Andrew Meikle (5 May 1719 – 27 November 1811) was a Scottish

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...

credited with inventing the

threshing machine A threshing machine or a thresher is a piece of farm equipment that threshes grain, that is, it removes the seeds from the stalks and husks. It does so by beating the plant to make the seeds fall out. Before such machines were developed, threshi ...

, a device used to remove the outer husks from grains of wheat. He also had a hand in assisting Firbeck in the invention of the Rotherham Plough. This was regarded as one of the key developments of the

British Agricultural Revolution The British Agricultural Revolution, or Second Agricultural Revolution, was an unprecedented increase in agricultural production in Britain arising from increases in labour and land productivity between the mid-17th and late 19th centuries. Agric ...

in the late 18th century. The invention was made around 1786, although some say he only improved on an earlier design by a Scottish farmer named Leckie. Michael Stirling is said to have invented a rotary threshing machine in 1758 which for forty years was used to process all the corn on his farm at Gateside, no published works have yet been found but his son William made a sworn statement to his minister to this fact, he also gave him the details of his father's death in 1796. Earlier (c.1772), he also invented

windmill A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called windmill sail, sails or blades, specifically to mill (grinding), mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and ...

" spring sails", which replaced the simple canvas designs previously used with sails made from a series of shutters that could be operated by levers, allowing windmill sails to be quickly and safely controlled in the event of a storm. Meikle worked as a

millwright A millwright is a craftsperson or skilled tradesperson who installs, dismantles, maintains, repairs, reassembles, and moves machinery in factories, power plants, and construction sites. The term ''millwright'' (also known as ''industrial mecha ...

at Houston Mill in

East Linton East Linton is a village and former police burgh in East Lothian, Scotland, situated on the River Tyne and A199 road (former A1 road) five miles east of Haddington, with an estimated population of in . During the 19th century the populatio ...

East Lothian East Lothian (; sco, East Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In 1975, the histo ...

, and inspired John Rennie to become a noted civil engineer. He died at Houston Mill and is buried in East Linton's Prestonkirk Parish Church kirkyard, close to Rennie's father, George Rennie (agriculturalist), George Rennie, who farmed the nearby Phantassie estate by the River Tyne, Scotland, River Tyne. In 2011 he was one of seven inaugural inductees to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.

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Gazetteer for Scotland entry for Andrew Meikle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meikle, Andrew 1719 births 1811 deaths People from East Lothian People associated with wind power Millwrights Scottish inventors Scottish engineers 18th-century Scottish people 18th-century British engineers 18th-century Scottish scientists Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame inductees

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