Buyer Beware - This tractor claimed to be a "Ford" tractor - Early Film - Ford Tractor Company

This circa 1916 silent film was produced by The Ford Tractor Company to promote and drum up pre-orders for their tractor.
This Ford Tractor was not built by the Ford Motor Company, known for building the Fordson Tractor. This tractor was the brainchild of William Baer Ewing who seeked to profit off the Ford Name. In 1914, Ewing purchased a tractor design from the Lion Tractor Company and went about to find someone with the last name of Ford.
He found Paul B. Ford whom he paid and made director of the Ford Tractor Company in exchange for the use of his name. In 1915, The Ford Tractor Company of Minneapolis was established. The Company claimed: “Mr. Paul B. Ford, inventor and designer of the Ford Tractor, has devoted years of his life to its study.” In reality, Ford knew nothing about the tractor or it’s design.
Henry Ford tried to stop Ewing from putting out his Ford tractor, but was unsuccessful. Henry Ford & Sons instead named their tractor the Fordson, since Ewing took the Ford name.
In 1916 you could buy the Ford tractor for $350 US dollars (about $8,471 US dollars in 2019) which was fully equipped with magneto, carburetor, governor and coil. The company claimed it could do the work of six to eight horses and cost less than a good team.
Over the coming months Ewing’s scheme unraveled. Farmers started demanding their promised tractors which had never shipped and shareholders wanted a return on their investment. It’s unclear how many Ford tractors were actually built, but probably fewer than 100, a far cry from thousands the company claimed. In the end the company went bankrupt by 1918. A few of these Ford tractors are still known to exist. One example can be seen at the JUMP Museum in Boise, ID which was owned by the late J. R. Simplot. #fordtractorcompany #fordtractor #ford #classictractor #classic #tractor #classictractorfever #farming #farm #history #farmmachinery #machinery #agriculture
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[@brettknoss486]

I love how it's promotional film, and no one stopped to fix the hood latch.

[@pflaffik]

This company went under after only a very few years due to poor quality. Still, its more likely the hood was kept open due to ventilation, for an imaginary or legit reason. Still today youll find taxi drivers in Thailand and Philippines driving with the hood open to better cool the engine, while in reality it interrupts the designed airflow and thus heats up the engine compartment. People still do the wrong thing for "obvious" reasons, it was even worse 100 years ago.

[@alanhardman2447]

That was, indeed, a Ford tractor. Not from Ford Motor Company, but a company in Minneapolis Minnesota named "The Ford Tractor Company" who actually looked for and found a man named Paul Ford, with whom they made a deal to use his name on the tractor (copyright laws couldn't preclude the name of a person being attached to his own product) for a spot as a member of the corporation, and a royalty for the use of his name... Obviously to borrow reputation from the reliable and robust Ford Model T. The company was only active for about two years, 1916-1917. So, yes, it IS a Ford.

[@BeingMe23]

Actually, Henry Ford refused to buy the license to the Ford Tractor Company. So he made a Fordson.

[@jdgimpa]

It's because of the poor quality of this tractor that the Nebraska tractor test was started!

[@mjstef71]

www.grit.com/tools/nebraska-tractor-tests-zmaz07jfzgoe

[@somewhereinoklahoma5574]

@@mjstef71 that was a nice read of history. Thanks for posting it!

[@Landrew0]

This is how they made ads before they learned how to make their point in 30 seconds.

[@357bullfrog2]

I remember my dad riding down the road to home in the evening on his work horses. Leading one. And it was in the early 1960s. Dad didn't like change lol

[@pflaffik]

Maybe he didnt need to, many farmers were privileged and didnt need to mechanicalize the farm to survive. Others again were too poor and had to join local machinery associations were several farms shared a tractor. Where i live it was the latter, it didnt work well due to each farmer having a vote in the decisions but no knowledge to base their vote upon and that caused them to make a bad mistake on purchasing the first tractor - to them it was obvious that steel wheels was superior so they bought an outdated and mostly unusable tractor, it got stuck everywhere so the horses had to work harder than before. This wasright after WW2, the agricultural revolution came late here, only Ireland was poorer in Europe.

[@frankwurth5375]

Believe it or not a few of these curiosities are still around. Recently saw a photo of the carcasses of 2 of them sitting in a tractor parts yard out west. Fellow wouldn't spill the beans as to where it was as he hopes to somehow get them. Too bad the designers didn't have any clue as to how to build a useful tractor. I would think that any prospective buyer would run for the door the minute they saw that steam cloud over the motor.

[@deanbarr5740]

👍💪👊i so enjoyed this. Thank you very much.

[@rotunda57]

At 1:00 that looks like a standard right-hand plow, and if so, he's attempting to plow on the wrong side of the land.

[@Ellenslife851]

Would love to own one of these would be neat to drive

[@williamchristopher1560]

I didnt see a pulley wheel on it. I would have thought that would kept ANY from being sold back in those days

[@duron700r]

Nice to find some actual ford footage.

[@andrewlanman4618]

Funny how it looks Like the tractor max Sklovsky tried to get John Deere to produce

[@filipponseele7346]

Can't be 1916 because the Ford model t appearing is a 1917 or even younger

[@lawnmowerdude]

They should of just called it The Phord Tractor.

[@pflaffik]

It was a Ford, just not the Ford Ford but the other Ford. Paul Ford.

[@williamchristopher1560]

And the disc isnt Vd out

[@Landrew0]

More to the story: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Tractor_Company

[@makingithappen9722]

You should never, NEVER ride home on a workhorse. It's just so.

[@davidvogel6359]

You would have thought the least they would have shown the tractors working in the fields to prove what they could do. But maybe that was the point they couldn't do anything and didn't want to show them falling in the field. To bad people got took and lost money they couldn't afford to loose.

[@simonrichard9873]

5:57

[@farmcentralohio]

You should watch the whole video before commenting. They showed the tractor in the field lol

[@melchristian8876]

👍👍👍👍

[@steveww1507]

So was it or was it not a ford tractor ?

[@jeffambrosia5678]

Not from Henry...his were fordson ...the other guy beat him to it

[@Alex-uy7pc]

Ford outta Minneapolis mn

[@northernarctic8339]

They have more info on their Instagram.

[@andrewlanman4618]

He tried to get in on Henry Ford s success that's why Henry has too use fordson. If I remember right this guy had created four or five tractors that failed

[@coldspring624]

Kinda like China

[@derrickpeters2803]

Frederick Douglas Patterson designed these tractors and cars. Ford stole the info and made Ford motor company.

[@alanhardman2447]

These are not the same tractors. And Henry Ford's first tractor was called the "Automobile Plow." It was a prototype, not mass produced. This tractor was designed by Robert Kinkaid. Henry made many prototype tractors from 1907 through 1916, whereupon, production began on the "Fordson" model "F" which was manufactured in the United States and the United Kingdom (County Cork, Ireland) until 1928. So don't believe everything you hear.

[@mikeskidmore6754]

@@alanhardman2447 If you read the Previous comments you would know you are wrong.. www.grit.com/tools/nebraska-tractor-tests-zmaz07jfzgoe Alan Hardman 1 year ago (edited) That was, indeed, a Ford tractor. Not from Ford Motor Company, but a company in Minneapolis Minnesota named "The Ford Tractor Company" who actually looked for and found a man named Paul Ford, with whom they made a deal to use his name on the tractor (copyright laws couldn't preclude the name of a person being attached to his own product) for a spot as a member of the corporation, and a royalty for the use of his name... Obviously to borrow reputation from the reliable and robust Ford Model T. The company was only active for about two years, 1916-1917. So, yes, it IS a Ford.