Fowler, John

John Fowler, (born July 11, 1826, Melksham, Wiltshire, Eng.—died Dec. 4, 1864, Ackworth, Yorkshire), English engineer who helped to develop the steam-hauled plow. He began his career in the grain trade but later trained as an engineer. In 1850 he joined Albert Fry in Bristol to found a works to produce steam-hauled implements. Later, with Jeremiah Head, he produced a steam-hauled plow, which in winning the £500 prize (1858) offered by the Royal Society fulfilled the society’s dictum for a “steam cultivator” that would be an “economic substitute for the plough or the spade.” He died of tetanus following an injury received after being thrown by a horse.