Description

With Art Nouveau decorative borders, this item is typical of the kind of catalogue issued by better class engineering forms of the period. It demonstrates that even page after page of machinery can be presented as a little work of art in its own right. One item of interest I was unaware of was the compound ploughing engine, which towed a six-bladed implement behind it, as distinct from the more familiar Fowler system employing two engines at either end of the field , towing a reversible plough attached to a cable, back and forth between them.

In 1913, the company diversified into the manufacture of aero engines, and was said to have been the single largest British manufacturer of aeroplane engines during the Great War. Rustons also played a significant part in the development of the first tanks.