Oliver+Plow

The Oliver Chilled Plow was one of the biggest innovations for agriculture during the time of 1800s  around the South Bend area, and soon spread out the rest of the United States. James Oliver who was the founder of the chilled plow set out his idea of having interchangeable parts, and a cast iron plow to make farming, which was one ofthe biggest professions at the time, easier and more efficient. His plow came from the same idea that the Mouldboard Plow came from. It had the same idea that it would not just bring the soil up, but also turn it over. The plow made it easier to break through the hard earth and to till the land and make it fertile. After the death of James Oliver the company merged with three other companies to make it more wide spread.

Interchangalbe Parts

The innovation of the chilled plow that made the plow have interchangeable parts, was used to make farm ing faster. If you had a part of the plow that was broken before interchangeable parts were put in, then it would take a few days just to replace that one part and it had a cost with it because the farmer would have to go to someone else and pay for the part to be replaced. If you had part broken with interchangeable parts, then you could easily take the part you need to fix/replace out and quickly replace it within about fifteen minutes, and go back to working on your farm. Also with the interchangeable parts you had no need to go to someone to have the part fixed, you could just have replacements for most of the parts and replace them when needed.

Cast Iron

“Cast iron is iron or a ferrous alloy which has been heated until it liquefies, and is poured into a mold to be solidify” (@Wikipedia Cast Iron). Using cast iron, to make the plows, was used because it is harder metal and could go through the sticky soil more easily than other of the plows back in that time. Various methods of heating the cast iron were used to harden it, to find the best way to go through the soil making it more fertile. The best method that the Oliver Company found was to cool the cast iron while it was still in the molding in order to make it firm and have no jagged edging so that farmers, while tilling their farm, would not have to go over a row more than once.

Agriculture

These innovations to the plow have made big changes to farming. Especially around the South Bend area farming has been a big help to our economy and how we live, sense much of the South Bend area is filled with many farms, and because we get many of our food products from farms. But these innovations also went out west and to other parts of the country and pushed forward ideas for farming and agriculture. Another big innovator on the plow would have to be John Deere, we hear his name more now days than any other plow innovator.

Cites Oliver Plow, http://jamesdjulia.com/press_releases/pr_2012.asp?cID=atd, November 30,1012, Image, November 16, 2013

Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Oliver_(inventor), July 1, 2013, Web, November 16, 2013