John Deere

Tomorrow February 7th is John Deere's birthday. He was born on 2/7/1804.

It is said that America gave the world 4 things;

1.Mickey Mouse
2.Apple Pie
3.Baseball
4.Elvis Presley

But John Deere gave the world the steel plow in the month April of 1837 made from a broken sawmill blade. He made three plows that year.

You can get the full history story on johndeere.com

johndeere.com

I think I'll pass.


Glenn

I like them all, but I prefer John Deere. All the tractors had good points & bad, at least some did. With proper maintenance & care they would all run for several life times, and many have. Deere happens to be the last stand alone in an ever changing world. I hope they are still around for my Great Grandkids. Lewie

By that time, 1804, Nepoleon was 34 years old and had already made a name for himself, in part because of land deals.

It is highly doubtful that the story goes as told. Deere marketed the first highly sucessful steel plow in the USA, that much is true. As to the rest of the story ??? I doubt it. Rudolph Diesel did not make the first sucessful diesel engine either - but written history tends to favor certain people due to whatever agenda they had at the time. Clark had the first sucessful diesel and his design later became the two-stroke-cycle Detroit Diesel.

Arnold Parker patented an "iron backed steel plow" in England Jan. 14, 1795, English patent # 2033.

Charles Newbold of New Jersey got the first US patent for a cast-iron plow in 1797 and spent much of his life suing other people who had copied it.

John Lane in Chicago sold a steel faced moldboard plow in 1833, four years before John Deere came out with his. Lane also spent years suing others that copied his work. I think his son later got a patent on the type of steel used.

Popular written history is full of bits of BS. Al Gore invented the Internet you know.

I bleed green....you can sell anything if it has that green paint on it....

"Popular written history is full of bits of BS."

I couldn't agree with you more but the fact remains that no one really knows the true origin of most inventions and likely never will.............

The sources you have for your info. were also written by people who, incidently, may or may not have had biased opinions or may have not investigated the matter thoroughly..........

One fact remains, a country or nationality is inherently disposed to taking credit for an invention regardless of the actual origin, some more than others and as you say, they write the history books to their favor.........There aren't too many people around the world who are truly unbiased...........

So the short of it is, unless we were alive in that era and had the opportunity to travel the world and interview all of the "would be" inventors, our opinions are simply that, opinions.............

Nepoleon? Wasn't he the guy that invented 3-flavored ice cream?

There's a big difference between a cast iron plow and a steel plow. That was the key to John Deere's success. There's no way you can slide my gumbo across a cast iron moldboard.

A populat big game hunter who had been on many safaris in Africa , South America, and Australia made friends with a lion from Africa. As their friendshio grew the lion made a trip to USA to visit with the great hunter. The hunter gave him a tour of his home and the display of his varied trophies. The lion semed unimpressed and the hunter asked ,"what do you think of all this?" Yhe lion replied,"Had the lion been the artist, the display would have looked much different."

JD may have invented the steel plow, but IH most certainly perfected it. Plowing is pretty much done with around here, but even the green tractors pulled red plows back in the day.

John Lane's plow was also steel and also made from British saw blades - four years before Deere's.

No, not just opinions, but yes, many origins we will never know. There are plenty of hard facts existing, from all over the world that provide a chain of evidence for the existence of pieces of technology, medicine, exploration, etc. at certain times.
As to sources and agendas, that's why good researchers stick to primary documents only when possible.

One big problem is - it's near impossible to prove a negative. There might be proof that somebody did something at a certain time - but that does prove it's the first.

There is also the problem of the boss-worker relationship. Many inventions credited to certain people were often actually built by workers under them.

There is overwhelming proof for some of these things - e.g. Rudolh Diesel was absolutely not the inventor of the first sucessful diesel engine.
Mr. Clark was before him - but that doesn't prove Clark was the first either.
Also plenty of evidence of steel plows before the ones made by John Deere.

Also the problem of people that invent things for their own use and don't mass market them. That's kind of what happened to Isaac Newton and the "calculus" he invented just for his own use. When he found out that someone on the other side of the world had done the same and might get credit for it, he put his out into the public.

Thomas Edison didn't invent many things on his own either rather he improved on others' ideas that were out there!!

SOLID........STABLE.......STILL JOHN DEERE

Happy Birthday Mr. Deere, wherever you are!

Thank God for Your Company and all other American Companies that have endured as long as your's has.

Wow - just wow. Always thought john deere was an acronym.

An ACRONYM???

And how about that poor guy that died in near poverty last year that invented the TV. Forget his name, Porterfield or something. Forget the recognized company name that stole the guy's work & ...