Original subtitles

‐ [Narrator] From backyards to big ag,

they generate $75 billion in global sales every year.

(dramatic music)

258 manufacturers

producing over 100 different models.

(dramatic music)

But 150 years ago,

getting our food from farm to table

took slow, back‐breaking labor.

‐ Farm life is grueling in the 19th century.

‐ The ability to move equipment through a field dependably,

it was one of the great challenges that farmers faced.

‐ [Narrator] As the 20th century approaches,

inventors compete in a race to change that.

‐ A year from now,

every farmer in America is gonna own

one of my Fordson tractors.

‐ They saw the opportunity

and they jumped on it.

‐ [Narrator] Their quest to corner the market will produce

some of the greatest innovations

and most iconic brands.

‐ But I think I have it figured out.

‐ What? ‐ My engine.

(dramatic music)

(photographer laughs)

‐ It crawls just like a caterpillar.

(dramatic music)

‐ I got to hand it to you, John,

I didn't think it was possible,

but this thing is impressive.

(dramatic music)

‐ From agriculture to highway building,

to mining, to energy.

‐ The tractor actually changed the American landscape

as a whole.

‐ [Narrator] This is "Tractor Empires."

(dramatic music)

(steam engine chugging)

It's the 1870s and America is undergoing a massive shift

in where people live and work.

‐ By the close of the Civil War,

the United States is still

primarily an agricultural nation.

About half of Americans worked in agriculture,

compared to about 1% today.

But that's gonna change rapidly

with the industrial revolution.

(dramatic music) (steam blowing)

‐ People were being drawn from the farms

by higher paying jobs in the factories of the cities.

As people moved from farms to the city,

they discovered they can't grow their own food anymore.

Somebody has to grow your food for you.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] With fewer people on the farms,

those left behind have to work much harder.

‐ [James] Farm 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 combine.

‐ [Narrator] Harvesting a single five acre farm

usually requires walking 40 miles

behind an animal drawn plow.

(dramatic music)

In 1875, one young farm boy will do anything he can

to avoid that labor.

‐ Henry.

Time to feed the horses.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] His name is Henry Ford.

‐ Henry Ford grew up on a farm,

middle‐class background just outside of Detroit.

He knows what arduous work farming is.

He's seen it with his own eyes

and he's experienced it himself.

He's worked out in the field.

‐ He didn't like farming in large part

because it's sort of a back‐breaking,

endless cycle of toil.

‐ [Narrator] Young Henry has a different passion.

(dramatic music)

‐ Henry Ford was a natural born tinkerer.

When he was 12‐years‐old,

his father gave him a pocket watch.

He 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.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] Ford's ingenuity will one day make him

among the richest Americans in history

and head of a $140 billion empire

of cars, trucks, and tractors.

But for now, he's just a kid

who's about to see something

that will change his life.

(dramatic music)

‐ What the heck?

‐ Henry!

(dramatic music)

‐ Hey, Mr., what's this?

‐ This is a steam traction engine.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Henry] That piston makes the wheels move?

‐ [Man] Yup.

‐ [Henry] How many turns does it do a minute?

Like 200? ‐ Uh‐huh.

‐ And it powers your thresher too?

‐ Sure you've not seen one before?

(gentle music)

‐ Now, Henry Ford has seen locomotives before,

but he's never seen anything like this.

It's a huge contraption.

It's not on rails,

it's just sitting there on the road.

What is this thing?

‐ [Narrator] The so‐called road locomotive is used

for hauling heavy loads.

In the late 19th century,

it's one of many machines driven

by a revolutionary new power.

(dramatic music)

‐ The steam engine is the single biggest driver

of the industrial revolution

and ventures are dazzled

by its power and its possibilities.

(steam blowing) (steam engine revving)

You have locomotive, steam powered cars,

steam powered factories, steam powered everything.

(dramatic music)

‐ Can you imagine a steam powered wagon pulling

a plow, Pa.

We could get rid of our horses for good.

