Nilson Lever-Hitch System Maximized Tractor's Power
Bill Vossler
October 2006
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Early tractor manufacturers went to sometimes ridiculous extremes to tout their machines, as with this Nilson tractor, shown ‚Ã"úplowing in a foot of snow and through 5 inches of frozen ground, with the thermometer 15 degrees below zero, near Lewistown, Mont.‚Ã"ù
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For many tractor manufacturers predating 1920, wholesale changes in either the organization or the product resulted in disaster. In that era, big changes (or frequent changes) usually signaled a company with an unhealthy financial picture. Often those companies disappeared, usually after making last-ditch, grandiose claims. The Nilson Tractor Co. of Minneapolis was the exception to that rule. You could almost call Nilson ‚Ã'úThe Company of Changes.‚Ã'ù
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Fulcrum- and lever-design
The company was incorporated in 1913 as the Nilson Agricultural Machine Co. by Nils Nilson ‚Ã'úand a few of his friends,‚Ã'ù according to a 1918 article in The Northwestern Tractor & Truck Dealer. Nilson invented farm appliances, including a scale. ‚Ã'úThis fulcrum-and-lever principle used in scales he applied to the Nilson tractor, which principle is known as the Nilson lever hitch,‚Ã'ù the article‚Ã'ôs writer continued.
Soon after, the business name was changed to Nilson Farm Machine Co., probably because by then the company‚Ã'ôs new tractor had been named the Nilson Farm Machine. Based on an article in P.S. Rose‚Ã'ôs Report on Tractor Companies 1915, it appears that Nilson was still experimenting with producing its own tractor. In that article, Rose noted that Nilson Farm Machine Co. ‚Ã'úDoes not manufacture. Merely assembles parts, which they buy. Mr. Nilson has been working on patents for a tractor for five years. Company formed two years ago. First tractor completed September 1914. Thirty-five of them out up to date.‚Ã'ù
By 1915, the company announced plans to move to Waukesha, Wis. Though it remains unclear whether the move was actually made, at least some Nilson tractors were manufactured in Wisconsin, as an early 1916 article in Farm Implements reports: ‚Ã'úThe Nilson farm machine is now being built at the plant of the Federal Bridge Company, at Waukesha, Wis., where enlarged and better facilities for manufacturing are to be had. The company plans an output of 500 machines for 1916. The first shipment of Nilson Farm Machines from the Waukesha factory was sent out Oct. 31 (1915).‚Ã'ù
At the same time Nilsons were being manufactured in Waukesha, the company moved into the vacated facilities of the Bull Tractor Co. of Minneapolis. Late in 1916, the company changed its name to Nilson Tractor Co. Two years later, Nilson went into receivership. The company‚Ã'ôs assets were sold in 1919.
A rapid-fire series of reorganizations followed the 1919 sale of the company. The Minnesota-Nilson Corp. was organized on Feb. 16, 1920. Flour City Ornamental Iron Works of Minneapolis was the moving force behind that company. By June of that year it was announced that Crown Iron Works of Minneapolis would take over production of the Nilson tractor.
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