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| By Ellen (thedesignspace.net) - Flickr: Moline Universal tractor, c. 1918, CC BY 2.0, Link Moline Universal tractor (model D?), built by the Moline Plow Co., Moline, Illinois, USA, ca. 1918; Antique Gas Engine and Tractor Show 2010, Hudson Mills Metropark, USA. [It looks like a 4-cylinder engine, so this would be Model D. The Model C had just two cylinders.] |
A video of a meet with 31 Moline Universal tractors The video includes some history of the company.
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With the engine and traction wheels up front, it emulates how a farmer would control the pulling power of horses. Since Moline Plow was an implement company, they also produced a full line of implements over which the farmer could ride such as cultivators, disks, planters, etc. as well as plows. This replaced the farmer's need to maintain horses because this tractor could cultivate as well as do tillage. (Farmers had to cultivate until herbicide-resistant corn was developed near the end of the 20th Century. In fact, I think they had to cultivate multiple times during the growing season. Now they spray chemicals on the corn fields.) The tractor was also cheap enough that a family farmer could afford it.
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I think of articulated steering as a recent development for large, 4-wheel drive tractors. But note that this early 20th Century tractor used articulated steering.
The Moline tractor design looks radical to us now. But Ford had not yet developed his small, uni-body design to replace horses on the family farms. Even though this design looks normal to us today, it was rather radical when he developed it.
Most tractor manufactures were putting a big kerosene or gas engine into the type of frame that had been developed for steam "traction engines."
Here is a photo of a steam traction engine with people on it to give some scale as to how big they were. And this is a rather "little" one. JI Case built them to at least 150 hp. The established tractor manufactures at the beginning of the 20th Century thought in terms of tilling the big fields on the parries. They ignored the family farms in the Midwest.
The small farm market spawned interesting designs for the implement makers trying to get into the tractor business. This is one of several "Joe Dain" tractors that John Deere experimented with to get into the tractor business. But Deere bought the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Co. instead of building a Dain design.
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The following company history information comes from MolinePlowCo, History Sidebar Link.
A predecessor company of Moline Plow, Candee, Swan & Co., hired Andrew Friberg, who had worked at John Deere for 12 years, to start their tractor division. John Deere sued Candee, Swan & Co for copying their trademark, brochure and product. But the three years of litigation determined that John Deere had copied the brochure and most of the product components from other companies. And Friberg had introduced enough innovations after leaving Deere that Deere had no claims.
By the 1870s, plow companies made much more than just plows. Moline Plow was making "walking and riding plows, walking and riding cultivators, and the usual disks, harrows and other basic implements of the day." In 1866 they introduced a corn planter. In 1902 and 1903 it worked with other companies to enter the wagon and buggy market.
In 1909 it entered the drills and seeders business by buying the Monitor Drill Company of Minneapolis, MN. In 1913 it purchased Adriance, Platt & Co., Poughkeepsie, NY, to add binders and harvesting equipment to its product line. This created a company that employed about 1300 people, had four factories and "was regarded as the 5th largest implement company in the world."
By 1913, not having a tractor was becoming a significant hole in their product line. So they started building implements that were compatible with the 10 hp. tractor of the Universal Tractor Mfg Co. of Columbus, OH. In 1915 they bought the rights and patents of this company and got their manager and engineer, Truman B. Funk. In 1916 they started manufacturing a new model that "featured an Ohio built Reliable 2-cylinder 4.75 x 6 opposed engine, Dixie magneto and Holly carburetor and was now rated at 6 brake and 12 belt horsepower." They also built new implements designed to be used with that tractor. This tractor could replace the horse for all field operations, including cultivating. A year later they replaced the Ohio built engine with their own engine.
In 1918 they redesigned the tractor to use a four-cylinder Root & Van Dervoort engine built in East Moline that developed 27.45 belt and 17.4 drawbar hp. at Nebraska Testing. This tractor included "an electric governor/speed control, starter and lights; all firsts in the tractor industry." They even added the Stephens automobile to the product line by retooling their buggy plant and using another R&V engine design. In 1920 they introduced a 3000 lb capacity truck that used the same R&V engine that was used in the tractor. And it used the Moline Plow brand instead of the Stephens brand.
1920 seems to have been the apex year for the company. In 1926 the International Harvester Corporation purchased the defunct tractor plant and began producing Farmall tractors. Even though they got out of the tractor business, they were still in the implement business. "After several years of declining sales, a merger was worked out with Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota (makers of the Twin City tractors which became the basis of the new company’s tractors) and the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company of Hopkins, Minnesota (Another former tractor company that had also built the Minneapolis line of steam engines and threshing machines). This merger, in March 1929, resulted in the Minneapolis-Moline Power Implement Company, which was once again a full line company merging all three product lines. Alone, none of the companies had still manufactured a complete line, although all had at one time built tractors. Minneapolis-Moline went on to become one of the major farm equipment companies in the country; producing a full line of machinery until being bought by the White Motor Company in 1963."
