Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/736

 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

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���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While the flywheel mag- neto type of the Ford car has been re- tained in the new tractor, the planetary gearset has been replaced by a three- speed and re- verse gearbox of conventional design and the bevel final drive by a worm mounted under the axle instead of above it, as in most cases,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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