‐ Let's go, Henry.

Nothing can replace a horse.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] Despite his father's lack of enthusiasm,

young Henry Ford is hooked on a new idea.

‐ Henry Ford was obsessed with the idea

that we should replace the work done by muscles,

by human muscles or animal muscles,

with work done by machines.

‐ Many pioneers, they know exactly

what their role is in bringing something to the market

that perhaps the market doesn't even know

that they need just yet.

‐ [Narrator] And the demand

for more powerful farming equipment is about to explode.

(dramatic music fading)

(upbeat music)

2,400 miles to the west of Henry Ford,

one budding entrepreneur has just arrived in California

to seize what he hopes will be a big opportunity.

His name is Benjamin Holt.

‐ Brother.

‐ Charles! Good to see you.

California is treating you well.

(dramatic music)

‐ Benjamin grew up in the Northeast in New Hampshire

and he and his four brothers worked in the family saw mill,

helping make wagon wheels

and learning the business.

And Benjamin Holt himself out of the brothers was probably

the most mechanically inclined.

‐ [Narrator] His brothers run the Stockton Wheel Company,

but Benjamin wants to make more than just wheels.

‐ He pretty quickly realized

how inefficient the mobility was

and the planting, seeding, harvesting was

with the equipment that was readily available.

‐ [Narrator] He sees an opportunity,

thanks to a recent surge in California's farming industry.

(dramatic music)

‐ After the Gold Rush, in particular,

wealthy prospectors began to buy up huge tracks of land

where they start large commercial farms

because they recognized enormous profits

to be made in the sale of farm goods back East.

(upbeat music)

‐ [Narrator] The transcontinental railroad means

food grown out West can now reach

city markets back East much faster.

To meet demand,

farmers turned to new steam powered equipment,

but it still has to be pulled by horses.

‐ But then, inventors figured out

how to get the steam engine

to move the machine itself.

And that's how you get the first tractors.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] A handful of inventors began experimenting

with these new machines,

but Benjamin Holt believes he can build a better one.

So he and his brothers gamble

and invest nearly every cent they have;

some 2 million, today,

into a factory to produce huge steam tractors.

(dramatic music)

The only problem, Benjamin Holt has never built one before.

(dramatic music)

One day, his company will be known as Caterpillar.

(dramatic music)

The biggest producer of construction equipment

in the world;

helping farmers, builders, and even astronauts,

while earning over a $100 billion.

But in the late 1880s,

he's struggling to build a steam tractor

with enough power to pull a big combine.

(dramatic music)

Finally in 1890,

he unveils his new machine.

Nicknamed Old Betsy,

Holt's tractor features a single cylinder steam engine,

capable of generating 60 horsepower,

twice as much as his closest competitor.

And it's the first to feature steering clutches,

making it far more maneuverable.

‐ Holt's steam tractor could do the work

of dozens of horses at one sixth the cost.

This is a major cost savings

for the commercial farmer.

‐ [Narrator] The Holts quickly sell 130

of their steam powered tractors for $8,000 each,

nearly 225,000, today.

Then a flaw emerges,

threatening everything Holt's built.

‐ [Man] Ben Holt?

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] By the early 1890s,

some 2000 steam powered tractors are at work

on American farms.

They're expensive and their immense weight makes them hard

to maneuver and prone to getting stuck in the mud;

a major issue for Benjamin Holt's new machine.

‐ Because that engine was so heavy,

he had to build wagon wheels

that were six foot in diameter and three foot wide,

and it just made for a pretty ornery machine.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Man] Ben Holt.

‐ That's me, sir.

‐ So guess what happens when you have

a 48,000 pound piece of machinery

in very soft dirt.

‐ My tractor's stuck

and it's all your doing.

(upbeat music)

‐ [Narrator] If he can't find an answer soon,

Benjamin Holt's new business could go under.

(dramatic music)

1800 miles away in Iowa,

a commercial farmer is working on a solution.

‐ John Froelich is one of nine children.

