Fordson was a brand name of tractors and trucks. It was used on a range of mass-produced general-purpose tractors manufactured by Henry Ford & Son Inc from 1917 to 1920, by Ford Motor Company (U.S.) and Ford Motor Company Ltd (U.K.) from 1920 to 1928, and by Ford Motor Company Ltd (U.K.) from 1929 to 1964. The latter (Ford of Britain) also later built trucks and vans under the Fordson brand.
After 1964, the Fordson name was dropped and all Ford tractors were simply badged as Fords in both the UK and the US.
Production years[edit]
Between 1917 and 1922, the Fordson was for tractors somewhat like the Ford Model T was for automobiles—it captured the public's imagination and widely popularized the machine, with a reliable design, a low price affordable for workers and farmers, a widespread dealership network, and a production capacity for large numbers. Just as the Model T helped the public to appreciate how soon cars and trucks might replace most horses in transport, the Fordson helped people to appreciate how soon tractors might replace most horses in farming (advancing the mechanisation of agriculture). As with cars, Ford never had the market to itself, but it dominated the market for tractors, roughly 1917–1925, and again 1946-1953. Ford was the only automotive firm to sell cars, trucks and tractors simultaneously from 1917 to 1928.[1][2]
For a decade between 1928 and 1939, Ford of the U.S. left the tractor business. During that decade, Ford of Britain continued to build Fordsons and to develop new variants, which it exported widely. In 1939 Ford of the U.S. reentered the tractor market with an all-new model, this time with the Ford brand. Ford of Britain continued to use the Fordson brand until 1964.
Fordson production took place in the U.S. (1917–1928); Cork, Ireland (1919–1923 and 1928–1933); and at Dagenham, Essex, England (1933–1964). Tens of thousands of Fordsons, most from the U.S. and some from Ireland, were exported to the Soviet Union from 1920 to 1927. Soviet Fordson clones were also built at Leningrad from 1924 and at Stalingrad from 1930.
Tractors[edit]
Ford experimental tractor development, 1907-1916[edit]
Henry Ford grew up in an extended family of farmers in Wayne County a few miles from Detroit, Michigan in the late 19th century. At the time, farm work was extremely arduous, because on the typical farm virtually nothing could get done without manual labour or animal labour as the motive power. As his interest in automobiles grew, he also expressed a desire to "lift the burden of farming from flesh and blood and place it on steel and motors."[3][4] In the early 20th century, he began to build experimental tractors from automobile components. Four years after founding the Ford Motor Company in 1903, Ford finished his first experimental tractor in 1907 on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, referring to it as the "Automobile Plow".[3] Approximately 600 gasoline-powered tractors were in use on American farms in 1908.[5] Fordson tractor design was headed by Eugene Farkas and József Galamb, both involved in the design of the successful Ford Model T automobile.[6]
Traction engines had been around for a while, but they were large, heavy, expensive machines suited to prairie grain farming more than to small family farms in other regions. In the early 1910s, North America and Europe were hungry for small, inexpensive tractors, and many people seized on the Model T as a platform with which to create them. Clearly the idea of an auto-like tractor, made using auto-like parts and methods or by conversion from autos, was ripe. American engineer, inventor, and businessman Henry Ford built experimental tractors from automobile components during the early 20th century, and launched a prototype known as the Model B in August 1915. Further prototypes, with a dedicated tractor design, followed in 1916. With World War I raging in Europe, the first regular-production Henry Ford & Son tractors were exported to the U.K. in 1917 to expand British agriculture. In 1918, exports continued, the tractors began to be labeled as Fordsons, and U.S. domestic sales began. Sales boomed in 1918 and 1919.
Henry Ford experimented with both auto-plows and heavier tractors. In August 1915, at a plowing demonstration in Fremont, Nebraska, he introduced a newly designed tractor known as the Model B.[5] It used a 16 horsepower, two-cylinder, horizontally opposed engine, a spur gear transmission and three wheels - two front drivers and one rear steerer.[3] The Model B was never produced, but did gain enough publicity to let the world know Ford was interested in developing a tractor.[3]
Knowing there was demand for a Ford-built tractor, a group of entrepreneurs in Minneapolis organized The Ford Tractor Company,[3] paying a company clerk surnamed Ford for the use of his name, with the intention of getting sales and attention from the confusion of this Ford with Ford Motor Company. The company built and sold some tractors, but anticipated a settlement with Henry Ford for permission to use their already-trademarked name.[7] However, Ford thwarted them by using another name.
