Advancements in the progress of agricultural machinery have been most rapid in recent years. But it all started way back when…

 

In 1868 the very first powered tractors were introduced - they ran on steam and were constructed in much the same way as locomotives. This was a great advancement in terms of the progress of agricultural machinery as the tractors could be operated by one man alone. And so progress continued and steam made way for gasoline.

 

 

Some sources attribute the introduction of gasoline-powered tractors to an Illinois based firm, the Charter Gasoline Engine Company. In 1887 Mr Charter's conception of an engine fueled by gasoline led to the term ‘tractor’ being widely used as a derivative of ‘traction’. By the year 1889 Mr Charter had created half a dozen of the machines that would become known as the very first functional gasoline-powered traction engines.

 

 

Iowan farmer John Froelich, saw the potential of gas power when applied to the threshing process. He custom built a gasoline-fueled thresher using a Van Duzen engine and a Robinson chassis. John Froelich’s triumph came in 1892 when he employed his engine to command a belt thresher during the seven week South Dakota harvest season. Froelich’s tractor, often described as the precursor to the Waterloo tractor, is thought by many to represent the inception of powered agricultural machinery of this type. The Froelich tractor is viewed as the godfather of the many gasoline engines that would follow it, even having a strong influence on John Deere’s celebrated 2-cylinder machine.

 

 

In 1894 Mr J. I. Case's groundbreaking innovations led him to build a gasoline traction engine. Californian–based Mr William Paterson was called in to build a prototype engine for J. I. Case. Sadly, the engine functioned but was not up to the standards required for it to be produced in large quantities.

 

 

In the late 1880s Mr Hart and Mr Parr began their revolutionary efforts on gasoline-fueled engines. Both were students at university in Wisconsin, their specialist subject being mechanical engineering. By the year 1897 the pair had founded the Hart-Parr Gasoline Engine Company, which they operated from Wisconsin. And in 1900 they relocated their business to Iowa and from there they sourced the funding necessary to support their endeavours to produce gasoline-powered traction engines for commercial use.