This John Deere film from 1961 “Men, Ideas and Tractors” shows how new tractors are designed, built, and tested before being approved for mass manufacturing. The design and early manufacturing stages occur at John Deere’s Waterloo, Iowa operation (00:09). Engineers meet to compare designs and work out issues for the new generation of tractors (in this case, it is the 2010, 2010U, 3010, and 4010 models). Electronic computers are used to help work out problems (01:17), like gear design. Pattern makers take the designs from the engineers and make wood patterns (01:50), which are then used to make casting molds. The parts are then subjected to one or more tests, including crank shafts tested with extreme vibrations (02:39) and reflectoscopes locating defects (03:30). The wood models then become tractor mockups (04:28), engines are tested and data is collected (05:05), and other tests are applied to the tractor. Prior to field testing, the experimental tractor is tested against extreme temperatures (08:51). The tractors move into field testing at the Waterloo testing grounds, where engineers test turns, suspension, towing, and more, carefully recording the data from each test. On one test track, a truck that’s been converted into mobile laboratory is hitched to tractor so engineers can record data on the go (10:37). A Divco panel truck, such as that used by the Helms Bakery in Los Angeles, is towed behind the tractor as a data gathering vehicle. From Waterloo, tractors are taken to the John Deere experimental farms, such as the one in Texas (11:30) where further tests are conducted. Industrial tractors are also subjected to the rigorous field tests (12:25). Maintenance and recording data is constant, including recording daily temperatures at the farm with a recording thermometer (14:10). These experimental tractors work in all conditions for five cropping seasons, and only after hundreds of thousands of hours of testing is the design approved, leading to mass manufacturing of the tractors for consumers, giving America a “new generation of power.”

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com