In my last column, we talked about R.W. Henderson, who later became IHC’s Manager of Road Engineers, and who started work at IHC’s Akron tractor works in 1909. A year later, Henderson was transferred to the new IHC tractor factory in Chicago. Here, he was installed in a large, cold tent and put to building tractor frames. He wrote, The only chance I had to get even with them was to watch until someone picked up the telephone in the office, then start my air chisels going. This would give me the satisfaction of having them chase Mr. Forster out to have me stop the noise until they got off the phone.
That fall [1910], E.A. Johnston sent Mr. Henderson on the road to both demonstrate and repair tractors. He describes his first demonstration job at an Illinois fair. [The tractor] was a two cylinder opposed 9 X 12 motor running about 350rpm, hit and miss governing, battery low tension ignition for starting and a Motsinger low tension sparker for running. The sparker was friction driven from the flywheel, and while it would have proven fine had it been gear or belt driven, it was practically worthless where we had it placed, as oil from the bearings would run onto the flywheel and soak the sparker. So the friction would become soft on one side and soon it would be hammered to pieces.
The motor was excellent when it was possible for an expert to start it. In order to start the thing you would take out your igniters, clean and dry them thoroughly, prime both cylinders with gasoline, turn on your switch, then crawl up on the frame, right hand holding onto the radiator pipe, and with your right foot on the channel, you would put your left foot in the spokes of the flywheel and grasp the flywheel rim with your left hand, and if you were then able to exert several horsepower you were able to roll the massive flywheel over. If the motor failed to start you crawled down, opened the relief cocks, shut off the mixers and turned the flywheel long enough to crank out the oversupply of fuel. Our greatest trouble with these tractors was in the starting of them, and I believe it was simply because the gasoline was too good and vaporized too quickly.
Mr. Henderson goes on to explain that, after some experimentation, he learned to remount the auto-sparker to a location where it would accumulate less oil and the friction drive would not go soft so quickly.
Late in October, Henderson and an assistant, a Mr. Jarvis, were sent to Geneva, Illinois, to test a new one-cylinder 25 HP Mogul Jr. tractor. By December, the weather was bitter cold and Henderson resumes his tale. During this time gasoline was selling for 12 and 13 cents a gallon and I was getting good board and room for $1.00 per day. This machine like all tractors was exceptionally hard to start on cold, frosty mornings. It was necessary to soak rags with gasoline and wrap them around the intake pipe and heat this pipe and mixer thoroughly before we could get the motor started. We had no good facilities for handling our fuel, so I procured two three-gallon buckets, one for water and one for gasoline. The gasoline pail had a large red “G” painted on it, but this became grease-covered and hard to see, and one morning Mr. Jarvis filled the water bucket with gasoline. We had just warmed the tractor up and got it started, when the burning rags fell to the ground under the tractor. Being afraid that the burning rags might set the grease afire on the tractor, I picked up what I presumed was the water bucket and dashed the contents on the burning rags. Mr. Jarvis was in the cab and had presence of mind enough to throw in the clutch before jumping out. The sight that followed, while expensive in a way, was really beautiful. The tractor walked off across the field dropping a burning board from the cab about every hundred feet. After the cab and wood parts had completely burned off and we had lassoed “Barney” as we called her, we spent the rest of the day putting on a canopy and thereafter had to do without a cab.
On December 28th, I was sent to Mark Center, Ohio, to investigate a tractor that had been running there nearly the entire summer. This tractor was setting opposite a barn and was about half covered with snow, and I got the surprise of my life when, after priming it and turning on the batteries, I got up and tramped on the flywheel and it started the first turn over.
So the life of a company tractor demonstrator/troubleshooter wasn’t an easy one during those early years, but engines, ignition systems, and carburetors gradually improved and tractors became smaller, more maneuverable and a whole lot more reliable, not to mention easier to start.
