Wellmann Imre szerk.: A Magyar Mezőgazdasági Múzeum Közleményei 1971-1972 (Budapest, 1973)
Blake, Susan: A geographical analysis of agricultural engineering in Britain in the 19th century
Europe and the West Indies. 14 Several firms made the manufacture of steam engines their main interest, and gradually moved away from agricultural to general engineering. But firms had never concentrated strictly on agricultural implements, variety of product being characteristic well into the 20th c. Elements of regional specialization did develop, however, with the Scottish firms of ELDER and SELLAR producing potato cultivating implements whilst REEVES of Bratton and the Dairy Supply Company of London concentrated on the supply of other manufacturers' implements rather than producing their own. 15 From the 1850's, with the development of more complex machinery which required greater engineering skill rather than contact with the consumer, new firms were established in industrial towns rather than in the usual market centres, and small family firms in local centres were the first to fail or be amalgamated under economic pressure. 5. With the next phase concentrating on the development of mechanized harvesting, this trend was maintained. Once again the initial invention came from Scotland, 16 only to reach full development elsewhere — this time in the American labour saving context. 17 Difficulties were then experienced in translating the American designs to the British corn conditions, a large scale example of the basic problem of adapting any implement developed in one specific agricultural context to fit another, which factor militated against the emergence of a wholly nationally-based agricultural engineering industry in the 19th century 18 . Typical of steam's fascination for the 19th c. mind, AVELING and PORTER of Rcchford, Kent produced a steam reaper, 19 one example of the many ideas which failed to reach the market and with whose fortunes companies' were involved, the cause of the constant flux of location, number and products of agricultural engineers which makes the development of the industry a complex study. 6. The development of dairying equipment between 1880 and 1910 20 aroused none of the enthusiasm of the previous 5 phases. 21 Innovatory leadership had by this stage largely passed from Britain and although its agricultural engineering industry was world famous, the expansion of indigenous industry in former markets began to decrease sales, in all except a few specialities such as drills, some plough types and traction engines. J''RANSOME's records and catalogues of the period at the Museum of English Rural Life, Reading. i:) Company records at Museum of English Rural Life, Reading. ^PATRICK BELL of Inchmichael in 1826. '"McCormick and Hussey reapers, introduced into Britain at the Great Exhibition of 1851. & Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England 18: 1882. 455—475. ^Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 2nd series 7: 1871. 472. 2 °See: Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England for this period: Reports on implements exhibited at shows. ^Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 3rd series 1892. 270.
