- hace 2 meses
Categoría
📺
TVTranscripción
00:01From backyards to big ag, they generate $75 billion in global sales every year.
00:11258 manufacturers producing over 100 different models.
00:20But 150 years ago, getting our food from farm to table took slow, back-breaking labor.
00:27Farm life is grueling in the 19th century.
00:30The ability to move equipment through a field dependably was one of the great challenges that farmers face.
00:39As the 20th century approaches, inventors compete in a race to change that.
00:45A year from now, every farmer in America is going to own one of my forts and tractors.
00:50They saw the opportunity and they jumped on it.
00:53Their quest to corner the market will produce some of the greatest innovations and most iconic brands.
01:00But I think I have it figured out.
01:01What?
01:02My engine.
01:05It crawls just like a caterpillar.
01:10And I hand it to you, John.
01:11I didn't think it was possible.
01:13But this thing is impressive.
01:15From agriculture to highway building to mining to energy, the tractor actually changed the American landscape as a whole.
01:26This is Tractor Empires.
01:28It's the 1870s and America is undergoing a massive tear.
01:41It's the 1870s, and America is undergoing a massive shift in where people live and work.
02:01By the close of the Civil War, the United States is still primarily an agricultural nation.
02:08About half of Americans worked in agriculture.
02:11Compared to about 1% today.
02:13But that's going to change rapidly with the Industrial Revolution.
02:20People were being drawn from the farms by higher-paying jobs in the factories of the cities.
02:27As people moved from farms to the city, they discovered they can't grow their own food anymore.
02:32Somebody has to grow your food for you.
02:35With fewer people on the farms, those left behind have to work much harder.
02:42Farm labor was incredibly challenging work for everybody, including the animals, who provided a lot of the literal horsepower to plow the fields, to pull the combines.
02:53Harvesting a single five-acre farm usually requires walking 40 miles behind an animal-drawn plow.
03:01In 1875, one young farm boy will do anything he can to avoid that labor.
03:15His name is Henry Ford.
03:29Henry Ford grew up on a farm, middle-class background, just outside of Detroit.
03:38He knows what arduous work farming is.
03:42He's seen it with his own eyes, and he's experienced it himself.
03:45He's worked out in the fields.
03:46He didn't like farming, in large part because it's sort of a back-breaking, endless cycle of toil.
03:54Young Henry has a different passion.
04:02Henry Ford was a natural-born tinkerer.
04:05When he was 12 years old, his father gave him a pocket watch.
04:08He took it apart and put it back together so many times that he used to joke that when he would walk into the house, the clocks on the wall would shudder.
04:19Ford's ingenuity will one day make him among the richest Americans in history.
04:25And head of a $140 billion empire of cars, trucks, and tractors.
04:32But for now, he's just a kid who's about to see something that will change his life.
04:42What the heck?
04:46Henry!
04:52Hey, mister, what's this?
04:54This is a steam traction engine.
05:02That piston makes the wheels move?
05:04Yup.
05:05How many turns does it do a minute?
05:07Like 200?
05:08Uh-huh.
05:10And it powers your thresher, too?
05:12You sure you've not seen one before?
05:17Now, Henry Ford has seen locomotives before, but he's never seen anything like this.
05:22It's a huge contraption.
05:23It's not on rails.
05:25It's just sitting there on the road.
05:27What is this thing?
05:28The so-called road locomotive is used for hauling heavy loads.
05:34In the late 19th century, it's one of many machines driven by a revolutionary new power.
05:43The steam engine is the single biggest driver of the Industrial Revolution.
05:49And ventures are dazzled by its power and its possibilities.
05:53You have locomotives, steam-powered cars, steam-powered factories, steam-powered everything.
06:04Can you imagine a steam-powered wagon pulling a plow paw?
06:08We could get rid of our horses for good.
06:11Let's go, Henry.
06:13Nothing can replace a horse.
06:15Come on.
06:16Despite his father's lack of enthusiasm, young Henry Ford is hooked on a new idea.
