Books by John F Spalding

The Steam Tractor Encyclopedia

This must-read book is packed with fascinating real-life stories about the steam era on the American farm. It features over 500 unforgettable photographs that open a portal back in time. Most of the first steamers for farms were equipped with wheels or skids and were pulled by horses. Steam traction engines later came with various drive trains that enabled them to pull themselves along the open road. Steamers mechanized agriculture, ensured population growth, and transformed the United States and Canada into contenders in world economic markets. In 1910, a Department of Agriculture survey found that 72,000 farm steam engines were in use in the United States. Until the first edition of The Steam Tractor Encyclopedia, no book had presented anything approaching a complete photographic record of agricultural steam engines in America. Dr. Robert T. Rhode is one of the world’s experts on steam engine history on the American farm, and John F. Spalding has one of the world’s largest collections of photographs of agricultural steam engines. Combining Rhode’s knowledge and Spalding’s photographs has resulted in an expanded edition of the most complete steam tractor encyclopedia in print in the United States or Canada. The new expanded edition of this popular encyclopedia features over 600 historical pictures of steam engines and provides the histories of over 80 companies that built farm steam engines in the United States and Canada. Included are portable engines and traction engines, which today are often called steam tractors. The book also has photos of hit and miss engines and antique gas tractors. The second edition is nearly twice as large as the first edition was. The book has been completely revised and has a totally new design. 400 pages 2011

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The Steam Tractor Encyclopedia Glory Days of the Invention That Changed Farming Forever

This book tells the story of the amazing transformation of farming brought about by the gigantic steam tractors that hauled agriculture into the modern era. Here is the first-ever thorough history of the steamers packed with more than 400 super-rare photographs and brochures that have taken years to collect. Before the advent of lightweight gasoline engines, steam tractors were met with awe. Even today, at threshing bees, county fairs, and tractor shows, these remarkable machines command great respect. This book gives readers and tractor fans a chance to linger over every detail of these marvelous--and now, all too rare--machines. Richly illustrated and meticulously detailed, each entry brings to the fore a steam tractor that in its day transformed the business of farming acre by acre and day by day.

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