Fordson origins, Model F, and Model N[edit]
An early Fordson discing a field in Princess Anne County, Virginia, USA, in 1925
The first prototypes of the new Henry Ford & Son tractor, which would later be called the Fordson, were completed in 1916. World War I was raging in Europe, and the United Kingdom, a net importer of food, was desperate for tractors in its attempt to expand its agriculture enough to feed Britain despite the great shipping disruption of the war. In 1917, the British Ministry of Munitions selected the Fordson for both importation from the U.S. and domestic U.K. production. It was thought that domestic U.K. production was preferable because so much Atlantic shipping was being sunk that exporting tractors from the U.S. would be counterproductive, as many would be lost at sea. This was soon modified to exclude the London area because of concerns about its vulnerability to German attacks. Henry Ford decided to build the tractor at Cork, Ireland (which at the time was still part of the U.K.), partly because he wanted to bring jobs to, and foster industriousness in, southern Ireland. But the Cork plant did not begin production until 1919, after the war had ended. As events turned out, thousands of tractors were exported from the U.S. in 1917 and 1918.
The tractor used a 20 hp (15 kW), inline four-cylinder engine. The engine was similar to the Ford Model T engine in many respects. Like many engines of its day, it was multifuel-capable; it was usually tuned for gasoline or kerosene, but alcohol could also be burned. (Tractor vaporising oil [TVO] existed in 1920 but was not yet widely used. It entered broader use in the 1930s and 1940s.) Like many other multifuel machines, the Fordson started on gasoline from a small auxiliary tank (just a few quarts) and then switched over to the main fuel tank once warmed up sufficiently (no more than 5 minutes[8]). To handle the kerosene (or, rarely, TVO), the intake system had a vaporizer downstream of the carburetor. The mixture coming from the carburetor was intentionally rich, and the vaporizer heated it and mixed it with more air to lean it out to the final ratio before entering the intake manifold.[9] The intake system also had a water-bath air cleaner to filter the dust out of the air inhaled by the engine[10][11] (an invention that did not originate at Ford but that was still rather novel in 1917). Air cleaning is critical to engine lifespan, even for road vehicles and most especially for farming and construction vehicles (which work in environments where dirt is frequently stirred up into the air). The Fordson carburetor and air cleaner were designed by Holley.[12] In later decades, the water bath would be replaced with an oil bath for better filtering performance.
The ignition system was similar to that of the Model T,with a flywheel-mounted low-tension magneto and trembler coils.[13] The ignition timing was manually advanced or retarded with the spark advance lever mounted near the steering column, which rotated the timer. The cooling was by thermosiphon. (In later decades, a high-tension magneto and a water pump would be added.) The transmission was a three-speed spur gear (the three forward speeds ranged from approximately 2 1⁄4 to 6 1⁄4 mph[14]). A worm drive reduction set and a differential made up the rear.[15] The design of the rear was patented for its ease of manufacture and service.[16] Brakes were not provided on early Fordsons, as high-ratio worm sets generally transmitted rotation in one direction only, from the worm element to the gear element, because of the high power loss through friction. To stop the tractor, the driver depressed the clutch.[15]
Ford engineer Eugene Farkas successfully made the engine block, oil pan, transmission, and rear axle stressed members constituting the frame. By eliminating the need for a heavy separate frame, costs were reduced and manufacturing was simplified.[17] Ford held a patent on a unit-frame tractor.[18] The rear wheels were fabricated steel, spoked and cleated. The earliest ones were 12-spoke; a 14-spoke version followed. Several models of front wheel were used, including 10-spoked fabricated steel and 5-spoke cast iron. Industrial models also used other wheels designed for specific tasks, including aftermarket wheels.[19]
In 1916 and 1917, the name "Fordson" was not yet used as the tractor's make or model name, nor was "Model F". During this period, terms such as "the [real/genuine] Ford tractor" or "the Henry Ford tractor", as well as "the MOM tractor" (because almost all output was going to the British Ministry of Munitions), were used. "The Ford Tractor Company" had already been registered on March 15, 1915 by W. Baer Ewing and Paul W. Ford.[20] In early 1918, the name "Fordson" was trademarked, and within a few months it was being marked on the tractors. Published sources vary somewhat on the origin of the name. All agree that the name reflects the contemporary name of the tractor company, "Henry Ford & Son", and its obvious eponyms: Henry and Edsel. Some claim that the company had been using the cable address "Fordson" for several years, which would mean even before the company was officially incorporated in July 1917. Another implies that February 1918 marked the first use of "Fordson" in a cablegram. Regardless, by April 1918 the name "Fordson" was established as the brand, and its eponyms were obvious. In that month, U.S. sales began under County War Board distribution rules. The Model F designation (for essentially the same model, with improvements) began in 1919. Sales boomed in 1918 and 1919.
