The Fordson Tractor Killed 136 Farmers — And Henry Ford Refused to Fix It скачать в хорошем качестве

The Fordson Tractor Killed 136 Farmers — And Henry Ford Refused to Fix It

In 1917, Henry Ford released the Fordson Model F — a $750 tractor that promised to replace the horse on every American farm. By 1922, 136 farmers were dead. The Fordson's high hitch point and worm-drive differential meant that when the plow hit a rock or root, the tractor flipped backward in under two seconds. No human reflex was fast enough. Ford knew. He never recalled it. He never redesigned it. He lowered the price to $395 and sold 750,000 of them. The fix existed the entire time. An Irish inventor named Harry Ferguson designed a three-point hitch that eliminated the rear flip — three steel rods that changed the physics of the pull. Ferguson showed it to Ford in 1938. They shook hands. That handshake became the only contract they ever signed. Then Ford's grandson broke it. This is the story of the deadliest tractor ever built, the man who refused to fix it, and the engineer who solved it anyway.