06:27Henry Ford was obsessed with the idea that we should replace the work done by muscles,
06:33by human muscles or animal muscles, with work done by machines.
06:37Many pioneers, they know exactly what their role is in bringing something to the market
06:43that perhaps the market doesn't even know that they need just yet.
06:47And the demand for more powerful farming equipment is about to explode.
06:512,400 miles to the west of Henry Ford, one budding entrepreneur has just arrived in California
07:06to seize what he hopes will be a big opportunity.
07:10His name is Benjamin Holt.
07:14Brother.
07:16Charles.
07:17Good to see you.
07:19California is treating you well.
07:21Benjamin grew up in the northeast in New Hampshire, and he and his four brothers
07:31worked in the family sawmill, helping make wagon wheels and learning the business.
07:37And Benjamin Holt himself, out of the brothers, was probably the most mechanically inclined.
07:44His brothers run the Stockton Wheel Company, but Benjamin wants to make more than just wheels.
07:50He pretty quickly realized how inefficient the mobility was and the planting, seeding, harvesting
07:57was with the equipment that was readily available.
08:00He sees an opportunity thanks to a recent surge in California's farming industry.
08:10After the gold rush in particular, wealthy prospectors begin to buy up huge tracts of land
08:16where they start large commercial farms because they recognize enormous profits to be made
08:21and the sale of farm goods back east.
08:23The Transcontinental Railroad means food grown out west can now reach city markets back east much faster.
08:31much faster.
08:33To meet demand, farmers turn to new steam powered equipment, but it still has to be pulled by horses.
08:40But then inventors figured out how to get the steam engine to move the machine itself.
08:47And that's how you get the first tractors.
08:50A handful of inventors begin experimenting with these new machines, but Benjamin Holt believes he can build a better one.
09:01So he and his brothers gamble and invest nearly every cent they have, some $2 million today, into a factory to produce huge steam tractors.
09:14The only problem, Benjamin Holt has never built one before.
09:21One day his company will be known as Caterpillar, the biggest producer of construction equipment in the world.
09:31Helping farmers, builders, and even astronauts, while earning over $100 billion.
09:39But in the late 1880s, he's struggling to build a steam tractor with enough power to pull a big combine.
09:51Finally, in 1890, he unveils his new machine.
10:11Nicknamed Old Betsy, Holt's tractor features a single cylinder steam engine capable of generating 60 horsepower, twice as much,
10:20as his closest competitor.
10:23And it's the first to feature steering clutches, making it far more maneuverable.
10:28The Holt's steam tractor could do the work of dozens of horses at one-sixth the cost.
10:33This is a major cost savings for the commercial farmer.
10:38The Holt's quickly sell 130 of their steam-powered tractors for $8,000 each.
10:45Nearly 225,000 today.
10:48Then, a flaw emerges, threatening everything Holt's built.
10:54Stan Holt!
10:56By the early 1890s, some 2,000 steam-powered tractors are at work on American farms.
11:10They're expensive, and their immense weight makes them hard to maneuver and prone to getting stuck in the mud.
11:19A major issue for Benjamin Holt's new machine.
11:23Because that engine was so heavy, he had to build wagon wheels that were six foot in diameter and three foot wide,
11:31and it just made for a pretty ornery machine.
11:41Ben Holt?
11:44That's me, sir.
11:47So, guess what happens when you have a 48,000-pound piece of machinery in very soft dirt?
11:54My tractor's stuck, and it's all you're doing.
12:02If he can't find an answer soon, Benjamin Holt's new business could go under.
12:131,800 miles away, in Iowa, a commercial farmer is working on a solution.
12:19John Froelich is one of nine children.
12:22Froelich grew up on the farm, but he was college educated.
12:25He was mechanically minded.
12:27He ended up building and running a grain elevator.
12:31But after starting a new venture, he runs into a problem.
12:37Froelich had an army of employees, and every fall, they would go to South Dakota to help bring in the harvest.
12:42His 45,000-pound steam-powered tractor is key to making a profit.
12:49But getting it from Iowa to South Dakota is nearly impossible.
12:54So he decides to redesign the machine.
