Thosw WW1 era Tractors didn't go very fast ...

[dogtag]

except at auction where lots of money went fast chasing them.
Beautiful looking contraptions, kinda like those WW! Fighter planes.


https://nypost.com/2022/10/03/rare-vintage-farm-tractor-sold-for-420000-at-multimillion-dollar-auction/

[PWC]

I watch Classic Tractor Fever on Saturdays, and the Me ham car and farm equipment auctions. I saw these go...my grandfather had a Farmall C that I learned to drive / plow early

[Allen]

Those huge steam powered tractors pictured only put out about 8hp. Surprisingly they did the job though, just not very fast.

For comparison what little land we have left we let a neighborhood farmer farm to keep the weeds under control. He has 5 (that I know of) large John Deere tractors that produce 400hp (6cyl with twin turbo's). Forgot the model # but they are 4 wheel drive 8 wheel models and cost about $330k each before taxes and delivery.

[dryheat]

I used to buy old time tractor calendars. How did they work? You kept throwing logs in the stove?

[Allen]

Wood and/or coal. I believe some had kerosene burners as well before the internal combustion engines took their place.

[lyman]

wasn't so much about the horsepower, (that was used as a marketing tool, )

those steam pistons worked the flywheel, and produced a buttload of torque

[Liam]

Like Lyman said, "torque." My M151A2 jeep in Germany had a mere 71 HP, but it was all torque and there was nowhere it couldn't go. Especially with chains on.

[Art]

They didn't go very fast but were certainly every bit as fast and a lot more efficient in operation than plowing behind a mule, or in my grandfather's case, a horse.

There was a Japanese colony in Orange County Texas in the early 20th century. They were rice farmers and being Japanese knew a good innovation when they saw it. They were the only people ca 1920 with mechanized equipment. My mom said every now and then they'd go to the fence that separated their ranch from the Kishi farm just to watch the tractors. There was an anthrax epidemic in the early 20s there which not only killed off most of the cattle but most of the work stock but the Kishi tractors were still cranking away.

[lyman]

for those that are interested, and I may have posted this before, there is a series of show done in the UK on farming,

Edwardian Farm
Victorian Farm
and a few others

3 folks in the UK basically set up shop on a piece of farmland (I think the Edwardian was in the Cornwall area) and worked the land and lived like it was that time period

one or 2 of the episodes covers tractor vs horse and how much more efficient it was,

great series,

[Allen]

Mecum and others have auctions on these type tractors and of course, newer models. I keep my DVR set to record these shows. They provide a lot of history about the ones being sold and sometimes show a short clip on the tractors being used.

Since they are being auctioned, they are either fully restored or in very good usable condition.