Contributions from
The Museum of History and Technology:
Paper 2
John Deere's Steel Plow
Edward C. Kendall
DEERE AND ANDRUS [17]
THE FIRST PLOW [19]
STEEL OR IRON [21]
WHY A STEEL PLOW [23]
RECONSTRUCTIONS [24]
IN SUMMARY— [25]
JOHN DEERE'S STEEL PLOW
John Deere in 1837 invented a plow that could be used successfully in the sticky, root-filled soil of the prairie. It was called a steel plow. Actually, it appears that only the cutting edge, the share, on the first Deere plows was steel. The moldboard was smoothly ground wrought iron.
Deere's invention succeeded because, as the durable steel share of the plow cut through the heavy earth, the sticky soil could find no place to cling on its polished surfaces.