June 15, 2025 • 16 mins
The story of how John Deere came up with the first Steel Plow
Original Air Date: July 24, 1951
Host: Andrew Rhynes
Show: Western Stories
Phone: (707) 98 OTRDW (6-8739)
Narrator:
• Paul Shannon
Exit music from: Roundup on the Prairie by Aaron Kenny https://bit.ly/3kTj0kK
Original Air Date: July 24, 1951
Host: Andrew Rhynes
Show: Western Stories
Phone: (707) 98 OTRDW (6-8739)
Narrator:
• Paul Shannon
Exit music from: Roundup on the Prairie by Aaron Kenny https://bit.ly/3kTj0kK
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome to the Old time Radio Westerns. I'm your host,
Angel Ryans, and I'm excited to bring you another episode
absolutely free. This is one of over eighty episodes released
monthly for your enjoyment. Now let's get into this.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Episode, Adventures in Research. That business is hardly the state
(00:51):
of affairs to be desired by anyone, Yet it was
just such a condition that indirectly led to the birth
of an idea and brought about the transformation of the
Middle West from a wilderness into what is now known
as the bread basket of the world. This is Paul
Shannon bringing you another transcribed story of science, produced as
(01:13):
a public service in cooperation with the Westinghouse for Search Laboratories,
and today telling you the story of John Deere. Now
he invented the first steel plow. In the year eighteen
thirty four, John Deere, the village blacksmith of the small
Vermont town of Hancock, found his business falling off. Business
(01:36):
is bad, hey, John, Yes, son's getting worried.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Leonard, your wife has four children to think of. Well,
just can't go on much longer. Did you ever think
of going into some other business, John, No, and I
don't intend to This is my work, Leonard. There ain't
anything in the world I'd rather do than this.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Suppose you don't understand, well, yes, me, it's about the
dirtiest work.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
I know, dirty, yes, but well, and it's not easy
to describe how I feel. But it's like this. When
you take a piece of iron and from it make
a shovel or a hole or a pitchfork, a tool
that someone can use earn his daily bread with, well,
then you know that what you're doing is worth.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Get your hands steady, for I see what you mean.
But now you aren't making so many shovels or hose.
Oh no, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Well? Business don't get better. I'm going to some other
town around here.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
John. Let me tell you that the reason you haven't
getten much business lately is because the farmers are leaving
from us one by one. They're getting tired of this
hard means soil here in New England, and they're going away.
Were too west, John, Out west, the soil is rich
and brand new, and they need people like you out
there too. You have to be Frank. I've been thinking
(02:51):
about it myself.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Health hasn't been too good.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
If it doesn't pick up.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
That's where I'm going and soon.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Here's your Handray, Leonard, I ain't looking, John.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
You've got a wonderful talent in those hands? Are yours?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah? How much a dollar and a half?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
There you are?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Well?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Good day, John, Oh Leonard.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
If you decide what you're gonna do, let me know,
will you certainly?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
John? Certainly?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
John?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
What's traveling?
Speaker 5 (03:25):
You've been quiet as a mouse all eye.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I've been thinking, Jenny, what about dar. A couple of
weeks ago, Leonard Andrews told me he was thinking of
going out. Well, he left today, just settle not yet,
He's just going out to scout around. He said. I
should have gone with him.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Do you want to go, John, James?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
One place I want to go, and that's where I
can do what I know how to do. They say,
there are many opportunities in the US.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Why don't go then?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Dear, No, No, not yet. I talked with Leonard before
he left, and he intends to come back and settle
his affairs. When he does, he'll tell me how it
really is.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
John, you wouldn't believe it. It's a different country. I
found a place up Rock River in Illinois called Grand Detour.
There's nothing there but an abandoned shack and a few Indians.
But it's a wonderful site for a town. While the
soil is so rich and black up there that Edison
will grow.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Are you going back then for good?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yes, John, I'm going to start a settlement there by
the way.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
This will interest view.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Old AMers Bosworth is coming with me.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Do you mean he's given up his precious stagecoach business.
Take a chance out.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
There, that's right, Leonard, count me in.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
If it's good enough for mister Bosworth, it's good enough
for me.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
And so a month later, in eighteen thirty six, John Deere,
leaving his wife and family at home, journeyed to Illinois.
He went to work immediate. He struck to the forourge
out of Clay and Riversdog and again found himself in business.
