O' 



No carbon bursts were seen in the spark patterns, 

 indicatino; that the material was wrougiit iron. The 

 share consists of a piece, wedge shaped in cross section, 

 \velded on to the lower, or front, edge of the mold- 

 board. This was tested at .several spots along its sharp 

 edge, all of which gave a pattern and color indicating 

 that the material was medium high carbon steel. 

 This test was corroborated by a chemical analysis of 

 filings from the moldboard and share in a metal- 

 lurgical laboratory. A small trace of carbon was 

 found in the moldboard. It may be present as the 

 result of contamination from several sources, a likely 

 one being the charcoal fire in the forge whc-n it was 

 heated for bending and shaping.^" 



These tests agree perfectly with the description in the 

 1843 advertisement. It seems, therefore, that Deere's 

 success in making plows that worked well in prairie 

 bottom lands depended as much on the smooth surface 

 he produced by grinding and polishing as on the 

 material used. 



The filing of the edge of the moldboard for the 

 metallurgical test disclosed that the wrought-iron slab 

 consisted of five thin laminations apparently forged 

 together but with separations visiijle. The length and 

 regularity of the lines of separation seem to preclude 

 their being striations resulting from the fiijrous struc- 

 ture of wrought iron. This calls into question the 

 theory that the moldboard and landside were cut from 

 a mill saw, since it hardly seems likely that a saw 

 would be made of laminated material. The possi- 

 bility exists that the body of the mill saw might have 

 been made this way, with a tooth-bearing steel edge 

 welded on, but there seems little reason for making a 

 saw out of thin laminations. It is also possiiile that 

 this laminated iron originally had been intended for 

 some other purpose, such as boiler plate, and may have 

 been available in rectangular pieces. In making the 

 1838 plow Deere followed a pattern (fig. 4), which 

 suggests that he cut it out of such a piece. 



-" Rpporls on .spark test by E. A. BattLson, U. S. National 

 Museum, and on metallurgical investii;ation by A. H. \alen- 

 tine, Metallographic Laboratory of the Bethlelu-in .Steel Com- 

 pany's Sparrows Point Plant. 



Figure g. — John Deere's 1838 Plow, Left Side, 

 showing details of construction and relationship of 

 landside to moldboard. (Cat. no. /''iiii; Smil/isonian 

 photo 42639.) 



Since the moldboard of the 1838 plow is of wrought 

 iron, and since this plow is thought to be essentially 

 identical witii the first one Deere made in 1837, it is 

 highly probalole that the 1837 plow also had a 

 wrought-iron moldboard, a condition which appears 

 to have been the basic pattern for John Deere plows 

 until the middle 1850's. 



WHY A "steel" plow 



In view of the facts and the probabilities based 

 on them, how is the legend of the John Deere steel 

 plow to be explained? There are several likely 

 reasons. It is possible that the first plow, in 1837, 

 was made from a broken steel mill saw. It is also 

 possible that within a few years puddled iron came 

 to be used for the moldboards because of the scarcity 

 of suitable steel, either in the form of broken mill 

 saws or as plates ordered from foundries in America 

 (the high price of steel imported from England made 

 this an impractical source). However, it seems more 

 likely that it became known as a steel plow owing to 

 the importance Deere attached to his plows having 

 steel shares, as shown in his advertisement in 1843. 

 .\ steel share, tougher than cast iron, would hold an 

 edge much better than wrought iron, and John 

 Muir's description of prairie |)lowing, quoted earlier, 

 substantiates the importance of a tough, sharp share, 



Deere's plows, probably distinctive by reason of 

 their steel shares, mav have been called "steel"' 



PAPKR 2: JOHN DEERE S STEEL PLOW 



23 



