RARE - 3 Real Photo Postcards- Monarch Road Steam Roller Co Groton NY 1908 RPPCs

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Seller: dalebooks ✉️ (8,794) 100%, Location: Rochester, New York, US, Ships to: WORLDWIDE, Item: 266138922704 RARE - 3 Real Photo Postcards- Monarch Road Steam Roller Co Groton NY 1908 RPPCs. The powerhouse is equipped with two 150 HP. Groton, New York. Groton is a town in Tompkins County, New York, United States. The population was 5,950 at the 2010 census. The town is in the northeast corner of the county and is northeast of Ithaca.
RARE  Original - Old Real Photograph Postcard LOT
 
Monarch Road Roller Company
Groton, New York
ca 1908 - 1910

For offer - a nice old Postcard lot! Fresh from an estate in Upstate NY. Never offered on the market until now. Vintage, Old, antique, Original - NOT a Reproduction - Guaranteed !! Nice scenes. Shows employees, plant buildings / factory, etc. Advertising signs on buildings. All photos have photographer imprint of N.A. Collings. Unused AZO cards. Herbert Myer backmark, Jordon, NY. In good to very good condition. Please see photos. If you collect postcards, 20th century history, American, Americana, etc., this is a nice one for your paper or ephemera collection.  3078

The Monarch Road Roller Company Announcement is made that the property of the American Road Roller Co., which passed into the hands of a receiver some time ago has been purchased at the trustee's sale by Mr. J. B. Tuck, and turned over by him to the Monarch Road Roller Co. The property includes about twelve acres of real estate in the town of Groton, N. Y., on which is located a modern plant, including boiler shop, forge shop, foundry, machine shop, power house, stock room, paint shop, wood shop, and warehouse, which gives 100,000 sq. ft. of floor space. The powerhouse is equipped with two 150 HP. boilers and American Ball compound engine with direct connected generator, all the machinery in the plant being operated by electricity. The foundry has two cupolas, the boiler shop being equipped with pneumatic boiler making machinery, while the machine shop has the latest type of machines used for this class of work, including a full line of boring mills, planers, lathes, milling machines, drills, etc. The plant was originally erected about four years ago by the Conger Mfg. Co., but additions have been built to it and new machines installed by the American Road Roller Co. within the past two years. The property acquired by the new company includes, besides the property already mentioned, a large stock of raw material and goods in process of manufacture. The new company is incorporated under the laws of the State of New York with a capital of $250,000, and it is expected to put the plant in operation immediately. The company will manufacture road rollers, traction engines, street sweepers, etc. Some ten years ago, it is related, the southeastern part of Indiana was just beginning to agitate the question of road improvement. At that time there was one mile of improved highway in Gibson County and the farmers were unfriendly to the proposition of having any more. At the present time, however, there are 102 miles of improved roads, and more under construction.

Information Sources

Good Roads Magazine Nov 1905 page 775

A steamroller (or steam roller) is a form of road roller – a type of heavy construction machinery used for leveling surfaces, such as roads or airfields – that is powered by a steam engine. The leveling/flattening action is achieved through a combination of the size and weight of the vehicle and the rolls: the smooth wheels and the large cylinder or drum fitted in place of treaded road wheels.

The majority of steam rollers are outwardly similar to traction engines as many traction engine manufacturers later produced rollers based on their existing designs, and the patents owned by certain roller manufacturers tended to influence the general arrangements used by others. The key difference between the two vehicles is that on a roller the main roll replaces the front wheels and axle that would be fitted to a traction engine, and the driving wheels are smooth-tired.

The word steamroller frequently refers to road rollers in general, regardless of the method of propulsion.[1]

History

Aveling & Porter manufactured the first successful steamrollers. Pictured is the model "Britannia".

