, 1869-03-12
THE MODERN rLow.
WHO WAS Irs INVENTOR.


Of the seed, there are no certain means Of
knowing, but tradition, and the pictured
records Of the Oldest nations tell of its use
| Made undoubtedly at first of the forked
branching portion of a tree, it underwent
only trihing changes in form and structure
for many ages, these, made at some unknown
period, being the curvature given 10 the Dig
ging portion, the first approach to the mod
ern mold board, aud the iron point, the rude
prototype Of the plowshare Of today One
Of the FIRST Improvements upon the primitive
plow thus formed was the addition Of the
Golfer, thin blade extending downward
from the beam, and serving to divide the soil
in advance of the digging portion proper,
and facilitating thereby the forward move>
ment of the latter. In this form the imple-
ment was that known as the Rotterdam plow,
aad from this name it is inferred that the
sturdy Hollauders had something to do with
the FIRST radical changes in the make of the
primitive apparatus.
About hundred and thirty years since a
Scotchman Invented the cast-iroo moldboard,
which was a marked improvement. on the
wooden one, and after this the pillow manus
facturers and the pillow holders seem to have
remained content for half century, when an
English inventor gave new start to their
ideas of progress by bringing out plow with
a cast>iron share. Sixty years after this an
American produced pillow having cast-iron
landslide and mOld>board, and wrought
iron or steel share.
Thus at long intervals the different parts
of the modern pillow we're evolved in rude
shape and design, but so slowly did the new
idea make progress that it is within the
memory of men still living when the old
bull pIow," so called FROM its blunt con
6guration, formed mostly of wood aud
wrought iron, was in almost universal use.
1t yet remained to SO combine the crude eles
ments of the implement that its capabilities
should become known to the manufacturer
and be made available to the tiller of the
soil. This task, thankless one il proved,
was accomplished by Jethro Wood, Quaker
farmer of New York State, who in 1914 took
out United States patent for pillow which
Tembraced most of the vital points essential in
the modern improvement These were the
suiting of the curvature of the mold board to
the resistance offered in turning the furrow,
thereby decreasing the draught; the connec.
ton Of the cast-iron mold-bosrd with the
beam by means of a cast-iron standard the
attachment of a cast iron share to the upper
and forward surface of the mold board, and
also means Of fastening the pillow handles to
the mold>board, and the latter to the land
side, without the use of bolts. These i'm
provements not only greatly increased the
the value of the plow as an implement of
labor, but also greatly cheapened its pro-
| duction.
Notwithstanding this, however, it was diff
cult to overcome the prejudice of the farmers
against the spot metal pillow, and when
this at last was done, the manufacturers
stepped into the field, took advantage of the
then defective condition of the patent laws,
and inch by inch and yeat by year fought the
inventor out Of his rights, so that he died
financially ruined, after years of vain and
constant struggling, during which his inven>
ton was found in the furrows Of every farm
throughout the land. His descendants Jared
no better, although shown that from the
commencement of the efforts of Jethro Wood
to improve the pillow, only about five hundred
dollars were ever received by him or his
from his great invention, while in these self
same efforts he spent the fortune he had
originally possessed.
There seems sad parallel between the
story of Samuel Crompton, living life OF
poverty while his Improvements in spinning
machinery whirred in the cotton factories of
England, and the bitter trials of Jethro
Wood, while all the broad fields of his native
land owned the benefits conferred by his
genius. Yet the world moves onward, and
in these later times, 10 some degree at least,
kiudlier atmosphere surrounds the ener-
gotic inventor. Manufacturers as a general
rule, find it more to their special interest to
pay for the protection afforded BY patent
than TO break it down; and more than all,
the moral sense of the community grows
more and more alive to the truth that the
inventor, like every other labOrer in the field
of progress, is worthy of his hire.-An'srtcd"
Artisan.
D- n. Alha.k pika uaad fba