Froelich grew up on the farm,

but he was college educated.

He was mechanically minded.

He ended up building

and running a grain elevator.

‐ [Narrator] But after starting a new venture,

he runs into a problem.

‐ Froelich gathered an army of employees

in every fall.

They would go to South Dakota

to help bring in the harvest.

‐ [Narrator] His 45,000 pounds steam powered tractor is key

to making a profit,

but getting it from Iowa to South Dakota

is nearly impossible.

So he decides to redesign the machine.

‐ Gotta be big, bulky, and heavy.

And this is in the late 1800s

where the roads are dirt

and the bridges are rickety, old, wooden bridges.

‐ Froelich really just thought there had

to be a better way.

‐ [Narrator] Frustrated after weeks of effort,

Froelich takes a break

to refuel his gas powered grain elevator.

(dramatic music)

(engine revving)

‐ Well, I'll be damned.

(dramatic music) (engine revving)

‐ He has this epiphany.

He thinks, "What if I could use

"this gasoline powered combustion engine

"to drive a tractor."

This was a genius idea.

‐ [James] The first internal combustion engines in the U. S.,

many of them were on farms.

There was a huge wave of farmers buying

stand‐alone gasoline engines

and they would hook it up

to some other machine they wanted to run.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] Froelich believes if he can replace

his tractor's massive 22 ton steam engine

with a lighter gas powered engine,

he might save his business.

(dramatic music)

‐ What the heck?

‐ That is a gas engine from my grain elevator.

It's going on that chassis.

‐ How?

‐ Don't know yet.

‐ [Narrator] But he's not the only one dreaming

of a new use for the gas powered engine.

(upbeat music)

Now, 30‐years‐old, Henry Ford has left the family farm

for the booming industrial hub of nearby Detroit.

(dramatic music)

‐ Ford has become really interested

in how the internal combustion engine works

and he starts tinkering, wanting to build one,

and he actually builds one in his kitchen sink.

‐ [Narrator] During the day,

Ford works as the chief engineer

at the Edison Illuminating Plant,

but every night he returns home

to work on his lifelong dream;

creating a vehicle that can replace the horse.

‐ Clara, get in here.

‐ Henry, it's Christmas Eve.

‐ But I think I have it figured out.

‐ What?

‐ My engine.

‐ He built from parts he could find around the house,

at the hardware store,

plumbing components, things like that.

It shows the innovation and how clever,

and how driven he was.

‐ [Woman] You're ruining the light.

‐ It's not a light.

That's my ignition system.

(dramatic music)

I need you to feed this into the intake valve

while I turn the flywheel.

Just two drops at a time, okay?

(dramatic music)

(flywheel rotating)

Okay, again.

(flywheel rotating)

(engine revving)

‐ [Narrator] Ford has just built a working engine

using cheap, off the shelf parts.

He's one step closer to his dream

of replacing the horse with a machine.

(dramatic music)

But John Froelich is even further ahead.

He's almost connected the gas engine from his grain elevator

to a tractor frame.

(dramatic music)

After months of work, Froelich has managed

to install a single cylinder gasoline engine

onto a steam engine chassis.

(dramatic music)

‐ She'd be a beauty if she wasn't so ugly.

Why don't you give her a whirl?

‐ [Narrator] A gasoline powered tractor could be

a game changer.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Froelich] Here, let me try.

‐ [Narrator] But they can't get it to start.

‐ Months of hard work

and this piece of machinery will not turn over;

and there's nothing more frustrating than going through

and working on everything,

and it won't work.

(metal clinging)

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] John Froelich has just spent months trying

to build a revolutionary gas powered tractor,

but he can't get it to start.

‐ I got this.

‐ [Narrator] Froelich's blacksmith has an idea.

‐ He gets an old school shotgun shell.

This is an explosive

and it could be really dangerous.

(dramatic music)

(metal clings) (engine revving)

‐ [Travis] And the spark from the shell exploding

ignites the combustion and starts the engine.

