Fowler: National and International Steam Power

After setting up an office in Rome, Fowler sent representatives to inspect the work being done with their engines. One representative, T. A. Smith, met Mussolini twice on the Pontine marshes.

On one occasion, he witnessed a ploughing competition between continental engines. Despite a last minute repair job when the 5” dia clutch socket was sheared off, destroying the roller bearing, they won the competition. Smith wrote that “the next day our engines ploughed all day without mishap and all the continental engines had to give up due to breakdowns of various kinds.”

This image shows a Fowler balance cultivator and motor cable ploughing engine at work in Italy.

Fowler steam ploughs were of particular interest to American markets, who could see utility for it on the western prairies. The Fowler steam plough was patented in the US in 1861, and the first double-engine set was imported in 1867. Effingham Lawrence used it on his Louisiana sugar plantation and was so enamoured with it that he soon ordered two more sets, becoming a spokesman in favour of steam powered agriculture.

The USA typically favoured rotary ploughs, so the cable system never became widespread. Few steam ploughing machines were imported by 1870, but those that were introduced were almost exclusively Fowler engines.

The sugar trade was extremely lucrative in Hawaii throughout the 19^th century. As a result of the Reciprocity Act in 1876, Hawaiian sugar imports into the USA had no duty enforced upon them. Railway transport was highly sought after due to the high bulk of the sugar crop. Many plantations ordered steam locomotives and portable track from Fowler. George McFarlane, who was employed by Fowler, was a close friend of King Kalakaua.

Kilauea, Spreckelsville and Waianae plantations all used Fowler locomotives to increase the efficiency of their sugar cane transportation.

Fowler played a key role in initial attempts to mechanise agriculture in Chile. In Parral district, Chillán province, the foreigner Nicolás Schuth introduced Fowler steam traction engines to trial the ‘cable system’. This involved two 10 hp stationary steam engines located at opposite ends of a field, 400 yards apart. They alternately pulled the plough back and forth across the field. The system could plough one cuadra (just under four acres) in three and a half hours.

Due to difficult and hilly terrain the plough met with limited success. Reaping technology was typically more widespread as it reduced manpower required by 11 workers per cuadra. Threshing machines were also enormously popular.

The across image shows steam cable ploughing in action.

The Société Agricole de France held steam ploughing trials in France in 1867 and 1868. During one set of trials, a board of judges from France, Russia, Italy and Austria reported on the “incontestable superiority of the Fowler tackle over that of their competitors”.

In 1868-9, Fowler was awarded the ‘Médialle Agricole’ twice by Napoleon III and around ten thousand farmers gathered on the plains of Barry to watch a ploughing demonstration involving a double engine tackle.

This image shows an illustration of Napoleon observing a Fowler steam plough in the 1860s.

Brazilian railway companies were first established in the 1860s. One of these, the Companhia Paulista de Estradas de Ferro, built workshops in Jundiaí and Rio Claro in the 1890s. These workshops assembled and repaired railway locomotives, some of which came from John Fowler & Co.

The across image shows a Fowler Express Locomotive, designed for the Brazilian railways.

Fowler was at the forefront of marketing English steam machinery in Scotland. At the 1870 Royal Highland Show, eight of the fourteen steam engines present were manufactured by English companies, but only one – Fowler – had a branch in Edinburgh. At this time, steam power was used less for cultivating soil but did have a key role in powering barn machinery and for other farm work.

Between 1869 and 1885, the Duke of Sutherland undertook a massive land reclamation project in Scotland using Fowler steam technology. He owned a million acres of poor quality arable land, which included hills and bogs. The Duke purchased eight steam plough sets and hired hundreds of labourers. Although the project was eventually a failure, the fact it persisted for 15 years shows how strong the faith in Fowler machinery was.

This image shows the ‘Toothpick”, which was a new type of plough fitted with large iron hooks for the purpose of removing large stones.

David Greig, a long-time businessman for Fowler, undertook a sales trip to Australia in 1889. His efforts resulted in the establishment of an agency in Sydney, which eventually became a subsidiary company in 1913. Fowler traction engines were exceptionally popular in Australia, and railway locomotives were also sold to sugar plantations for transportation purposes.