12:57Got to be big, bulky, and heavy.
12:59And this is in the late 1800s, where the roads are dirt and the bridges are rickety old wooden bridges.
13:05Froelich really just thought there had to be a better way.
13:14Frustrated after weeks of effort, Froelich takes a break to refuel his gas-powered grain elevator.
13:22Oh!
13:24Oh, God.
13:38Oh.
13:39Well, I'll be down.
13:56He has this epiphany.
13:58He thinks, what if I could use this gasoline-powered combustion
14:02engine to drive a tractor?
14:04This was a genius idea.
14:06The first internal combustion engines in the US,
14:10many of them were on farms.
14:12There was a huge wave of farmers buying
14:15stand-alone gasoline engines, and they
14:18would hook it up to some other machine they wanted to run.
14:24Froelich believes if he can replace his tractor's massive
14:2822-ton steam engine with a lighter gas-powered engine,
14:32he might save his business.
14:36What the heck?
14:42That is a gas engine for my grain emulator.
14:45It's going on that chassis.
14:47How?
14:49Don't know yet.
14:50But he's not the only one dreaming of a new use
14:54for the gas-powered engine.
15:02Now 30 years old, Henry Ford has left the family farm
15:07for the booming industrial hub of nearby Detroit.
15:13Ford has become really interested in how the internal combustion
15:16engine works.
15:16And he starts tinkering wanting to build one,
15:19and he actually builds one in his kitchen sink.
15:23During the day, Ford works as the chief engineer at the Edison
15:27Illuminating Plant.
15:30But every night, he returns home to work on his lifelong dream,
15:35creating a vehicle that can replace the horse.
15:39Clara, get in here.
15:42Henry, it's Christmas Eve.
15:45But I think I have it figured out.
15:47What?
15:51My engine.
15:54He built from parts he could find around the house at the hardware
15:57store, plumbing components, things like that.
16:00It shows the innovation, and how clever,
16:03and how driven he was.
16:07You're ruining the light.
16:09It's not a light.
16:12It's my ignition system.
16:22I need you to feed this into the intake valve
16:24while I turn the flywheel.
16:26Just two drops at a time, OK?
16:30OK, again?
16:47Ford has just built a working engine using cheap,
16:50off-the-shelf parts.
16:52He's one step closer to his dream of replacing the horse
16:57with a machine.
17:00But John Froelich is even further ahead.
17:07He's almost connected the gas engine from his grain elevator
17:12to a tractor frame.
17:30After months of work, Froelich has managed to install a single cylinder gasoline engine
17:39onto a steam engine chassis.
17:43She'd be a beauty if she wasn't so ugly.
17:46Why didn't you give her a whirl?
17:48A gasoline powered tractor could be a game changer.
18:00Here, let me try.
18:11But they can't get it to start.
18:13Months of hard work, and this piece of machinery will not turn over.
18:18And there's nothing more frustrating than going through and working on everything.
18:22And then it won't work.
18:30The Art of以前
18:36Home kara
18:42Firsty
18:44Firsty
18:47Firsty
18:50number
18:54Firsty
18:56John Froelich has just spent months
19:02trying to build a revolutionary gas-powered tractor.
19:09But he can't get it to start.
19:12I got this.
19:16Froelich's blacksmith has an idea.
19:20He gets an old-school shotgun shell.
19:23This is an explosive,
19:24and it could be really dangerous.
19:43And the spark from the shell exploding
19:47ignites the combustion and starts the engine.
19:49Sometimes fortune favors the bold
19:51when it comes to invention and innovation.
19:54Froelich has just created
19:55the world's first gasoline-powered tractor.
19:59It's nearly 17 tons lighter
20:01than its steam-powered predecessor
20:03and also features a reversing clutch,
20:07making it the first tractor capable of going backwards.
20:11Froelich's gas-powered tractor is a huge leap forward.
20:15You don't have to wait hours for the water to boil.
20:18It powers up instantly,
20:20and it's light enough that you can easily transport it anywhere.
20:24It's really an incredible machine.
