One day I was explaining my ideas to a farmer, and he said, ‘Well, now you’re talking common sense. I learned first the practical features necessary, and then worked out the proper mechanical methods of obtaining those results. I saw where such tractors could not help but fall down, so I decided to start from the other end. 31, 1917: “I knew that too many tractors were the result of theoretical experts who worked on drawing boards, instead of the results given by tractors under actual working conditions in the hands of farmers. The Common Sense tractor carried another unusual name. and, when the company went out of business, nearly lost their farm. One of the dangers of these many companies before 1920 was how quickly they could go out of business one North Dakota family invested heavily in the C.O.D. Several hundred of the tractors were made, but only five exist today. In fact, it’s unclear how the name for this tractor was formed, or what it meant, but it probably was short for the last names of three of the major stockholders of the company: Conrad, Ogard and Daniel.Īt least two models with several more variations were made of the C.O.D., the original 13-25 and the later 10-20. of Minneapolis, and built from 1916-1919, had no such meaning. Today the initials “C.O.D.” typically mean “collect on delivery,” but the tractor of the same initials made by C.O.D. As the wheel turned, the pads retracted, thus providing a self-cleaning wheel.” The Steel Hoof was made from 1912-1916. Wendel writes that the Steel Hoof’s “unique drive wheels were designed to contact the ground much like a horse’s hoof. of Anderson, Ind., and called the “Steel Hoof.” C.H. It’s hard to gauge whether the name helped bury the tractor, or the great agricultural depression of the early 1920s finished it off.Īnother curious name for a tractor was one made by Lambert Gas Engine Co. This is an odd name for a tractor, if only because prairie dogs are harmful to fields, so the name could be seen as something that might tend to turn farmers off. of Kansas City, Mo., in two models – L and D – from 1917 through 1920, and called the “Prairie Dog” tractor. This tractor sold for $5,000 at a time when the farm market was going into depression, and other tractor companies were cutting prices.Īnother animal tractor whose name didn’t quite work was built by Kansas City Hay Press Co. Unfortunately, the tractor’s aquatic name was not the only thing working against its success. The Webfoot was a half-track type of tractor, an appropriate name in the sense that only about half of the concept of “webfoot” works, the part indicating that the track spreads widely over the ground. One might say they “blew it” with the name. Or how about the Webfoot tractor, made by Blewett Tractor Co. It disappeared the same year it was introduced. It was a small tracked tractor weighing 2,600 pounds, and sitting only 37 inches high. Perhaps one of the worst-named tractors ever was the Angleworm 10, made (and named badly, one might say) by Badley Tractor Co. One of those ways was to create a unique, perhaps not-thought-out, name, many of which sound odd to the modern ear. Most of these odd and unusual names were created prior to 1920, when competition for selling tractors was fierce as hundreds of tractor companies tried to elbow aside other companies one way or another. Or maybe – most likely – the companies were so small they didn’t have PR people, and didn’t take as much time as they should have to think of the consequences of the names they chose. Mainly they were thinking of a way to get their product known, no different than today. Why were these names – and dozens of others just as odd – chosen? What were their public relations people thinking? Perhaps the names of some of today’s modern tractors will be viewed in the future with amusement but for peculiar and odd names of tractors, nothing beats gazing at the monikers hung on tractors of the past, like those real-life names of tractors listed in the first paragraph. Not to your fancy? Then how about the Angleworm 10? No? Then maybe the Rigid-Rail is the answer to your farm-work dreams? Or the Webfoot 53? Step right up, lay-dees and gennamen, and see the brand-new Burn-Oil tractor!
0 kommentar(er)
