The Inventor The inventor of the first successful gasoline tractor was John Froehlich. John had an assistant named William Mann. And with some friends, formed the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Co. in 1893.

Identify the Problem John Froehlich was apparently trying to fix the fact that some Dakota farmers couldn't easily get wood or coal supplies for steam-powered tractors. The steam engines were heavy, bulky, and hard to control. They were always threatening to set fire to the grain and stubble in the fields.On a flat prairie, with a wind blowing, that was serious. Steam-powered tractors were the only tractors, unless you count horses.

Brain Storm John Froehlich didn’t really brain storm a lot. There was a company that made an engine that used gasoline as fuel. This inspired John, who thought of the idea of a machine that could help farmers, and used gasoline.

Design In 1892, John attached a single-cylinder Van Duzen engine, to a Robinson running gear chassis which made the object attached to it move forward and backward. The engine was originally purchased for a grain elevator, but became the key to developing the gasoline tractor design. The engines had 20 hp with a bore and stroke of 14 inches and operated in temperatures of -3 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Build, Test, Evaluate, and Redesign The first machine was put to the test by John and his assistant, William Mann. That fall they harvested 72,000 bushels of grain during a 52 day run in South Dakota. There wasn’t really any redesigning, but there were countless upgrades to the tractor.

Share Solution John returned to Iowa and formed the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Co. in 1893 with some colleagues. The first model he made and run in South Dakota was duplicated, only these two machines were produced of this version.

John Froehlich broke away from the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company at that time and moved with his wife, two sons and two daughters to Dubuque, Iowa, and later St. Paul, Minn., to work as an investment counselor. The John Deere Co. purchased the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Co. in 1918, and got the rights to the gasoline tractor. The company was then renamed the John Deere Tractor Company. William Mann, John’s assistant, was a blacksmith.