Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1859-09-24
The steam PlOw on Exhibition at the
Illinois State Fair.


Illinois State Fair. Z
The great desideratum of the age is un-
questionably a practical Steam Plow. 1t
would make the fortune of the inventor -
the fortune of the Great West. Minnesota
is in particular interested in the success of
such an invention. We extract from letter
in the ST. Louis Democrat under date of Sept.
7, 1859, the following description of three
varieties of Steam Plows at the recent ILL.
nois Agricultural Fair at Freeport ...
STEAM PLows.
AS l write, "Fawke's Steam Plow." comes
rushing, and whistling, and smoking, follow
ed by great crowd which surrounds it on
every side. 1t is huge machine as large az
the largest railroad locomotive, though some
what wider, and, of course, very different in
its detailed arrangements. Though it looks
like an ur.wieldy monster, its engineer really
has it under very good control, and can make
it run backwards, forwards, or turn round as
easily as driver could manage two yoke of
oxen. 1t is, in short, a land locomotive, made
to run about almost anywhere when applied
to its legitimate purpose, gang of eight
plOws, each fourteen inches in width, is at.
tached, which it draws through the ground, al
the usual depths ofplowing, with all apparent
ease, blowing, whole "land'' at one furrow.
Its inventor claims that it is capable of plough
ing four acres per hour, at less than one
third the usual cost. Two men are required
to operate it. By slight change of gearing it
may be used as stationary engine
I There is another steam plow on exhibition,
invented by Van Doren & Glover, of Chica-
go, and operating on an entirely different prin-
ciple from Fawke's. Upon a strong axle, be-
tween two large driving wheels, very much
like the driving wheel of an ordinary reaper,
stands an upright boiler some ten feet high by
two in diameter. The engine in horizontal,
parallel and on a level with the axle, and con-
nected with the driving-wheels by suitable
gearing. Quite large wooden frame sur
rounds the machine, and at the back end,
attached to four rotating discs, are strong iron
blades, shaped, and working almost exactly
like the blades of a propeller, digging up the
ground to the required depth. It's inventors
say it will thus dig up five acres of ground
per day, with its present power, Give horse)
1t has the advantage of pulverising the soil
very finely. Price, 5000.
There is still another machine on exhibition.
akin to the steam plow, which may be appro-
PidlCiy iuCutIOiicu Ill tiilS COI11eCIlO0. IL Is
rotary spading machine, of very simple con-
struction, being lot of spade-like blades, ,fas.
tened to the periphery of an iron wheel some
four feet in diameter, the spades being press
ed into the ground by the weight of the ma
chine, as the wheel reyolves. This spade
wheel rotates within an iron rim (also rotat-
ing) which has slips or apertures in it, its axis
being set higher than that of the former, so
that as the spades reyolve the protrude through
the apertures, where they reach the ground,
while they are entirely drawn within the rim,
where they reach the top-the rim thus effec-
tually clearing the spades of all dirt that
might adhere to them
These machines represent three entirely
different principles which it is sought to apply
to machine ploughing. All of them as at pre-
sent embodied, have defects-all of them
have their peculiar advantages None of them
are practical enough to come into general use,
without much modification and Improvement.
They are an indication however, that the in
ventive talent of the country has grappled the
steam plow problem in earnest, aud the public
may confidently expect its solution before
great while.