Sometimes, fortune favors the bold when it comes

to invention and innovation.

‐ [Narrator] Froelich has just created

the world's first gasoline powered tractor.

It's nearly 17 tons lighter

than its steam powered predecessor

and also features a reversing clutch,

making it the first tractor capable of going backwards.

‐ Froelich's gas powered tractor is a huge leap forward.

You don't have to wait hours for the water to boil,

it powers up instantly.

And it's light enough

that you can easily transport it anywhere.

It's really an incredible machine.

‐ [Narrator] With his breakthrough creation,

John Froelich now has the potential

to create a new market

and he quickly goes all in.

With a group of investors,

he forms the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company

and makes himself president.

(dramatic music)

Froelich is so confident,

he promises to build 50 tractors, the first year.

(dramatic music)

But in the first month,

he can't even complete one.

(dramatic music)

(metal clings)

‐ [Neil] Froelich suffers from a lot

of the same issues as early inventors.

You can't go to the hardware store

and buy parts for your machine.

They're all fabricated from scratch.

So when you're building an engine

that needs to be precise,

building with parts that are not precise,

it makes it difficult to replicate your success.

‐ [Narrator] Over the next year,

Froelich builds just four tractors

and only sells two.

Both are returned.

‐ By 1895, his partners decided they wanna go

a different direction.

(metal clings)

And Froelich, very quickly is no longer

in the tractor business.

‐ [Donny] So many startups do have the great idea,

but the product is a little deficient.

You need all of the above.

‐ [Narrator] Froelich's tractor will one day return,

but for now, his business is collapsing.

(dramatic music)

In California, Benjamin Holt continues to struggle

with his steam powered tractor

and he's desperate to find a new way

to stop the 24 ton machine from sinking into the mud.

‐ Charles, take a look.

What do you think?

‐ [Charles] It's a wheel.

‐ See how a wheel only touches the ground

on this one point?

A wheel sinks into the mud

for the same reason you do.

All that considerable weight pushes down

on just a few spots.

But if I attach these slats together,

that weight spreads over a much bigger area,

kind of like a snowshoe.

And I think it should stay up.

‐ [Narrator] Other inventors have experimented

with using belts or steel tracks

to keep heavy machinery from sinking,

but none have been successful.

Holt believes wooden tracks are the key.

If he's wrong, the Holt brothers massive investment

will be for nothing.

‐ [David] Inventors and entrepreneurs too

share something and that's a kind of obsession

with achieving their vision.

Sometimes, it can border on the fanatic.

You wonder why they won't let go of this idea,

but they keep on pushing even though they hit wall

after wall, after wall.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] Finally, on Thanksgiving, 1904,

Benjamin Holt is ready to unveil his new creation.

He invites a photographer to capture

what he hopes will be an historic moment.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Benjamin] It'll be here.

‐ What in the name of God?

(camera shutters)

(photographer laughs)

It crawls just like a caterpillar.

‐ Caterpillar it is.

That's the name for it.

(dramatic music) (tractor engine revving)

‐ [Narrator] It's a name that will stick

as will Holt's innovative tracks,

inspiring the design of tractors and heavy machinery

for the next century.

‐ It's amazing that the track type system

that you see on construction equipments, oil rigs,

a variety of equipment, today,

is still almost exactly the same as it was, 130 years ago.

It completely revolutionized mobility in those industries.

‐ [Narrator] Holt quickly sells a hundred

of his tract crawlers for $5,500 each,

nearly 165,000 today.

(dramatic music)

For now, the future of farming belongs to Benjamin Holt,

but that's about to change.

(dramatic music fading)

‐ [Narrator] At the start of the 20th century,

there are just 140,000 cars on the road.

(dramatic music)

For the last four years,

Henry Ford has focused on developing

gas powered automobiles,

and they're finally taking off.

He's found success with his model A, F, K, and N.

He's just earned his first $1 million in profit,

but he's never forgotten the drudgery of farm life.

