John Tulloh Osborn

Son of John Osborn and Mary Tulloh, and grandson of Thomas Osborn of Demerara. John Osborn of Upshire Hall Essex (father of John Tulloh Osborn) appears to have died at Boulogne 13/09/1827.

1. Death of John Tullo [sic] Osborn registered at Kensington, London Q4 1853. 'Sometime an inhabitant of this colony' [i.e. British Guiana], died intestate in London in or about August 1854 [sic].

2. 'In the same year (1848), but at a later period, John Tulloh Osborn took out a patent for " machinery for tilling and draining land, to be actuated by the power of steam, water, or air, or by animal power." The description of engine he proposed to use, consisted of an ordinary agricultural engine, as manufactured at that period, and carrying two drums for the purpose of hauling the cultivating implements. This invention has been considered of such importance that it is quoted in the specifications of some of the leading steam-plough makers of the present day. The plan of working comprises the use of two locomotive engines which " traverse the land on temporary rails, laid in parallel lines, at right angles to the direction in which the furrows are to run — the distance between the two lines of rails varying from one hundred to two hundred yards." As already stated, each engine has two drums; and attached to these drums are the chains or ropes that haul " two four-wheel carriages, fitted with ploughs or other implements," which travel simultaneously across " the field in opposite directions — each carriage pulling after it the rope or chain by which it is to be drawn back again, Thus, while one drum on each engine is at work winding up its ropes and so putting the ploughs or other implements in motion, the other drum is delivering out its rope in readiness for the return operation. After each traverse of the ploughs or other implements, the engines are moved forward by means of a chain or rope, one end whereof is attached to an anchor laid out ahead, and the other end to a drum connected with the crank shaft of the engine."'

Gentleman's Magazine (1827) p. 286.

1. FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Deaths, 1837-1983 [database online]; London Gazette 21975 06/03/1857 p. 927.

2. Baldwin Latham, 'The application of steam to the cultivation of the soil', The Artizan Magazine (1869) p. 62. The Farmer's Magazine of 1848 gave his address as 10 King Street St James in connection with this invention.