Harry Ferguson

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Henry George (Harry) Ferguson (November 4, 1884 - October 25, 1960) developed the modern agricultural tractor. He was also an early Irish aviator.

He was born at Growell, near Dromore, County Down, Ireland (in what is now Northern Ireland), and was the son of an Irish farmer.

In 1902 Ferguson went to work with his brother Joe in his bicycle and car repair business. Whilst working there as a mechanic he developed an interest in aviation, to the extent of visiting airshows abroad. In 1904 he began to race motorcycles.

In 1909 Ferguson became the first person to fly in Ireland, when he took off on December 31 in a monoplane he had designed and built himself. After falling out with his brother over the safety and future of aviation Ferguson decided to go it alone, and in 1911 founded a company selling Maxwell automobile, Star and Vauxhall cars and Overtime Tractors - eventually to be named Harry Ferguson Limited.

Ferguson saw at first hand the weakness of having tractor and plough as separate articulated units, and in 1917 he devised a plough which could be rigidly attached to a Model T Ford car - the Eros, which became a limited success, competing with the Model F Fordson.

Ferguson eventually founded the Ferguson-Sherman Inc., along with Eber and George Sherman. The new enterprise developed a ploughing system that incorporated a Duplex hitch system which fitted the Fordson line tractors. Ferguson's new hydraulic system was first seen on the Ferguson-Brown Model A tractors. Ferguson eventually made a handshake agreement with Henry Ford so that Ford could use Ferguson's three-point hitch system on his new line of tractors (9N, 2N, and 8N). Henry Ford II, Ford's grandson, abruptly ended the handshake deal on June 30, 1947. Ferguson's reaction was a law suit demanding $340,000,000. The disagreement was settled by Ferguson in April of 1952. A year later Ferguson merged with Massey-Harris to become Massey-Harris-Ferguson Co. This merger eventually turned into Massey-Ferguson Co.

Ferguson's research division went on to develop various cars and tractors, including the first Formula One 4 wheel drive car. See Ferguson Research Ltd.