Article on Harry Ferguson and the First Ferguson System Tractors

Harry Ferguson’s interest in tractor design started in the 1914-18 war and eventually produced his Ferguson System of implement attachment and control, one of the most important developments in tractor history.

Ferguson was brought up on the family farm in Northern Ireland, but engineering interested him more than farming with horses and he soon left home to work in his brother’s garage. Engines in the early 1900s were still highly unreliable, but Harry Ferguson’s exceptional talent for tuning and repairing them helped bring customers to the garage. His success in motor sports with motorcycles and cars also attracted customers, and in 1909 there was more publicity when he became the first person in Britain to build and fly his own aeroplane.

When the war began in 1914 tractors were still a novelty, but they were urgently needed to increase wartime food production and Ferguson, now with his own garage, started selling tractors. His skill as a demonstrator brought a request from the British Government which asked him to visit farms and show drivers how to operate their tractors more efficiently. As well as helping the food production campaign the farm visits also sparked Ferguson’s interest in the way implements are attached to tractors.

The implements, usually converted horse-drawn equipment, were often dragged along on a chain, which was awkward and inefficient, especially when ploughing. This was when Ferguson began developing the ideas that eventually produced the hydraulically operated three-point linkage with draft control that would revolutionise mechanised farming worldwide. It was a slow process, but by 1932 the Ferguson System that he and his team had developed was ready for production.

Because his new attachment system was a completely new concept, Ferguson needed a prototype tractor to demonstrate the benefits. This, he hoped, would attract the business partner he needed to put his ideas into production. The prototype tractor was completed in 1933 and was called the Black Tractor because of its glossy paint finish. It is usually displayed at the Science Museum in London.

Special gears for the Black Tractor were supplied by the David Brown engineering company and this led David Brown junior, later Sir David, to consider adding tractor production to the family’s business. He and Harry Ferguson formed a partnership with Ferguson controlling engineering and marketing activities while David Brown formed a new tractor production company, an arrangement enabling Ferguson to concentrate on aspects of the business that suited his special talents.

The production version of the new tractor was built by David Brown Tractors Ltd in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, together with a growing range of special implements to suit the three-point linkage. Tractor production started in the early summer of 1936 - just 75 years ago – with a design based closely on the Black Tractor. It was officially called the Ferguson Type A, but enthusiasts everywhere know it as the Ferguson-Brown. 

The new tractor was painted grey, often called ‘battleship grey’, which remained Ferguson’s choice for production models throughout his tractor industry career. A Coventry Climax four-cylinder E type engine producing 20hp was used initially, but was later replaced by a David Brown engine with similar output. The specification included a three-speed gearbox, to simplify maintenance there were only two bolt head sizes enabling one double-ended spanner to be used throughout, and at the rear was the unique Ferguson System linkage.

Harry Ferguson had high hopes for his new tractor, but sales were disappointing. It was a time of slim profit margins for farmers and those who bought a new tractor were usually on a tight budget. The Ferguson-Brown’s unique features increased the production costs and at least some special Ferguson System implements were needed instead of the modified horse-drawn equipment used on other tractors. For those who bought a new Ferguson System tractor the performance was impressive, as it easily outclassed bigger, more powerful rivals.

Design improvements and the orchard version introduced in 1938 did little to boost demand and the stock of unsold tractors put strains on the partnership, which ended early in 1939 when David Brown was already designing a new tractor which would eventually be sold under his own name. Ferguson had already formed a new and highly successful partnership in America with Henry Ford, but he later returned to England to build the ‘Little Grey Fergie’ at Banner Lane, Coventry, considered to be one of the most successful and influential tractors in farming history.

The Ferguson-Brown, now recognised as the model that introduced the implement attachment system featured on virtually all modern wheeled tractors, was available through the spring of 1939, taking the production total to an estimated 1360.