A steam tractor is a tractor powered by a

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

which is used for pulling. In

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, the term ''steam tractor'' usually refers to a type of

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

, the term ''steam tractor'' is more usually applied to the smallest models of

traction engine A traction engine is a steam engine, steam-powered tractor used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin ''tractus'', meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any ...

– typically those weighing seven tons or less – used for hauling small loads on public roads. Although known as ''light steam tractors'', these engines are generally just smaller versions of the " road locomotive". This article concentrates on the steam-powered agricultural

vehicle A vehicle () is a machine designed for self-propulsion, usually to transport people, cargo, or both. The term "vehicle" typically refers to land vehicles such as human-powered land vehicle, human-powered vehicles (e.g. bicycles, tricycles, velo ...

s intended for the direct-pulling of plows and other implements (as opposed to cable-hauling).

Development

Owing to differences in soil conditions, the development of

steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

-powered agricultural machines differed considerably on either side of the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

Great Britain

, a number of traction engine builders attempted to produce a design of agricultural engine that could pull a

plow A plough or (Differences between American and British spellings, US) plow (both pronounced ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but modern ploughs ...

directly, in place of a team of horses. However, the heavier and wetter soils found in Britain meant that these designs were not successful, being less economical to use than the teams of horses they were intended to replace. These engines were also known as "steam tractors". Instead, farmers resorted to cable-hauled plowing using plowing engines. A distinctive example of a British-designed (agricultural) steam tractor is the Garrett ''Suffolk Punch'', a 1917 design intended to compete directly with

internal combustion An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal comb ...

-powered alternatives.

North America

The first steam tractors that were designed specifically for agricultural uses were

portable engine A portable engine is an engine, either a steam engine or an internal combustion engine, that sits in one place while operating (providing power to machinery), but (unlike a stationary engine) is wikt:portable#Adjective, portable and thus can be ...

s built on skids or on wheels and transported to the work area using horses. Later models used the power of the steam engine itself to power a drive train to move the machine and were first known as " traction drive" engines which eventually was shortened to "tractor". These drive mechanisms were one of three types: chain, shaft, and open pinion. The open pinion became the most popular design due to its strength. Later improvements included power steering, differentials, compounded engines, and butt-strap boiler design. The steam engine was gradually phased out by the mid-1920s as the less expensive, lighter, and faster-starting internal combustion (kerosene, petrol or distillate) tractors fully emerged after World War I.

Uses

Threshing

These engines were used extensively in rural North America to aid in threshing, in which the owner/operator of a

threshing machine A threshing machine or a thresher is a piece of agricultural machinery, farm equipment that separates grain seed from the plant stem, stalks and husks. It does so by beating the plant to make the seeds fall out. Before such machines were developed ...

or ''threshing rig'' would travel from farmstead to farmstead threshing grain. Oats were a common item to be threshed, but wheat and other grains were common as well. On a "threshing day", all the neighbors would gather at that day's farmstead to complete a massive job in one day through cooperation. The women and older girls were in charge of cooking the noon meal and bringing water to the men. The children had various jobs based upon their age and sex. These jobs included driving the bundle racks, pitching bundles into the threshing machine, supplying water for the steam engine, hauling away the freshly threshed grain and scooping it into the granary. Steam traction engines were often too expensive for a single farmer to purchase, so "threshing rings" were often formed. In a threshing ring, multiple farmers pooled their resources to purchase a steam engine. They also chose one person among them to go to a steam school, to learn how to run the engine properly. There were also threshing contractors, who owned their own engine and thresher, and went to different farms, hiring themselves out to thresh grain.

Plowing

The immense pulling power of steam tractors allowed them to be used for plowing as well. Certain steam tractors were better suited for plowing than others, with the large Minneapolis Threshing Machine Co., J.I. Case, Reeves & Co., and Advance-Rumely engines being prime examples. Some of the largest steam tractors, such as the Case (known as "Road Locomotives"), were capable of pulling 30 or more plow bottoms, while most were powerful enough to pull between 6 and 20. Differing soil conditions highly affected the plowing abilities of these tractors.

Manufacturers

:''See: List of traction engine and steam tractor manufacturers''

Festivals and museums

;List * List of steam fairs – ''where preserved steam tractors may be seen in action'' ;Museums *A Hundred Years of Progress, Carthage, N

* Hesston Steam Museum (La Porte, Indiana

* Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum (Vista, California) * Antique Powerland (Brooks, Oregon, USA) *

Fort Edmonton Park Fort Edmonton Park (sometimes referred to as "Fort Edmonton") is an attraction in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Named for the first enduring European post in the area of modern-day Edmonton, the park is the largest living history museum in Canada by ...

(Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
Heidrick Ag History Center
(Woodland, California) * Heritage Museum on the Old Thresher's Reunion grounds (Mt. Pleasant, Iowa) * National Agricultural Museum (Szreniawa, Poland

* Country Heritage Park, Ontario Agricultural Museum (Ontario, Canada) * Manitoba Agricultural Museum (Austin, Manitoba, Canada

*Upper Peninsula Steam and Gas Engine Association Museum (Escanaba, Michigan

* Rough and Tumble (Kinzers, Pennsylvania, USA

References

External links

Steam Tractors: Part 1

– ''three-part account of Steam Tractors at work, by Mike Rooth ''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Steam Tractor * Agricultural machinery History of agriculture

Tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...