20:28With his breakthrough creation,
20:29John Froelich now has the potential to create a new market,
20:34and he quickly goes all in.
20:36With a group of investors,
20:39he forms the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company
20:43and makes himself president.
20:50Froelich is so confident,
20:51he promises to build 50 tractors the first year.
20:56But in the first month,
21:02he can't even complete one.
21:14Froelich suffers from a lot of the same issues as early inventors.
21:17You can't go to the hardware store and buy parts for your machine.
21:20They're all fabricated from scratch.
21:23So when you're building an engine that needs to be precise,
21:25building with parts that are not precise
21:27makes it difficult to replicate your success.
21:31Over the next year,
21:33Froelich builds just four tractors
21:35and only sells two.
21:38Both are returned.
21:41By 1895,
21:42his partners decide that they want to go a different direction.
21:47And Froelich very quickly
21:53is no longer in the tractor business.
21:56So many startups do have a great idea,
21:58but the product is a little deficient.
22:00You need all of the above.
22:02Froelich's tractor will one day return,
22:05but for now,
22:06his business is collapsing.
22:15In California,
22:17Benjamin Holt continues to struggle
22:19with his steam-powered tractor,
22:21and he's desperate to find a new way
22:24to stop the 24-ton machine
22:26from sinking into the mud.
22:30Charles,
22:31take a look.
22:36What do you think?
22:41It's a wheel.
22:42See how a wheel
22:46only touches the ground
22:48on this one point?
22:50A wheel sinks into the mud
22:52for the same reason you do.
22:54All that considerable weight
22:55pushes down on just a few spots.
22:59But
23:00if I attach
23:02these slats together,
23:04that weight
23:05spreads over a much
23:07bigger area.
23:08kind of like a snowshoe.
23:14And I think
23:15it should stay up.
23:18Other inventors
23:19have experimented
23:20with using belts
23:20or steel tracks
23:22to keep heavy machinery
23:24from sinking,
23:25but none
23:25have been successful.
23:28Holt believes
23:28wooden tracks
23:29are the key.
23:30If he's wrong,
23:33the Holt brothers'
23:34massive investment
23:35will be for nothing.
23:37Inventors
23:37and entrepreneurs, too,
23:39share something,
23:40and that's a kind of obsession
23:42with achieving their vision.
23:44Sometimes
23:45it can border
23:46on the fanatic.
23:47You wonder
23:47why they won't let go
23:49of this idea,
23:50but they keep on pushing,
23:52even though they hit
23:53wall after wall
23:54after wall.
23:54Finally,
24:00on Thanksgiving 1904,
24:03Benjamin Holt
24:03is ready to unveil
24:05his new creation.
24:07He invites a photographer
24:08to capture
24:09what he hopes
24:10will be
24:11an historic moment.
24:19It'll be here.
24:24What in the name
24:31of God?
24:44It crawls
24:46just like
24:48just like a caterpillar.
24:52Caterpillar it is!
24:53That's the name for it!
25:00It's a name
25:01that will stick
25:02as Will Holt's
25:03innovative tracks,
25:05inspiring the design
25:06of tractors
25:06and heavy machinery
25:08for the next century.
25:10It's amazing
25:11that the track-type system
25:12that you see
25:13on construction equipment,
25:14oil rigs,
25:16a variety of equipment
25:17today,
25:18is still
25:19almost exactly
25:20the same
25:20as it was
25:21130 years ago.
25:22it completely
25:23revolutionized
25:24mobility
25:25in those industries.
25:28Holt quickly
25:28sells 100
25:29of his tract crawlers
25:30for $5,500
25:32each,
25:33nearly
25:34$165,000
25:36today.
25:37For now,
25:38the future
25:39of farming
25:40belongs
25:40to Benjamin Holt.
25:42But that's
25:43about to change.
25:44At the start
25:55of the 20th century,
25:56there are just
25:57140,000 cars
25:59on the road.
26:01For the last
26:02four years,
26:03Henry Ford
26:03has focused
26:04on developing
26:05gas-powered automobiles,
26:06and they're
26:07finally taking off.