There was nothing about the Fordson's design or farming capabilities that was a "first ever" among tractors (Ford's version of a unit frame was novel for tractors, but that didn't give it special farming advantages). But it was the first tractor that combined all of the following factors: it was small, lightweight, mass-produced, and affordable;[21] it had a large distribution network (dealers nearby in many locales); and it had a widely trusted brand (via Ford). Such factors made it possible for the average farmer to own a tractor for the first time.[7] Thus Henry Ford and colleagues had done again, for the tractor, what they had recently done for the automobile with the Ford Model T. Ford incorporated his private company, Henry Ford and Son Inc, to mass-produce the tractor on July 27, 1917. The Fordson tractor went into mass production in 1917 and debuted for sale on October 8, 1917,[21] for US$750.
At a hurriedly built factory in Dearborn, Michigan, he[who?] used the same assembly line techniques he used to mass-produce the Ford Model T.[22] It took thirty hours and forty minutes to convert the raw materials into the 4,000 parts used for the tractor assembly.[23] At this time, the Fordson sold for US$750; each cost $567.14 to manufacture (including labor, materials and overhead), leaving a profit of $182.86.[24] Soon Dearborn was sending knock-down kits to final assembly plants in various U.S. states, including New Jersey, Iowa, and Missouri. The core of Fordson production later moved to the new Ford River Rouge Complex.
The Fordson succeeded in being cheaper to maintain than horses, as the Ford Model T had previously done. A government test concluded that farmers spent $.95 per acre plowing with a Fordson compared to feeding eight horses for a year and paying two drivers, which cost $1.46 per acre.[25]
Despite several early design flaws and reliability issues such as engine failure and unbearable heat, the Fordson established a firm foothold on U.S. farms, with more than 70% market share in earlier years. By mid-1918, more than 6,000 Fordson tractors were in use in Britain, Canada, and the United States.
In the U.S., Ford established a policy in 1919 to loan Fordson tractors to educational institutions with vocational training programmes. Agricultural colleges could use a Fordson for six months and then exchange it for a new one. Under this arrangement, forty-two tractors were loaned to such universities as Cornell, Idaho, Michigan, Maryland and Prairie View State Normal in Texas. Others went to the orphanage at Nacoochee Institute in Georgia, the Berry School at Rome, Georgia and Camp Dix at Hutchinson, Kansas.[14]
Annual production reached 36,781 in 1921 and 99,101 in 1926. By 1925, Ford had built its 500,000th Fordson tractor. Ford was the only automotive firm to sell cars, trucks, and tractors simultaneously from 1917 to 1928, during which time 552,799 Fordson tractors were built.
Operation
An operator's-eye view of the controls of the original Fordson tractor
Like the Model T car, a Fordson tractor that was relatively new and well maintained would start easily in warm weather. Under such conditions, often a single crank pull would start it. However, in cold weather, starting could be difficult, especially once the machines were 10, 20, or 30 years old and worn out. In cold weather, the oil congealed on the cylinder walls and on the clutch plates. The engine had to be hand cranked repeatedly with great effort. Strong men took turns cranking between intervals when individual ignition coils were adjusted. Sometimes farmers would build a fire under the tractor to warm up the crankcase and gear boxes to make it crank easier. The tractor, when in use, was fueled by kerosene, but gasoline was required to start it.
The Fordson could pull discs and plows that would require at least four mules to pull, and it could work all day long, provided the radiator was continually filled, the fuel replenished, and the water in the air filter tank changed. The carburetor air was filtered by bubbling it through a water tank. On dry days, mud would build up in the water tank after a few of hours of operation. The mud would then have to be flushed out and the tank refilled.
Reliability
A Fordson harvesting beets during the early 1940s
The Fordson Model F was not without flaws it shared with other brands.[26] These problems included practical limits to traction, especially under muddy, snowy, or icy conditions, and the habit of rearing over backwards if the plow encountered an obstruction. Many people complained that the traction would be better if the tractor were heavier, although Henry Ford always countered that merely adding weight was not a smart way to maximize traction.
