Down on the Farm
A Brief History of Tractors - Part II
Over 24,000 people attended the 55th British National Ploughing Match competitions over two days at Soham last month and it was a wonderful insight into how ploughing and tractors have developed over the last century. In the first of these two articles I wrote about horses, traction engines and the early development of the tractor and will now continue with tractor development to the present day.
At the ploughing match the very early tractors pulled their ploughs with a simple clevis hitch. This works well until the conditions become heavy and sticky at which point the plough becomes a dead weight and everything stops. This was the same for all farm implements and as most tractors were only 15 to 20 horsepower something needed to change.
As luck would have it along came Henry George (Harry) Ferguson (1884-1960) who
had been dabbling with tractors for most of his life and in 1934 he formed the
company Ferguson Brown and produced the Model A Ferguson-Brown tractor with the
revolutionary hydraulic system.
In 1938 he made a handshake agreement with Henry Ford to produce the "Ferguson System" which was to revolutionise the way tractors and implements were used. This is knows as a three point linkage where the plough etc is supported by an hydraulic system with two drag links under the real axle to allow the implements to sit evenly behind the tractor.
The advantages of this system is that it allows the tractor to lift the implement clear of the ground when it is not in work and it also gives a good weight transfer to the wheels which in turn gives a much better traction and therefore the tractor is more efficient. This system has not changed over the years apart from modern upgrades such as electronic controls and becoming much larger as tractor sizes have increased.
The basic design of tractors has not changed in that they have small wheels in front and larger ones at the rear! Nowadays most tractors are four wheel drive and have cabs that provide the operator with a comfortable working environment as well as protection from a Health and Safety viewpoint. As mentioned in a previous article GPS (Global Positioning Satellites) are playing an increasingly important part in tractor use and are used, for example, to steer tractors in straight parallel lines with no overlap of the trailing implement which makes them much more efficient including the advantage of reduced fuel consumption. Using the GPS system can also reduce driver fatigue and in some instances can even take over steering the tractor from the operator!
On the farm we have had a very easy Autumn with all of the crops going into good seed beds and becoming established very quickly. Some grain is going out but we are looking forward to a slightly more relaxed period - time to dust off the golf clubs I think with a few weekends off...