the bulldozer shovel blade has been around long before the first motorized tractors. In fact, the first wooden blade bulldozers were mule-or- horse-powered and used to move dirt as well as smooth rough ground for planting fields…for farmers.
Most people, however, give credit for the bulldozer invention to Kansas farmer James Cummings and draftsman J. Earl McLeod who created a scraper blade in 1923.
Their patent, approved in 1925, was for a “scraper blade mounted forwardly of the tractor on a pair of pivoting arms which are linked to the sides of the tractor, e.g. bulldozers.”
The story begins in 1923, during the early years of the oil industry, with the Sinclair Oil Company laying an oil pipeline across Washington County from the oil fields of Teapot Dome, WY to refineries at Freeman, MO.
When Sinclair Oil Company laid the pipeline from, they used a WWI trencher to dig the trenches and horses with wood slips to fill them back in. The horses were on one side of the trench and a man was on the other hanging on to handles on wooden boards. The horses would pull the slip ahead and the man pulled it back until the trench was filled.
When the crew crossed Cummings’ fields, he questioned if there wasn’t a better way, as while the actual digging of the trench had been mechanized, backfilling the trench was still being done with mules and dirt slips.
The foreman replied that if he had an idea, they’d try it the following Monday. Cummings drew up plans with the help of a local draftsman, J. Earl McLeod, who was taking correspondence drafting courses, and the men proceeded to build the new machine from parts scoured from junkyards in the area.
“The dozer they built was lifted by a spring off an air motor windmill and a lever off a John Deere plow,” Durst says. “The blade was made out of oak and reinforced with iron with a metal blade on the bottom. The frame was made from Model T parts, windmill springs, and assorted odds and ends."
The first day it filled in 1 1/6th miles of trench which was far more than the horses could do, and Cummings and McLeod were given the contract for backfilling the pipeline from Deshler, NE to it's terminus at Freeman, MO.
The Fordson tractor with an oak board dozer was unveiled at a town celebration the following June. One honored guest was Earl McLeod, who designed the original machine.
Durst says he felt it was important to tell “the rest of the story” and honor McLeod, whose work had been hidden in history.
In the late 19th century, bulldozing meant using brute force to push over or through any obstacle, referring to two bulls butting heads in a fight.
By the 1940s, the term bulldozer referred to the entire machine and not just the attachment.
I'd never heard of it before, but there was also a 'CALFDOZER' where the Aveling Barford British firm put out a pint-sized version of the bulldozer from 1945 to 1962 to aid in home construction
Specifications: 9 b. h. p. petrol, industrial type engine. Speeds, 1.4 m. p. h. forward; 16 m. p. h. reverse. Overall height, 4 ft. 7 in.; overall length, 7 ft. 1½ in., width of machine, 3 ft. 9 in., width of blade, 4 ft. 6 in.; weight, 29 cwt.
It is in Morrowville Ks in Cummings Park. I have seen it and wondered if it was the first or not.
ReplyDeleteNow this is apiece of history of which I had no idea. Thanks for bringing this to the fore.
ReplyDeleteyou're welcome! I like doing this sort of thing
DeleteFun&Entertaining.Thanks for a great,well researched post.Good day.
ReplyDeleteNow they have even smaller ones, called a Dingo.
ReplyDelete