A fascinating collection of interesting equipment.
Real Steampunk
Check out this one for example:
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A Walk in the Countryside
Sometimes
I come across a machine so bizarro that I think I must have misread
something and I have to go back and check. Such is the 1878 Darby
Pedestrian Broadside Digger.
I
don’t know where to begin describing this utterly Heath Robinson
device. It’s a kind of agricultural tractor, but that ain’t the half of
it. Mr T. C. Darby devised it as a labour-saving machine that would do
the work of twelve men with forks – somehow he came up with a mechanism
that allowed each fork to dig in, turn the soil and withdraw. It was
built by W & S Eddington of Chelmsford, so evidently the only way
really is Essex.
Not strange enough? It drove sideways. Still not
strange enough? Well, you can’t quite see it here, but it could walk.
It had six legs. Could it run? I hope not, but apparently it could jump,
and often did.
A later version had eight legs and wheels, because why not? I believe this is it here:
Despite
being quite lightweight, hence the jumping, it never really succeeded
in replacing conventional traction engines and so, sadly, is just a
footnote in agricultural history. Ha, foot-note.
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Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ
Blog: Real Steampunk
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