024—Uncastor Farming, Saturday, July 21,1984
Tractor horsepower unhitched the horses and mules
MILWAUKEE, Wis. - Millions
of people around the globe envy the
astonishing productivity of the
American fanner. This is not due
to happenstance and good luck.
Much credit goes to the 70-year
saga of tractor horsepower
replacing millions of horses and
mules, as well as backbreaking
days of endless toil in the fields.
Today, a farmer can cover as
many acres of ground in an hour as
he used to cover in a dawn-to-dark
day behind a pair of mules. But
this amazing use of the technology
of mechanization benefits con
sumers, too.
“Every time you sit down at a
dinner table or pull on a pair of
designer denim jeans, you’re
reaping the benefits of this
bountiful harvest,” says Robert H.
Tweedy, manager of strategic
business planning with Allis-
Chalmers. “A plentiful supply of
food and fiber products at
reasonable prices is taken for
granted by many consumers.”
Tweedy, a former president of
the American Society of
Agricultural Engineers, points out
that tractor designers have not
retired. “Machines of the future
will be more exciting than those of
today,” he says.
“They’ll be more sophisticated,
have on-board computers, do less
tillage, will promote conservation
fanning and have even more
operator comfort than today’s
models.”
To commemorate the 70th an
niversary of tractor manufac
turing by Allis-Chalmers, Tweedy
recently noted some of the
milestones in tractor engineering.
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THE WORLD’S LARGEST SELLING CHAIM SAW
Allis-Chalmers notes 70 years of tractor manufacturing
Tractor Firsts
The first model 10-18 rolled off
the assembly lines in West Allis,
Wise., in 1914 with a 10 drawbar
hp., two-cylinder engine that
burned gasoline for starting and
cheaper kerosene for running the
machine.
The three-wheeled model
featured a simple transmission
with only one forward and one
reverse gear.
Just prior to and during World
War I, a flurry of innovations in
tractor design whetted the ap
petites of farmers who were eager
to put these new machines to use in
place of their horses and mules.
After World War I, new models
and manufacturers sprouted
nearly as fast as grass in the
spring. Among the innovations of
that era that survived were the
power takeoff, the diesel engine for
larger models, electric starting
and lights.
Farmers in the late 1920’s were
energy conscious, too. That year,
Harry C. Merritt, manager of the
Allis-Chalmers tractor department
stripped the Model 20-35 down to its
essentials to produce a tractor
which would get more work done
with less labor and fuel.
The 20-35 offered a motor that
was sealed against dirt and grit
with oil and gas filters as standard
equipment. It was also the last
Allia-Chalmers model to be painted
green because the next new model
captured the eye of farmers and
townspeople alike with its “Per
sian Orange”. This came about
when an engineer saw acres of
blaze orange wild poppies growing
in California and convinced his
boses to paint the new models
bright orange.
First with rubber tires. As
tractors became more popular, the
public sentiment against them
increased for a simple reason. The
machines with their steel lugs and
*
Allis-Chalmers celebrates a 70-year saga of tractor horsepower.
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steel tires created havoc with the
many newly paved roads across
the U.S.
The steel wheels, too, did little to
contribute to operator comfort.
It was a big day for comfort and
power efficiency in 1932 when Allis-
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Chalmers rolled out the Model U
with low pressure rubber air tires.
Because of the improved tractive
efficiency, this model increased
field performance by 2S percent
and changed the course of the
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