Maumee Valley Antique Steam & Gas

New Haven, Indiana - August 19, 2005

All Photographs Copyright © 2005-2011 by Robert E Pence
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Hart-Parr, of Charles City, Iowa, was one of the first companies to build and market a highly-successful internal-combustion tractor. Their later two-cylinder
tractors like the "30" were well regarded, as were their less common (and very heavy) four-cylinder tractors. Oliver bought Hart Parr to acquire a tractor
for their farm machinery line.

1924 Reo touring car. REO were the initials of Ransom E. Olds, creator of the Oldsmobile. He sold the Oldsmobile business and name, and then
re-entered the auto business with a new brand name.

The Toro utility tractor, while it looks like a nicely-done home invention, was actually factory-produced.

Minneapolis Moline was a well-established company when they built these 1930s model tractors. Their engineering was advanced, and their tractors
were powerful for their weight and designed for operator comfort and convenience.

Minneapolis Moline took it to a new level in 1938 with the UDLX Comfortractor. It had an all-weather cab with a radio and heater and was marketed to
farmers as both a tractor and family car. It didn't pan out for a couple of reasons; it was too expensive for most farmers, and even the ones who could
afford it were likely to consider it ostentatious.

They toned it down with these more conventional designs, built into the 1950s. Eventually, Minneapolis Moline was consolidated into White Industries
along with Oliver.

Rumely (pronounced like the drink, rum), located in Laporte, Indiana, was one of the giants in
American agricultural machinery. Their two-cylinder kerosene tractors were world-famous for
dependability and efficiency, and were built the the highest standards of precision. Rumely continued
to refine the technology, making their tractors smaller and lighter and improving performance and
power-to-weight ratios, but stubbornly held onto the basic design long after it was obsolete. Their
move into contemporary equipment, including a truly impressive powerful six-cylinder tractor, came
too late, and Allis Chalmers acquired them during the Great Depression.

A rare survivor – a vintage wooden Massey-Harris manure spreader, apparently still in original paint and good condition. The mechanical design
appears advanced and well-thought-out. Apparently this one was not used to death, and was always kept in a shed.

A Massey-Harris predecessor, the Wallis Bear stands apart from its few contemporaries in appearance. The sign indicates that it used a very advanced
design for its time. I speculate that this was a very expensive piece of equipment.

A lineup of Massey-Harris, Ferguson, Massey-Ferguson and related tractors,

Many farm machinery builders made their first entry into the light tractor business by purchasing Foote Brothers running gear consisting of a frame,
wheels and transmission, and adding an engine purchased from another maker like Waukesha , Hercules or Stearns. Strange as they look by today's
standards, many of them were good, reliable tractors.

A predecessor company to Massey-Harris, Wallis was a pioneer in the practice of making the engine's cast iron crankcase an integral part of the
tractor's frame. The tractors were massively built and durable.

The sleek streamlining evident on this later-model tractor made its debut in 1938 with the Massey-Harris 101.

Two-cylinder John Deere tractors were recognizable even out of sight, by their distinctive exhaust beat.

John Deere hired industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss to give its tractors a modern look.

The Farmall Regular was one of the earliest successful general-purpose tractors.

I've always thought the operator's perch on these tractors, unprotected and seemingly hanging in the middle of nowhere, looked scary.

International Harvester hired industrial designer Raymond Loewy to update the appearance and ergonomics of the Farmall. The Model H sold more
units than any other single tractor model in U.S. history.

J.I. Case entered the internal-combustion tractor business in 1912 with three tractors using two-cylinder opposed engines; a smaller Model 12-25,
the Model 20-40 shown here and a much larger Model 30-60.

Moving toward better visibility and maneuverability, Case replaced the two-cylinder tractors with more compact four-cylinder tractors with cross-mounted
engines. They were rugged, dependable and nearly indestructible.

You can see the generous use of cast iron in the engine of a Model T 25-45 tractor. Case built one
larger crossmotor tractor, the 40-72.

In 1929 Case introduced unstyled tractors of conventional design, with engines positioned longitudinally. This Model LA was introduced in 1940 to
replace the unstyled Model L.

Sheppard Diesel tractors were built for only a few years in the 1950s in Hanover, Pennsylvania. They were well-built tractors with advanced features
like 22:1 compression ratio and direct electric starting. Although their operating cost was much lower than the gasoline tractors being used by most
farmers, their purchase price was more than many farmers were able or willing to pay and they never sold well.

In addition to farm tractors, Sheppard custom built specially designed machines and many stand-alone engines for general utility and electric power
generation.

Most builders produced tractors for orchard work. They were designed without projecting features and with streamlined shrouding to let them pass
under low-hanging fruit trees without snagging branches and causing damage. Often, they had lower profiles than standard farm tractors.

Full-sized versions of these ˝-scale gasoline engines were used for pumping water, shelling corn, powering washing machines, and other light tasks
around farms.

Shelling corn with a power-take-off–driven Minneapolis Moline corn sheller.

The blacksmith building, new this year, was built with lumber sawed on the sawmill on the show grounds.

I first saw this Port Huron compound steam engine at John Harper's sawmill, east of New Haven, Indiana, in 1958. It was sitting in a row with some
other engines along the edge of the woods.

Sawing logs into lumber

Planing planks from the sawmill to finished thickness

A threshing machine separates the wheat grain from the straw, after the standing wheat is cut and tied into bundles in the field. The combine gets its
name from "combined harvester;" it cuts the standing wheat and threshes out the grain in one continuous operation.

A.D. Baker Company, of Swanton, Ohio, was a preeminent manufacturer of steam engines and threshing machines.

Bundles have to go onto the feeder conveyor lengthwise, with the grain heads going in first. A set of rotating knives cuts the strings from the bundles
as they go into the machine.

The bundles go in here…

The straw and chaff come out here…

And the wheat comes out here.

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