Internal combustion tractor
Tractor de combustión interna
- Date
- 1892–1917 · confidence medium
- Place
- Froelich, Iowa, United States
- Credited to
- John Froelich (1892); Hart-Parr (Charles City, 1901); Henry Ford (Fordson, Dearborn, 1917)
- People
- 👤 Henry Ford1863–1947👤 John Froelich1849–1933
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Petrol-engined farm machine that replaced horses and heavy steam traction engines. The Fordson (1917), light and cheap, made it accessible to the family farm.
The term 'tractor' was popularised by Hart-Parr around 1907.
What it led to
- Agricultural mechanisation and rural exodus
- Freeing of land previously used to feed horses
- Dust Bowl from mass ploughing of prairies
Built on
- Steel plow1837
- Gearbox transmission and clutch1889–1894
- Steam traction engine
- Otto four-stroke engine
Made possible
- Self-propelled combine harvester1911–1938
- Three-point hitch (Ferguson)