(dramatic music)

‐ Not long after Henry Ford begins work on his automobile,

he starts to move into tractors.

It's something that he sort of has a heartfelt passion for.

‐ Some of the best businesses come from wanting

to find a solution to something that you feel

or that has happened to you,

or somebody that you love.

I think sometimes we think

that we have to be experts to build something,

but I think that you just need passion.

‐ [Narrator] Ford knows that Benjamin Holt caters

to the large commercial farmer.

So he sets out to conquer an even more lucrative market;

small family farms like the one he grew up on.

If he can create an affordable,

ultra‐lightweight gasoline powered tractor,

he'll make a fortune.

(knocking)

‐ Have a seat.

‐ [Narrator] He calls his machine, the automobile plow,

and assigns its creation

to one of his best engineers.

‐ [Henry] Is the Model T on schedule

to start production next year?

‐ Yes, sir.

‐ Good,

because there's something else I want you to work on

that's just as important to me.

I want it light, I want it strong,

and I want it simple, understand?

‐ Yes, sir. ‐ Good.

The Model T is about to finally drive the horse

from our streets

and I want the automobile plow

to do the same for the farm.

‐ [Neil] Having a lightweight tractor was something

that Henry Ford wanted to accomplish

from the very beginning.

Growing up on the farm,

everyone works on the farm; men, women, children.

So, lightweight, something that was easy

to steer and operate was important.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] Ford knows he can keep costs down

if he uses parts from his automobiles.

So he borrows the engine from his Ford Model B

and the radiator and axle from the Model K.

‐ Henry Ford was like a once in a lifetime,

unicorn entrepreneur who's excited about new problems,

excited about fixing,

you know, new things.

And it didn't, his doubt

never stopped him.

He believed in his destiny.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] A few months later in 1907,

Henry Ford tests his first automobile plow prototype.

At 1500 pounds,

the revolutionary tractor is far lighter

than any competing model. (tractor engine revving)

And it immediately fails.

‐ You want a tractor to be light,

but not too light.

(paper rustling)

Ford's tractor was so light that it would overheat

and it would tip over.

‐ [Travis] Finding the perfect balance on how heavy

or how light the tractor needs to be is hard to do

'cause you want it to be heavy enough

to pull the plow,

but not so heavy

that it gets stuck in every little bit of loose dirt or mud

that a farmer is going to encounter.

‐ [Narrator] When his first tractor fails,

Ford's investors pressure him

to get out of the business,

but he refuses to give up

and instead starts a side company called Fordson

to stay in the fight.

‐ Great innovators never give up.

They may fail, but they don't give up.

You just have to have this resilience

to just keep getting up and getting up,

and getting up.

And the great ones have that

and that's part of that pioneering DNA.

‐ [Narrator] Over the next few years,

Holt sells over 2000 tractors.

And while Ford's Model T is a resounding success,

his tractor business is mired in development hell.

Then in 1914,

a conflict overseas shakes up American industry.

(dramatic music)

‐ First thing you need to know about World War I

in the United States

is that it was really profitable.

When you have sides fighting

with massive armies bigger than ever been organized before,

we sell tremendous amounts

to the European allies, especially,

and we'd make a great deal of profit from that.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] In California, Benjamin Holt sees opportunity.

With sales of his giant steam tractor slowing down,

he creates a compact gasoline powered tractor,

aimed at the war effort.

Thanks to their signature tracks,

his powerful machines are able

to easily navigate the battlefield trenches

and the allies take notice.

‐ All right, boys,

we just got a telegram from the war office in England

and they want 1000 Caterpillars to start.

(workers cheer)

‐ Britain was the first military superpower

to use the Holt Caterpillars.

They quickly realized that these track type tractors

can carry a lot of weight

and still maneuver well in mud

and all types of terrain.

For Holt, it was a boom for business.

‐ [Narrator] It's not long before Holt's machines,

originally conceived for revolutionizing farming,

revolutionized warfare as well.

