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Earl and Harold Kirchner

Brothers Earl and Harold Kirchner started farming near Tilley, Alberta in the early 1930s. A few years later, in order to improve the efficiency of their work, Earl devised a mechanical hay sweeper and stacker for picking up loose hay.

Their neighbours began asking them to build similar machines, and the brothers set about producing more of the stackers for others in the community.

The haysweep and stacker was patented in 1945, and the Kirchner brothers manufactured and sold 50 during their first year of production, done from a blacksmith shop in Tilley.

The brothers switched production of the haysweeps and stackers to the Lethbridge Iron Works and Alberta Foundry and Machine Company in Medicine Hat for a few years before they moved to Lethbridge and opened Kirchner Machine.

The Kirchner brothers sold some 500 of the haysweep and stackers in southern Alberta.

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