Before about 1850, the word steamroller meant a fixed machine for rolling and curving steel plates for boilers and ships. From then on, it also meant a vehicle.[2] An early steamroller was patented by Louis Lemoine in France in 1859 and demonstrated sometime before February 1861.[3] In Britain a 30 ton steamroller was designed in 1863 by William Clark and partner W.F. Batho.[4][5] Having failed to impress the British municipal road authorities it was transferred to Kolkata where it continued to work.[5]

The company Aveling & Porter was the first to successfully sell the product commercially and subsequently became the largest manufacturer in Britain.[4] In 1866 they produced a prototype roller with 3 foot-wide rollers fitted to the rear of a standard 12 nominal horsepower traction engine. This experimental machine was described by local papers as 'the world's first steamroller' and it caused a public spectacle.

In 1867 the steam road roller was patented and the company began production of the first practical steam roller – the new machine's rollers were mounted at the front instead of the back and it weighed in excess of 30 tons. It was tested on the Military Road in Chatham, Star Hill in Rochester and in Hyde Park, London and the machine proved a huge success. Within a year, they were being exported around the world, including to France, India and the United States. A New York City chief engineer said of one of these, that "in one day's rolling at a cost of 10 dollars, as much work was accomplished as in two days' rolling with a 7 ton roller drawn by eight horses at a cost of 20 dollars a day."[6] The heavier rollers were found to be hard to handle and the weight of the machines was reduced to around 10 tons.[4]

Aveling & Porter refined their product continuously over the following decades, introducing fully steerable front rollers and compound steam engines at the 1881 Royal Agricultural Show. The move to asphalt for road construction resulted in the demand for steamrollers that could rapidly reverse so they could roll the tar while still hot.[7] Machines that could do this were introduced in the first decade of the 20th century.[7]

Production ended around 1950.[8]

Configurations

1925 Robey tandem roller #42693, now owned by the Robey Trust[9]

The majority of rollers were of the same basic 3-roll configuration, gear-driven, with two large smooth wheels (rolls) at the back and a single wide roll at the front. (Actually, the wide roll usually consisted of two narrower rolls on the same axle, to make steering easier.) However, there was also a distinctive variant, the "tandem", which had two wide rolls, one front, one rear. Those made by Robey & Co. used their standard steam wagon engine and pistol boiler fitted in a girder frame with rolls and a chain drive to produce a quick-reversing roller suitable for modern road surfaces such as tarmacadam and bituminous asphalt.[9] A number of Robey & Co. tandem rollers were modified to make a further variant, the tri-tandem, which was a tandem with a third roll, mounted directly behind the rear one. Robey supplied the parts, but the modification was undertaken by Goodes of Royston.[9] Ten tandem and two tri-tandem Robey rollers survive in preservation,[10] and one of the tri-tandems is known to have been used to construct parts of the M1 motorway.

A variation of the basic configuration was the "convertible": an engine which could be either a steam roller or a traction engine and could be changed from one form to the other in a relatively short time – i.e., less than half a day. Convertible engines were liked by local authorities, since the same machine could be used for haulage in the winter and road-mending in the summer.

Design features

Although most steam roller designs are derived from traction engines, and were manufactured by the same companies, there are a number of features that set them apart.

Wheels

The most obvious difference is in the wheels. Traction engines were generally built with large fabricated spoked steel wheels with wide rims. Those intended for road use would have continuous solid rubber tyres bolted around the rims, to improve traction on tarmac. Engines intended for agricultural use would have a series of strakes bolted diagonally across the rims, like the tread on a modern pneumatic tractor tyre, and the wheels were typically wider to spread the load more evenly.

Steam rollers, on the other hand, had smooth rear wheels and a roller at the front. The roller consisted of a pair of adjacent wide cylinders supported at both ends. This replaced the separate wheels and axle of a traction engine.

Smokebox

In the conventional arrangement, the front roller is mounted centrally, forward of the chimney. In order to allow enough clearance from the boiler (and hence a larger front roll), the smokebox is extended forward substantially at the top to incorporate a support plate on which to mount the bearing for the roller assembly. This gives the distinctive, hooded look to the front of a steam roller. It also necessitates a different design of smokebox door – it has to hinge up or down, rather than opening sideways, due to the limited access available. Access to the boiler tubes for cleaning is limited and the brush usually has to be inserted through the small gap between the top of the roll and the fork.

