Not long after I had been terribly impressed by the worlds first commercial tracked vehicle, being as it was terribly Steampunk, a gentle reader who I know only as Jonnotantan went one better and drew my attention to another very early piece of curiously mobile farm machinery – the Darby Steam-Digger. Not only was this curious device build around the late 1800’s and steam powered – but it carried itself around the fields of its work on six mechanical feet. That’s right – this thing walked the fields, like a giant metal crab, ploughing and aeriating as it went!

Apparently though, this first prototype was a little to bouncy and jumpy and later versions reverted to having wheels in some areas. A shame, but still – the walking steam tractor was built and existed. That puts a smile on my face, just to know it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 26th, 2006 at 11:24 pm by Tinkergirl and is filed under Steampunk Images.