Soon he thought he would send for his wife and
family and settle down to the life he had always wanted. However,
(05:12):
things were not destined to be quite so easy, because
it's not long after his arrival in Grand du.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Here's the fog. Mister deer dag dab thing busted again.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, this is the third time within three weeks, mister Newton.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Matter, Yeah, it's his dog on soil out here.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I thought it was good soil.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
That just did.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
It's too good.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Go blame black and rich and sticky. First year. You
can get to it all right seconds you can't, not
with a wooden flow anyway.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Well, did you ever try it cast iron flower?
Speaker 4 (05:42):
No? Never did.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Well, I'll fix up one if you want see how
it works.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Hey, here's your cast iron flower back, mister Deer.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Matter this time, mister Newton.
Speaker 6 (05:56):
Eh, the soil again, it's a sticky It clings to
the Wow. No, sooner do you go two or three paces?
You have to stop and scrape off the mold board
thanks to it. Eh, yeah, like glue. Well, thanks for
the use of the plow, mister dear, but don't see
you again. Good luck to you. You'll need it. You're
standing around here any longer where you're going back home
(06:18):
to Connecticut. I guess I can at least turn over
the ground there.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Goodbye.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Mister Dar's fine, and so his plans altered. John Deere
sat down to write his wife.
Speaker 7 (06:35):
However, Oh Dere's whe I am taking a few minutes
from my work to write through these lines. It is
He's the greatest sorrow in my heart. But I must
tell you will have to postpone the journeys here to
me because now the situation has changed. Butlers, I'm beginning
(07:01):
to leave here because it's a tough prairie soil. Their
flowers will not turn it over cleanly, and what is
needed is a flowers that will. I've been spending much
of my spare time thinking about how to make one,
(07:23):
but till now I haven't.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Oh hello, John, write a letter home.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Good day, Leonard. Yes, DEMI telling her about Newton and
the others leaving.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Oh yes, you're getting worried about that too, John. No,
this settlement isn't building up like I thought it wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I guess I should.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Apologize for Evan. Ever, haven't talked into coming here.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
No need to, Leonard. This is a problem that can
be solved, and I'm going to do my best to
try and solve it. Well.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I sure hope you do. By the way, I wonder
if you'd come out to my saw meal with me.
One of'm a chains broke glad.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
To Leonard, Wait a minute, could you until I finished letter?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
It change over here? What's the matter, John, It's a
secular saw blade it's broken, John, isn't good Renavant, It's
a shame.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Isn't going away?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Good?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Sheffield steel like that sure makes a good cutting edge,
that steal, Yes, what a polish it.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Has, sure polished by miles of native timber.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Nothing would stick to that surface, would it, Leonard? Would
you mind let me have this blade?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
If it's any use to you, go ahead and take.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
It, Leonard. If it turns out the way I wanted to,
it'll be off use to everybody around here.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Ooh, hey, what you're doing there? John?
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Chip the teeth off the saw blade, Thomas, anything I
can do for you?
Speaker 4 (08:54):
No, his saw won't be much good without no teeth,
will it?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
It will? At the saw?
Speaker 4 (09:02):
It might be good.
Speaker 8 (09:03):
For something else, though, Yeah, it might be Princeman the plowing.
Maybe you aiming to make a plow out of that
circular saw?
Speaker 3 (09:13):
What I aim to do?
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Have you supposed to do that?
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah? Simple enough? Here, take a look at this pattern
for the moleboard.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
It's not much good. It's figuring out plans.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Well, I'm gonna lay this pattern on the saw and
cut out around it with a chisel and the sledge
and hard word to fill. No, how and then I'll
heat it on the forge and shape it a little
at a time with my hammer. It looks you see
those bars of iron there, and yeah, well I'm going
to shape up right standards from them and from saplings.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I'll carve the handle.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Well, how are you going to make the bean?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
I've got a good sound white oak fence rail that
I think will do well. But it'll shaping with my
axe and jad knife will do it a thing.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
It seems to be an awful lot of work for
just one plow.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Through What are you doing at fur Well, I'm trying
to make a plow. It'll turn over your fields without
any soil sticking to the mold board. A self scouring plow.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
A self scarring plow won't work, John, Not in these
fields around here.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Thomas, whose fields you think of the toughest and grandee
to it?
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Why everyone knows Lewis Crandalls is.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Why I'll tell you what I'm going to do. Then,
when this plow is finished, I'm going to test it
in his field with his permission.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
In crandle.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
No flow work in those fields, no flow.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
But John Deere, in the face of the skepticism of
his fellow citizens, worked on his great idea, as it
came to be known, adjusting here, cutting there, and hammering
it to the shape he desired, and then finally there
it was steel blade, gleaming in the sunlight and light
enough for a man to carry. To John Deere, it
(10:57):
was a thing of beauty to others.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Well, Leonard, how do you like it?
