No. 10. 



The Steam Plough. 



309 



The Steam Plough. 



The following account of Heathcoat's steam plough, 

 we take from Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, October 

 7th, 1837, which credits it to the Mark Lane Express. 

 We do not apprehend it will soon come into general 

 use in this country. — Ed. 



The plough has but a distant resemblance 

 to that in common use : it is double, that is 

 to say, has two sets of stilts, one set at each 

 end, and each set consists of two handles — 

 it being occasionally found necessary to em- 

 ploy two men to guide the plough. It has, 

 also, two shares, coulters, and mould-boards, 

 together with all the peculiar apparatus ap- 

 plied to this plough ; but it may be said to 

 have no beam. The mould-boards are both 

 on one side, set tail to tail, so that the 

 plough acts to and from the machine, with- 

 out turning round. This plough is most in- 

 geniously constructed for performing the va- 

 rious functions required of it. By means 

 of friction rollers, placed under each end, 

 and which give motion to a crank (simply 

 by the contact of the rollers with the 

 ground,) two sets of apparatus are put in 

 motion, that perform essential offices in the 

 operation of ploughing moss. These are, 

 first, a peculiar action given to a sharp- 

 edged and crooked blade, which is made to 

 traverse against the sharp steeled edge of 

 the coulter, producing the operation of clip- 

 ping, which effectually severs all the roots 

 of the heath carices, and other strong rooted 

 plants, that occur in the line of the cut made 

 by the coulter. Secondly, a similar opera- 

 tion is simultaneously performed, and by the 

 same impulse, with another set of similar 

 instruments, acting under and against the 

 edge of what forms the share of the plough; 

 these last separate all the fibrous roots that 

 occur in the solo of the furrow. The form 

 of the mould-boards is such as to turn the 

 furrow-slice completely over, and lay it 

 neatly with the heath surface downwards. 

 The auxiliary carriages move on lines par- 

 allel to the road-way of the principal ma- 

 chine — one being placed on each side, and 

 at the proposed distance of 220 yards from 

 the machine. The bands, each of 660 yards 

 in length, pass out from each side of the 

 principal machine, where the ends are se- 

 cured to one of the machine pulleys, on the 

 respective sides, extend to, and pass round 

 the large pulley of the auxiliary, and return 

 again to the machine. At this point, the 

 plough is affixed to the band, while as much 

 more of the band is coiled round the other 

 machine pulley, respectively, as is equal 

 in length to the distance between the ma- 

 chine and the auxiliaries. The steam en- 

 gine being now set on, and the second 



branch of gearing adjusted to act upon the 

 pulley to which the first end of the band is 

 attached, this pulley will coil up the band, 

 causing the plough to advance towards the 

 auxiliary; and, at the same time, the other 

 pulley, which at this time is free to uncoil, 

 will deliver off its portion of the band. 

 Wiien the plough has reached the auxili- 

 ary, the motion is stopped; the plough is 

 set to the next furrow, the action of the 

 steam engine on the pulleys is changed, by 

 shifting a clutch from the one to the other, 

 and the pulleys reverse their duty; that 

 which was uncoiling, now becoming the 

 coder, and so on alternately. 



In commencing the reclamation of a bog, 

 a road-way is first to be traced out, in a 

 suitable direction for the proposed opera- 

 tions. This is done by simply forming two 

 drains parallel to each other, and about se- 

 ven yards apart. The principal machine is 

 launched on this road-way (still retaining 

 its natural surface.) The machine rests on 

 the raw bog, and bears on so large a sur- 

 face, that its buoyancy is insured. It also 

 consolidates and dries the road-way by its 

 pressure. The machine and auxiliaries re- 

 main stationary during the time occupied by 

 the ploughs in taking one furrow; they are 

 then severally put in motion, and made to 

 advance in three parallel lines, in order to 

 keep pace with the breadth of land turned 

 over, and to pull the ploughs accurately 

 straight. The machine is impelled by the 

 engines, and each auxiliary by its attendant 

 man, who also shifts his planks onward, as 

 occasion requires. The machine and its 

 auxiliaries have thus to be moved over a 

 space of eighteen inches only, whilst the 

 ploughs have each travelled 220 yards, and 

 turned over 220 square yards of land, nine 

 inches in depth ; in other words, the ma- 

 chine and auxiliaries have only to be moved 

 eleven yards, in the time that the ploughs 

 have travelled five and a half miles, and 

 turned over a statute acre of land. The 

 ploughs perform their work at the rate of 

 two miles an hour, and are subject to very 

 few stoppages, so that eight acres and three 

 quarters, nearly, of bog, would be ploughed 

 up in a day's work of twelve hours; or, 

 taking the average of daylight throughout 

 the year, and making a liberal allowance 

 for hindrances from weather, and other 

 causes, one machine would plough up 2000 

 acres in a twelvemonth. 



The principal machine, together with a 

 six ton load of fuel, weighs about 30 tons ; 

 its superficial bearing on the moss is 300 

 square feet, giving a pressure of 178 pounds 

 on each square foot. Taking the weight of 

 a man at 168 pounds, and the area of his 



