Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-10-06
Steam PlOw.

The following letter is from the National
IntelIigencer, to which it was communicated
by John $. Skinner, Editor of The plow,
Loom and Anvil
New RIVER, LoUrsIANA,) Aug. 2, 40.
Dear Sir: l had some correspondence
with you, some time since, about the adyan-
tages of a steam plow in this level country,
and l am now happy to inform you we are
about to have one In operation in a few
weeks, invented by Mr.. Henry Cowiny, and
| believe patented. 1t is, / think, to be cal
led the "Steam Plow, Land Locomotive and
Machine of all Work . and not an ~inappro-
pirate name either. II is to extract stuInps.
cut bitches, break up land, fifty acres a day,J
lay OIL the ground, plant, cultivate, lay by,
cut and haul TO the mill the cane. | have
seen a model, and it will answer, if sufficient
power can be obtained without too much
weight. Imagine to yourself a velocipede
on wheels sixteen feet high and eighteen
feet apart, with a governing weel eight feet
high; on the inner rim of the large wheels a
cog-wheel; on a platform built on the axle
of the large wheels, and supported by the
governing wheel, a locomotive: across the
platform, a shaft with a ~pinion-wllcel OH
each end, working in the cog-wheels, and
worked by the locomotive; and you have
the machine, as simple as may be. The in
yentor thinks he gums power without losing
speed by this arrangement of the machine
ny. If so, the thing is done. There will be
three frames for plows, each TO contain five
plows, attached by iron rods to the axle-trce
of the large wheels. The breaking-up
plows will be so arranged as to follow each
other, cutting only six inches with one pillow,
but yet cutting in all twenty-four inches
deep. In this way the ground will be much
more thoroughly pulverized than if a firrow-
slice twenty-four inches thich was cut with
one pillow. When you get TO the end of the
field, by a very simple arrangement, the plow
will unset, eight or ten feet off the ground,
and, by throwing one wheel out of gear, and
going ahead on the other, the machine will
turn short round, the plow passing over the
top of the fence. On a smooth firm road it
will travel at the rate of twenty-five miles an
hour. Respectfully,
w. J. MINOR.
Mr.. Skinner, in the communication to the
Intelligencer enclosing the above, makes the
following observations, which the people of
this country-long beiooled and h%umbugged
by political demagogues-would do well to
heed,
If Government patronage could be as ca
silly and freely commanded TO reward inn
provements i'll the fine and the useful arts,
as 1t has ever been (even in our boosted re-
puDllc) TO promOt cOntrlvanceS in the work
of destroying the lives and happiness of
mankind, long before now steam would
have been blowing the land as it is now
blowing the water in all parts of the world.
If MIR. CowING had discovered a means of
destroying a. town filled with women and
children, or of blowing up a ship, or of cx-
tlrpating an army of men as far off as the
eye could see them, the whole Government
would be put at his command to examine
and perfect his dcatll-dealing apparatus, and
no honors or rewards would exceed his
merits IN the public estimation; but, having
only discovered a vulgar contrivance for
6redktng .Uty acres Of prairie land IN a dan,
Congress would not give him even one of
those medals it so readily bestows, with life
long pay and rank, on any one who can prove
that with his own right hand he slew twenty
guerrillas!
mus VIII 1t ever be until the cultivators
OF the soil take the Government into their
w hands and cause schOol-holIses to take
the place of armed ships and forts and bar
racks, II cause their money bestowed on
illiltary education to be applied, at least in
very large proportion, TO instruction also in
the arts of peace and productive industry
Is 1t not indeed high time that THIS nation.
so peculiarly blessed in its position, distant
from all dangerous neighbors, as well as in
ITS institutions, should begin to look for its
real strength, its true glory, and its safety, to
systems of education more universally DIFF
FUSED, and more appropriate to the various
pursuits by which they are to gain their liv-
ing. From such diffusion of such knowl-
edge, rather than from fleets and armies,
cold steel and gunpowder, will come virtue,
seli.respect, and a higher sense of right and
justice; and out of these will come the best
security for peace and the best reliance in
war.