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Article: Agricultural Machinery
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
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AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY
AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY.
Before the late eighteenth century, farmers tilled their fields with wooden moldboard plows. In order to prevent the moldboard from wearing out quickly, plowrights or blacksmiths plated it with thin iron strips. Wooden moldboard plows could not be mass-produced or repaired easily because they did not have standardized designs or parts. Only iron, which could be cast, wrought, or molded, would enable consistent duplication of plows specifically designed for a variety of soils. In 1807, David Peacock, a New Jersey inventor, patented the first successful plow with a cast-iron moldboard and a wrought-iron, steel-edged share that made the plow ...