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The tractor book: the definitive visual history PDF

258 Pages·2015·73.142 MB·English
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THE TRACTOR BOOK THE DEFINITIVE VISUAL HISTORY N 4 5 0 OF THE WO A R H L ORE T GARLELA-TTIEMSETD ’S BE • FMRATNRDA LCATTOERSST GSET R • O N M THE IVEL TO THE C H ALLE THE TRACTOR BOOK THE TRACTOR BOOK THE DEFINITIVE VISUAL HISTORY Contents DORLING KINDERSLEY Senior Editor Jemima Dunne Senior Art Editor Sharon Spencer Editors Sam Kennedy, Miezan van Zyl Design Assistance Renata Latipova Photographer Gary Ombler Picture Research Nic Dean DK Picture Library Claire Bowers, Claire Cordier, Romaine Werblow Introduction: The Tractor Revolution 8 Jacket Designer Mark Cavanagh Jacket Assistant Claire Gell Jacket Design Development Manager Sophia MTT 1900–1920: THE EARLY YEARS Producer, Pre-Production Adam Stoneham Producer Linda Dare Pioneers began developing agricultural motors in the late Managing Editor Esther Ripley nineteenth century. Later, vast prairie giants ruled the Managing Art Editor Karen Self North American plains while smaller “agrimotors” began Art Director Phil Ormerod Associate Publishing Director Liz Wheeler to replace the horse in Europe. World War I convinced the Publishing Director Jonathan Metcalf initially skeptical farming community of the tractor’s utility. DK INDIA Senior Editor Sreshtha Bhattacharya Early Power 14 Senior Art Editor Anjana Nair Great Manufacturers: Ivel Agricultural Motors 16 Project Editor Suparna Sengupta Art Editors Namita, Pallavi Narain Pioneer Machines 18 Managing Editor Pakshalika Jayaprakash Profile: Hornsby-Akroyd 20 Managing Art Editor Arunesh Talapatra Prairie Heavyweights 22 Production Manager Pankaj Sharma Pre-production Manager Balwant Singh Prairie Tractor Boom and Bust 24 Senior DTP Designer Sachin Singh The British Pioneers 26 DTP Designers Vishal Bhatia, Nand Kishor Acharya, Mohammad Usman The Age of Experiment 28 Picture Researcher Aditya Katyal Alternative Power Sources 30 Picture Research Manager Taiyaba Khatoon The US Army’s Artillery Tractor 32 Contributors Stuart Gibbard, Simon Henley, Peter Longfoot, Beating the U-boat 34 Steve Mitchell, Michael Williams, David Williams, Martin Rickatson Profile: Holt 75 Gun Tractor 36 First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Dorling Kindersley Limited, Women at the Wheel 38 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL Tractor Development 40 A Penguin Random House Company Early Tracked Machines 42 Copyright © 2015 Dorling Kindersley Limited Great Manufacturers: John Deere 44 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 001 – 274736 – May/15 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-0-2410-1482-0 Printed and bound by Leo Paper Products Ltd., China A WORLD OF IDEAS: SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW www.dk.com 1921–1938: COMING OF AGE Production rates soared but there was little evolution in Despite worldwide economic depression, this was an era of design over the course of the war. The food shortages of invention, in which Henry Ford pioneered new methods of the post-war years stimulated a boom in the industry and construction and Harry Ferguson’s three-point linkage and new ranges of styled tractors began to appear in the US. hydraulic lift revolutionized tractor design. Tractors with Styling 84 US Consolidation 50 Profile: MM UDLX 86 Great Manufacturers: International Harvester 52 US Crawlers Move On 88 Britain Between the Wars 54 Lightweight Tractor Power 90 Profile: Ferguson Type A 56 Mobilizing the Women’s Land Army 92 European Expansion 58 Military Might 94 Great Manufacturers: Lanz 60 Profile: Roadless Half-Track 96 World Tractor Trials 62 Post-war Variations 98 North American Rowcrops 64 Germany Engineering 100 Profile: Massey-Harris GP 66 Great Manufacturers: Ferguson 102 General Purpose 68 The UK’s Golden Age 104 Profile: Fowler Gyrotiller 70 Great Manufacturers: Fordson 106 Crawler Market Grows 72 Specials and Conversions 108 Aircraft-towing Tractors 74 Tracks in the UK 110 The First Diesels 76 War Agricultural Executive Committees 112 Great Manufacturers: Caterpillar 78 1952–1964: GOLDEN AGE 1939–1951: WAR AND PEACE A parade of new models with improved features was World War II sparked a massive demand for tractors introduced as new manufacturers entered the market and to perform a military and not just agricultural role. farms became increasingly mechanized. With post-war shortages resolved, farmers demanded more and more meant larger and more reliable machines but as efficiency from their machines and their dealerships. The race for rose, fewer tractors were needed and sales started to fall. higher power and greater productivity had begun. Progress in the US 152 North American Developments 118 Great Manufacturers: Case 154 British Diesel Takes Supremacy 120 British Progress 156 Profile: Renault N73 Junior 122 Driver Protection 158 Changing Markets 124 Great Manufacturers: Fiat 160 Germany Moves On 126 Europe’s Industry 162 Profile: Lanz Bulldog 128 Global Expansion 164 Tracks Across Antarctica 130 Profile: Northrop 5004T 166 Crawlers Around the World 132 All-wheel Drive 168 Straddling Crops 134 High Horsepower 170 Smaller Tractors for Special Tasks 136 World’s Biggest Tractor 172 Great Manufacturers: David Brown 138 Steel-track Sunset 174 Greater Horsepower, More Cylinders 