Editing Plough (section)

===Improved designs===
[[File:Plough.JPG|thumb|Modern tractor ploughing in South Africa. This plough has five non-reversible mouldboards. The fifth, empty furrow on the left may be filled by the first furrow of the next pass.]]
[[File:A champion ploughman from The Powerhouse Museum Collection.jpg|thumb|'A Champion ploughman', from Australia, c. 1900]]
The basic plough with coulter, ploughshare and mould board remained in use for a millennium. Major changes in design spread widely in the [[Age of Enlightenment]], when there was rapid progress in design. Joseph Foljambe in [[Rotherham]], England, in 1730, used new shapes based on the Rotherham plough, which covered the mould board with iron.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.ploughmen.co.uk/about-us/history-of-the-plough| title = A Brief History of The Plough}}</ref> Unlike the heavy plough, the Rotherham, or Rotherham swing plough consisted entirely of the coulter, mould board and handles. It was much lighter than earlier designs and became common in England. It may have been the first plough widely built in factories and commercially successful there.<ref name=rotherham>{{Cite web |title=The Rotherham Plough |url=http://www.rotherhamweb.co.uk/h/plough.htm |publisher=rotherhamweb.co.uk|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924092217/http://www.rotherhamweb.co.uk/h/plough.htm|archive-date=24 September 2015}}</ref>

In 1789 [[Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies|Robert Ransome]], an [[iron founder]] in [[Ipswich]], started casting ploughshares in a disused malting at St Margaret's Ditches. A broken mould in his foundry caused molten metal to come into contact with cold metal, making the metal surface extremely hard. This process, chilled casting, resulted in what Ransome advertised as "self-sharpening" ploughs. He received patents for his discovery.<ref>{{Cite web |title=THE RANSOMES COLLECTION - Archives Hub |url=http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb7-trran |access-date=2023-12-05 |website=archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk}}</ref>

[[James Small (inventor)|James Small]] further advanced the design. Using mathematical methods, he eventually arrived at a shape cast from a single piece of iron, an improvement on the ''Scots plough'' of [[James Anderson of Hermiston]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Rick |title=Scots Who Made America |date=2015 |publisher=Birlinn |isbn=9780857908827 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v2KgBwAAQBAJ&q=james+anderson+scotch+plough&pg=PT127}}</ref> A single-piece cast-iron plough was also developed and patented by [[Charles Newbold]] in the United States. This was again improved on by [[Jethro Wood]], a blacksmith of [[Scipio, New York]], who made a three-part Scots plough that allowed a broken piece to be replaced. In 1833 John Lane invented a steel plough.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.farmanddairy.com/columns/debate-who-really-invented-the-steel-plow/455386.html| title = Debate: Who really invented the steel plow?| date = 9 November 2017}}</ref> Then in 1837 [[John Deere (inventor)|John Deere]] introduced a [[steel]] plough; it was so much stronger than iron designs that it could work soil in US areas previously thought unsuitable for farming.

Improvements on this followed developments in metallurgy: steel coulters and shares with softer iron mould boards to prevent breakage, the chilled plough (an early example of [[Case hardening|surface-hardened]] steel),<ref>{{cite web| url = http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bldeere.htm| title = John Deere (1804–1886)| access-date = 1 September 2007| archive-date = 28 July 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200728082456/https://www.thoughtco.com/john-deere-inventor-4070937| url-status = dead}}</ref> and eventually mould boards with faces strong enough to dispense with the coulter.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

By the time of the early 1900s, the steel plough had many uses, shapes and names. The "two horse breaking plough" had a point and wing used to break the soil's surface and turn the dirt out and over.<ref name="MarionCounty2000">{{cite book |author=|title=The Heritage of Marion County, Alabama|publisher=Heritage Publishing Consultants, County Heritage, & The Marion County Heritage|location=Clanton, Al.|year=2000|page=67 |edition=2 |volume=47 |language=en |isbn=1-891647-28-8}}</ref> The "shovel plough" was used to lay off the rows.<ref name="MarionCounty2000"/> The "harrow plough" was used to cover the planted seed.<ref name="MarionCounty2000"/> The "scratcher" or "geewhiz" was used to deweed or cultivate the crop.<ref name="MarionCounty2000"/> The "bulltongue" and "sweeps" were used to plough the middle of the rows.<ref name="MarionCounty2000"/> All these metal plough points required being re-sharpened about every ten days, due to their use on rough and rocky ground.<ref name="MarionCounty2000"/>