Arthur Clifford Howard

Arthur Clifford Howard, CBE (born April 4, 1893 in Crookwell , New South Wales , Australia, † January 4, 1971 in Harold Wood , London , England), was an Australian inventor and entrepreneur.

Howard was the eldest son of John Howard and his wife Mary Ellen, b. Smith, born. Howard received his education at the schools in Crookwell and Moss Vale. He already studied mechanical engineering as an apprentice through a distance learning course at the Mc machine factory. Cleary in Moss Vale .

First beginnings

It was through his father, who bought the first steam tractor for his Montain View farm in the Gilgandra district, that Howard first learned about the plowing performance of the Buffalo Pitt Steam.

AC Howard: “ I looked closely at the work. I realized that a large part of the machine power was being lost in order to transfer the pulling power to the plow in the uncultivated soil with solid ground pressure. I felt that if the power of the machine were to be converted practically directly in rotating form to plowing, or working the soil in several passes, it would be possible to convert the power loss on the wheels into useful work ”

Howard Rotavator

Encouraged by this realization, Howard began the first experiments in the field of rotary tillage in 1912, which resulted in his invention of the rotary hoe , the "Howard Rotavator ".

With the help of various parts of agricultural machinery, he built a drive from the tractor to the shaft of a “one-way” disc cultivator. The discs were toothed with grooves on the shaft in order to work the ground. He found that the soil could be worked without the compaction that occurred with normal plowing.

However, the rapidly rotating discs spread the soil too much. After much experimentation, Howard developed an L-shaped blade to help determine the correct size, weight and angle. Mounted on widely spaced flanges (10 inches) with a diameter of 21 inches, the first rotor was made. The first 21 "diameter rotor was made by mounting these blades on widely spaced (10") flanges. In terms of the history of rotary cultivation, tillers have a relatively short development time if the plow or harrow is cited as a comparison. Around 1850 the Englishman Hoskins published a work which published soil cultivation with rotating cutting tools. Around 1900 by Konrad v. Meyenburg another form of the practical further development of the tiller, using rigid knives or springy, curved steel tips as tools. The agricultural engine from LANZ was equipped with curved knives, the SIEMENS-SCHUCKERT tiller had a steel spring system according to the "von Meyenburg" system that penetrates the soil at points to create cracks in the soil. However, these systems had fast rotating tools which left the soil in the finest crumb structure, an important point for the initial failure of the tillers in arable farming. In addition, there was the slow forward speed, which produced a very small "bite size" ?, achieved an area performance that was too small and increased the risk of silting up. Under these aspects, which AC Howard also recognized, the L-shaped knife was determined through practical tests. The knife was screwed on in a radius of 136.5 mm (5.3 / 8 inches). the max. The radius on the knife is 260 mm. (10.1 / 4 inches) and decreases five by five degrees in radians (3.96 mm) as a progression across the entire width to prevent it from "running up" on the back of the knife. Extract from patent specification 18.137 / 20 - Oct. 9. 1920- "A cutting blade for a rotary hoe cultivator consiting of a strip of steel one portion of which is adapted to be secured to a rotatable element and its other portion being bent and sloping backwardly from said first portion both said portions having cutting edges on their front faces "(excerpt from the end) ROTAVATING is not milling in the traditional sense because the rotor speed, the driving speed and the resulting" bite size "determine the work of the ROTAVATOR. Before using the ROTAVATOR, make sure that the PTO speed for which the ROTAVATOR is built is correct. Modern ROTAVATORS have change gears or gearboxes to set the right rotor speed for the working depth and driving speed depending on the conditions, according to the motto "as fast as necessary - as slow as possible"! In the basics of agricultural engineering 9/1957 Sons u. Thiel, the work of the "milling machine" is examined at the Institute for Basic Agricultural Research in Braunschweig-Völkenrode and the criteria such as tool width, radius of curvature, cutting angle during circular movement as well as the knife and wedge angles are examined. The results confirmed the correctness of the concept as AC Howard had designed the ROTAVATOR, whereby the side drive, the correct attachment in the three-point on the tractor with the straightest possible cardan shaft guide were important prerequisites for using the ROTAVATOR successfully. The arrangement of the tools (knives) is of great importance in order to obtain a uniform torque curve during machining. Reference is already made in the patent specification to the arrangement for a uniform impact sequence. With the 6-knife system, the knives are mounted in pairs at an angle of 120 degrees on the flange. the angle of rotation of the flanges to each other results in a uniform impact of the tools. Another constructive difference to the "milling machines" of the early years was the side drive of the rotor, in contrast to the center drive as it was used by some manufacturers, i.e. H. the ROTAVATOR always works over the entire surface. If the ROTAVATOR is set correctly, there is no pulling power on the tractor because the thrust of the rotor acts on the tractor when the tractor is moving steadily in connection with a seed drill (SÄMAVATOR) to determine the power requirement, with regard to the simultaneous sowing, the field emergence, the placement depth, the aggregate distribution combined with the incorporation quality and the harvest result.

