Automated Machinery: Steam and Gas Powered
The middle of the nineteenth century brought about the use of steam-powered farm machinery. The last half of the century saw many inventions and improvements in steam-powered tractors, whose power was also used to run other machines with pulleys, as with the pictured corn-sheller on the Sadorus farm at the turn of the century.
As automobiles changed the way people moved around, the gasoline engine changed the way farm machinery was powered. This section will outline changes in the technology and its impact on culture using our historical photographic collections and video and audio oral histories of farmers who grew up during that time.
