Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-11-19


i X
The remarkable rise in the use Of farm
machinery is illustrated by the figures
of t h e
Issued $4,000 Patents patent Of
on Farming Implements. II the ~ csn-
sus. More than $4,000 patents have been
issued on agricultural implements. and
the money value Of farm machinery and
tools In the United States today is not far
from 81 ,0O0. 100000. With these the farmer
has been able to make his property hold
ings worth about 1000 0OO.0OO and his
annual gross income greater than the
capitalization Of all the trusts in the
land. Even his hens, with the aid of the
incubator and brooder, produce q greater
revenue than the entire income of the
governments of Spain and Portugal COM
bined.
| The farmer finds that four-fifths Of the
manual labor involved IN his calling has
been eliminated by the inventor. With
| a tank of gasoline he can saw fifty cords
OF wood day. and with q milking
machine he can milk sixty cows before
breakfast With modern wagon leaders,
portable elevators. grain shockers, potato
diggers, beet toppers and leaders and
| tighten his labor. the farmer finds his
business "a calling with the bother left
| out"
The plow was one of the first nipple
ments with which the American inventor
| concerned himself. Thomas Jefferson and
| Daniel Webster both invented improved
/ plows. and when Jefferson was not con-
cerned with grave matters OF political
Importance he was cOgitating the shape
! Of a moldboard on pillow.
\
The first pillow patent in the United
States was granted to Charles Newbold,
| New Jer-
First Plow Patented sey farmer.
by Charles Newbold. iron 90 h =, o the
| farmers concluded that it "soured" the
land and made weeds grow. Although
| he spent $4,000 in missionary work. the
farmers still stuck to the old "bull-
F.! tongue pillow. with it's rude wooden
moldboard.
| In 1919 Jcthro Wood took Jefferson's
idea and patented pillow which revolu-
tionized methods OF breaking the soil.
He died leaving his heirs nothing but
| legacy of patent-right litigation, which
| finally was decided adverse to them. Then
| came the chilled piow, with it's reversible
| and slip shares, to he followed by the
sulky pillow, made In Chicago in 1893. The
disk harrow was patented In 1917 and the
spring-tooth harrow in 1859 by David L.
Carver of Michigan.
Eliakim SlOeAer received the first
American patent on a seeder. and the
modern grain-d.ill began to assume its
present form about 1871. Since Spooner's
patent was issued there have been APP
proaimately 1900 granted on seeders of
one kind and another. About 14.OO0
patents on plows. 5000 on harrows ard
diggers, 14,O00 on harvesting machinery
ard 5000 on thrashing machinery tell the
sto.y Of American ingenuity. as applied
20 the needs of the farmer >. will be
seen from this that the plJw. the seeder
and the harvester are the favortte
themes Of the inventor, with the sesder
far behind the pillow and the harvester.
| The modern binder was long time in
coming. The first patent issued for a
| reaping ma
Modern Binder chine was
Long Time Coming. land 'sh in ~ I 1TM.
but it was an impractical affair. Other
patents followed. and In 1892. Henry Ogle.
an English schoolmaster. brought out a
J reaper which had SOME OF the charac-
teristics Of the old-fashioned mandrake