As in the automobile, we wanted power--not weight. The weight idea was
firmly fixed in the minds of tractor makers. It was thought that excess
weight meant excess pulling power--that the machine could not grip
unless it were heavy. And this in spite of the fact that a cat has not
much weight and is a pretty good climber. I have already set out my
ideas on weight. The only kind of tractor that I thought worth working
on was one that would be light, strong, and so simple that any one could
run it. Also it had to be so cheap that any one could buy it. With these
ends in view, we worked for nearly fifteen years on a design and spent
some millions of dollars in experiments. We followed exactly the same
course as with the automobile. Each part had to be as strong as it was
possible to make it, the parts had to be few in number, and the whole
had to admit of quantity production. We had some thought that perhaps
the automobile engine might be used and we conducted a few experiments
with it. But finally we became convinced that the kind of tractor we
wanted and the automobile had practically nothing in common.
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