26:09He's found success
26:10with his Model A,
26:11F,
26:11K,
26:12and N.
26:14He's just earned
26:15his first million
26:16dollars in profit,
26:17but he's never
26:18forgotten
26:19the drudgery
26:20of farm life.
26:20Not long after
26:36Henry Ford
26:37begins work
26:38on his automobile,
26:39he starts to move
26:40into tractors.
26:41It's something that
26:42he sort of has
26:42a heartfelt passion for.
26:45Some of the best
26:46businesses,
26:46you know,
26:47come from
26:48wanting to
26:48find a solution
26:49to something
26:50that you feel
26:51or that has
26:52happened to you
26:52or somebody
26:53that you love.
26:54I think sometimes
26:54we think that
26:55we have to be experts
26:56to build something,
26:58but I think that
26:59you just need passion.
27:01Ford knows
27:01that Benjamin Holt
27:02caters to the large
27:04commercial farmer,
27:05so he sets out
27:06to conquer
27:07an even more
27:08lucrative market,
27:09small family farms
27:10like the one
27:11he grew up on.
27:13If he can create
27:14an affordable,
27:15ultra-lightweight,
27:16gasoline-powered tractor,
27:18he'll make a fortune.
27:19Have a seat.
27:22He calls his machine
27:23the automobile plow
27:25and assigns its creation
27:27to one of his best engineers.
27:29Is the Model T on schedule
27:30to start production next year?
27:32Yes, sir.
27:33Good.
27:34Because there's something else
27:35I want you to work on
27:36that's just as important to me.
27:38I want it light,
27:40I want it strong,
27:41and I want it simple.
27:43Understand?
27:43Yes, sir.
27:45Good.
27:47The Model T is about
27:48to finally drive
27:49the horse from our streets,
27:51and I want the automobile plow
27:52to do the same for the farm.
27:56Having a lightweight tractor
27:58was something that
27:59Henry Ford wanted to accomplish
28:00from the very beginning.
28:01Growing up on the farm,
28:03everyone works on the farm,
28:04men, women, children,
28:06so lightweight,
28:08something that was easy
28:09to steer and operate
28:11was important.
28:13Ford knows he can keep costs down
28:15if he uses parts
28:16from his automobiles,
28:18so he borrows the engine
28:20from his Ford Model B
28:21and the radiator and axle
28:23from the Model K.
28:25Henry Ford was like
28:26a once-in-a-lifetime
28:27unicorn entrepreneur.
28:29He was excited about new problems,
28:30excited about fixing,
28:32you know, new things,
28:33and it didn't,
28:34his doubt never stopped him.
28:36He believed in his destiny.
28:39A few months later,
28:41in 1907,
28:42Henry Ford tests
28:44his first automobile plow prototype.
28:47At 1,500 pounds,
28:49the revolutionary tractor
28:50is far lighter
28:51than any competing model,
28:53and it immediately fails.
28:57You want a tractor to be light,
28:59but not too light.
29:04Ford's tractor was so light
29:07that it would overheat
29:08and it would tip over.
29:09Finding the perfect balance
29:11on how heavy
29:12or how light
29:13the tractor needs to be
29:14is hard to do
29:15because you want it to be
29:16heavy enough
29:17to pull the plow,
29:18but not so heavy
29:19that it gets stuck
29:21in every little bit
29:22of loose dirt or mud
29:24that a farmer
29:25is going to encounter.
29:28When his first tractor fails,
29:30Ford's investors pressure him
29:32to get out of the business,
29:33but he refuses to give up
29:35and instead starts a side company
29:38called Fordson
29:39to stay in the fight.
29:41Great innovators never give up.
29:43They may fail,
29:44but they don't give up.
29:46You just have to have this resilience
29:48to just keep getting up
29:49and getting up
29:50and getting up
29:51and the great ones have that
29:52and that's part of that pioneering DNA.
29:54Over the next few years,
29:57Holt sells over 2,000 tractors,
29:59and while Ford's Model T
30:01is a resounding success,
30:03his tractor business
30:04is mired in development hell.