Special equipment

The front and rear rolls were usually fitted with scraper bars. As the vehicle moved along, these removed any surface material that had become stuck to the roll, to prevent a build-up of material and ensure a flat finish was maintained.

Some steam rollers were fitted with a scarifier mounted on the tender box at the rear. They could be swung down to road level and used to rip up the old surface before a road was remade.

Another accessory was a tar sprayer – a bar mounted on the back of the roller. This was not a common fixture.

Manufacturers

Britain was a major exporter of steam rollers over the years, with the firm of Aveling and Porter probably being the most famous and the most prolific.

Many other traction engine manufacturers built steam rollers, but after Aveling and Porter, the most popular were Marshall, Sons & Co., John Fowler & Co., and Wallis & Steevens.

In America, the Buffalo-Springfield Roller Company was a large builder. J. I. Case made a roller variant of their farm engines, but had a small market share. Other nations had makers including the Czechs, Swiss, Swedes, Germans (notably Kemna) and Dutch which produced steam rollers.

United States-built 1924 Buffalo Springfield steam roller: a vertical boiler design with tandem rolls. Note position of firebox door, facing out of frames.

United States-built 1924 Buffalo Springfield steam roller: a vertical boiler design with tandem rolls. Note position of firebox door, facing out of frames.

 

Other side of same roller showing offset driving position: driver faces boiler controls (i.e. 'backwards') and steers with right hand

Other side of same roller showing offset driving position: driver faces boiler controls (i.e. 'backwards') and steers with right hand

 

An early "Kemna" Steamroller

An early "Kemna" Steamroller

Usage

A former Bedfordshire County Council Aveling & Porter roller in 2004

In the UK, a number of companies owned fleets of steam rollers and contracted them out to local authorities. Many were still in use into the 1960s, and part of the M1 motorway was made using steam rollers.[11] A few steam rollers were being used for road maintenance in the early 1970s, and this may go some way to explaining why diesel-powered rollers are still colloquially known as steam rollers today.

Preservation

A road-making demonstration at Great Dorset Steam fair

Many steam rollers are preserved in working order, and can be seen in operation during special live steam festivals, where operating scale models may also be displayed. At some of the UK steam fairs and rallies, demonstrations of road building using the old techniques, tools and machines are re-enacted by 'Road Gangs' in authentic dress. Steam rollers feature prominently in these demonstrations. The annual Great Dorset Steam Fair has a section dedicated to road-making machinery, including a line-up of working steam rollers.

A number of steamrollers ended their working lives in children’s playgrounds to provide something for children to play on.[12][13]

Popular culture

Two popular American bands were named for steamrollers, Buffalo Springfield and Mannheim Steamroller.

British steeplejack and engineering enthusiast Fred Dibnah was known as a national institution in Great Britain for the conservation of steam rollers and traction engines. The first engine he restored to working order was an Aveling & Porter steam roller, registration no. DM3079. Built in 1912, it was a 10-ton slide-valve, single-cylinder, 4-shaft, road roller.[14] Originally named "Allison", after his first wife, Fred renamed the engine "Betsy" (his mother's name) following his divorce – Fred's view being "wives may change but your mother remains your mother!" This roller was featured in many of Fred's early television programmes. It may still be seen at steam rallies in Britain and was in steam at the Great Dorset Steam Fair in 2011.

In the Japanese manga and anime series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Dio the vampire infamously attempted to crush Jotaro by dropping a steamroller on top of him.

As a symbol

The steamroller has a strong symbolism of an irresistible, onward-pushing force. The Imperial Russian Army was nicknamed "steamroller" during World War One, as it was humongous by its size, and Russia initiated the war with an offensive. The "Russian Steamroller" is one of the personifications of Russia, along with the Russian bear, double-headed eagle and Mat Zemlya.

See also

History of steam road vehicles

Traction engine

Roller (agricultural tool) – for farm rollers

Roller (disambiguation) – for other types of roller

List of steam energy topics

Paddy's motorbike – nickname for another type of compaction vehicle.

