The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-05-29

No agricultural implement has i'm
proved more through long series of
inventions down through the ages than
has the pillow, declares Clarence A.
O'Brien, Washington patent attorney.
While many farm implements were
originally conceived in a somewhat
advanced stage. the pillow started from
scratch" literally.
The original pillow, according to Mr..
O'Brien, was fOrked stick or limb
of tree with a projecting point. With
this implement the ground was broken
by dragging the fork or projecting
point of the stick through the ground,
forming continuous furrOw. Thus
the fork of the stick was the share,
while the main part of the stick was
the beam.
One of the first improvements, as
shown in plows of this kind pictured
on Syrian monuments, was brace be-
tween the share and the beam to hold
the tree limbs more firmly together
While the earlier model was operated
by one man, it is apparent that two or
more men were required to handle the
Syrian pillow.
First Home of the Plow.
Upon a very old monument of an
cient Egypt, the country which seems
to have been the first home of the
pillow, Mr.. O'Brien says, a picture
shows a number of men dragging a
pillow by means of rope.
Another Egyptian monument of a
later date shows blowing scene with
animals drawing the pillow. The Egypt
ian pillow shows an improvement over
the crooked stick of the Syrians. in
that ii had broader share, thus max
ing wider furrow that would break
more ground. 1t also had two handles
instead of one and was apparently
fairly effective implement.
Vergil, in his Georges" a writing
which formed part of a back-to-the-
land movement in the First century
b. c., showed little Improvement over
the Egyptian pillow. Pliny, a Roman
writer of the First century A. D.. re-
fers to pillow that had wheels to reg
uIate the depth. 1t also had a coulter,
or knife, fixed in front of the share
to make the first cut of the sod. Mr..
O'Brien intimates, however, that such
a pillow was not in general use in
Pliny's time.
Plow With Wheels.
A thousand years later, however, a
pillow with wheels and coulter was
doubtless in common use. 1t had evil
IDENTIFY spread up into England, since
extant drawings show Anglo-Saxons
of the Eleventh century using plows
of this description. One of these
shows a pillow with two wheels pulled
by four oxen.
Five hundred years later, at the time
Columbus discovered America, the
pillow showed little further improve
ment. 1t was still the clumsy wooden
cOntraptiOn of earlier ages.
The next improvement of record. Mr..
O'Brien says, is found in an old book
published in 1652-a double pillow that
would cut two burrows at one time.
In the early seventeen hundreds, Dutch
pillow makers began to put moldboards
on their plows to lift up and turn over
the slice of sod cut by the share. Prior
to that time the pillow simply ran
through the ground and stirred it up.
This Improvement was quickly copied
by other nations, with the moldboard
later cased with plates of IRON
1t was not until about 1900 that the
share was made of iron with a hard
ened steel point. The coulter was also
of iron with a straight stick for the
beam.
First Moldboard Pow.
In the United States in the latter
part of the Eighteenth century. de-