Charlie Angell, Sr. of Plains, Kansas, was a wheat farmer with a special knack for machines. In the 1920s, Angell sought to develop a plow that was particularly suited to the environmental conditions in the windy, semi-arid plains of western Kansas where he lived and farmed. Angell's idea was to set all the plow's discs at the same vertical angle on a single axel, which ensured that they each plowed in the same, single, direction. Because of this feature, the device became known as the "one-way" plow. It plowed faster, handled heavy stubble well, broke hard sun-baked soil, and destroyed weeds. Charles Angell built close to 500 plows on his Meade County farm, then sold the rights to the Ohio Cultivator Company.

Creator: Kansas State Historical Society. Library and Archives Division
Date: Between 1975 and 1990