The Fascinating History of the Tractor

While it might seem like tractors must have been around since time immemorial, they’re actually less than 200 years old! These powerful machines transformed farming during the 19th century, reducing workloads and labor costs significantly. This resulted in large-scale and industrial farming, which brings us the wealth of food we have today.

FMI Equipment in Spokane Valley is your eastern Washington State tractor dealer. Here is the brief but interesting history of the tractor.

Early Development

John Froelich, an Iowa inventor, developed the first gas-powered tractor in 1892. Prior to this development, steam-powered plowing engines had been employed over the previous few decades, but they were slow and difficult to move. Also, these steam engines had a disturbing predilection for exploding at random.

Gasoline engines were developed during the 1880s once gas had been established as a dependable fuel source. This meant that gas-powered traction engines could finally be developed. Froelich was the first person to combine these various ideas to build his farm machine that had both forward and reverse gears. During harvest season in South Dakota, he joined up his tractor to a thresher to harvest wheat.

A new gas-powered engine was concurrently in development by Charles Hart and Charles Parr, mechanical engineering students at the University of Wisconsin. In 1897, the two men founded the Hart-Parr Gasoline Engine Company in Madison, where they produced traction engines and created the term “tractor” from that phrase. The first commercially successful tractor rolled off their assembly lines in 1901.

20th Century Innovations

Tractors really took off during the early part of the 20th century, especially after William Butterworth, then-manager of Deere & Company, purchased the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company. Butterworth wanted to take the company that John Deere, his grandfather-in-law, had founded, and push it into new directions by manufacturing these machines. The first John Deere Model D tractor was introduced to the market in 1923. To this day, green-and-yellow John Deere tractors can be seen on farms all across the United States.

Tractors became more affordable as more and more manufacturers began to develop their own designs. These machines grew smaller and lighter in weight, making them more efficient. Companies like India’s Mahindra began to build tractors in the mid-20th century; today, Mahindra is the world’s highest-selling tractor manufacturer.

As you can see, tractors have come a very long way from their humble beginnings and the current market has many different types of tractors for all sorts of purposes. If you’re searching for tractors for sale near Spokane, WA, you’ll want to visit our Spokane Valley dealership to view our current inventory of new and used tractors. We can even assist you with financing options if you so desire. FMI Equipment proudly serves our customers coming from nearby Coeur d'Alene, ID.