After doing some research it was hard to determine who invented the Gas-Powered Tractor;many save it was the International Harvester with their "Auto-Wagon" which was introduced in 1907 and later called the Farmall. Other sources say that a business man from Iowa by the name of Froelich introduced four prototype "Tractors" as early as 1892[1]", made from designs that he had been working on for years. Froelich got his original start as a business man where he "operated a mobile threshing service and grain elevator[1]". And "He charged farmers a fee to thresh their crops at harvest time with the help of his crew and a steam-powered thresher machine[1]".
VII. Gasoline Tractor Froelich was so confident in his design that he ship it off to Waterloo " Iowa to show some businessmen. Immediately, the men formed a company to manufacture the “Froelich Tractor.” They named the company The Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company and made John the president." Unfortunately the company did not take off as quickly as planned, later that fall two Tractors were shipped and two tractors were returned so it was back to the drawing board. At this time the Waterloo company decided to build stationary engines and continued to refine the tractor. It was shortly after that that Froelich resigned his position as he wanted to build tractors not stationary engines.
It wasn't until nineteen years later that in "1914 the first Waterloo Boy Tractor, the Model “R” single-speed tractor, was introduced. Farmers liked it and within a year sales reached 118. When the Model “N” Waterloo Boy with two forward speeds was introduced, that was also successful. all of this did not go unnoticed by his competitors as well, namely "the Deere and Company in Moline, Illinois, manufacturer of a full line of John Deere implements[1]".
In 1918 the Waterloo Company was sold to House of Deere for $2.2 million dollars and it turned into one of the the most successful modern tractor company's of its kind, and this all was mirrored
The unincorporated town is still named "Froelich" and boasts the name "Tractor Town U.S.A." John Froelich is also listed in the Iowa Inventors Hall of Fame where he is credited with many inventions; some of which are a washing machine and dryer, a dish-washer, a mechanical corn picker and the mounting of a gasoline engine on his well driller. Many sites proclaim that Froelich invented the first Air Conditioner which later became Carrier Air Conditioning, It was just such this invention that gave him the idea to put the gasoline engine on a tractor.
VIII. General Purpose Tractor By the 1920's work such as planting and cultivating, even though Gasoline Tractors had been introduced, most were to heavy, bulky or not versatile enough for the lighter jobs. Even though lightweight row crop tractors had been introduced, most were not satisfactory. Many manufacturers offered motor cultivators but very minuet number were will to make the investment in a machine that would only be used for a couple of months out of the year.
So in 1924, International Harvester (IH) introduced the "Farmall[5]"; the Farmall was the first General Purpose tractor that could actually pull the heavier tillage and other harvesting machines and could also help plant and cultivate row crops. By 1930 the Farmall had made a name for itself and IH was producing about 200 Farmalls a day. Of course it didn't take long for all the other major tractor manufacturing company's to offer a similar row crop machine.
Even still the Farmall was the what kept the Fordson from monopolizing the market for a small mass produced machine that was affordable for the small and medium farms; with the Farmalls formidable narrow-front tricycle design and the ability of high ground clearance while cultivating due to its portal axle a.k.a. drop gear set. This gave the Farmall a power take-off (PTO), a form of a drive shaft, Revolvy.com describes it best, "The power take-off allows implements to draw energy from the engine. ... These applications typically use a drive shaft and bolted joint to transmit power ... can be easily connected and disconnected, and a corresponding input shaft on the ... the PTO requires the tractor motion to slow or stop running to allow the PTO driven ...[7]". International Harvester was an early leader in the PTO market[7], and was the "first to market it on a production tractor, with its model 8-16, introduced in 1918 [7]"; with its "standard mounting points for cultivators and other implementations of the tractors frame (a Farmall first)8]"; this gave Farmall "some copetitive advantages over the Forsdson, especially for row crops, and it became the favorite row-crop tractor of America, outselling all other competitors(such as John Deere)[9]". So the "swift mechanization of the American Farms[10]" by the late 1930's and early 40's was well on its way.
- http://www.sodgod.com/tractor-history/
- http://www.froelichtractor.com/thetractor.html
- http://www.froelichtractor.com/
- http://iloveinspired.com/places/from-steam-to-gasoline/
- http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/tractor-brands/farmall/farmall-tractors-year-sorted.html
- https://books.google.com/books?id=y6FKAAAAYAAJPripps & Morland; 1993, pp. 37–39.
- https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Power%20take-off&item_type=topic
- https://books.google.com/books?id=y6FKAAAAYAAJPripps & Morland; 1993, pp. 29.
- https://books.google.com/books?id=y6FKAAAAYAAJPripps & Morland; 1993, pp. 29-33
- http://www.ironmemories.com/ten-agricultural-inventions-changed-farming-america
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