Thomas Green & Son builders of steam rollers, but better known for motor rollers.

A road roller (sometimes called a roller-compactor, or just roller) is a compactor-type engineering vehicle used to compact soil, gravel, concrete, or asphalt in the construction of roads and foundations. Similar rollers are used also at landfills or in agriculture.

Road rollers are frequently referred to as steamrollers, regardless of their method of propulsion.

History

Main article: Steamroller

Horse-drawn road roller from 1800

Steam-powered roller

Zettelmeyer diesel-powered road roller

The first road rollers were horse-drawn, and were probably borrowed farm implements (see Roller).

Since the effectiveness of a roller depends to a large extent on its weight, self-powered vehicles replaced horse-drawn rollers from the mid-19th century. The first such vehicles were steam rollers. Single-cylinder steam rollers were generally used for base compaction and run with high engine revs with low gearing to promote bounce and vibration from the crankshaft through to the rolls in much the same way as a vibrating roller. The double cylinder or compound steam rollers became popular from around 1910 onwards and were used mainly for the rolling of hot-laid surfaces due to their smoother running engines, but both cylinder types are capable of rolling the finished surface. Steam rollers were often dedicated to a task by their gearing as the slower engines were for base compaction whereas the higher geared models were often referred to as "chip chasers" which followed the hot tar and chip laying machines. Some road companies in the US used steamrollers through the 1950s. In the UK some remained in service until the early 1970s.

As internal combustion engines improved during the 20th century, kerosene-, gasoline- (petrol), and diesel-powered rollers gradually replaced their steam-powered counterparts. The first internal-combustion powered road rollers were similar to the steam rollers they replaced. They used similar mechanisms to transmit power from the engine to the wheels, typically large, exposed spur gears. Some users disliked them in their infancy, as the engines of the era were typically difficult to start, particularly the kerosene-powered ones.

Virtually all road rollers in use today use diesel power.

Uses on a road

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Road rollers use the weight of the vehicle to compress the surface being rolled (static) or use mechanical advantage (vibrating). Initial compaction of the substrate on a road project is done using a padfoot or "sheep's foot" drum roller, which achieves higher compaction density due to the pads having less surface area. On large freeways, a four-wheel compactor with padfoot drum and a blade, such as a Caterpillar 815/825 series machine, would be used due to its high weight, speed, and the powerful pushing force to spread bulk material. On regional roads, a smaller single padfoot drum machine may be used.

The next machine is usually a single smooth drum compactor that compacts the high spots down until the soil is smooth. This is usually done in combination with a motor grader to obtain a level surface. Sometimes at this stage a pneumatic tyre roller is used. These rollers feature two rows (front and back) of pneumatic tyres that overlap, and the flexibility of the tyres provides a kneading action that seals the surface and with some vertical movement of the wheels, enables the roller to operate effectively on uneven ground. Once the soil base is flat the pad drum compactor is no longer used on the road surface.

The next course (road base) is compacted using a smooth single drum, smooth tandem roller, or pneumatic tyre roller in combination with a grader and a water truck to achieve the desired flat surface with the correct moisture content for optimum compaction. Once the road base is compacted, the smooth single drum compactor is no longer used on the road surface (there is an exception if the single drum has special flat-wide-base tyres on the machine).

The final wear course of asphalt concrete (known as asphalt or blacktop in North America, or macadam in England[citation needed]) is laid using a paver and compacted using a tandem smooth drum roller, a three-point roller or a pneumatic tyre roller. Three point rollers on asphalt were once common and are still used, but tandem vibrating rollers are the usual choice now. The pneumatic tyre roller's kneading action is the final roller to seal the surface.

Rollers are also used in landfill compaction. Such compactors typically have padfoot drums, and do not achieve a smooth surface. The pads aid in compression, due to the smaller area contacting the ground.

