Do you know that the Book of Job in the Old Testament begins
with an allusion to the plow, or that the harrow is mentioned three
times in the Bible?
Are you aware that the ancient Egyptians scattered seed upon the
mud left by the receding waters of the Nile, and that flocks of
sheep or goats trod the seed into the soil?
You probably know that for a long, long time artists have
depicted ‘Time’ as an old man with wings, holding a scythe
in his hand.
Perhaps you also know that nails are mentioned in the fourth
chapter of the Book of Judges, and in other parts of the Bible.
‘Rural America a Century Ago,’ edited by S. H. Rosenberg
and published by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, is
filled with all sorts of information like this as it tells the
history of farm implements used in the 1800s.
If there are any implements missing we don’t know what they
could be.
Each tool or process is described, along with a short history.
The illustrations, done by patent office engravers of the time, are
excellent examples of the art.
The book is of value to anyone interested in the way of life of
his ancestors of a century or so ago, and of how things developed
to that point.
Iron-Men Album readers should be especially interested in 10
pages near the back of the book which deal specifically with
steam.
Here we learn some fascinating things. For instance, the
original steam engine is said to have been exhibited in Alexandria,
Egypt, in 150 B.C. Also, the first steam engine built in the United
States was constructed in Philadelphia in 1779. In about the year
1620, one Solomon De Caus wrote a book in which he claims to have
invented a steam engine.
There is a section on rotary and oscillating steam engines and
one on steam and air brakes. The book’s last chapter concerns
air and gas engines.
This Society of Agricultural Engineers’ ‘reprint’
provides a good view of rural life in America in the 1800s and how
it got that way, through a look at the machines and processes of
the time and how they were developed.
In a forward, engineer G. B. Gunlogson makes the observation
that this nation has progressed from a pioneer stage to where we
can, through television, see a mechanical arm seeking signs of life
on Mars. He says that ‘inventions and technology will continue
to unfold the future of mankind.’
We owe a lot to agriculture and to engineering and to the people
of the last century who worked well with what they had, yet used
their ingenuity and inventiveness to devise better ways of doing
things.
