TRACTOR TRIVIA and other interesting stuff 4/16/2024

[953 nut 55,163]

Midwest Utilitor

 

The Midwest Engine Company of Indianapolis, Ind., began making a walk behind tractor prior to 1920 called the Midwest Utilitor which was powered by a one-cylinder, 4-cycle, water cooled Midwest Engine.

The Utilitor had two steel lugged drive wheels and a pair of rear dolly wheels and weighed 750 pounds. It had steering clutches to aid in turning and a weight between the handlebars to compensate for the heavy engine forward of the drive wheels. A full array of plows and cultivators was available. Also available was a two-gang disc harrow, with four disc blades on each gang, an Acme blade-type pulverizing harrow, a 3-row garden seeder, a spring tine cultivator, and an adapter for hitching a 3 1/2 foot one-horse mower.

Many of the images in their advertising featured women operating the walk-behind tractor, others were aimed at potential dealers to sell the tractors.

Like so many other companies Midwest Engines suffered in the Great Depression. By 1929, the tractor was being manufactured by a Utilitor company that was in Dayton, Ohio. Toward the end of the depression the Utilitor General-Purpose four-wheel tractors joined the two-wheel version with the new Dayton OH address. indicates that the company moved or was acquired. No conclusive information could be found.

 

Midwest Engine Company supplied power for several manufacturers including Lauson Tractors of New Holstein, WI. Lauson made tractors from 1926 until 1929. Production ceased when the Great Depression started, and Lauson did not get paid for many of their tractors.

Electric generators were also built by Midwest which were very important to rural America in the late 1920s.

[JoeM 7,873]

whopping 700 watts, and to think that was cutting edge stuff. Life was so less convenient. Or should I say less demanding. Sure is interesting how they made machines from simple ideas work so well. 

[953 nut 55,163]

Crank it up and charge the battery pack so you will have light to milk by in the morning. We all take modern conveniences like electricity and running water for granted today. Rural electrification was a slow process, many remote locations in the Appalachian region didn't get connected to the grid until the 1950s. 

[Ed Kennell 38,114]

3 hours ago, 953 nut said:

many remote locations in the Appalachian region didn't get connected to the grid until the 1950s. 

Many of my neighbors are still not connected.     Thier choice of course.