In 1918 Wilmot Crozier bought a Ford tractor for his Nebraska farm. He thought it was built by Henry Ford. [More on that in a minute] The tractor did not perform anywhere near his expectations, so he bought a second one. (Also from same company – he was a slow learner.) It too didn’t perform as advertised, so he bought another from a company called Bull. (Where Bull Dozers got eventually got their name.) He still wasn’t satisfied, so he bought an Oil Pull tractor, which advertised that it could pull three plows at once. Instead, it was able to pull five! He was finally satisfied, but reasoned “Why can’t all tractors perform as well or better than advertised?”

So a year later, when elected to the Nebraska State Legislature, he got a law passed that all tractors sold in the state needed to be tested and certified that they lived up to their promises. The University of Nebraska, Agricultural Engineering Department set up shop and started testing. The program worked so well, that manufacturers nationwide would advertise that they passed the Nebraska tests, and soon it spread across the country.

So the building where the testing got started is now the Lawson Tractor Test & Power Museum. And I had to go there! We took friends, Jim, Huda and Laurel, and had a great time!

Cherryl is smiling behind the wheel of a huge tractor cab, but the glare makes it almost impossible to see her…

So I got a little smarter when Huda and Laurel climbed in, and shot from a different angle.

I tried using AI to animate a photo, and it came up with a great clip of the two gals above having great high speed fun in this combine!

The “Ford” tractor poor Wilmot bought was built by a company that named themselves “Ford” just to tag on to the popularity and reputation of Henry Ford’s company. Apparently it wasn’t the best quality. W. B. Ewing, the owner of the company, gained a reputation for asking a $75 down payment, and then not delivering a tractor and not refunding the money. He failed farmers all over the mid-west.

Notice its fully exposed differential shown below on the right.

The Rumely Oil Pull tractor is the one that finally satisfied Wilmot. It was a unique oil-cooled tractor. The large tank in front was full of oil, cooling and lubricating the two cylinder engine.

Here is a genuine Ford Model T. These were cheap, strong, dependable, and easy to repair. Everything the pseudo-Ford tractors weren’t.

An ad for a “WC” tractor. I’m guessing the company was unaware that “WC” means “Toilet” in Great Britain and most of Europe. In this case it stood for Washington County, in Texas (?!) where the company got its roots as a Ford dealer and then started making their own rigs.

Henry Ford got into the tractor business in 1917, but he couldn’t use “Ford” on the label because the cheat mentioned above had grabbed that name. So they became “Fordsons” from the Henry Ford and Son factory in Detroit. They were strong and dependable, and protected from roll-overs by strong rear fenders. By 1923, they enjoyed a 77% market share, and for a while sold more tractors than all other makes combined.

The Ford model 8N, shown below, was introduced in 1947 and produced until 1952. It had a four speed transmission, and was the top selling tractor in the U.S. My father-in-law had a Ford tractor which I believe was this model. He used it to smooth or remove snow from his long dirt driveway. As a 20 something kid I got a kick out of those tasks in the old tractor.

The Stockton Wheel Company, based in California, created the first tracked tractor in 1904. It had wooden tracks! They called it a caterpillar, and they got famous in World War I where they moved artillery. Eventually the Stockton Wheel company became the Caterpillar Company, whose machines are busy building houses in our neighborhood and huge construction projects all over the world!

The museum has plenty of ads from long ago, including this one for my favorite tools.

This little silver box gadget was created to house all the instruments needed for testing. It was pulled behind a tractor while measurements were taken. Eventually it was mounted on a huge frame with this Oliver tractor and used differently. It was used from 1936 till 2004.

Inside the test car you can see some of the instrumentation.

The John Deere H was introduced in the late 30’s, and ideal for smaller farms. I had a metal model of this Deere when I was a kid. Loved it! Maybe I should get a new one!

John Deere (the person) was a blacksmith who designed a “Self Scouring” plow in 1837. Farmers in the midwest were trying to plow with steel plows that would be caked with sticky soil almost immediately, requiring them to stop and scrape them clean every few minutes. Deere thought a highly polished steel, with just the right shape, would eliminate this problem. He became famous for his clever plows, and his company was started. After he passed in 1886, his heirs ran the company.

In 1918 Deere bought the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company, and built on some of their designs, like the “Waterloo Boy” shown below, to get their start on powered tractors.

This 1920 Waterloo Boy N was the first tractor model to be tested in the newly formed testing lab. It passed all tests, and became the first tractor certified for sale in Nebraska.

This is a Sprague Dynamometer, used to test tractor torque. It originally used belts attached to the PTO (Power Take Off) of a tractor, back when belts off the side of a tractor were used to power saws, mills and whatever. I think it was also used around the wheels, like it seems to be almost ready to do on the Waterloo Boy.

The belts would turn the dynamometer, like a large generator, which could evaluate the power input. It also generated a lot of heat, and cooling was done in the large stack above the generator. I’m told it got dangerously hot!

After touring the museum, we had to check out the University Dairy Store. They have great ice cream! Our friends generously treated us to some treats!

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Last week I showed some new streets being created just south of us. Here they are all shiny and finished up.

As well as some of the area not yet civilized… which do you prefer?

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Sunday morning I helped friend Marv collect food for Food Net. We got a trailer, and went to Trader Joe’s, where they gave us a fantastic amount of food. I guess it’s about to its expiration date, and they donate a trailer load most every week. From there we went to Super Saver grocery store, where they added a lot of bread to our trailer.

Then to the church, where they are well set up to receive all this food, and slid it down the fun rollers, where more volunteers arranged it all.

I’ve heard of the huge system Food Net operates here, but it was amazing to see it in action. Well, at least the prep part. Folks in need of food would arrive in a little while, to give all this food a good home!