Early Days of Steam Plowing in the U.K.

By Sam Moore
Published on March 22, 2012
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This posed picture (dating to about 1861) is probably the oldest surviving photograph of Fowler’s single-engine tackle at work. The 14 nhp (nominal horsepower) Kitson, Hewitson & Co. engine is shown with a 4-furrow balance plow. Note the rope porters to keep the iron rope clear of the ground, reducing wear. The self-moving anchor is at right.
This posed picture (dating to about 1861) is probably the oldest surviving photograph of Fowler’s single-engine tackle at work. The 14 nhp (nominal horsepower) Kitson, Hewitson & Co. engine is shown with a 4-furrow balance plow. Note the rope porters to keep the iron rope clear of the ground, reducing wear. The self-moving anchor is at right.
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Howard’s “roundabout” system of plowing used a single stationary engine and a double winch.
Howard’s “roundabout” system of plowing used a single stationary engine and a double winch.
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An Advance-Rumely engine and 6-bottom plow demonstrate the direct haulage system of plowing used almost exclusively in North America.
An Advance-Rumely engine and 6-bottom plow demonstrate the direct haulage system of plowing used almost exclusively in North America.
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John Heathcoat’s steam plow.
John Heathcoat’s steam plow.
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Jeremiah Head’s patented anchor carriage. The rope to a ground anchor is shown at left. This was used at the Royal Agricultural Society of England trials at Chester in 1858. Jeremiah Head was a partner at Ransomes & Sims but worked very closely with John Fowler.
Jeremiah Head’s patented anchor carriage. The rope to a ground anchor is shown at left. This was used at the Royal Agricultural Society of England trials at Chester in 1858. Jeremiah Head was a partner at Ransomes & Sims but worked very closely with John Fowler.
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While not Fowler’s patent, this 1860 U.S. patent shows a similar mole-plow-and-rope method of laying drain tile.
While not Fowler’s patent, this 1860 U.S. patent shows a similar mole-plow-and-rope method of laying drain tile.

Many of the folks reading this have seen a big steam traction engine, belching black smoke as it pulled six or eight or more plow bottoms behind it, often with several people riding the plow’s footboards to work the depth and lifting levers. These large rigs were used in the vast fields of the northwestern U.S. and Canada where they had lots of room to maneuver. The heyday of steam plowing in this country was from about 1870 to probably 1920, when gas- and kerosene-burning tractors came into widespread use.

In the smaller fields of Great Britain and northern Europe, farmers were just as keen to use steam power as their North American counterparts, and attempts at steam cultivation began much earlier than here. In about 1840, experiments with direct traction steam plows and cultivators were made by wealthy English and Scottish landowners, but the engines and drive systems proved unsatisfactory. In addition, the heavy engines swiftly became mired in the low-lying, boggy land common in Great Britain.

Paving the way for steam plowing

One of the first of such plowing engines was built by John Heathcoat and Josiah Parkes in the early 1830s. This was the first plowing engine that actually worked, and probably the first crawler as well. Two continuous tracks of heavy canvas with wooden lags went around wheels 8 feet in diameter. On a low platform between the wheels were the steam boiler and engine, as well as two winding drums at right angles to the tracks. Steel cables weren’t yet available, so each drum was wrapped by a long, flexible hauling band made of iron strips fastened together.

The engine ran on a raised, rolled roadway constructed through the middle of a field. A haulage band was run to each side from a winding drum across the field, around a pulley on a movable anchor cart and back to the other winding drum. A single-bottom walking plow worked on each side. When one plow was going out, the other was coming back to the engine. At the end of each round, the two anchor carts and the engine were moved ahead. The contraption was not very successful and was abandoned after Heathcoat had sunk ÂŁ12,000 (about $60,000, $1.5 million today) in the thing. However it had served an important purpose: Subsequent inventors now knew that steam could be harnessed to pull a plow.

Mastering the roundabout

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