Configurations

Flattened and leveled construction site with road roller in the background

Rollers compact the asphalt layer. Buryatia, Russia

The roller can be a simple drum with a handle that is operated by one person and weighs 45 kilograms (100 lb) or as large as a ride-on road roller weighing 20 tonnes (20 long tons; 22 short tons) and costing more than US$150,000. A landfill unit may weigh 54 tonnes (53 long tons; 60 short tons).

Roller types

Pedestrian-operated

Rammer (bounce up and down)

Walk-behind plate compactor/light

Trench roller (manual unit or radio-frequency remote control)

Walk-behind roller/light (single drum)

Walk-behind roller/heavy (double drum)

Ride-on smooth finish

Tandem drum (static)

Tandem drum (vibrating)

Single drum roller (smooth)

Pneumatic-tyred Roller, called rubber tyre or multi-wheel

Combination roller (single row of tyres and a steel drum)

Three point roller (steam rollers are usually three-point)

Ride-on soil/landfill compactor with pads/feet/spikes

Single drum roller (soil)

4-wheel (soil/landfill)

3-point (soil/landfill)

Tandem drum (soil/landfill)

Other

Tractor-mounted and tractor-powered (conversion – see gallery picture below)

Drawn rollers or towed rollers (once common, now rare)

Impact compactor (uses a square or polygon drum to strike the ground hard for proof rolling or deep lift compacting)

Drum roller with rubber coated drum for asphalt compaction

Log skidder converted to compactor for landfill

Wheel loader converted to compactor for landfill

Drum types

Drums are available in widths ranging from 610 to 2,130 millimetres (24 to 84 in).

Tyre roller types

Tyre rollers are available in widths ranging up to 2.7 metres (8.9 ft), with between 7 and 11 wheels (e.g. 3 wheels at front, 4 at back): 7 and 8 wheel types are normally used in Europe and Africa; 9 and 11 in America; and any type in Asia. Very heavy tyre rollers are used to compact soil.

Variations and features

On some machines, the drums may be filled with water on site to achieve the desired weight. When empty, the lighter machine is easier and cheaper to transport between work sites. On pneumatic tyre rollers the body may be ballasted with water or sand, or for extra compaction wet sand is used. Modern tyre rollers may be filled with steel ballast, which gives a more even balance for better compaction.

Additional compaction may be achieved by vibrating the roller drums, allowing a small, light machine to perform as well as a much heavier one. Vibration is typically produced by a free-spinning hydrostatic motor inside the drum to whose shaft an eccentric weight has been attached. Some rollers have a second weight that can be rotated relative to the main weight, to adjust the vibration amplitude and thus the compacting force.

Water lubrication may be provided to the drum surface from on-board "sprinkler tanks" to prevent hot asphalt sticking to the drum.

Hydraulic transmissions permit greater design flexibility. While early examples used direct mechanical drives, hydraulics reduce the number of moving parts exposed to contamination and allows the drum to be driven, providing extra traction on inclines.

Human-propelled rollers may only have a single roller drum.

Self-propelled rollers may have two drums, mounted one in front of the other (format known as "duplex"), or three rolls, or just one, with the back rollers replaced with treaded pneumatic tyres for increased traction.

History

Traction engines

1882 Harrison Machine Works steam-powered traction engine

The first powered farm implements in the early 19th century were portable engines – steam engines on wheels that could be used to drive mechanical farm machinery by way of a flexible belt. Richard Trevithick designed the first 'semi-portable' stationary steam engine for agricultural use, known as a "barn engine" in 1812, and it was used to drive a corn threshing machine.[5] The truly portable engine was invented in 1893 by William Tuxford of Boston, Lincolnshire who started manufacture of an engine built around a locomotive-style boiler with horizontal smoke tubes. A large flywheel was mounted on the crankshaft, and a stout leather belt was used to transfer the drive to the equipment being driven. In the 1850s, John Fowler used a Clayton & Shuttleworth portable engine to drive apparatus in the first public demonstrations of the application of cable haulage to cultivation.

