Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company
The Waterloo
Gasoline Engine Company was the first company to manufacture and sell
gasoline powered farm tractors. Based in Waterloo, Iowa, the company was
created by John Froelich and a group of Iowa businessmen in 1893,
and was originally named the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company. In
1892, Froelich had invented the first practical gasoline powered tractor, and the
new company was given the opportunity to manufacture and sell the tractor Froelich
designed. Unfortunately, the tractor was not successful commercially, and of
the four tractors built by the company only two were purchased, and these
were later returned to the company by unsatisfied
customers
In 1895, the company was sold to John W. Miller and renamed the Waterloo Gasoline Engine
Company. Miller decided to stop producing tractors and instead focus on building plain gasoline engines.
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Following several years
of research and
development, the company
once again began to
manufacture tractors in
1911, but none would
sell well until 1913,
when twenty “Waterloo
Boy” tractors were
produced. In 1914 the
company introduced the
Model R Waterloo Boy.
This tractor proved
immensely popular, and
over eight thousand were
sold before the line was
discontinued in 1918.
The company also had
great success with the
Model N, which was
introduced in late 1916.
Despite the company's
name, both the Model R
and Model N burned
kerosene for fuel.
By this time, several
other companies had
begun to build and sell
tractors, but the
Waterloo Boy was easily
one of most popular.
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In 1918, Deere &
Company,
purchased the
Waterloo
Gasoline Engine
Company for
$2,200,000.
Deere & Company
had been anxious
to enter the
growing tractor
market, but its
own initial
designs had
proved
unsuccessful.
Executives at
Deere & Company
decided to
purchase the
Waterloo
Gasoline Engine
Co. because
field tests
indicated that
the Waterloo Boy
tractor had the
best
performance.
After the sale
was completed,
the company
became known as
the
John Deere
Tractor Company,
but tractors
produced by the
company
continued to be
sold under the
Waterloo Boy
name until 1923,
when the
John Deere D was introduced. |
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John Deere Fordson and International
In 1927 Henry Ford quits the tractor business. The
price war he
waged put dozens
of others out
too, leaving
only the
strongest and
most innovative
tractor
companies to
survive. Ford's Fordson had failings that
became more apparent as the others improved. This killed Ford's mass-production
machine. Both John Deere and International Harvester learned from the battle
with Ford. Each streamlined its production and improved its product. In 1929
International Harvester
was the number one Farm Tractor producer and John Deer was number two.
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Antique Farming
New Tractor Manual,
Brochures and
Advertisements |
Manuals
and
Brochures
require
Acrobat
reader
Click to
download
click on images to view file
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John Deere
Model AO |
John Deere A |
John Deere B |
John Deere AW |
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JOHN DEERE GP |
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John Deere GP 1929
The John Deere GP followed the basic design of the John Deere D .
Introduced as a row-crop tractor the above pictured model was not nearly as popular as the
tricycle configuration |
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JOHN DEERE A and B |
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John Deere A & B
In 1938 The John Deere A
and it's little brother the John Deere B
were the first two styled tractors coming from John Deere
Apart from the styling the unstyled Tractors were mechanically similar to the unstyled models
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JOHN DEERE 420 |
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John Deere 420
The true beginnings of Deere's industrial line is represented by the 420 Crawler-Loader,
although it was still painted in agricultural colors. The first full, thirty-two-page brochure,
A-1044, was issued in December 1956 by Dubuque, and covered the 320, 420, and 820 Industrial
models and their matching equipment. The Utility 420 wheel models and the 420 Crawler-Loader
are typical examples.
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