Fowlers of Leeds (Traction Engines Recollections) by Malcolm Ranieri [Paperback]

The firm ,John Fowler & Co, are synonamous with steam ploughing,their mighty ploughing engines dominated this form of mechanised agriculture throughout the latter part of the nineteenth century,and well into the first couple of decades of the twentieth century,before as with most steam the ubiquitous internal combustion engine in the shape of tractors took over. The founder, John Fowler, was a mechanical engineer specialising in agriculture,especially at first,land drainage.In 1857 he invented his first self-moving ploughing engine, built by Clayton & Shuttleworth.In 1862 however, John Fowler was in his own engineering premises,the Steam Plough Works in Leeds,Yorkshire.Tragedy struck two years later when John Fowler died in an accident,but his family and business partners,especially a Scottish farmer called David Greig, carried on the work. Almost immediately portables and agricultural traction engines were being built at the Works.From the 1880's onwards into the twentieth c.