When was King 1902 CASE 9Steam HP TRACTION ENGINE SET TO CROSS THE AUCTION BLOCK AT GONE FARMIN’S IOWA PREMIER

By Kellen Olshefski

ong before J.I. Case Threshing Co. of Racine, traction engine. However, the idea of a steam-powered Wisconsin, ever put together its first steam traction engine wouldn’t quite take off for another 1,500 years or engine tractor, mankind had been intrigued by the so, and it’d be a couple more hundred years before J. I. Case L potential applications of steam. In the first century, would implement it into its agricultural machinery and the Hero of Alexandria—a mathematician and engineer change the ways of the American farmer. active in Alexandria, the Roman city in Egypt—published a Thomas Savery first developed a steam-powered water well-recognized description of the aeolipile, a simple radial pump in 1698, a simple reciprocating steam engine used steam turbine that spins when the central water container for pumping water from mines, which Englishman Thomas is heated, essentially the world’s first recorded steam Newcomen developed even further in 1712, earning him credit

2 • MONTHLY for inventing the steam engine. Ultimately, though, it would 1855, specifically for plowing, and by the 1870s, many were be James Watt’s improved design of Newcomen’s steam engine beginning to buy self-propelled steam engines as inventors had that would mark a key point in the Industrial Revolution and made huge strides in developing suitable options. By 1900, more the future use of steam power. Watt’s steam engine, developed than 30 companies in the U.S. were manufacturing large steam from about 1763 to 1775, made two important improvements traction engines for farming and logging applications, many of upon Newcomen’s engine, doubling the engine efficiency these engines substantially improved over their predecessors. in the process: a separate condenser and rotary motion. As Among the most successful commercial manufacturers of fully developed in partnership with Matthew Boulton, Watt’s steam traction engines was the J. I. Case Threshing Company engine was said to have used about 75 percent less fuel than of Racine, Wisconsin. The company had been founded by the Newcomen engine, an attractive option where fuel was Jerome Increase Case, a visionary who started by opening a expensive, and the fully developed Watt and Boulton steam small workshop in Rochester, Wisconsin, after moving from engine went into production in 1776. New York in 1842. Just two years later, J. I. Case had developed Often referred to as the “father of the traction engine,” Thomas a combined threshing and cleaning machine, which he put Aveling, in 1852, began to develop a self-moving steam engine into production in a facility he built in nearby Racine. His for agricultural machinery out of his dissatisfaction with the threshers proved popular among the agricultural community, portable steam engines that had to be moved from site to site with demand for his machines exceeding what he was able by a team of horses. In the U.S., Obed Hussey is said to have to produce, quickly turning his company into a leader in the created the very first self-propelled steam traction engine in manufacture of mechanical harvesting equipment.

MECUM.COM • 3 While Case’s early machines relied on the power of horses In the time when steam was king, Case built steam traction and oxen, first through a treadmill-like system and then a engines with power output as small as 6 HP and as high as mechanical sweep, portable steam power had revolutionized 150 HP, all built to burn either coal, wood, straw, fuel oil or a farming by the late 1840s. Forever a leader in the agricultural combination of fuels. While the gasoline-powered tractor was industry, by 1870, Case had claimed its steam-drive thresher first introduced around 1902, steam power kept chugging along, could separate upwards of 2,000 bushels a day. Case built its peaking around 1910, when upwards of 72,000 steam engines first steam engine in 1876, and just two years later, its first were being used on American farms; of course, J.I. Case was an chain-drive traction engine. By 1884, the company was offering agricultural pioneer leading the charge in sales of steam engines. steam engines as skid, portable and tractive units ranging from Case would eventually end production of steam engines in 8 to 30 HP, and by 1887, it had built its first gear-drive traction 1924, after producing nearly 36,000 and pushing forward into model, followed shortly by units with friction-type clutches. By the future with its gasoline-powered models. the end of the 19th century, improvements made by Case had A healthy reminder of when both steam power and Case sat made large-scale plowing with steam possible, and by 1902, a 25 at the top of the agricultural totem pole, this beautiful and HP Case traction engine could pull ten 16-inch plow bottoms. meticulously restored 1902 Case 9 HP Traction Engine set to

MECUM.COM • 5 cross the auction block at Gone Farmin’s Iowa Premier this November 8-10 in Davenport is ready for work or show. Among the smallest traction engines produced by Case that year, Serial No. 10081 has been extensively and professionally restored to its former glory with many new components throughout to ensure it’s ready to show just what these machines were capable of in their heydays. The 1902 Case traction engine features all-new suspension links, new bull gears and pinions, a new axle and cannon bearing shaft, new front skid rings, all- new brasses and pins, and a new riveted water tank. Also new are the crankshaft and main bearings, the chrome piston rod and rings, the chrome valve rod, all-new tubes in the boiler, a new fusible plug and all-new crane valves and schedule 80 plumbing. The front wheels have been converted to tapered roller bearings, and new rear wheels and lugs, a rebuilt clutch, an all-new wood platform and fenders built from original fields and changing the way farmers harvested and planted their blueprints and a rebuilt and working steam pump round out crops. Ready for work and show, this Case traction engine is this incredible turn-of-the-century agricultural marvel. primed to provide a new owner with both the joys of a historical A truly remarkable and historical specimen, this 1902 Case 9 piece for their collection, as well as a bit of a functional history HP Traction Engine is sure to be among the earliest examples lesson in the way things were once done. It’s a piece that of tractors at Gone Farmin’s Iowa Premier this fall, if not the collectors with an affinity for the history and development of earliest. It’s an awe-inspiring throwback to a time long past, tractors won’t want to miss, and one that’ll undoubtedly garner when machinery was first gaining steam in the American farm attention from all who lay their eyes on it.

OFFERED NOVEMBER 9 AT THE IOWA PREMIER 2018

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