Model of Fowler steam ploughing engine
Object No. B631
This is a 1:12 scale working model of a compound steam ploughing engine representing engines made in England by John Fowler & Co. of Leeds. It is equipped with a winding drum and cable, which could be used to draw a plough, dig irrigation channels, pull up tree stumps and do other heavy work on a farm. The model was made in England in the 1920s by H. Rand, a model engineer from Tweedmouth, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland. Mr Rand's initial 'R" appears on the engine's smokebox door. Ploughing engines applied steam power to ploughing. The design of the ploughing engine paralleled the traction engine but was much larger and more powerful with a massive rope drum suspended beneath the boiler barrel which carried neatly coiled cable. The cable dragged ploughs and other equipment across the field. With the introduction of the traction engine in the 1850s it was thought they would be successful in pulling ploughs and other implements. However, the heavy traction engines caused soil panning and excessive consolidation of the soft English soils. In direct traction ploughing between a third and two-thirds of the power generated by the engine was absorbed by the unproductive work of driving the engine itself over the ground. The solution to this problem was cable ploughing invented by E.C. Bellinger of South Carolina, in 1833. The most well-known manufacturer of ploughing engines was John Fowler of Leeds in England. By 1870 Fowler's system involved two ploughing engines working in pairs with one engine on either side of the field. The first engine remained stationary whilst it pulled the cable, on to which the plough had been attached, towards itself. Then the engine moved up a few yards to come into line with the opposite engine which pulled the plough in the return direction. The engines were identical except that one engine pulled the rope from the right and the other from the left. Fowlers introduced 2-speed ploughing gear in 1873 driven from a single vertical shaft, while compound ploughing engines were brought in by them from 1881. These were much more economical than the single cylinder engines. Typical steel cable hauling the ploughs was five eighths of an inch thick and 600 yards long. As well as ploughing with multiple mouldboard balance ploughs, trench and mole draining jobs were well suited to cable haulage as well as large and heavy cultivators and harrows. Steam cultivation reached its peak in Britain in 1918 after which it declined in favour of the much more economical tractor. The last Fowler ploughing engine left the Leeds Steam Plough Works in 1933. Model engineering was a popular and instructive hobby during the early to mid. 1900s. It developed a love of good craftsmanship, increased the maker's mechanical ability and skill in handicrafts, and stimulated invention. Margaret Simpson, curator June 2016
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Summary
Object Statement
Steam ploughing engine model, representing ploughing engines made in England by John Fowler & Co, of Leeds, metal, 1:12 scale, made by H. Rand, Tweedmouth, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England, 1920-1928, part of A.A. Stewart Collection of model engineering
Physical Description
Steam ploughing engine model, representing ploughing engines made in England by John Fowler & Co., of Leeds, metal, 1:12 scale, made by H. Rand, Tweedmouth, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England, 1920-1928, part of A.A. Stewart Collection of model engineering. This is a working model of a steam traction engine designed to plough a field, in conjunction with a second engine, with the plough moving on a cable slung between drums on the underside of the engines. It is finished in the colour scheme used by Leeds manufacturer John Fowler & Co, black with red fine lining. A brass letter R is affixed to the front of the boiler. This nicely detailed model appears to be the 1inch (1:12) scale engine described in The Model Engineer magazine of 2 February 1928 (p101) and 10 May 1928 (p447). Three photographs of that model appear in the magazine. Rear wheels: 7 1/4 in x 1 1/2 in Front wheels: 5 in diameter x 15/16 in Wheel base: 1 3/4 in Track, over wheels: 7 1/8 in front Track, over wheels: 8 3/8 in back Diameter of boiler: 3 3/4 in Height to top of chimney: 13 1/2 in Height to top of boiler: 7 3/4 in Bolt sizes:10 and 12 BA
DIMENSIONS
Height
360 mm
Width
220 mm
Depth
570 mm
PRODUCTION
Notes
The letter R on the front of the engine could well be an indication that the maker was H Rand, who wrote about a very similar model in 'The Model Engineer'. Rand lived in the England and probably made the model between 1920 and 1928. Mr Rand is recorded as the maker of object B632, model of a threshing machine. He also wrote in the magazine about a thresher and other models of agricultural equipment. Rand wrote that the traction engine model took twelve months of his spare time to make. He cast or fabricated most of the parts and made the casting patterns himself. He purchased the following parts: Whitney boiler ends; Torrid burner; and Bassett-Lowke boiler fittings, including gauges. He did not fit coiling gear to the drum because he could not find details of the original design.
