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John FowlerEnglish engineer, inventor
Date of Birth: 11.07.1826
Country:  Great Britain |
Content:
Biography of John Fowler
John Fowler was an English engineer and inventor specializing in agricultural machinery. He became renowned as the first inventor to apply steam power to ploughing and drainage systems. For a long time, the muscle power of peasants and their livestock remained one of the main resources for field cultivation. It was only in the 19th century that complex mechanics began to be introduced in agriculture. Inventions by great masters like John Fowler allowed farmers to significantly improve their lives and cultivate previously considered unpromising lands.
Early Life
John Fowler was born in Melksham, Wiltshire. He was the third of five sons (and a total of eight children) of a wealthy Quaker merchant. After school, John briefly worked for a local grain merchant, not out of love for trade or grain, but at the behest of his father. In 1847, he decided to leave his uninteresting job and joined the engineering firm 'Gilkes Wilson and Company' in Middlesbrough. The company was involved in the construction of locomotives and wind engines. Fowler might have had a successful career in 'Gilkes Wilson and Company,' but everything changed with his visit to Ireland in 1849.
Inventions and Achievements
During that time, Ireland was experiencing a severe famine, and agriculture was in need of potatoes. However, growing them was difficult due to poor drainage systems, rendering significant portions of land unusable. Fowler was deeply affected by what he saw in Ireland and was determined to find a way to utilize these unsuitable lands. At that time, special ploughs were used for digging drainage canals, but they relied solely on muscle power. Fowler set a goal to create a plough that would make the work of the drainage engineers much easier.
In 1850, Fowler presented the first model of his plough, which moved on special rollers and required much less effort. This invention received a silver medal at the Royal Agricultural Society of England exhibition in Exeter and was named "perhaps the most important exhibit of the exhibition." A year later, Fowler introduced a new version of the plough, which also received a silver medal from the Royal Agricultural Society of England. Fowler, however, did not stop there. He had a new, rather ambitious idea for those times - to completely replace horses with steam power.
During the early stages of his career, Fowler had worked with steam engines and believed that their use would significantly increase productivity. He replaced horses with a steam engine on one of his ploughs, but unfortunately, the experiment ended in failure as the steam engine proved too heavy for soft soil. Nevertheless, Fowler obtained a patent for his invention. He continued to develop his steam plough based on the established scheme. The second version of his machine featured a stationary engine that moved the plough across the field. Fowler demonstrated this new model at a meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1854.
The success of steam-powered land reclamation led Fowler to consider using steam for regular ploughing. However, this process proved too delicate, and horses performed much better than cumbersome engines. Fowler approached the problem from a different angle and set out to create a plough that could easily move in any direction without additional turns.
Personal Life and Legacy
On July 30, 1857, Fowler married his third cousin, Elizabeth Lucy. They had five children - four daughters and one son. In 1862, Fowler established his own manufacturing company, which sold various types of ploughs worldwide. Unfortunately, John worked too hard on new projects, which eventually undermined his health. He decided to retire and planned to engage in an active lifestyle. However, his active pursuits ultimately led to his downfall. Fowler had a fatal accident during a hunting trip, which resulted in tetanus. On December 4, 1864, John Fowler passed away at his home in Ackworth.
