Okla-homey
11/24/2006, 09:00 AM
Nov 24, 1849: Father of the tractor is born
157 years ago today, John Froelich, the inventor of the first gasoline-powered farm tractor, was born in Froelich, Iowa.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7609/tttttttttttttttttttttttwh3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
John Froelich. Gasoline powered tractor inventor.
The inventor's fahzzer, Johannes Heinrich Froelich, emigrated to the US from Kuhrhessen, now part of the modern German state of Hessen, arriving in America in 1845. Finding good land in Iowa, he returned to Germany and brought another group of settlers to America. Among this group was Kathryn Gutheil, who became Heinrich's wife. Froelich Americanized his first name to Henry and bought a small plot of land in Giard, about 100 miles north by northwest from Moline.
The first of the nine Froelich children was John, born on on this day in 1849. He grew up to be a farmer and lived in the nearby town of Froelich, named for his father. John's interests went beyond farming and he soon augmented his income by operating a grain elevator and running a threshing operation each fall in Langford, South Dakota.
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/6500/tttttttttttttttttttttttqh3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
1905 "Case" steam-powered tractor.
Fascinated by machinery, Froelich became very familiar with the steam-powered machines and their deficiencies. Steam engines presented a significant fire danger to the Midwest's windswept plains because they necessarily involved bringing fire and the attendant red-hot cinders into the middle of acres of ripened grain on a dry day. Moreover, steam powered farm equipment required either coal or firewood to operate. Neither of those commodities were in abundance in the Plains states.
John Froehlich therefore set out to couple gasoline engine technology to the existing steam-powered farm machinery.
http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/5910/tttttttttttttttttttttttmy0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Froelich's tractor, completed in 1892, featured a Van Duzen one-cylinder gasoline engine mounted on wooden beams to operate a threshing machine. The tractor had two gears, (forward and reverse) and required the operator to stand, but it worked well enough to excite the interest of midwest farmers.
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/2308/ttttttttttttttt1892usaigm6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Froelich manufactured several more tractors of this type during the year, and in September shipped one of his engine-powered tractors to a farm in Langford, South Dakota, where it was employed in agriculture activity for the first time.
Froelich established the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1893, and began to manufacture tractors on a larger scale.
In 1918, the Waterloo Traction Engine Company was purchased by the John Deere Plow Company. John Deere, a long-established plow company, then began mass-producing gasoline-powered tractors based on Froelich's designs.
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/6929/tttttttttttttttttttttttrt3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Some say, "Nothing Runs Like a Deere"
During the 1920s and 1930s, tractors rapidly changed the face of agriculture in America. use of mechanized farm equipment and modern farming methods made it possible for America to lead the world in crop yields.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/6197/tttttttttttttttttttttttin6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Of course, like every technological advancement, there was a downside. Many traditional farmers were pushed off their land by the encroachment of large agricultural interests who utilized the efficient new farming technology.
157 years ago today, John Froelich, the inventor of the first gasoline-powered farm tractor, was born in Froelich, Iowa.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7609/tttttttttttttttttttttttwh3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
John Froelich. Gasoline powered tractor inventor.
The inventor's fahzzer, Johannes Heinrich Froelich, emigrated to the US from Kuhrhessen, now part of the modern German state of Hessen, arriving in America in 1845. Finding good land in Iowa, he returned to Germany and brought another group of settlers to America. Among this group was Kathryn Gutheil, who became Heinrich's wife. Froelich Americanized his first name to Henry and bought a small plot of land in Giard, about 100 miles north by northwest from Moline.
The first of the nine Froelich children was John, born on on this day in 1849. He grew up to be a farmer and lived in the nearby town of Froelich, named for his father. John's interests went beyond farming and he soon augmented his income by operating a grain elevator and running a threshing operation each fall in Langford, South Dakota.
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/6500/tttttttttttttttttttttttqh3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
1905 "Case" steam-powered tractor.
Fascinated by machinery, Froelich became very familiar with the steam-powered machines and their deficiencies. Steam engines presented a significant fire danger to the Midwest's windswept plains because they necessarily involved bringing fire and the attendant red-hot cinders into the middle of acres of ripened grain on a dry day. Moreover, steam powered farm equipment required either coal or firewood to operate. Neither of those commodities were in abundance in the Plains states.
John Froehlich therefore set out to couple gasoline engine technology to the existing steam-powered farm machinery.
http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/5910/tttttttttttttttttttttttmy0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Froelich's tractor, completed in 1892, featured a Van Duzen one-cylinder gasoline engine mounted on wooden beams to operate a threshing machine. The tractor had two gears, (forward and reverse) and required the operator to stand, but it worked well enough to excite the interest of midwest farmers.
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/2308/ttttttttttttttt1892usaigm6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Froelich manufactured several more tractors of this type during the year, and in September shipped one of his engine-powered tractors to a farm in Langford, South Dakota, where it was employed in agriculture activity for the first time.
Froelich established the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1893, and began to manufacture tractors on a larger scale.
In 1918, the Waterloo Traction Engine Company was purchased by the John Deere Plow Company. John Deere, a long-established plow company, then began mass-producing gasoline-powered tractors based on Froelich's designs.
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/6929/tttttttttttttttttttttttrt3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Some say, "Nothing Runs Like a Deere"
During the 1920s and 1930s, tractors rapidly changed the face of agriculture in America. use of mechanized farm equipment and modern farming methods made it possible for America to lead the world in crop yields.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/6197/tttttttttttttttttttttttin6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Of course, like every technological advancement, there was a downside. Many traditional farmers were pushed off their land by the encroachment of large agricultural interests who utilized the efficient new farming technology.