John Fowler & Coke…

If you ever wondered where all that coke that’s in the fields we detect came from, then look no further, this method of ploughing caused the dodgy & sometimes absolutely brilliant signals. When the engine firebox was emptied out onto the ground, it would then be ploughed into the ground. Many years later, it would be giving us the interference, often the bane of our lives…

Born in Wiltshire into a Quaker family, John Fowler (1826-1864) became one of Britain’s most successful agricultural engineers and invented steam ploughing.

Fowler was concerned with the cost of manual labour needed when cultivating land. In the 1850s, he conceived the idea of using steam power instead. His method was to set a steam engine at both ends of a field, which, between them, would draw the plough across by cable.

Fowler exported his ‘double-engine’ across the world. However, as steam ploughing machinery was too expensive for most farmers, much was done by contractors. These teams often consisted of four men and a boy who lived and travelled together in a horse-pulled van containing all their equipment. This photo from the Eric Guy Collection shows steam ploughing in action. It was taken in Hertfordshire around 1930. Credit: The Museum of English Rural Life at the University of Reading