Question: What Texan is credited with inventing the disc plow and disc harrow?
Answer: Ole Ringness. Born in Norway in 1843, his family moved to Texas in the 1850s and settled in Bosque County. While working on the family farm, he observed how cupped wagon wheels displaced more mud than flat ones. He made models of the disc plow and disc harrow in his father’s blacksmith shop, and in 1872, he traveled to Washington, D.C., to apply for patents. He died under mysterious circumstances during his journey, and his family declined to pursue the patents, which were awarded to a manufacturer of farm equipment soon thereafter.
