Aveling & Porter: An Illustrated History

Thomas Aveling, a farmer and self-taught engineer, became the ‘father of the traction engine’. This resulted from efforts to improve agricultural machinery. After success with steam ploughing, his conversion of the portable steam engine, making it self-propelling, produced the first commercially successful traction engine. Establishing a factory in Strood, Kent in 1861, Aveling’s need for finance ...