THE SLIP OF A WHEEL

When I think of an example of a horse being used to push, rather than pull, a farm implement, it would be an early reaping machine such as those created by Scottish inventor Reverend Bell or the American McCormick Snr. In the main, ‘dobbin’s’ job was to haul things; wagons, logs, ploughs, cultivation equipment, seeders, rakes and more all traditional horse-drawn items once commonly seen in and around the farm.

Go figure

One horse can deliver about one horsepower, but just how big is the horse and just how long could it pull a load consistently before stopping to rest? Indeed, how big does that load have to be? Well, mechanical engineers sorted out the basics ages ago, so we don’t have to dwell too much on that right now. For the record, horsepower is a unit of measurement of power or the rate at which work is done. The term was adopted in the late 18th century by Scottish engineer James Watt to compare the output of steam engines against draft horses.