A lesson in belts and their importance to machines
People sometimes ask about flat belts. A belt can be defined as being a continuous strip of some flexible material placed around two pulleys...
Are they superstitions, folk remedies or signs?
When I was a kid I’d hear some of the older farmers in the neighborhood talk of planting something by the dark of the...
Deere’s short-lived involvement in autos
Sam Moore shares a passage Elmer J. Baker Jr. (1889-1964), a longtime commentator on the farm implement scene, wrote of the short-lived Deere-Clark car.
War tanks converted to tractors in France
As this month marks the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the World War I, Sam Moore shares a story of "beating swords into plough shares."
The Happy Farmer tractor was anything but happy
The Happy Farmer tractor did not exactly live up to its name.
A short history of Bateman Manufacturing Company
Just to demonstrate how confusing it can be to reconstruct history, there are two different versions of how Stephen Bateman ended up in Grenloch, New Jersey.
Looking back on how it all got started
Sam Moore pens his last column, looking back on the very first Rusty Iron column he ever wrote in 1992.
The Pontiac tractor didn’t last long
Plans were to turn out 1,000 Pontiac Tractors for 1919. Apparently the demand for the Pontiac tractor didn’t live up to expectations and columnist Sam Moore doubts if any survived.
Mechanical corn pickers were off to a slow start
During the 1920s, the pros and cons of the new-fangled machines were hotly debated in the farm press.
Of early tractor companies, few survived
In the early days, tractor companies were abundant, but only a few had what it took to survive.
