Advances in agricultural machinery earn a family its place in history

The inventors of a line of agricultural equipment that furthered the evolution of farming were honored by ASME last month in La Porte, Ind., during a ceremony that added the Rumely family's achievements to the list of engineering landmarks.

ASME International joined with the American Society of Agricultural Engineers and the Indiana Historical Bureau in presenting plaques that recognized the Rumely family's contributions to the development of agricultural machinery.

Beginning with the blacksmith shop of German immigrants Meinrad Rumely (1823-1904) and his brother John, this family invented and produced a line of agricultural equipment that played a vital role in the evolution of farming, including John Secor's OilPull tractor of 1909, which was the first commercially successful kerosene-powered tractor.

Type F Rumely OilPull kerosene tractor pulls a four-bottom plow, about 1915.

 

 

Having revolutionary impact worldwide, it set plowing records — 14 acres in one day in 1911 — and foretold of the application of the internal combustion engine to power agricultural machinery. Edward Rumely later noted that the OilPull eliminated the need for some 18 million of the 25 million horses then in the United States, freeing one acre in every five then required for animal subsistence.

The M&J Rumely Co. eventually became the Advance Rumely Co., which was acquired by the Allis-Chalmers Co. in 1931, and still produces cultivators, discs, harrows, planters, plows and self-propelled cotton strippers. ASME has recognized these contributions as a Mechanical Engineering Heritage Site, which marks the original site of the blacksmith shop on the grounds of La Porte Hospital (since 1972) on Lincolnway, in La Porte.

For more information, visit the online history newsletter or ASME roster at www.asme.org/history.

 

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