30:07Then, in 1914,
30:10a conflict overseas
30:12shakes up American industry.
30:14First thing you need to know
30:18about World War I
30:19in the United States
30:20is that it was really profitable.
30:23When you have sides fighting
30:24with massive armies
30:26bigger than had ever
30:26been organized before,
30:28we sell tremendous amounts
30:30to the European allies especially,
30:33and we make a great deal
30:34of profit from them.
30:44In California,
30:46Benjamin Holt sees opportunity.
30:48With sales of his giant steam tractors
30:51slowing down,
30:52he creates a compact,
30:54gasoline-powered tractor
30:55aimed at the war effort.
30:58Thanks to their signature tracks,
31:00his powerful machines
31:01are able to easily navigate
31:03the battlefield trenches,
31:05and the Allies take notice.
31:10All right, boys,
31:11we just got a telegram
31:13from the war office
31:15in England,
31:16and they want
31:171,000 caterpillars
31:18to start!
31:21Britain was the first
31:23military superpower
31:25to use the Holt caterpillars.
31:28They quickly realized
31:30that these tract type tractors
31:31can carry a lot of weight
31:33and still maneuver well
31:35in mud and all types of terrain
31:37for Holt.
31:38It was a boom for business.
31:40It's not long
31:41before Holt's machines
31:43originally conceived
31:44for revolutionizing farming,
31:46revolutionized warfare as well.
31:50The countries that went to war,
31:53they tend to accelerate
31:54the innovation process
31:56because whoever has
31:57the better weapon,
31:59the better transport technology,
32:01they have a big edge.
32:03War as a crucible of innovation.
32:06These custom caterpillars,
32:08known as land battleships,
32:10will become the inspiration
32:11for one of the most influential
32:13military vehicles of all time.
32:15During World War I,
32:17they looked at the caterpillar tractor,
32:19and they saw that caterpillar tractor
32:21getting through the mud.
32:23You know, they've got the traction,
32:24and all of a sudden,
32:25they have this aha moment,
32:26that eureka moment,
32:27and go, wait,
32:28that would be amazing
32:30to have something like that
32:31on the battlefield.
32:33Let's make a tank.
32:35The British military
32:36quickly realized,
32:38hey, we can actually
32:40cover them with an armor,
32:41put high-powered guns
32:43on top of them,
32:45and they can be used
32:46as an actual weapon.
32:48While Holt's business
32:49is once again thriving,
32:51with sales of 5,000 tractors
32:53for use in the war,
32:55he's about to get blindsided
32:56by a rival,
32:57with a tractor perfectly designed
32:59for the farm.
33:32In the early years
33:33of World War I,
33:35Ford is well behind Holt.
33:39He still hasn't produced
33:41a viable tractor,
33:42but in 1915,
33:44he decides to drum up
33:45some free publicity anyway.
33:48Get me the Nebraska State Journal.
33:51Take this down.
33:53A year from now,
33:54every farmer in America
33:55is going to own
33:56one of my Fords and tractors.
33:58I'll sell 10 million easy.
34:02Why?
34:03Because it replaced six horses
34:05and cost just $200.
34:07That's why.
34:09Yeah, well,
34:11that's what they said
34:12about the Model T.
34:18Ford is still working
34:20on a prototype,
34:21but begins advertising
34:22a superior tractor
34:24at an affordable price.
34:26So, it's that iconic moment.
34:30Entrepreneurs baking it
34:31until they make it.
34:32I think this situation
34:33definitely fits the bill.
34:36Promotion is critically important
34:37for any innovator.
34:39If he or she
34:40does not have the passion
34:41themselves
34:42and cannot convey
34:43that passion to others,
34:45they're not going to make it.
34:47And Henry Ford did that
34:48with tractors.
34:49Ford's claims
34:54wind up reaching
34:55a surprising audience,
34:58the British military.
35:00Unable to regularly
35:01import food
35:02thanks to a German
35:03U-boat blockade,
35:04the British need a way
35:06to feed their people fast.
35:07The British are suffering
35:10from manpower shortages,
35:12shortages of horses,
35:13and food production.