HISTORY
Notes
Rand wrote in 1928: 'This engine has done about 40 hours' actual steaming since built and from plough drum will pull a three years' old child on a trolley'. This model is part of the A. A. Stewart collection of ship, mechanical, and railway models acquired by the Powerhouse Museum over nearly 30 years from 1938 to 1963. Albyn A. Stewart was a trained engineer fascinated by engineering models and he constructed some of those in the collection. Others however were brought from amateur and commercial modellers at great expense to Stewart who travelled regularly to England to seek out models. In January 1938, Percival Marshall, the editor of 'The Model Engineer' England's premiere modelling magazine devoted editorial space to the collection where he stated that "Mr. Stewart has been fortunate in acquiring some excellent examples of both screw and paddle marine engines of considerable value as records of real prototype practice." In April of the same years he expanded his comments on the collection by saying, "As a trained engineer himself, his judgement of the technical merits of a model is very sound, and I should imagine that his collection is now the finest of its kind in Australia, in private hands. Many of the models are undoubtedly worthy of careful preservation, and I hope that they will eventually find a suitable resting place in one or other of the Australian national museums." Stewart was first contacted by the Technological Museum, as the Powerhouse Museum was then known, in 1933. The then Director/Curator A. R. Penfold immediately recognised the importance of the engineering models and in 1935 began to loan items for display. Penfold expanded the area available for displaying the models as they were seen as instructive for students at the adjacent Technical College as they were for the general public. In early 1938 Stewart's company 'Lymdale Ltd.' which owned most of the models was approached about the purchase of a large part of the collection. Stewart was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Museum and in July 1938 it began to purchase the models it had lent as well as the best examples in the rest of the collection. The cost of this was estimated at over 3000.00 pounds. By 1943 the museum was still acquiring material from the collection and the Advisory Committee made a special appropriation request to the Minister of Education. "In view of the advantage of retaining a collection intact, and the national asset which the museum possesses, the committee recommends the purchase of the remainder of the Stewart collection offered at approximately 2,400. This sum was approved and between 1943 and 1945 around 80 more models were purchased. Apart from the monetary limitations the acquisition was spread over a number of years because some of Stewart's models needed to be finished before they could be sold. The high costs reflected the quality of the models. Many of the working steam engines are one-off examples hand crafted by amateur modellers over the course of years. The same is true of some of the ship and locomotive models many of which are made to exact scale and include working parts. The models were carefully collected by Stewart who collected as much for posterity as he did for personal interest. Once contacted by the museum he deliberately sought models which would fill historical and technological gaps and as a result the collection is one of the most significant in still extant in Australia. A. A. Stewart died in 1961. The museum initially lent this model for display in 1935 before purchasing it in 1939. Geoff Barker, March, 2007 References Marshall, Percival, 'The Model Engineer and Practical Electrician', London, April 29, 1937 Marshall, Percival, 'The Model Engineer and Practical Electrician', London, May, 27, 1937 Marshall, Percival, 'The Model Engineer and Practical Electrician', London, January, 27, 1938 Marshall, Percival, 'The Model Engineer and Practical Electrician', London, April, 14, 1938 Chalmers, A. Mar, 'The Model Engineer in Australia and New Zealand, Melbourne, January, 1939 Davison, G., Webber, K., 'Yesterday's Tomorrows; the Powerhouse Museum and its precursors 1880-2005', Powerhouse Publishing, 2005 Lavery, B. and Stephens, S., 'Ship Models; their purpose and development from 1650 to the present', Zwemmer, London, 1995
SOURCE
Credit Line
Purchased 1935
Acquisition Date
19 February 1935
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