AC Howard founded a new company with Everard McCleary to manufacture rotating cultivators. But both inventors soon found that there was little demand for their small models. Work on a model with a larger working width was interrupted by the First World War, when the general conscription was introduced in Australia , Howard went to England and worked at Armstrong-Siddeley on the aircraft engines and in an ammunition factory.

Howard Auto Cultivators Pty. Limited

After the end of the war, Howard sought contact with British industry and agricultural companies in order to implement his ideas for rotary tillage. But since no manufacturer wanted to invest money in this new idea, Howard returned to Moss Vale / NSW in 1919. Howard has now resumed work and in 1921 he formed a consortium to manufacture agricultural machinery with his new company "rotating cultivators" . With the patent specification 18/137/20 of August 6, 1921 AC Howard was granted the patent for the Rotary hoe cultivator, a cultivator for soil cultivation .

This machine, Rotary hoe cultivator, had five individual rotors in a central frame, which were driven by cardan shafts and chains. The working width was 15 ft.

Since the market for such a large machine was not yet available, Howard changed his production to small, hand-held machines. As early as 1924, the hand-held machines were offered with 8 hp engines and later expanded to include 10 and 12 hp engines.

The Fordson tractor was also well suited for this new machine and represented the largest in numbers with the Model F. Howard developed machines with 4, 4.5, and 5 ft. Working widths for the Fordson, for use in viticulture, field vegetable cultivation or sugar cane cultivation. In 1926 the first three-wheeler versions were built, a combination of a self-propelled work machine with an attached rotary hoe in the middle of the unit.

Impressed by the success of his machines, Howard left the company founded in Mossvale in March 1922 and set up Howard Auto-Cultivators Pty. In Parramatta . Limited, Northmead , which began operations on March 1, 1927.

The first Howard tractor was built in this new production facility in 1927. The twenty-two model "DH" tractor was then assembled on the assembly line for more than 30 years, initiating the first large-scale production of tractors in Australia.

Despite the reduced sales during the Great Depression, the Fordson tractor was withdrawn from the market, Howard managed to raise new capital for the company now known as the Howard Auto Rotavator . With the visit of Capt. EN Griffith in Northmead in 1928. the first contacts for further export activities were made. So a machine was delivered to England, which was then produced by Howard's of Bedfort in England with a 10-year license. In 1937, after the license expired, Howard discovered that unauthorized changes had been made to the English-made machines. He returned briefly to Australia to give up his position as managing director of Howard Auto Cultivators and in July 1938 to start a new company in East Horndon, Essex. This English company, Rotary Hoes Ltd., was the parent company for all other activities with branches and production facilities in the United States of America, South Africa, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. It later became the wholly owned subsidiary Howard Rotavator Ltd. as a holding company. transfer. This holding company was responsible for the manufacture and sale of rotavators, manure spreaders, trench pullers and soil stabilization machines.

The company, Howard Rotavator, received the Queen's 1966 Industry Award, The Queens's Award to Industry .

Last years

AC Howard married Daisy May Hayes on September 19, 1925 at the Methodist Church, Moss Vale.

After moving to England, the family lived in Upminster , Essex. Howard was a practical engineer who combined business acumen with vision and a preeminent inventive ability. He was the managing director of Rotary Hoes Ltd. Active until 1970, he was also director of GDH Ltd., Harleston Industries Ltd., Howard Halesworth (Forge & Foundry) Ltd. and Howard Rotavator Co. Ltd.

In 1970 AC Howard was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He died on January 4, 1971 at Harold Wood Hospital, Essex. His estate in England was valued at £ 111,476 at the time according to a judicial will. He left behind his wife, two daughters and a son, the managing director of Howard Rotavator Pty. Ltd. in Australia was.

swell

• F. Wheelhouse, Digging Stick to Rotary Hoe (Melb, 1966)
• Otto Ihrig, Howard Rotavator 1922–1997 (Erbach, 2007)
• LW Port, Australian Inventors (Syd, 1978)
• Power Agriculture and Better Farming Digest, February 1971
• Times (London) January 5, 1971
• Biography File (National Library of Australia), Australian Patent and Patent Application Record 18, 137/20 (Australian Patent Office)
• Diane Langmore, "Howard, Arthur Clifford (1893-1971), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9, Melbourne University Press, 1983, pp. 375-376.
• Justus Liebig University Giessen / Thesis Talarico / Institute for Agricultural Engineering, 1998
• Estler-Zeltner / Weihenstephan 1984

Web links

• Diane Langmore: Arthur Clifford Howard . In: Douglas Pike (Ed.): Australian Dictionary of Biography . Melbourne University Press, Carlton (Victoria) 1966–2012 (English).
• Image of the Rotavator from 1922 on page 6 (Rotavator brochure; PDF file; 2.05 MB)