Thomson Road Steamer

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“It may also interest your readers to know that as a steam plow, all that had been designed to render it successful was the result of American ingenuity, and not from any effort on the part of Lord Dunmore. The work of the latter consisted in plowing 30 inches wide, one year after I had plowed 84 inches wide with my engines in this country. Having spent much time and a large amount of money in making the steam plow a success, I think it but right that what seems destined to take a prominent place in agricultural engineering, should at the start be distinctly known as essentially American.

“Although the unprecedented drought had baked the soil about St. Louis as hard as brick fields,” Williamson continued, “I plowed, before the committee, 100 inches wide and at the rate of 30 acres per day. For this I received the prize for the greatest improvement in agricultural machinery patented, within three years. Twice each day the engine was exhibited as a road steamer, drawing four heavily loaded wagons at a speed of eight miles per hour, and at intervals it drove one of the largest threshing machines at the fair.

“At this same time another of my engines was exhibiting at the California State Fair, gained the prize for a successful steam plow, having plowed 84 inches wide and 10 inches deep, at a speed of three miles per hour. I regret that these two fairs occurred at the same time as the New York State Fair prevented my exhibiting at Albany. I trust that another season will see a number of these steamers plowing up the fields in different states of the Union, and proving that two men, with one ton of coal, can plow from 10 to 30 acres per day in a manner never yet accomplished by hand plows.”

A Clear Hindsight

Despite Williamson’s adamant early defense of his machine, he retracted seven years later in an 1878 paper he read to the New York Society of Practical Engineering. While the initial results of plowing using his engine were encouraging, some things eventually became clear to him, one of which being that plowing loose soil baked by the summer sun presented a new objection to his engine.

“The dust, which was stirred up and scattered by the driving wheels combined with that made by the plows, enveloped everything so that the engine moved in a dense cloud. The driver and fireman could not be recognized. The ‘dust-tight’ joints of the engine covers proved of no avail, and instead of 10 hours of work being accomplished per day in plowing, one half were so occupied, whilst the other five were required for cleaning the engine. Even this division of time was not the only loss, for the engines were cutting themselves to pieces and every bearing, however well guarded, was heating and wearing.

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