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
And I hate to say this, but it doesn't look
much different than any other.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Plow who maybe it don't.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
That don't matter. It's if it works that counts.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
And when will you know that tomorrow morning that Luke
Randall's for you?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Will you be that well?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I wouldn't miss it for the world.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Oh almost forgot.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Here's a letter I picked.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Up at the post office for you, Demi. Thanks Lenning.
It's all right, see you tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Then here is John. I hope you get this before
you make your style of the new plow.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
Because I know how much a success means to you
and us, not only because it will mean now being reunited,
but that you have faith in yourself and your idea
will be justified. I am proud of you for having
made the attempt. No matter what happened, John, all my
thoughts will be abuse.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Don't get loose, all right it, John Bush? You know,
you know you rather get a good grip on them handles.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
John, give him a tense look.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Look he's cutting.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
It's like my night.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
Look at it, soul, Thomas Colleziano. Yeah, but the dirt
sticking to the old born, ain't it, nat All?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Look for your tout.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
She's clean, clean as old. But it really works, polishes
in snow. Look at that feels it's being turned over.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Now, what do you say, Thomas?
Speaker 4 (12:43):
When I'd be home swaddled A cheer for John Deere?
Everybody is great care.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
And that was the big of a new era for
the United States.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Through this invention of a self scouring plow in eighteen
twenty seven was brought about the continued settlement of the
West and its development into the bread baskets of the world.
John Deere's business grew and expanded due to the tremendous
demand for plows, until the tiny smithy became a huge factory,
turning out thousands of plows, an army of machines that
(13:26):
fought the soil and won. Several years later, Henry Ward
Beecher wrote, he that invents a machine augments the power
of man and the well being of mankind. Such a
man was John Deere. And that's today's Adventure in Research.
(13:55):
Produced in cooperation with the Westinghouse Research Laboratory. These programs
are broadcast to Armed Forces personnel overseas through the facilities
of the Armed Forces Radio Service. Join us again next
week for another transcribed story of science on Adventures in Research.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
This has been a presentation of OTR Westerns dot com
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Speaker 2 (16:01):
The comm
Welcome to the Old time Radio Westerns. I'm your host,
Angel Ryans, and I'm excited to bring you another episode
absolutely free. This is one of over eighty episodes released
monthly for your enjoyment. Now let's get into this.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Episode, Adventures in Research. That business is hardly the state
(00:51):
of affairs to be desired by anyone, Yet it was
just such a condition that indirectly led to the birth
of an idea and brought about the transformation of the
Middle West from a wilderness into what is now known
as the bread basket of the world. This is Paul
Shannon bringing you another transcribed story of science, produced as
(01:13):
a public service in cooperation with the Westinghouse for Search Laboratories,
and today telling you the story of John Deere. Now
he invented the first steel plow. In the year eighteen
thirty four, John Deere, the village blacksmith of the small
Vermont town of Hancock, found his business falling off. Business
(01:36):
is bad, hey, John, Yes, son's getting worried.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Leonard, your wife has four children to think of. Well,
just can't go on much longer. Did you ever think
of going into some other business, John, No, and I
don't intend to This is my work, Leonard. There ain't
anything in the world I'd rather do than this.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Suppose you don't understand, well, yes, me, it's about the
dirtiest work.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
I know, dirty, yes, but well, and it's not easy
to describe how I feel. But it's like this. When
you take a piece of iron and from it make
a shovel or a hole or a pitchfork, a tool
that someone can use earn his daily bread with, well,
then you know that what you're doing is worth.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Get your hands steady, for I see what you mean.
But now you aren't making so many shovels or hose.
Oh no, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Well? Business don't get better. I'm going to some other
town around here.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
John. Let me tell you that the reason you haven't
getten much business lately is because the farmers are leaving
from us one by one. They're getting tired of this
hard means soil here in New England, and they're going away.
Were too west, John, Out west, the soil is rich
and brand new, and they need people like you out
there too. You have to be Frank. I've been thinking
(02:51):
about it myself.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Health hasn't been too good.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
If it doesn't pick up.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
That's where I'm going and soon.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Here's your Handray, Leonard, I ain't looking, John.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
You've got a wonderful talent in those hands? Are yours?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah? How much a dollar and a half?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
There you are?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Well?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Good day, John, Oh Leonard.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
If you decide what you're gonna do, let me know,
will you certainly?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
John? Certainly?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
John?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
What's traveling?