35:14So, they begin to look
35:16for ways to increase
35:17food production
35:17and mechanization
35:18is the way to do that.
35:20They turn to Ford
35:21and order 6,000
35:23Fordson tractors.
35:26Now, mind you,
35:26Henry Ford has one tractor
35:27and it's a prototype
35:28at that.
35:30And he says, yes.
35:31What chutzpah?
35:33He's willing to dive in
35:35with a promise
35:36to the British government
35:37that he's willing to provide
35:38thousands of tractors
35:40and in the middle of a war
35:42and yet he doesn't have
35:44any way to provide them
35:45yet.
35:47Thinking about him
35:48just selling tractors
35:49to a government entity
35:50when he didn't even
35:51have anything,
35:52it's like,
35:52just mind blown.
35:54It's like, man,
35:55not the business route
35:56I would recommend to folks.
35:59Ford and his engineer
36:01quickly go back
36:02to the drawing board.
36:03The new model
36:04is 2,500 pounds
36:06and has a four-cylinder,
36:0820-horsepower engine.
36:09It's about a third
36:10as powerful
36:11as Holt's Caterpillar,
36:12but it's one-tenth
36:14as heavy,
36:15perfect for small farmers.
36:18For easier production,
36:20Ford completely
36:21rethinks the design.
36:23Unlike Holt's tractor,
36:25the Fordson
36:25won't have a frame.
36:27Instead,
36:28the rear axle,
36:29engine,
36:30and transmission
36:31are bolted together
36:32to form the tractor's body.
36:34It's a revolutionary concept.
36:38This is typical
36:39of Henry Ford.
36:40A simple design
36:41is easy to assemble
36:42and easy to mass produce.
36:47On October 8, 1917,
36:51four months
36:52after getting the order,
36:53the first Fordson tractor
36:55rolls off the line.
36:56All 6,000
36:59miraculously
37:00make it to England.
37:02Things just really
37:03don't always work that way,
37:05but they work that way
37:06for Henry Ford.
37:08It's amazing
37:09that he could pull it off.
37:12It was possible
37:13that Henry Ford,
37:15in providing the British
37:16with these thousands
37:18of tractors,
37:19didn't just make
37:19a huge profit
37:20for himself,
37:21but in the longer scope
37:22of history,
37:23he may have
37:23staved off starvation
37:25for millions of people
37:27and perhaps
37:28even allowed the British
37:30to defeat the Germans.
37:32Next,
37:33Ford turns to America.
37:36Congratulations.
37:37Not only did we sell
37:386,000 of your tractors
37:39to the British,
37:41but we've sold
37:41several thousand more here
37:43and in Canada.
37:44Now, take a look at this.
37:47A new factory?
37:50That's right.
37:50We're finally
37:52going to build it.
37:54By 1918,
37:56Ford outperforms
37:57all his competitors,
37:59selling a stunning
38:0034,000 tractors
38:02to small family farmers.
38:05Though he doesn't know it,
38:07there's a new challenger
38:09determined to stop him.
38:18After years of struggle,
38:20two companies
38:22lead the tractor market,
38:25Holt's Caterpillar
38:25and Henry Ford's
38:27Fordson.
38:29But a new player
38:30is about to enter the game,
38:32one of the biggest names
38:34in farming equipment.
38:36In 1918,
38:38they're already worth
38:39over $33 million,
38:42or more than
38:43half a billion today.
38:44They're building everything
38:46from plows
38:47to manure spreaders,
38:49farm wagons,
38:50grain binders,
38:51corn shellers,
38:52pretty much everything
38:53you can find on the farm,
38:55except for the tractor.
38:57They just didn't think
38:58there was enough of a market
38:59to make the business profitable.
39:01The company's name
39:03is John Deere.
39:04But with the tractor market
39:09in a frenzy,
39:11John Deere's president,
39:13William Butterworth,
39:14is finally ready
39:15to challenge
39:16Holt and Ford.
39:17Oh, Frank,
39:19come over here.
