Plow. History of invention and production

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HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY, OBJECTS AROUND US
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Plow. History of invention and production

The history of technology, technology, objects around us

Directory / The history of technology, technology, objects around us

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For several millennia, agriculture remained hoe-based. In those areas where the soil was soft (for example, in the Nile Valley or Mesopotamia), the field could be well cultivated with a hoe. Therefore, agriculture here began to develop rapidly in ancient times.

However, the productivity of the farmer was insignificant. Moreover, such favorable conditions were a rare exception. Usually, peasants had to raise virgin meadows, overgrown with perennial grasses, with a powerful interweaving of roots. For a man armed with a single hoe, these soils were a difficult, often insurmountable obstacle. There was a need for such a tool for cultivating the land, with which it would be possible not to dig up, but to cut the layers of turf from below. This tool was the plow.

Plow
Sokha. An ancient arable tool that did not turn over the layer) of the earth like a plow, but only rolled it to the side

The plow developed from a special tool of ancient farmers, which modern scientists have dubbed the "furrow stick". With the help of this stick, the farmer laid furrows in the field, dividing it into ridges. A distinctive feature of these sticks was the working part, directed at an acute angle to the handle. Their use gave the idea to the ancient farmers that the soil can be cultivated not by digging, as was done before, but by dragging. Then, apparently, the prototype of the plow appeared - a forked stick with a pointed end (here the drawbar and the plowshare are already visible in the embryo). Harnessing such a device, the farmer dragged it behind him, making a furrow.

Plow
Various types of "furrow sticks" - the forerunners of early plows (4 thousand BC)

Of course, such a tool could only be used on very soft soils, already loosened by many years of cultivation, where there were neither stones nor turf. In order to plow harder soils, it was necessary to increase the pressure on the shares. Thus the handle was invented. A further improvement of this plow tool can be observed in one ancient Assyrian monument. It was already in the full sense of the plow, which had all three of its main parts: drawbar, plowshare and handle. In this form, he required two workers: one pulled the plow, and the other directed it and kept it in the ground. All the first plows were driven by human power.

Plow
Plowing, Ancient Egypt

Of course, the peasant was burdened by such work, and after a while he began to harness bulls to the plow. At first, people simply tied the plow to the horns of oxen, later a yoke and primitive harness appeared. The speed of cultivating the land immediately increased several times, and the work itself became easier.

The first plows were made from the rhizomes of oak, beech, maple and some other trees and were solid pieces of wood. Then the plowshare began to be strengthened with iron. Many years passed before further improvements were made to the plow. In the writings of Pliny, a Roman writer of the XNUMXst century AD, we find a description of a plow, which, unlike the previous ones, is equipped with a wheel, a knife and mouldboards. The wheel prevented the plow from going too deep into the ground, the knife served to cut the turf.

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Ancient plows discovered in the peatlands of Jutland and Germany

An important innovation was the blade. The purpose of the blade is to turn over the sod, which was cut by the knife and plowshare. A plow without a blade during movement only loosened the earth. The blade turned the turf over so that the weeds were underground. The invention of the mouldboard was a huge event in the history of the plow. In this form, the plow lasted until the end of the Middle Ages, when new improvements were made to it.

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Plows of various designs

The spread of the plow with an iron plowshare made a fundamental revolution in agriculture. Plow agriculture transformed agriculture, was its highest achievement, and to no small extent contributed to the emergence of many civilizations of the Old World.

The advantage of plow agriculture over hoe farming is so obvious that in the view of ancient people, its invention was the work of the gods. The Egyptians considered the plow a gift from Osiris, the Greeks - Pallas Athens, the Indians - Agni, and the people of China - the divine Shenpungu.

Author: Ryzhov K.V.

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