Friday, February 22, 2013

Weekend Steam?

 

 This advertisement is copied from the April 1924 American Thresherman Magazine. It looks like a steam engine, but the Townsend tractor is one of those oddball machines that came out of the developmental years of the farm tractor. The Townsend was evidently designed to entice farmers who were on the fence about modernizing by switching from steam to gas for the heavy work around the farm. These tractors are rare, but you can find a few of them on YouTube if you do a search. Here's one that shows how you start one of these tractors.

 

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