Ford began shipping Fordson tractors to Ford Motor Company Limited in Britain in 1917 to meet an order from the British government for 5,000.[22] Between the time the order was accepted and when production started, Ford overhauled the design to solve several problems. The car-type radiator was enlarged to 11 US gal (9.2 imp gal; 42 L) capacity to cure overheating problems. The additional weight also helped hold the front down.[27] In early Fordsons, the worm drive was located at the top under the driver's seat. During heavy operation the heat became unbearable to the operator. The worm drive was relocated to solve this problem and also allowed larger rear wheels which improved traction.[27] Several changes were also made to simplify manufacture. The Fordson used the Model T coil magneto system; and water and oil pumps were eliminated in favor of the simpler thermosiphon cooling and splash lubrication.[27]
Despite design and assembly improvements, Fordsons still required a high level of maintenance. A farmer near Atlanta in 1921 listed the cost of his Fordson repairs for the year as $1,246.[28] He recorded problems in his diary, noting difficulty starting the engine, a broken wheel, engine failure and the rear end bursting throughout January, totaling costs of $1,301 for 620 hours of work.[28] A Colorado farmer telephoned his dealer three times a day to complain about his Fordson. The most dangerous feature would occur when a towed implement became immoveable: the stoppage of the implement would cause a reaction through the transmission that would flip the tractor over backwards, sometimes killing the driver. This condition was introduced when the worm drive was relocated below the main drive pinion, relieving the driver from the heat it generated but also causing a torque on the tractor that lightened the load on the front wheels.[28] One Indiana farmer believed the Fordson to be so dangerous that it should have been banned by law. The Eastern Implement Dealer claimed that Fordsons killed 36 drivers in 1918. Pipp's Weekly further claimed that Fordsons had killed 136 men up to August 1922.[28] Ford spokesmen maintained the accidents resulted from inexperienced drivers, saying any tractor could be dangerous if improperly handled.[1] Satisfied customers praised the Fordson, saying it made farm work easier and performed ideally in orchards and truck farms.[1] Judging from the Fordson's market share in the late teens and early 20s, the anecdotal horror stories, while extreme, must have been relative outliers (that is, the notion that "all Fordsons flip over backwards and burst at the seams" was an exaggeration). Nonetheless, it became imprinted in many minds and became a punch line. The "Hoyt-Clagwell" tractor on the 1960s TV sitcom Green Acres was a Fordson Model F. It was known to randomly 'explode' followed by one or both of the rear wheels falling off.
Importation and production in Ireland, England, and the Soviet Union[edit]

A 1917 Fordson Model F tractor
A magazine article showing and describing Harry Ferguson's tractor hitch development status as of 1922. The hitch is shown as an aftermarket attachment mounted on a Fordson tractor. It is a fully mechanical version with a depth wheel (small wheel that sets the plow depth). By 1926, Ferguson and colleagues had finished developing and had patented the modern hydraulic three-point hitch. Ferguson sold his hitches and implements during the 1920s and 1930s, and worked with David Brown to produce Ferguson-brand tractors. Not until 1938 would Ferguson finally strike an agreement with Henry Ford to put Ferguson hitches on Ford tractors at the factory—something he had first attempted in 1920 and 1921 at Cork and Dearborn. Their 1938 agreement would lead to the Ford 9N.

Imported Fordson Model F tractor in seaport Odessa, Ukrainian SSR 1925.

The copy of Fordson F under the brand Fordson-Putilovets. Ukrainian SSR 1930
As described earlier, because the Fordson was born in 1916, its production site choices and export/import were shaped by the Allied war effort for World War I. Almost all of the first tractors went to the U.K. during 1917. In 1918 and 1919, sales spread to Canada and the U.S., and U.K. production began in pre-independence Ireland.
Ford signed a contract for a large consignment of Fordson tractors to the Soviet Union in 1919, which soon became the largest customer of the company. From 1921 until 1927, the Soviet Union imported over 25,000 Fordsons.[29] These inexpensive and robust tractors became the major enticement for Soviet peasants towards collectivisation and were often seen on Soviet posters and paintings during the era, such as in The First Tractor meme. As also happened with Ford cars and trucks imported in the early 1920s, the Soviets immediately began their own domestic production of replacement parts and of clones. In 1924, the Leningrad plant "Red Putilovite" (Красный Путиловец) started the production of Fordson-Putilovets tractors (Фордзон-путиловец). During the 1920s, the Soviet versions had a reputation for insufficient quality. Much of this was because the metallurgy and heat treatment were wrong. For example, no matter how perfectly one machines a shaft or gear, it will fail early if the hardness is wrong. As Soviet industrialization progressed in the 1930s, the worst of the quality problems were solved.
