Harry Ferguson: Mechanical Genius Part II

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Pictured at his Cotswold home, Abbotswood, Harry Ferguson is shown driving a TE-20.

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In the second part of a 3-part series, writer Jane Brooks continues her look at the life and times of Harry Ferguson, legendary inventor of the “Little Grey Fergie,” among the world’s most famous tractors. A 1938 handshake agreement with another industrialist genius, Henry Ford, set the stage for a new era in tractor manufacture on two sides of the Atlantic. Read part I.

After shaking hands on the Ford agreement in 1938, Harry Ferguson needed to extract himself from his contract with David Brown Co. Things had not gone well with the Ferguson-Brown during a time when the Fordson was gaining popularity. Moreover, horse-drawn implements could be adapted for use with the Fordson; the Ferguson-Brown required its own dedicated implements. Ferguson had wanted to increase production and reduce prices, but David Brown wanted to build a bigger tractor.
Designs for a new tractor were advanced to Ferguson, who claimed they breached the original Ferguson-Brown agreement. Both parties wanted to dissolve the business, so a deal was struck. David Brown bought out Ferguson, ceasing production of the Ferguson-Brown Type A tractor. The David Brown VAK1 tractor was launched in 1939. Serial numbers of Ferguson-Brown tractors from 1936 to 1939 show that 1,354 tractors were produced.

Launch of the 9N
With the David Brown business resolved, Ferguson moved his family to America, arriving Jan. 14, 1939. Henry Ford’s team had tested three prototype tractors incorporating the Ferguson System at the Ford family plantation in Georgia, so Ferguson and his team worked on the final model of the production tractor.
Ferguson and Sherman Bros., Evansville, Ind., set up Ferguson-Sherman Mfg. Corp. (renamed Harry Ferguson Inc. in 1941) to market the tractor and supply implements. The first public demonstration of the Ford-Ferguson 9N was made on June 29, 1939, in front of invited representatives from 18 countries and 30 American states, as well as several reporters. A July 3, 1939, account in Time magazine gushed: “That the tractor is as simple as a motorcar, can be maintained by any farm hand, operated by any schoolboy. That it will plow, harrow, drag a seeder, pull a wagon better than any tractor ever made, far better than a horse which is, as Thomas Edison said, ‘the poorest motor ever built.’ That inventor Ferguson will go down in history with Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and the Wright brothers.”
By 1942, the Ford-Ferguson 9N had captured 20 percent of the U.S. tractor market despite retailing at $585 ($7,824 in today’s terms), some $100 more than the Farmall Model A. The tractor had a 4-cylinder vertical Ford engine, basically half a Mercury VS. Many internal components, including the pistons, were compatible with parts used in Ford’s V-8 automobiles of the time. The engine produced 17 hp on the drawbar and 23.5 hp on the belt in Nebraska tests. The front axle and hydraulic linkage were Ferguson team designs, and the design incorporated the patented Ferguson System. Adapted for the British market, the 9NAN was fitted with a Holly 295 vaporizer to enable it to run on tractor vaporizing oil (TVO).
The Ferguson system was initially unpopular, as U.S. farmers could not use their existing implements with a Ford-Ferguson 9N. But America’s entry into World War II drove demand for increased food production, and tractor sales got a boost as a result. About 40,000 9N tractors were sold in 1941. War shortages temporarily halted production at Ford’s Rouge River tractor plant, Dearborn, Mich., in 1942, but Ferguson persuaded U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to attend a tractor demonstration. The president ended up purchasing a tractor and implements for his Hyde Park, N.Y., farm and guaranteed availability of materials to resume tractor manufacture.
During the war years, Ferguson dealers and distributors were encouraged to locate old Fordsons that could be melted down to produce new Ford-Fergusons. Limited copper supplies led to a model with no electric starter motor, and rubber shortages meant that some tractors were put on steel wheels. Some of the World War II-era tractors (including the 2N) had magneto ignition because of starter motor battery shortages.

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