How the
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TRACTOR HAS
BEEN EVOLVED
Our Agrunotor Correspondent Deals with 7 ractor History
WITH agrhnotor trials organized on the present large scale at Ardington, near Wantage, following exhaustive tests of the machines taking, part, which have been carried out by the Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Oxford, during the summer in conjunction with the Royal Agricultural Society of England, it is instructive and useful to glance back over the period of development of the machine.
The first serious attempts to demonstrate the practicability of the motor tractor for land purposes were made during the first few years following the end of the Great War, but the first effort to apply direct power to the land was made many years before in the form of the steam engine. Thomas Aveling made one of the earliest steam attempts when, in 1876, he exhibited an outfit at the Royal Show held that year at Birmingham. Then there was the Darby " Digger " and the Cooper "Digger," each weighing altogether 12 tons to 14 tons, which took part in some trials organizedby the R.A.S.E. at York in 1900. These machines operated broadly on the principle of the machine now known as the rotary tiller. Ruston and Hornsby, Ltd., made the first oildriven haulage engine in this country designed for agricultural purposes and exhibited it at the Royal Show at Manchester in 1897.
The pioneer of the present-day tractor in this country was the Ivel constructed by Mr. Dan Albone, of Biggleswade, and exhibited ler the first time in 1903 at the Royal Show which was at that time being held at Park Royal, London. This was a wonderful little linachine ; it cost £300, weighed only 30 cwt., and ought to have made further headway.
Marshall, Sons and Co., Ltd., Gainsborough, brought out their tractor in 1908; in 1909 a machine known as the Cyclone appeared at the Royal Show at Gloucester. The Daimler Co. in 1911 produced two petrol-engined tractors with sleeve-valve power units, the one a six-cylinder and the other a "four," rated at 57 h.p. and 25 h.p. respectively. The Daimler concern was very ambitious, for the next year it introduced a machine of 105 h.p. with a six-cylindered engine started by an auxiliary engine, the whole suitable for hauling a 21-furrow plough—so it was stated. Apart from the Ivel, already referred to, one of the most interesting pre-war products was the Ideal. This machine,. bir the locking of either driving wheel arrangement, was able to turn on its own axis, and had a differential; it first appeared in 1912.
The Ivel, much improved upon, was still being exhibited in 1915, and so was the Saunderson. These were the only two oil-engined machines to take part in the first tractor trials to be held in this country, organized by the R.A.S.E. at Baldock, Hertfordshire, in August, 1910; the Ivel had disappeared before the trials held in Scotland in 1917 under the auspices of the Highland Agricultural Society, in which about 25 different tractors—three-fourths American—took part, but the Saunderson was there. Other important trials were to follow the ending of the war, the Tfirst being organized at Lincoln by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders; at these trials dynamometer tests were introduced and an attempt made to work out fuel costs. In the following year the R.A.S.E. conducted trials at Lincoln and in 1922 the S.M.M.T. was responsible for the organization of the trials of Shrawardine, Salop. There was a large number of Ainerian machines at all three, but by 1922 quite a number of English models was on the market. On each occasion over 20 different makes were entered, but it was obvious that there would be no market for them all in this country, not even for all those that were landworthy--and many of them were not—so that it was not surprising to find that only some half-dozen remained to be entered in the trials conducted by the Highland and Agricultural Society at Dalkeith in 1923. From these the standard type of to-day emerged. • Economy has had to be the main aim in the development of the agrimotor, consequently engine design favoured paraffin as against petrol as fuel. The
M.O.M. (Ministry of Munitions) tractor, which the Fordson somewhat resembles, although not a perfect machine, eventually became the English standard. It was light, reliable, simple and cheap. All successful makers have had to conform to these requirements and the International with the Fordson have probably been the most popular in the interval since the trials in 1922. Probably the most notable new tractor is the Rushton.
Following the slump of 1922 a revival in the demand for tractors occurred about 1927, due to the rapid decline in the number of agricultural horses and the popularity of the sugar beet crop, which gave rise to the renewed activity of manufacturers. Several other British machines have been put on the market during recent years, mostly with a view to the needs of export trade, and several of these will be seen at Wantage. Old tractor names that will be remembered from previous trials are International, Fordson, Case, Wallis and Austin (now made in France). In connection with the present trials much interest will centre in the appearance of the Diesel engine in farm tractors, of which there are several, including one manufactured by Marshalls, one by AlcLarens, one by Blackstone, one by Aveling and Porter, one by Daimler-Benz, one each from Germany and Sweden. This is a natural step in the direction of producing a machine at low cost and one that can be operated , cheaply—cheap power being the great need to-day. Of the other makers of paraffin tractors, neither Peter Brotherhood nor McLarens are newcomers to the field, though they introduce new models, but the Vickers, •Latil, Citroen-Kegresse are fresh in British trials. The track-laying entries include Caterpillar, Rushton, Citroen-ICegresse and Linke.
The position of the agrimotor to-day is very different from what it was 10 years ago. In the first place, it is improved and reliable, and in the second place it has become essential for farming.