By mid-1918, more than 6,000 Fordson tractors, all U.S.-built, were in use in Britain, Canada, and the United States.[17] After World War I ended, production began in Cork, Ireland, in parallel with U.S. production.[17] Fordson tractors quickly shaped the U.S. tractor market, and held over 70% of the market in earlier years.[30]
Henry Ford had a power struggle with Ford Motor Company's shareholders (including the Dodge Brothers, Horace and John Dodge) that culminated in 1919. He resigned from Ford Motor Company with the threat (fully realizable) to treat Henry Ford & Son Inc as his new enterprise for all of his future cars, trucks, and tractors (he would begin with all-new designs), which would turn Ford Motor Company into a mere badly led competitor, destroying its stock's value. This maneuver worked; Henry Ford bought out all the minority shareholders of Ford Motor Company in 1919, and then consolidated ownership in the Ford family: fifty-five percent in his name, forty-two percent in son Edsel's name and the remaining three percent in wife Clara's name. He merged Henry Ford & Son into the Ford Motor Company in 1920.[26]
Annual production reached 36,781 in 1921.[31] The Fordson had established a firm foothold on U.S. farms.
In February 1922, after sales had suffered from the depression of 1920–21 and with stiffer competition from International Harvester, John Deere, J.I. Case, Allis-Chalmers, and others, Ford decided to reduce the price of the Model F from $625 to $395. This sparked a price war in the tractor industry known as the "tractor wars". To compensate for the lower price, Ford had to cut costs and strive for larger-volume production.[32]
Meanwhile in Ireland, the Irish War of Independence occurred. Production at Cork never flourished during this first period, although a few thousand tractors a year were built. Ford ended production at Cork in 1922 and shipped the factory's equipment back to the U.S. in 1923. (It would return some years later, as described below.)
By 1925, Ford had built its 500,000th Fordson tractor.[26] Annual production reached 99,101 in 1926.[33] By May 1927, total production figures had reached 650,000.[14]
In February 1928, Ford surprised his U.S. market by ending U.S. Fordson production.[31] Various reasons have been suggested. One was that IHC's Farmall and other competitors had taken away the mystique of the Fordson in the U.S., and Henry Ford was not content to compete in the U.S. tractor market on a mere commodity basis; he wanted decisive competitive edges. Another is that he envisioned moving all production to Ireland and England because Europe, including Russia, were set to become the most important Fordson markets. Henry Ford did not elaborate on his reasons.
Ford of England restarted Fordson manufacture at Cork, which involved a lot of work given that the factory had been disassembled in 1923. Ford Ltd bought much of the tooling from Ford of the U.S. From 1930, Fordson tractors were again sold in the United States, via imports from Cork; the Dagenham plant opened in 1933 and took over production from the Cork plant, which was again closed. George and Eber Sherman became the leading importers of English-built Fordsons.[34]
After Cork became the sole production site in 1928, exports to the US were limited to 1,500 a month. This disrupted the business of countless firms, including Ford dealerships[35] and aftermarket equipment makers (which was a large industry both for the Model T and the Fordson). Many of these firms formed a conglomerate called the United Tractor & Equipment Corporation, which arranged a deal with Allis-Chalmers to build a substitute tractor. By 1933, the deal fell apart, as the Great Depression damaged the economy and dealers and aftermarket builders could also import Cork-built Fordsons and, starting in 1933, Dagenham-built Fordsons. The United tractor became the Allis-Chalmers Model U.
Given Ford's shutdown of U.S. Fordson production, the next big Soviet orders of American tractors via the Amtorg Trading Corporation went to IHC and others.
The Roaring Twenties had certainly been good for the Ford Motor Company. Even though Henry Ford had to deal with the disappointment of learning that the public would not forever adore and demand his original models of car, truck, and tractor (the Model T, Model TT, and Fordson), his new model of car and truck (Model A) was also very successful. Fordson success continued at Ford Ltd even though it came to an end in the U.S.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordson#Fordson_origins,_Model_F,_and_Model_N
