TRACTOR TRIVIA and other interesting stuff 1/7/2024

[953 nut 57,864]

Who invented the plow?

 

About 5500 BC the first plows were forked sticks that farmers would drag through the dirt to form a trench in which to plant their seeds.

Fast forward about 4000 years to1500 BC and you would find wooden plows, pulled by domesticated animals, became the accepted tool to prepare the ground for planting.

By 475 BC China's agriculture flourishes in the Hunan states with the development of an iron plow. It was a simple hammered iron sweep that penetrated the ground and rolled the soil in two directions to develop a furrow for planting.

In 1797 blacksmith Charles Newbold patents the first cast iron plow in America. Farmers seemed reluctant to buy the cast-iron plow because many farmers feared that the iron in it would poison the soil.

Jethro Woods, a blacksmith in Scipio, N.Y., in 1814 patents a cast iron plow with three replaceable parts.  Wood received a patent on an initial version of a cast-iron moldboard plow in, and patented improvements on that plow in 1819.The 1819 patent was the 19th patent issued for a plow in the United States. The first patent on a cast-iron plow had been issued to Charles Newbold. During the development of the plow, he corresponded with Thomas Jefferson, who had been working on an improvement to the plow along slightly different lines.

A test of the 1819 model showed that it could plow a stony field without breaking. It was highly successful in the eastern United States, but less effective against the clay soils and sod of the Midwest.

In 1837 John Deere develops the self-scouring polished steel moldboard plow in his Grand Detour, Ill., shop. The sticky midwestern soils tended to clog the face of previous plows but Deere’s self-scouring plow avoided this problem, He learned to polish steel because of his boyhood job of polishing his mother’s sewing needles so they would easily penetrate cloth.

The Oliver chilled plow was developed by James Oliver in 1857. The foundry process patent provides a means of chilling the wear face of cast-iron moldboard plows to harden the face of the plow. By 1878, more than 170,000 Oliver chilled plows were in use worldwide. One of the world’s largest plow manufacturing facilities, Oliver’s South Bend, Ind., plant would produce tillage implements from 1876-1985.

John Deere receives his first patent in 1864 for the mold required in the casting of steel plows. Then in 1869 Gilpin Moore, John Deere superintendent, designs the Gilpin Sulky Plow, which takes farmers off their feet and into a seat as they plow

In 1908 the Emerson Brantingham foot lift plow was invented. It allowed the operator to raise or lower the plows with a tap of the foot while keeping both hands on the rains to control a team of horses.

So, in conclusion, what started out as a soil-scratching sticks evolved into the mechanization of soil tilling devices and man has continually used his ingenuity to develop and perfect the tools to get the job done.

[ebinmaine 70,702]

Interesting stuff! 

[8ntruck 7,380]

That flat car load of plows would be a neat one for a O gage toy train.

[Beap52 1,180]

6 hours ago, 8ntruck said:

That flat car load of plows would be a neat one for a O gage toy train.

I thought the same thing when I saw the picture.  I started working on my layout this weekend. It's my cold weather entertainment. These articles are really interesting.

[Achto 28,764]

12 hours ago, 953 nut said:

In 1837 John Deere develops the self-scouring polished steel moldboard plow

 

Some people, even die hard JD people would say that JD never made a decent moldboard plow. Oliver's design was much better in many people's opinion. Just some conversation by some farming veterans that I have observed more than once.