3-008-728 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition: Fowler's patent four-furrow steam-plough, 1862. 'The first aim was to show the superiority of steam to horse power in the inversion and cultivation of the soil. This triumph was achieved in the year 1858 at Chester, where Mr. Fowler won the prize of £500 offered by the Royal Agricultural Society to any inventor who should practically prove upon a given tract of land that steam was an economical substitute for horse power in the operation of ploughing...Mr. Fowler's two sets are attached to a triangular frame, two sides of which secure the diagonal order of the ploughs, while the third side braces end to end. This frame being balanced in the middle upon a pair of high travelling-wheels, one set of ploughs is held in the air while the other is in work. A man rides on this implement to steer it, and commands an admirable contrivance for gathering up the slack rope and keeping it uniformly tight. The plough may be fitted as a simple cultivator for breaking up and not inverting the soil, or an implement specially made for that purpose can be used...Land can thus be tilled at any time, to any depth, with-out the pressure of a horse's foot, and for much less money than it could be done by horse power'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.