39:20I want you to watch me
39:21write a check
39:22for $2.5 million.
39:27We're buying it?
39:30It better be worth it.
39:33Rather than build
39:34their own tractor,
39:36John Deere spends
39:37nearly $38 million
39:38in today's dollars
39:39to acquire a company
39:41with a familiar name.
39:44John Froelich's
39:45former Waterloo
39:46gas engine company,
39:48which has recently started
39:49building tractors again.
39:51The acquisition pays off
39:53very quickly for Deere.
39:55Waterloo sells
39:55just under 6,000 tractors
39:57in 1918.
40:01Today, Deere sells
40:03over $30 billion
40:04worth of farm equipment
40:06and supplies every year.
40:08It's the top-selling
40:09tractor brand
40:10in the United States
40:11and supplies nearly 20%
40:14of the world's tractors.
40:16But Froelich,
40:17the man who built
40:19the first gas-powered tractor,
40:21sees none of that wealth,
40:23dying penniless
40:24in 1933.
40:28Benjamin Holt
40:29also falls on hard times.
40:32After the war,
40:33Holt Manufacturing
40:34was challenged
40:35because most of their contracts
40:37were government
40:38or military-related,
40:40and so their sales
40:41were essentially cut in half.
40:42if you built
40:44an entire business
40:45that's focused
40:46on only one
40:47or a few customers,
40:49then if those customers
40:50go away,
40:51you're going to be
40:51in some deep, deep trouble.
40:53Holt's Caterpillar,
40:54a vital machine
40:55during the war,
40:57finds few buyers
40:58back on American farms.
41:01I'm sorry.
41:02I just can't afford
41:03to keep you on right now.
41:04In 1920,
41:08Holt dies
41:09after a month-long illness.
41:13To save the company,
41:15the new president
41:15agrees to a merger
41:17with rival
41:18CL Best Tractor Company.
41:20Now known
41:22as the Caterpillar Tractor Company,
41:24Holt's business
41:25goes from the brink of ruin
41:26to the largest manufacturer
41:28of construction equipment
41:30in the world,
41:31with revenue
41:32nearly 50% more
41:34than John Deere.
41:35Caterpillar
41:36was involved
41:37in everything
41:39from the Panama Canal
41:40to the Golden Gate Bridge
41:41to really
41:42the major interstate system.
41:45Caterpillar
41:45literally paved the way
41:47for the world
41:48to be built
41:48as we know it today.
41:51But at the time,
41:53the biggest force
41:54in tractors
41:55is still Henry Ford.
41:58Within a few years,
41:59he has 75% market share.
42:01The industry goes
42:02from building
42:0340,000 and 50,000 tractors
42:05a year.
42:06By 1920,
42:07they're producing
42:08more than 120,000 a year.
42:11Then, in 1928,
42:13after selling
42:13nearly 650,000 tractors,
42:17Ford shocks the market
42:18by abruptly ceasing
42:20U.S. production
42:21and focusing entirely
42:23on the automobile.
42:24Ford makes a killing
42:26in the tractor business
42:27and then all of a sudden
42:27says, no,
42:28I'm just going to go back
42:29and focus on cars.
42:30He realized
42:32that the bigger growth
42:33still came back
42:34to his core competency,
42:35that if you really think
42:37about what Ford
42:38is synonymous
42:39with,
42:40it's automobiles.
42:43But not before
42:44lending a hand
42:45in one of the world's
42:47greatest inventions.
42:49No one person
42:50can take credit
42:51for the tractor.
42:52It was many different people
42:54tinkering around
42:55to make the tractor
42:57become what we know
42:58it is today.
43:00And oh,
43:00how it changed America.
43:03It changed America forever.
43:05It changed America forever.
43:06It changed America forever.
43:07It changed America forever.
43:08It changed America forever.
43:09It changed America forever.
43:10It changed America forever.
43:11It changed America forever.
43:12It changed America forever.
43:13It changed America forever.
43:14It changed America forever.
43:15It changed America forever.
43:16It changed America forever.
43:17It changed America forever.
Sé la primera persona en añadir un comentario