Speaker 5 (03:25):
You've been quiet as a mouse all eye.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I've been thinking, Jenny, what about dar. A couple of
weeks ago, Leonard Andrews told me he was thinking of
going out. Well, he left today, just settle not yet,
He's just going out to scout around. He said. I
should have gone with him.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Do you want to go, John, James?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
One place I want to go, and that's where I
can do what I know how to do. They say,
there are many opportunities in the US.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Why don't go then?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Dear, No, No, not yet. I talked with Leonard before
he left, and he intends to come back and settle
his affairs. When he does, he'll tell me how it
really is.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
John, you wouldn't believe it. It's a different country. I
found a place up Rock River in Illinois called Grand Detour.
There's nothing there but an abandoned shack and a few Indians.
But it's a wonderful site for a town. While the
soil is so rich and black up there that Edison
will grow.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Are you going back then for good?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yes, John, I'm going to start a settlement there by
the way.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
This will interest view.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Old AMers Bosworth is coming with me.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Do you mean he's given up his precious stagecoach business.
Take a chance out.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
There, that's right, Leonard, count me in.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
If it's good enough for mister Bosworth, it's good enough
for me.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
And so a month later, in eighteen thirty six, John Deere,
leaving his wife and family at home, journeyed to Illinois.
He went to work immediate. He struck to the forourge
out of Clay and Riversdog and again found himself in business.
Soon he thought he would send for his wife and
family and settle down to the life he had always wanted. However,
(05:12):
things were not destined to be quite so easy, because
it's not long after his arrival in Grand du.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Here's the fog. Mister deer dag dab thing busted again.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, this is the third time within three weeks, mister Newton.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Matter, Yeah, it's his dog on soil out here.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I thought it was good soil.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
That just did.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
It's too good.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Go blame black and rich and sticky. First year. You
can get to it all right seconds you can't, not
with a wooden flow anyway.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Well, did you ever try it cast iron flower?
Speaker 4 (05:42):
No? Never did.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Well, I'll fix up one if you want see how
it works.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Hey, here's your cast iron flower back, mister Deer.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Matter this time, mister Newton.
Speaker 6 (05:56):
Eh, the soil again, it's a sticky It clings to
the Wow. No, sooner do you go two or three paces?
You have to stop and scrape off the mold board
thanks to it. Eh, yeah, like glue. Well, thanks for
the use of the plow, mister dear, but don't see
you again. Good luck to you. You'll need it. You're
standing around here any longer where you're going back home
(06:18):
to Connecticut. I guess I can at least turn over
the ground there.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Goodbye.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Mister Dar's fine, and so his plans altered. John Deere
sat down to write his wife.
Speaker 7 (06:35):
However, Oh Dere's whe I am taking a few minutes
from my work to write through these lines. It is
He's the greatest sorrow in my heart. But I must
tell you will have to postpone the journeys here to
me because now the situation has changed. Butlers, I'm beginning
(07:01):
to leave here because it's a tough prairie soil. Their
flowers will not turn it over cleanly, and what is
needed is a flowers that will. I've been spending much
of my spare time thinking about how to make one,
(07:23):
but till now I haven't.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Oh hello, John, write a letter home.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Good day, Leonard. Yes, DEMI telling her about Newton and
the others leaving.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Oh yes, you're getting worried about that too, John. No,
this settlement isn't building up like I thought it wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I guess I should.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Apologize for Evan. Ever, haven't talked into coming here.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
No need to, Leonard. This is a problem that can
be solved, and I'm going to do my best to
try and solve it. Well.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I sure hope you do. By the way, I wonder
if you'd come out to my saw meal with me.
One of'm a chains broke glad.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
To Leonard, Wait a minute, could you until I finished letter?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
It change over here? What's the matter, John, It's a
secular saw blade it's broken, John, isn't good Renavant, It's
a shame.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Isn't going away?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Good?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Sheffield steel like that sure makes a good cutting edge,
that steal, Yes, what a polish it.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Has, sure polished by miles of native timber.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Nothing would stick to that surface, would it, Leonard? Would
you mind let me have this blade?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
If it's any use to you, go ahead and take.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
It, Leonard. If it turns out the way I wanted to,
it'll be off use to everybody around here.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Ooh, hey, what you're doing there? John?
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Chip the teeth off the saw blade, Thomas, anything I
can do for you?
Speaker 4 (08:54):
No, his saw won't be much good without no teeth,
will it?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
It will? At the saw?
Speaker 4 (09:02):
It might be good.
