Returning to my travels to Grand Detour and the John Deere home. Illinois contained vast amounts of prairie and farmers found that centuries of growth was hard to turn so the soil could be planted. The image to the right is of the iron plow typically used by farmers. They could plow for about ten feet in the thick grassy soil of Illinois before the dirt had to be scraped away. Think about that, ten feet, scrape, plow ten feet, scrape. Think about the difficulty for the animal(s) pulling the plow.
The image to the right is what John Deere designed using steel. What do you notice about the iron plow and steel plow? Anything in the angles used, the more highly polished finish of one versus the other?
The image to the left is looking straight on at the John Deere plow. Deere had no way to make the steel, where did it come from? What advantages does steel have over iron? Why? What is the importance of polishing in the process? Can you approximate the angle of the blade? What if it were greater? Less? Concave versus convex face? How much less power did the animal have to exert to pull the steel plow? How much more land could be plowed in a day? What would this do to food production? Population growth? Price of food produced? What other technologies would this development inspire? How would this development aid in farming the later settled territories of North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas?
Image to the left is a side view of a later steel plow, notice the wrap around effect that has been added. Why?
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