John Deere's Steel Plow

The essay traces the development of a mid-19th-century plow that solved prairie soil problems by using a polished steel cutting edge to prevent sticky loam from clinging, describing earlier makeshift solutions and the technical reasons steel succeeded. It reconstructs early designs, compares surviving specimens, and examines documentary evidence and business agreements linking the blacksmith and his local partner to a small plowmaking enterprise. The author analyzes changes in moldboard shape through surviving examples and reconstructions, weighing competing origin stories and museum identifications to explain how the tool evolved and entered production.