In parallel with the early portable engine development, many engineers attempted to make them self-propelled – the fore-runners of the traction engine. In most cases this was achieved by fitting a sprocket on the end of the crankshaft, and running a chain from this to a larger sprocket on the rear axle. These experiments met with mixed success.[6] The first proper traction engine, in the form recognisable today, was developed in 1859 when British engineer Thomas Aveling modified a Clayton & Shuttleworth portable engine, which had to be hauled from job to job by horses, into a self-propelled one. The alteration was made by fitting a long driving chain between the crankshaft and the rear axle.[7]

The first half of the 1860s was a period of great experimentation but by the end of the decade the standard form of the traction engine had evolved and changed little over the next sixty years. It was widely adopted for agricultural use. The first tractors were steam-powered plowing engines. They were used in pairs, placed on either side of a field to haul a plow back and forth between them using a wire cable. In Britain Mann's and Garrett developed steam tractors for direct ploughing, but the heavy, wet soil of England meant that these designs were less economical than a team of horses. In the United States, where soil conditions permitted, steam tractors were used to direct-haul plows. Steam-powered agricultural engines remained in use well into the 20th century until reliable internal combustion engines had been developed.[8]

Gasoline

Dan Albone with his 1902 prototype Ivel Agricultural Motor, the first successful lightweight gasoline-powered tractor

The first gasoline powered tractors were built in Illinois, by John Charter combining single cylinder Otto engines with a Rumley Steam engine chasis, in 1889.[9][10][11] In 1892, John Froelich built a gasoline-powered tractor in Clayton County, Iowa, US.[12][13][14] A Van Duzen single-cylinder gasoline engine was mounted on a Robinson engine chassis, which could be controlled and propelled by Froelich's gear box.[15] After receiving a patent, Froelich started up the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company and invested all of his assets. The venture was very unsuccessful, and by 1895 all was lost and he went out of business.[16][17][18][19]

Richard Hornsby & Sons are credited with producing and selling the first oil-engined tractor in Britain, invented by Herbert Akroyd Stuart. The Hornsby-Akroyd Patent Safety Oil Traction Engine was made in 1896 with a 20 hp (15 kW) engine. In 1897, it was bought by Mr. Locke-King, the first recorded British tractor sale. That year, it won a Silver Medal from the Royal Agricultural Society of England. It later returned to the factory for a caterpillar track fitting.

The first commercially successful light-weight petrol-powered general purpose tractor was built by Dan Albone, a British inventor in 1901.[20][21] He filed for a patent on 15 February 1902 for his tractor design and then formed Ivel Agricultural Motors Limited. The other directors were Selwyn Edge, Charles Jarrott, John Hewitt and Lord Willoughby. He called his machine the Ivel Agricultural Motor; the word "tractor" came into common use after Hart-Parr created it. The Ivel Agricultural Motor was light, powerful and compact. It had one front wheel, with a solid rubber tyre, and two large rear wheels like a modern tractor. The engine used water cooling, utilizing the thermo-syphon effect. It had one forward and one reverse gear. A pulley wheel on the left hand side allowed it to be used as a stationary engine, driving a wide range of agricultural machinery. The 1903 sale price was £300. His tractor won a medal at the Royal Agricultural Show, in 1903 and 1904. About 500 were built, and many were exported all over the world.[22] The original engine was made by Payne & Co. of Coventry. After 1906, French Aster engines were used.

The first successful American tractor was built by Charles W. Hart and Charles H. Parr. They developed a two-cylinder gasoline engine and set up their business in Charles City, Iowa. In 1903, the firm built 15 tractors. Their 14,000 pounds (6,400 kg) #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. The two-cylinder engine has a unique hit-and-miss firing cycle that produced 30 hp (22 kW) at the belt and 18 hp (13 kW) at the drawbar.[23]

An early Fordson discing a field in Princess Anne County, Virginia, in 1925

In 1908, the Saunderson Tractor and Implement Co. of Bedford introduced a four-wheel design, and became the largest tractor manufacturer in Britain at the time. While the earlier, heavier tractors were initially very successful, it became increasingly apparent at this time that the weight of a large supporting frame was less efficient than lighter designs. Henry Ford introduced a light-weight, mass-produced design which largely displaced the heavier designs. Some companies halfheartedly followed suit with mediocre designs, as if to disprove the concept, but they were largely unsuccessful in that endeavor.[24]

While unpopular at first, these gasoline-powered machines began to catch on in the 1910s, when they became smaller and more affordable.[25] Henry Ford introduced the Fordson, a wildly popular 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 gasoline-powered internal combustion engines had become the norm.

