Henry Ford's Kerosene Farm Tractor 



It is being manufactured at the rate of fifty a day and 

 with it Ford hopes to aid in solving the food problem 



The tractor in use. The kerosene system requires a special manifold. The engine, transmission and 

 rear axle housing are bolted together to form one piece which acts as the backbone of the machine 



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HENRY FORD'S new farm tractor, 

 which is expected to revolutionize 

 the small tractor industry both in 

 this country and abroad, will be produced 

 at the rate of fifty per day at the Fort 

 Dearborn, 

 Mich., plant 

 by the time 

 this appears in 

 print. The new 

 unit will run 

 on kerosene, al- 

 though it may 

 later be driven 

 by alcohol as 

 outlined in one 

 of the first de- 

 scriptions of 

 the tractor, 

 published ex- 

 clusively in the 

 August, 1917, 



issue of the Popular Science Monthly. 

 As outlined in that issue, the first few 

 thousand tractors produced will be ab- 

 sorbed by Great Britain. 



Like the Ford passenger car and truck, 

 the new tractor is characterized by the 

 use of a large amount of high-grade ma- 

 terial of the lightest weight and greatest 

 strength. From the technical standpoint, 

 the tractor differs from all others in that it 

 has no frame but is built up on what 

 might be called a unit plan in which the 

 engine, transmission and rear axle hous- 

 ing are bolted together so as to form one 

 solid piece which acts as the backbone of 



Air-wash mq de 

 nft 



42"dia. driving wheels- 

 Diagram of the interior mechanism and driv- 

 ing system of the kerosene farm tractor 



the machine. In this way, parts which 

 ordinarily perform but one function have 

 been made to do the work of two or more. 

 As the most notable example, the crank- 

 case, gearbox and rear axle housing serve 

 their regular purposes but also 

 form the frame of the unit. This 

 serves to re- 

 duce the trac- 

 tor weight. 



While the 

 flywheel mag- 

 neto type of 

 the Ford car 

 has been re- 

 tained in the 

 new tractor, 

 the planetary 

 gearset has 

 been replaced 

 by a three- 

 speed and re- 

 verse gearbox of conventional design and 

 the bevel final drive by a worm mounted 

 under the axle instead of above it, as in 

 most cases, for better lubrication of the 

 worm and wheel assembly. 



The motor used on the tractor is exactly 

 similar to that used on the present Ford 

 passenger automobile, except that it is 

 larger and heavier. 



As now fitted, the tractor will be started 

 by gasoline and driven by kerosene. The 

 kerosene system includes a special manifold 

 for better fuel vaporization in which the 

 intake passes through a coil surrounded 

 by the exhaust gases. 



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