Top 10 farm machinery innovations: Number Four
IV. Steam engine. By the late 18th century, American farmers were using new farm machines like the Cotton Gin, Reaper/Thresher and the Binder but they still had to rely on the their own strong backs and those of family members, hired men, and/or slaves. The new farm machines that were being made ended up requiring more power, so oxen, horses and mules were often hooked up to these machines to pull them. I would surmise that's the reason that the word "Horsepower" came into play; I mean oxen-power would sound pretty fun. Just for trivia sake do you know the definition of horsepower? MyDictionary.com tells us that "Horsepower is defined as the power that a horse gives when pulling, and it is used informally to mean power, or is the power needed to raise [push, pull, drag] 550 pounds a distance of one foot in one second [1]".
More power was still needed as farm equipment improved; it was about 1849 when portable steam power made its first appearance. In the beginning of these portable steam engines they were heavy and to literally be pulled from one destination to another by horses. It wasn't until the 1870's that several inventors designed practical drive systems and also the self-propelled steam traction engine which became the most common sue for power with many threshrers countrywide. These self-propelled engines were also use to pull multiple gang plows in the larger fields of what was known as the "Wheat Belt"; which extends "along a north-south axis for more than 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from central Alberta, Can., to central Texas[2]"
The Steam engine thrived untill the advent of the Gasoline Powered Tractor in the 1920's; although people often think that the Steam Engine fell by the wayside at that time it did not. Automobiles with steam engines were still in production for years to come with the Doble Brothers, originally inventors of the steam car, the Bessler Brothers and McCollough Motors with their Paxton Engineering Division[3]. Paxton Motors with designer Brooks Stevens eventually designed the Paxton Pheonix Prototype in 1953 and it was designed to house an alternative fuel steamed engine. Unfortunately the Pheonix never hit production and the Prototype was sold at a liquidation auction in 1977; it remained with a private collector untill it was mechanically restored in the early 1990's. the Phoenix still had its original factory paint, time and interior when it was sold back to Brookes Stevens family for his museum and then eventrually sold to another private collector that regularly exibits it with other unusual and one of a kind or one-off cars[4].
However the Steam powered tractor met its demise by the 1920's, however it did pave the way for the gasoline tractors that then followed.
- http://www.yourdictionary.com/horsepower
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Wheat-Belt-North-America
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doble_steam_car
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paxton_Phoenix
The Steam engine thrived untill the advent of the Gasoline Powered Tractor in the 1920's; although people often think that the Steam Engine fell by the wayside at that time it did not. Automobiles with steam engines were still in production for years to come with the Doble Brothers, originally inventors of the steam car, the Bessler Brothers and McCollough Motors with their Paxton Engineering Division[3]. Paxton Motors with designer Brooks Stevens eventually designed the Paxton Pheonix Prototype in 1953 and it was designed to house an alternative fuel steamed engine. Unfortunately the Pheonix never hit production and the Prototype was sold at a liquidation auction in 1977; it remained with a private collector untill it was mechanically restored in the early 1990's. the Phoenix still had its original factory paint, time and interior when it was sold back to Brookes Stevens family for his museum and then eventrually sold to another private collector that regularly exibits it with other unusual and one of a kind or one-off cars[4]. 
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