Harry Ferguson was fed up with working the land on his Co Down farm with horses. “There had to be a better way,” the young man reasoned. It took a while but, eventually, he designed a tractor which would change world agriculture forever, and that machine was the Ferguson Type A; better known as the Ferguson Brown.
Ferguson began a close association with the tractors of the Edwardian era when he was asked to demonstrate and promote the introduction of agricultural mechanisation to increase the nation’s wartime food production. With this experience in the field, his developing mechanical genius and his skilled salesmanship, it was little surprise that he took an agency for the Overtime tractor from America.
A real drag!
Soon it became evident to Ferguson that the tractors of the time were handicapped by the physics of simply dragging a plough through the ground with a chain. While doing this, tractors relied on their own weight to provide sufficient traction, most of which had to be concentrated over the rear wheels to ensure adequate grip. But Ferguson appreciated that this design approach was inherently flawed, due to the weight needed over the front axle, which was essential to prevent the tractor from rearing up should a hidden obstacle be struck by the implement. To eliminate these compromises, a new approach was required.
While the arrival of the Fordson Standard improved the power-to-weight ratio, Ferguson was working on a more unified approach to the combination of tractor and implement. His early Eros plough was followed by the
