[SEL] Steam Cable plows, was nice wheels

[bill at antique-engines.com]

One advantage I could see was the fact that the "tractor" or traction
engine would never get stuck if you hit a wet spot, never sink the wheels
in, etc.

Bill

> I ran across this article on cable plows
>
> Steam-operated cable plowing developed successfully in England, using
> a system of two steam engines pulling a cable-drawn plow. The English
> cable plows were capable of traveling safely at up to 4 mph when
> plowing through good soil. The length of the furrow was usually
> measured in 1/2 miles rather than in rods, and the early English
> cable plows, with their short strings of cable, were grossly
> inadequate. By 1870, there were 3,000 steam cable-plowing outfits in
> operation in England and only four outfits operating in the U.S.
> Henry E. Lawrence, a southern planter, used one of these plowing
> outfits on his 1,000-acre sugar estate near New Orleans.
>
> Cable plowing never really took root in North America, owing mostly
> to issues of topography and the large size of our fields,
> particularly in the West. The general use of cable-type steam plows
> was widespread in Germany around the 1890s, and they were still being
> used for reclaiming peat land as late as the 1970s.
>
> http://www.steamtraction.com/article/2003-03-01
>
> Interesting
>
> Frank
>
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