However, UK agricultural exports generally struggled against American competition, such as the Buffalo-Pitts company who effectively cornered the threshing machine market.

The image shows a pair of ploughing engines fitted with tackle for dam scooping in Australia.

Forty goods engines were made by Fowler for the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, which was the first public railway on the Indian sub-continent. They were delivered between 1866 and 1868.

In later years, the India Office came to appreciate the ability of Fowler traction engines to haul heavy loads, and they were used extensively by the military. Between 1900 and 1910, Fowler road engines and road rollers were highly popular. Such was the volume of orders that a branch of the company was opened in Bombay in 1910.

This image shows a narrow gauge locomotive carrying Indian workers.

In 1904, a set of Fowler ploughing engines and implements were sent to Trinidad to work on cane beds. A representative of Fowler, Alf Pepper, was tasked with both delivering the equipment and training the local workers to use it. As well as ploughing already cultivated land, they were also tasked with tackling ‘savanagh’ land that was previously unused. Though it was difficult going – amongst other issues, the ploughs ran into buried trees and then required repairs – 200 acres had been reclaimed by the time that Alf left, and the project continued without him.

The across image shows a ditching plough at work in Trinidad.

One of the first examples of Fowler engines seeing use internationally was their export to Egypt. In the 1860s, Said Pasha ordered a hundred engines to replace his draft animals, which had been struck down by disease. Fowler steam ploughs were also useful for the growth of the Egyptian cotton farming industry.

This image is an engraving of a portable steam engine with a centrifugal pump, commissioned for irrigation in Egypt.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, agricultural crises caused widespread famine in Qing China. Chinese scholars (such as Feng Guifen) saw steam powered machinery as the answer. The Chinese Scientific and Industrial Magazine featured Fowler machinery as an example of how China could adopt these methods. One such advert showed a Fowler steam plow surrounded by other implements for “plowing, pumping water, hauling manure, as well as for mining and dredging”.

Even though steam powered machinery did not become widespread in China’s agricultural landscape until the twentieth century, Fowler was essential to spreading awareness which encouraged many Chinese scholars and journalists to push for state reform of agriculture.

This document is a memoir written by William Harmston, a Fowler engineer, relating to his business ventures in China.

Mr Richard Toepfler, a German who emigrated to England, became John Fowler’s apprentice in 1862. During the Franco-Prussian war, he adapted Fowler engines to use them in a military capacity. At Metz, for example, he used them to haul his artillery into advantageous positions to bombard the enemy. After receiving the Iron Cross, Toepfler’s reputation helped him to promote Fowler engines all over the continent, especially Germany.

He set up a head office in Magdeburg, and began cultivating heath land, using similar techniques to the Duke of Sutherland in Scotland. He worked closely with the German Agricultural Society.

This image is a part of a letter sent from Richard’s father (Gustav) to Robert Fowler in September 1870. He is giving an update on the Franco-Prussian War and informing Fowler that he has been in touch with Privy Councillor von Bergsträber about steam ploughing in Germany.

Eight special ploughing engines were sent to Russia in 1876. They had works numbers 2877-2884 and were suitable for straw burning. A number of further engines were dispatched to Russia in the following years. One woman, whose husband worked for Fowler, recalled an adventure he had whilst conducting business in Russia. Her thoughts are shown in the document opposite.

Fowler agreed a particularly large contract with the Russian government in 1915. This included 168 road engines. However, only a portion of this number were sent to Russia and all were lost in the Masurian swamps after the German army captured the region.

In 1887 Fowler made an agreement with Otto von Lenz of Johannesburg and forwarded £1200 for the start of his new company. The first Fowler ploughing engines were imported into South Africa in 1891, encouraged by the discovery of coal in Cape Province. They operated along the Vaal river.

However, agriculture was not the only use for Fowler engines in South Africa. Alf Pepper, who worked for Fowler for 50 years, recalled that many Fowler road locomotives were dispatched there to play a role in the Boer war. Some engines had “armour plate” and “a Howitzer gun”.