Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/405

 Germany Plows With Electricity

Men are becoming so scarce that all mechanical helps possible must be used

��TO such straits is Germany reduced for men that she must make maxi- mum use of the few who can be kept at home to till the soil. Her diffi- culty may be conceived when it is con- sidered that even in time of peace women had to plow, sow, and reap. Now she has been compelled to adapt elec- tricity to farm work. In the accompany- ing illustration we show an electric plow presenting many uncommon features. Old Hans, sitting at the far end, one hand on a steering wheel and the other on a controller, regulates the speed of the driving motor. This motor turns a drum, over and around which passes a chain stretching clear across the field and anchored at the other end. The chain simply goes around the drum and then passes out at the back, remaining in place until the machine again passes the point, on the same principle as the familiar capstan on a steamer.

Current is delivered by means of two trolley wires supported at short distances along the ground. Reels at each end of both the trolley wires and the chain keep

��all three reasonably taut. The reels are mounted on little carts, so that they can be moved sidewise as operations proceed and the amount of plowed ground increases.

The machine does not need to be turned around at the end of the furrow. Han3 simply draws the plows he has been using up against the frame and adjusts certain levers, whereupon the end he has been using rises and the other end descends. He then climbs to that end, releases the trip of the other set of plows which it carries, reverses his motor, and is ready to go back again, the drum this time pulling the other way on the chain lying along the ground. Use of this chain apparently gives better traction than would ordinary driving wheels.

This plow contains many ideas of inter- est to those who follow tractor develop- ment. The caterpillar tread is one way of getting traction on soft ground. This chain plan, however, would seem as good, or even better, in special kinds of plowing, owing to its smoother action and the very positive drive.

���Hans has a great time plo \„ "n his electric piov. . It looks complicated but is quite docile. How he turns around at the end of a furrow is indicated by the small sketch

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