Deas i have heard of systems like that and the museum in Hamilton Vic has a Sunshine baler i think was the make and it had two rolls of black wire which the needles brought the wire through like a normal baler but it had wire twisters on it to twist the wires together. There was another baler that had a board on an arm that went up and down into the chamber and they called it a magpie. I think this was a very early Massey baler.

The old 3 wire Case that I worked on used straight wire we would buy in bundles that had a loop twisted on one end. I think they were 103 " long. The arm that would go up and down to pack the hay in the chamber was called a "Chinaman".

I am a youngster in some circles so will only provide what I have been told many decades ago.

Grandpa had a "skein" of wires with looped ends twisted on one end. They were "bale wires".
Bales were hand tied, the baler had wooden "blocks" placed at intervals in the machine, when the "hay" was "compressed" the wires were run through the blocks around the bales and hand tied. As the bales were expelled, the blocks fell free and the process continued.

I have attached 3 photos from Ft. Bridger, Wy of a baler, I do not know how it was powered but it appears the long wooden "tongue" acutated the large partial pinion that ran the rack, pushing the ram to the charge chute.

I always heard of the "charging arm" being called the "chinaman" on the early balers when I was growing up.

Enjoy, even though not Caterpillar, this was early technology that ushered in the mechanical revolution that brought forth the Caterpillar.
CTS

Hi, cts.
I have heard of the wire tie systems but never had the misfortune to tangle with one. The string tie was enough for me. Even then, the farmer who driving the tractor pulling this baler - who was 'NEVER wrong' - took a 'short cut' around a telegraph pole and knocked me off my seat - including buckling the seat somewhat - no real harm to me other than being somewhat surprised/stunned by his ineptness - something which may still persist to this day according to some unkind souls.

Just my 0.02.

As a kid there was a skien of wire as ctsnowfighter described in the barn here. At a neighboring ranch sat the old Case hay baler that used that type of wire. It had a pickup on it like a modern baler as well as a Wisconsin V4 and plunger, just no automatic wire tying mechanism. Finally someone wanted the engine bad enough, the neighbor brought my dad his share of the money and said I made him take the rest too. Have to look and see if the wire is still there.

Probably in the early 1990's I hauled a D2 for a friend from Santa Barbra to Paso Robles. Well really Summerland where the bluff falls down on houses built on the beach in wet years. So through a few oil wells up the bluff under the LiveOak trees, on a steep track that had 2 ton chevy spinning just a little, finally a bench in the brush planted to avocadoes. An ancient shed with nice direct start D2 with toolbar blade. And Case baler I believe to be the same model as what had once back home. So if anyone needs it, could well be still rusting away.

Modern version of 3 string baler.

Interesting baler with it’s own power plant setup like that. Have never seen any like that in the South East corner of Australia. The old New Hollands had a V 4 Wisconsin on them but all had been converted to PTO by the time i was fixing them. Some still had the scars on the fly wheel where the belts ran. There are a few inline small squares getting around but they are rare. Everything here is 4x3x8 mainly.

Hi, Chris.
The old twine tie baler that I mentioned above also had a V4 Wisconsin, the first one I ever saw and apparently a popular motor in the day.

Just my 0.02.

Hello Deas. To the best of my knowledge all the independent powered New Holland balers were V 4 Wisconsin. Have heard of them being on a lot of other equipment as well. They were popular but i haven’t seen many sitting in old farm sheds. I did some work for a farmer who had one on a NH 281 which he actually towed with his D2 one year because it was too wet for a wheeled tractor.