throughout the 19th century and, in places, well into 

 the 20th century. The up and down saw was a 

 broad strip of iron or steel with large teeth in one 

 edge. Driven by water power it slowly cut large logs 

 into boards. It is doubtful that the circular saws of 

 that period were large enough for this kind of mill 

 work. The second argument is the shape of the mold- 



Figure 4. — How Deere Probably Cut and Bent 

 THE Flat Plate of his 1 838 plow 10 form the mold- 

 board and landsidc. Because of the shape of the 

 moldboard it became known as the diamond plow. 



board itself. The photograph of the 1838 plow in 

 figure 7 shows that the shape of the moldboard is 

 unconventional. It is essentially a parallelogram 

 curved to present a concave surface to the furrow 

 slice and thus to make a simple, small but workable 

 plow. A parallelogram or diamond would be an 



easy shape to cut out of a mill saw with the teeth 

 removed. The moldboard on the 1838 plow is from 

 .228 to .238 inches thick and its width is 12 inches. 

 These dimensions approximate those given in an 

 1897 Disston catalog '^ which describes mulay saws, 

 a type of mill saw, from 10 to 12 inches wide and 

 from 4 to 9 gauge. Gauge number 4 is the thickest 

 and is .238 inches. 



Examination of the 1838 plow suggests that Deere 

 cui the moldboard and landside as one piece, which 



Figure 5. — Moldboard of 1847 John Df.ere Plow, 

 showing how the diamond shape of the orighial design 

 has been slightly modified. (Deere & Company photo 

 5719Q-Z).) 



was then heated and bent to the desired form. The 

 pattern of this piece is shown in figure 4. Some addi- 

 tional metal appears to be forged into the sharp bend 

 at the junction of the moldboard and the landside 

 apparently to strengthen this part, which may have 

 begun to open during the bending. If, however, 

 Deere had used a large circular saw with plenty of 

 room for cutting out a moldboard of the usual shape 

 and size, it seems likely that he would have made a 

 plow of more conventional appearance. In any 

 event his moldi)oard of one jointlcss piece of polished 

 metal would scour better than one of wood covered 

 with strips of steel since the nailhcads and the joints 

 between the strips would provide places for the earth 

 to slick. 



" Henry Disston & Sons, Price lisl. Philadelphia, 1897, p. 28. 



20 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY .AND TECHNC^LOGY 



