ruston, Proctor in 1918.
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'Hoosier' Drill with flexible spindle delivery tubes (MERL: 35/6552)
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Drill with two wheel steerage (MERL: 35/6532)
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'Hoosier' Drill (MERL: 6495)
