Imagine having to tow this baby around.

A big truck would be needed to tow it over long distances.

So, without big trucks how did the old farmers tow it around?

It is an old Ruston boiler that was manufactured in Lincoln, England, and then exported from England to South Africa. Believe it or not, the boiler was towed around by teams of animals. It is a very heavy cast iron steel boiler, and sadly I could not see a weight stamp on it. I did, however, find a sign attached to the boiler that describes its use, and I have included the sign in here.

The farmers didn't have tractors in 1916, so they used teams of oxen to move it around.

You can see here that this is a very heavy boiler.

The coal was fed in at this side, and you can see the door that was used to keep the heat of the fire inside.

Right, here is the sign that explains what the boiler was used for. Although they say that it was last used in August 1975 at Rustenburg, which is about 1490 km away from where it is resting here now in Cape Town.

Like I said, this is a heavy baby.

And if you want to see it upon your visit to South Africa, then you will find it at Peregrine Farmstall, on the N2 highway towards Botrivier.

Imagine having your black and white photos taken with one of these in the old days. This is one of the cameras in my collection.

I like history, and the adventures that the people in the old days had to do things on their farms. One has to remember that they had no PC's, no mobile phones, and none of our modern contraptions. Just the man and the land. And yet, they were very innovative, and the crops were top quality, nothing like the engineered food that we eat nowadays. Doctors were scarce and cuts on the body were self-stitched. The farmers also used natural medicine from plants and roots, and I remember well that my gran used a concoction to withdraw a long thorn from my heel when I was a child.
It was a pure life, or as pure as it could get.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

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