Speaker 8 (09:03):
For something else, though, Yeah, it might be Princeman the plowing.
Maybe you aiming to make a plow out of that
circular saw?
Speaker 3 (09:13):
What I aim to do?
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Have you supposed to do that?
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah? Simple enough? Here, take a look at this pattern
for the moleboard.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
It's not much good. It's figuring out plans.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Well, I'm gonna lay this pattern on the saw and
cut out around it with a chisel and the sledge
and hard word to fill. No, how and then I'll
heat it on the forge and shape it a little
at a time with my hammer. It looks you see
those bars of iron there, and yeah, well I'm going
to shape up right standards from them and from saplings.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I'll carve the handle.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Well, how are you going to make the bean?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
I've got a good sound white oak fence rail that
I think will do well. But it'll shaping with my
axe and jad knife will do it a thing.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
It seems to be an awful lot of work for
just one plow.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Through What are you doing at fur Well, I'm trying
to make a plow. It'll turn over your fields without
any soil sticking to the mold board. A self scouring plow.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
A self scarring plow won't work, John, Not in these
fields around here.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Thomas, whose fields you think of the toughest and grandee
to it?
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Why everyone knows Lewis Crandalls is.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Why I'll tell you what I'm going to do. Then,
when this plow is finished, I'm going to test it
in his field with his permission.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
In crandle.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
No flow work in those fields, no flow.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
But John Deere, in the face of the skepticism of
his fellow citizens, worked on his great idea, as it
came to be known, adjusting here, cutting there, and hammering
it to the shape he desired, and then finally there
it was steel blade, gleaming in the sunlight and light
enough for a man to carry. To John Deere, it
(10:57):
was a thing of beauty to others.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Well, Leonard, how do you like it?
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
And I hate to say this, but it doesn't look
much different than any other.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Plow who maybe it don't.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
That don't matter. It's if it works that counts.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
And when will you know that tomorrow morning that Luke
Randall's for you?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Will you be that well?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I wouldn't miss it for the world.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Oh almost forgot.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Here's a letter I picked.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Up at the post office for you, Demi. Thanks Lenning.
It's all right, see you tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Then here is John. I hope you get this before
you make your style of the new plow.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
Because I know how much a success means to you
and us, not only because it will mean now being reunited,
but that you have faith in yourself and your idea
will be justified. I am proud of you for having
made the attempt. No matter what happened, John, all my
thoughts will be abuse.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Don't get loose, all right it, John Bush? You know,
you know you rather get a good grip on them handles.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
John, give him a tense look.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Look he's cutting.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
It's like my night.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
Look at it, soul, Thomas Colleziano. Yeah, but the dirt
sticking to the old born, ain't it, nat All?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Look for your tout.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
She's clean, clean as old. But it really works, polishes
in snow. Look at that feels it's being turned over.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Now, what do you say, Thomas?
Speaker 4 (12:43):
When I'd be home swaddled A cheer for John Deere?
Everybody is great care.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
And that was the big of a new era for
the United States.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Through this invention of a self scouring plow in eighteen
twenty seven was brought about the continued settlement of the
West and its development into the bread baskets of the world.
John Deere's business grew and expanded due to the tremendous
demand for plows, until the tiny smithy became a huge factory,
turning out thousands of plows, an army of machines that
(13:26):
fought the soil and won. Several years later, Henry Ward
Beecher wrote, he that invents a machine augments the power
of man and the well being of mankind. Such a
man was John Deere. And that's today's Adventure in Research.
(13:55):
Produced in cooperation with the Westinghouse Research Laboratory. These programs
are broadcast to Armed Forces personnel overseas through the facilities
of the Armed Forces Radio Service. Join us again next
week for another transcribed story of science on Adventures in Research.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
This has been a presentation of OTR Westerns dot com
and we hope you enjoyed. Please take some time to
like and rate this episode within your favorite podcast application.
Follow us on Facebook by going to OTR Westerns dot
com slash Facebook, and subscribe to our YouTube channel by
going to OTR Westerns dot com slash YouTube. Become one
(15:06):
of our ranch hands and unlocksome exclusive content. We want
to thank our most recent ranch hands, Steve and Technogod,
who joined us recently. YouTube can join by going to
OTR Westerns dot com slash Donate, send us an email
podcast at OTR Westerns dot com and you can call
and leave us a voicemail seven oh seven nine eight
(15:27):
six eight seven thirty nine. This episode is copyrighted under
the attribution non Commercial Share Like copyright. For more information,
go to otr, westerns dot com, slash copyright, have a
great day and thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
The comm
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