Ferguson’s ‘Black Tractor’ Back Home In Belfast

Ferguson’s ‘Black Tractor’ Back Home In Belfast In 1933, Harry Ferguson produced a prototype black ‘Irish Tractor’ with his patented 3-pt. linkage, known as the Ferguson System. Its innovative design combined the tractor and plow into a safe and efficient operation with automatic draft control. Today, over 80 percent of the world’s tractors use the Ferguson System, commonly known as a 3-pt. hitch. In 2024, Ferguson’s Belfast Black prototype tractor, nearly 90 years old, was brought back to Northern Ireland. It’s currently displayed at the Ulster Transport Museum in Belfast, not far from where Ferguson grew up. It had been housed for years in London’s Science Museum. Supporters of Ferguson’s inventions are working to raise funds for a dedicated Harry Ferguson Museum of Innovation. His history of inventing includes tractors, implements, an airplane and even a 4-WD Formula 1 race car. Harry Ferguson was born in 1884 and raised on his parents’ farm near Dromore, in Northern Ireland. Slightly built, rebellious and unfit for hard manual labor, Ferguson joined his brother Joe’s car and cycle repair shop to learn mechanical skills. With a flair for technical thinking and marketing, he modified motorbikes as a 20-year-old and raced them in competitions to promote his brother’s business. Five years later, in 1909, he and his engineering friends built an airplane. In 1917, Ferguson and Willie Sands were invited to improve the output of tractor-powered tillage. They fitted a Model T Ford, known as the Eros, with a rigid mounted plow. When Henry Ford launched the Fordson tractor in North America in 1917, Ferguson and Sands, along with Archie Greer and John Chambers, focused on building their own tractor and implements. Ferguson said it was clear to him that the only way forward was to build a custom tractor that would incorporate his own inventions and be useful to small and large farms. Ferguson demonstrated early versions of his mechanical 3-pt. hitch on Fordsons in 1920 and 1921. New development produced a hydraulic version that was patented in 1926. The prototype Ferguson Black arrived in 1933. It was the forerunner of the TE20, known as the Fergie, which was prominent on farms in Britain and around the world in the 1940s and early 1950s. Ferguson’s patented 3-pt. system was so innovative that, in 1938, he made a handshake agreement with Henry Ford to allow its use on Ford-Ferguson 9N and 2N models. Over 306,000 were produced until Henry Ford II terminated the deal in 1946. Ferguson sued Ford for plagiarizing his idea for the newly introduced 8N. The suit was settled for $9.25 million in 1952, allowing Ford to continue using the components. In 1953, Massey-Harris acquired the Ferguson tractor and machinery company. Today, the Ferguson name lives on in the Massey Ferguson brand, an important entity of Agco, Inc. Although Ferguson lived a life of innovation and success, he told friends that his one major regret was not being able to manufacture his famous Black Tractor in Belfast. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ulster Transport Museum, 153 Bangor Rd., Cultra, Holywood, County Down, BT18 OEU (www.ulstertransportmuseum.org).

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