[MolinePlowCo, History Sidebar Link]
With the engine and traction wheels up front, it emulates how a farmer would control the pulling power of horses. Since Moline Plow was an implement company, they also produced a full line of implements over which the farmer could ride such as cultivators, disks, planters, etc. as well as plows. This replaced the farmer's need to maintain horses because this tractor could cultivate as well as do tillage. (Farmers had to cultivate until herbicide-resistant corn was developed near the end of the 20th Century. In fact, I think they had to cultivate multiple times during the growing season. Now they spray chemicals on the corn fields.) The tractor was also cheap enough that a family farmer could afford it.
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| Screenshot from a 30-sec advertisement for an 8-minute video |
The Moline tractor design looks radical to us now. But Ford had not yet developed his small, uni-body design to replace horses on the family farms. Even though this design looks normal to us today, it was rather radical when he developed it.
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| 20160811 4316c |
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| Really Old Tractors |
Here is a photo of a steam traction engine with people on it to give some scale as to how big they were. And this is a rather "little" one. JI Case built them to at least 150 hp. The established tractor manufactures at the beginning of the 20th Century thought in terms of tilling the big fields on the parries. They ignored the family farms in the Midwest.
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| 20160804 4105 |
(new window)
The following company history information comes from MolinePlowCo, History Sidebar Link.
A predecessor company of Moline Plow, Candee, Swan & Co., hired Andrew Friberg, who had worked at John Deere for 12 years, to start their tractor division. John Deere sued Candee, Swan & Co for copying their trademark, brochure and product. But the three years of litigation determined that John Deere had copied the brochure and most of the product components from other companies. And Friberg had introduced enough innovations after leaving Deere that Deere had no claims.
By the 1870s, plow companies made much more than just plows. Moline Plow was making "walking and riding plows, walking and riding cultivators, and the usual disks, harrows and other basic implements of the day." In 1866 they introduced a corn planter. In 1902 and 1903 it worked with other companies to enter the wagon and buggy market.
 |
| MolinePlowCo, History Sidebar Link |
By 1913, not having a tractor was becoming a significant hole in their product line. So they started building implements that were compatible with the 10 hp. tractor of the Universal Tractor Mfg Co. of Columbus, OH. In 1915 they bought the rights and patents of this company and got their manager and engineer, Truman B. Funk. In 1916 they started manufacturing a new model that "featured an Ohio built Reliable 2-cylinder 4.75 x 6 opposed engine, Dixie magneto and Holly carburetor and was now rated at 6 brake and 12 belt horsepower." They also built new implements designed to be used with that tractor. This tractor could replace the horse for all field operations, including cultivating. A year later they replaced the Ohio built engine with their own engine.
In 1918 they redesigned the tractor to use a four-cylinder Root & Van Dervoort engine built in East Moline that developed 27.45 belt and 17.4 drawbar hp. at Nebraska Testing. This tractor included "an electric governor/speed control, starter and lights; all firsts in the tractor industry." They even added the Stephens automobile to the product line by retooling their buggy plant and using another R&V engine design. In 1920 they introduced a 3000 lb capacity truck that used the same R&V engine that was used in the tractor. And it used the Moline Plow brand instead of the Stephens brand.
1920 seems to have been the apex year for the company. In 1926 the International Harvester Corporation purchased the defunct tractor plant and began producing Farmall tractors. Even though they got out of the tractor business, they were still in the implement business. "After several years of declining sales, a merger was worked out with Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota (makers of the Twin City tractors which became the basis of the new company’s tractors) and the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company of Hopkins, Minnesota (Another former tractor company that had also built the Minneapolis line of steam engines and threshing machines). This merger, in March 1929, resulted in the Minneapolis-Moline Power Implement Company, which was once again a full line company merging all three product lines. Alone, none of the companies had still manufactured a complete line, although all had at one time built tractors. Minneapolis-Moline went on to become one of the major farm equipment companies in the country; producing a full line of machinery until being bought by the White Motor Company in 1963."
[MolinePlowCo, History Sidebar Link]
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| Bernie Meekhof posted Just picked this up has moline stamped on the frame anybody know anything about them. |
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| Ethan Crow commented on Bernie's post Minneapolis Moline. Great plows |
In Sept 2020, I got hit with a Double Doomsday. Both Facebook and Google changed their software. I said "changed" instead of "updated" because the new software is not better. In fact, Google's Blogger software is far worse except for a search function that works. Specifically, it has three bugs concerning photos and their captions. So I'm no longer copying photos and interesting comments from Facebook. I'm just saving the link. I hope you can access posts in Private Groups.
"100 YEARS OLD Moline Universal Tractors Made by the Moline Plow Company 1915-1923
The Moline Universal tractor was based around the idea of providing a farmer with a flexible tractor and implement system that would meet every need of the modern late teen’s farmer. The Universal concept allowed for the easy switching of implements, and Moline had a full range available. The iconic Moline model D was also the first tractor to come factory standard with an electric starter, electric lights and electric speed control through the unique Remy System which utilized the generator as the governor for throttle control. The Moline Universals were all articulated steering, front wheel drive tractors. A Holley carburetor was standard on all models. The B &C came standard with a Dixie magneto, while the D came standard with the Remy system with battery and starter. The D could be purchased in an alternate magneto driven design, which was also the export model."
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