140 Profile: Doe Triple-D 142 1981–2000: THE NEW Increasing Power 144 TECHNOLOGY Amphibious Tractor 146 High-speed tractors, powershift transmissions, and computerized controls defined a period of technological 1965–1980: THE NEW advancement. In the face of difficult economic realities, GENERATION manufacturers consolidated into global corporations. Tractor manufacturers began to aim at markets around The Big Three 180 the globe. A greater focus on operator comfort saw the Great Manufacturers: Massey Ferguson 182 introduction of safety and quiet cabs. Demand for power Reinventing the Plough 184 Preparing for the Coldest Journey 224 North American Power 186 Power for Other Purposes 226 Bold Designs, Tough Times 188 Economic and Social Progress 228 Great Manufacturers: Ford 190 World Farming 230 Continental Developments 192 Great Manufacturers: New Holland 232 Around the World 194 Out of the Ordinary 234 Rubber Tracks Arrive 196 Great Manufacturers: AGCO 236 Profile: Case IH Quadtrac 198 Robots Ready to Take Over 238 Big Wheelers 200 Profile: JCB Fastrac 202 HOW TRACTORS WORK: Multipurpose Machines 204 TRACTOR TECHNOLOGY Tractors are exceptionally complex machines, set apart AFTER 2000: 21ST CENTURY by their extraordinary hydraulics and the power of their Stringent emission standards and the demands of engines. This chapter explains the basics of tractor modern agriculture have led to a greater focus on fuel engineering and provides an overview of the most efficiency. Precision farming, aided by satellite technology, important historical evolutions and improvements. ensures that tractors operate at the very highest levels. Tractor Engines 242 Universal Workhorses 210 Wheels and Hydraulics 244 Profile: John Deere 6210R 212 Driving Technology 246 Power and Precision 214 Great Manufacturers: SAME Deutz-Fahr 216 GLOSSARY 248 For Fruits and Vines 218 INDEX/ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 250 Profile: AGCO Challenger 220 Ever Larger Machines 222 The Tractor Revolution What is a tractor? According to the dictionary, it is a “wheeled when it comes to attributing the invention of the tractor, or track-laying vehicle for using or pulling farm machinery”. matters are not so clear with several individuals or firms But that is a rather simplistic explanation for what has become developing machines along different lines. a very complicated machine with a multitude of applications. Hart-Parr of Iowa, USA, did not invent the tractor, but it was Agriculture is the world’s oldest and largest industry, and is one of the first concerns in North America to produce them on a today a hugely commercial activity – a global business of epic commercial scale. Rather contentiously, Hart-Parr always proportions. The population of the world needs feeding, and claimed to have invented the term tractor, but there is scant the tractor is the primary tool that makes that possible. evidence to support this. It did coin the term at a time when Along with plant breeding and chemical pesticides – both other US manufacturers were referring to their products as controversial if undoubtedly important breakthroughs – tractors “gasoline traction engines” and the UK firms were advertising have been recognized as one of the three factors that had the their wares as “agricultural motors”, but it all depends on how greatest influence on farming during the 20th century. you define a tractor. The modern tractor is a highly sophisticated beast incorporating Was French inventor Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot’s tracteur à vapeur the latest electronics, computers, data communications, and of 1769 a tractor in the proper sense of the word when it was satellite guidance systems. The engines have been finely designed to pull cannons? The English word tractor is derived engineered to deliver maximum output on minimum fuel while from the Latin tractus meaning to pull, and it seems to have also meeting the latest emission regulations. A transmission is been applied to any pulling machine before it was accepted no longer a simple box of cogs, but can be semi-automatic or into general usage as a term for an agricultural prime-mover. constantly variable with infinite speed adjustment. The UK steam manufacturers used the word “tractor” to describe an engine for pulling or hauling for many decades Powerful hydraulic systems are optimized for efficiency; before Hart-Parr ever thought of the idea. while the latest cabs are not just a workplace, but a luxurious environment with ergonomic seating and controls. However, So although we cannot accurately pinpoint the true origins the ongoing revolution in automation and computerization of the tractor, we can describe its early impact on agriculture. is a far cry from the original conception of a tractor. Both the UK and the USA had an established, if not exactly thriving, tractor industry by the formative years of the 20th The tractor was a product of the age of invention as the century. In North America, the arrival of power farming growing industrialization of the late 1800s led to a new dawn coincided with the age of settlement, and the industry of discovery. During this period, Thomas Edison gave us electric grew rapidly to meet the demand for machines to break light and Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone; but the prairies and plains.

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