In 1892, John Froelich invented and built the first gasoline/petrol-powered tractor in Clayton County, Iowa, USA. After receiving a patent Froelich started up the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company, investing all of his assets which by 1895, all would be lost and his business resigned to become a failure.

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Charles W. Hart and Charles H. Parr developed a two-cylinder gasoline engine and set up their business in Charles City, Iowa. In 1903 the firm built fifteen "tractors". A term with Latin roots coined by Hart and Parr and a combination of the words traction and power. The 14,000 pound #3 is the oldest surviving internal combustion engine tractor in the United States and is on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington D.C.

While unpopular at first, these gasoline-powered machines began to catch on in the 1910s when they became smaller and more affordable. Henry Ford introduced the Fordson, the first mass-produced tractor in 1917. They were built in the U.S., Ireland, England and Russia and by 1923, Fordson had 77% of the U.S. market. The Fordson dispensed with a frame, using the strength of the engine block to hold the machine together. By the 1920s, tractors with a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine had become the norm.

The modern gas tractor, its construction, utility, operation and repair, a practical treatise defining every branch of up-to-date gas tractor engineering, driving and maintenance in a non-technical manner. Considers fully all types of power plants and their components, methods of drive and speed changing mechanisms. Describes design and construction of all parts, their installation and adjustment as well as practical application of tractors in the field.

A complete collection of {19} nineteen antique tractor catalogs, magazines, repair and operating manuals on a Gift Quality DVD>

Books included in this collection:

:: Care and Operation of the Caterpillar - covers 75 tractor Models
by the Holt Manufacturing Company {1917} - 106 pages

:: Cooperative Tractor Catalog
{1922} - 295 pages

:: Cooperative Tractor Catalog
{1926} - 51 pages

:: Farm Gas Engines
by Harry Ray Brate {1912} - 205 pages

:: Farm Mechanics
by Herbert A. Shearer {1918} - 254 pages

:: Gasoline Tractors - A practical presentation of tractor problems and their solution
by Charles Brian Hayward {1919} - 191 pages

:: Horse, Truck and Tractor
by Herbert Newton Casson, Rollin William Hutchinson, Lynn Webster Ellis {1913} - 241 pages

:: Internal Combustion Engines and Tractors
by Oliver Brunner Zimmerman and the International Harvester Corporation {1918} - 169 pages

:: Record Farm Magazine
{August 1913}

:: Record Farm Magazine
{July 1914}

:: Record Farm Magazine
{Jan 1917}

:: The Ford Motor Car and Truck and Tractor Attachments - their construction, care and operation
by Harold Phillips Manly {1917} 258 pages

:: The Model T Ford Car, Truck and Tractor - Includes Fordson farm tractor lighting and starting system, construction, operation and repair,
by Victor Wilfred Page {1921} - 423 pages

:: The Light Farm Tractor Solves the Farm Labour Problem
By Canadian Allis-Chalmers {1918} - 32 pages.

:: The Modern Gas Tractor
by Victor Wilfred Page {1918} - 548 pages

:: The Tractor and Its Influence Upon the Agricultural Implement Industry
by Barton Wood Currie {1916} - 237 pages

:: Tractor Engines
by Edward Hallock {1920} - 254 pages

:: Tractor Principles
by Roger Bradbury Whitman {1920} - 282 pages

:: Tractor World Dealer Magazine
{1918} - 583 pages

:: Farm Mechanics
{1949} - 249 pages