Tractor Cassani model 40HP, at the Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan

The first three-point hitches were experimented with in 1917. After Harry Ferguson applied for a British patent for his three-point hitch in 1926, they became popular. A three-point attachment of the implement to the tractor is the simplest and the only statically determinate way of joining two bodies in engineering. The Ferguson-Brown Company produced the Model A Ferguson-Brown tractor with a Ferguson-designed hydraulic hitch. In 1938 Ferguson entered into a collaboration with Henry Ford to produce the Ford-Ferguson 9N tractor. The three-point hitch soon became the favorite hitch attachment system among farmers around the world. This tractor model also included a rear Power Take Off (PTO) shaft that could be used to power three point hitch mounted implements such as sickle-bar mowers.

Design, power and transmission

Configuration

Tractors can be generally classified by number of axles or wheels, with main categories of two-wheel tractors (single-axle tractors) and four-wheel tractors (two-axle tractors); more axles are possible but uncommon. Among four-wheel tractors (two-axle tractors), most are two-wheel drive (usually at the rear); but many are two-wheel drive with front wheel assist, four-wheel drive (often with articulated steering), or track crawler (with steel or rubber tracks).

The diesel powered Zetor 25, was the first model from the Czech manufacturer Zetor in 1946.

Volvo T25, 1956, gasoline tractor

The classic farm tractor is a simple open vehicle, with two very large driving wheels on an axle below a single seat (the seat and steering wheel consequently are in the center), and the engine in front of the driver, with two steerable wheels below the engine compartment. This basic design has remained unchanged for a number of years after being pioneered by Wallis, but enclosed cabs are fitted on almost all modern models, for operator safety and comfort.

In some localities with heavy or wet soils, notably in the Central Valley of California, the "Caterpillar" or "crawler" type of tracked tractor became popular due to superior traction and flotation. These were usually maneuvered through the use of turning brake pedals and separate track clutches operated by levers rather than a steering wheel.

A modern front wheel assist farm tractor in the Netherlands

Four-wheel drive tractors began to appear in the 1960s. Some four-wheel drive tractors have the standard "two large, two small" configuration typical of smaller tractors, while some have four large, powered wheels. The larger tractors are typically an articulated, center-hinged design steered by hydraulic cylinders that move the forward power unit while the trailing unit is not steered separately.

A modern 4wd articulated crawler power unit planting wheat in North Dakota

In the early 21st century, articulated or non-articulated, steerable multitrack tractors have largely supplanted the Caterpillar type for farm use. Larger types of modern farm tractors include articulated four-wheel or eight-wheel drive units with one or two power units which are hinged in the middle and steered by hydraulic clutches or pumps. A relatively recent development is the replacement of wheels or steel crawler-type tracks with flexible, steel-reinforced rubber tracks, usually powered by hydrostatic or completely hydraulic driving mechanisms. The configuration of these tractors bears little resemblance to the classic farm tractor design.

Groton is a town in Tompkins County, New York, United States. The population was 5,950 at the 2010 census. The name is taken from Groton, Massachusetts.[1]

The Town of Groton contains a village, also called Groton. The town is in the northeast corner of the county and is northeast of Ithaca.

As well as a village, the Town of Groton also includes a former school, Groton High School, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

  • Condition: Used
  • Condition: Good to very good condition. See description.
  • Type: Real Photo (RPPC)
  • Era: Divided Back (1907-1915)
  • Theme: Advertising, Agriculture, Occupational, Photographs, Transportation
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
  • Original/Licensed Reprint: Original
  • Postage Condition: Unposted
  • Subject: Real Photo

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