‐ The countries that went to war,

they tend to accelerate the innovation process

because whoever has the better weapon,

the better transport technology,

they have a big edge.

War as a crucible of innovation.

‐ [Narrator] These custom Caterpillars known

as land battleships will become the inspiration

for one of the most influential military vehicles

of all time.

‐ During World War I,

they looked at the Caterpillar tractor

and they saw the Caterpillar tractor getting

through the mud,

they looked at the traction,

and all of a sudden they have this a‐ha moment,

that Eureka moment and go, "Wait, that would be amazing

"to have something like that on the battlefield.

"Let's make a tank."

‐ [Peter] The British military quickly realized,

"Hey, we can actually cover them with an armor,

"put high powered guns on top of them,

"and they can be used as an actual weapon."

‐ [Narrator] While Holt's business is once again thriving

with sales of 5,000 tractors for use in the war,

he's about to get blindsided by a rival

with a tractor perfectly designed for the farm.

(dramatic music)

(upbeat music)

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] In the early years of World War I,

Ford is well behind Holt.

(dramatic music)

He still hasn't produced a viable tractor.

But in 1915,

he decides to drum up some free publicity, anyway.

‐ Get me the "Nebraska State Journal."

Take this down: a year from now,

every farmer in America is gonna own

one of my Fordson tractors.

I'll sell 10 million easy.

(indistinct)

Why?

Because it replaces six horses

and costs just $200, that's why.

(indistinct)

Yeah, well, that's what they said about the Model T.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] Ford is still working on a prototype,

but begins advertising a superior tractor

at an affordable price.

‐ So, it's that iconic moment;

entrepreneurs faking until they make it.

I think this situation definitely fits the bill.

‐ Promotion is critically important for any innovator.

If he or she does not have the passion themselves

and cannot convey that passion to others,

they're not gonna make it.

And Henry Ford did that with tractors.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] Ford's claims wind up reaching

a surprising audience; the British military.

Unable to regularly import food,

thanks to a German U‐boat blockade,

the British need a way

to feed their people fast.

‐ The British are suffering from manpower shortages,

shortages of horses, and food production.

So they began to look for ways

to increase food production,

and mechanization is the way to do it.

‐ [Narrator] They turned to Ford

and order 6,000 Fordson tractors.

‐ Now, mind you, Henry Ford has one tractor

and it's a prototype at that.

And he says, "Yes."

(indistinct)

He's willing to dive in

with a promise to the British government

that he's going to provide thousands of tractors

and in the middle of a war.

And yet he doesn't have any way to provide them, yet.

‐ [Chieh] Thinking about him just selling tractors

to a government entity when he didn't even have anything,

it's like just mind blowing.

It's like, man, not the business route

I would recommend to folks.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] Ford and his engineer quickly go back

to the drawing board.

The new model is 2,500 pounds

and has a four cylinder, 20 horsepower engine.

It's about a third as powerful as Holt's Caterpillar,

but it's one tenth as heavy; perfect for small farmers.

For easier production,

Ford completely rethinks the design.

Unlike Holt's tractor,

the Fordson won't have a frame.

Instead, the rear axle, engine,

and transmission are bolted together

to form the tractor's body.

It's a revolutionary concept.

‐ This is typical of Henry Ford.

A simple design; is easy to assemble,

and easy to mass produce.

(upbeat music)

‐ [Narrator] On October 8th, 1917,

four months after getting the order,

the first Fordson tractor rolls off the line.

All 6,000 miraculously make it to England.

‐ Things just really don't always work that way,

but they worked that way for Henry Ford.

It's amazing that he could pull it off.

‐ [David] It was possible

that Henry Ford in providing the British

with these thousands of tractors,

didn't just make a huge profit for himself,

but in the longer scope of history,

he may have staved off starvation

for millions of people

and perhaps even allowed the British to defeat the Germans.

‐ [Narrator] Next, Ford turns to America.

‐ Congratulations, not only did we sell 6,000

of your tractors to the British,

well, we've sold several thousand more here

and in Canada.

Now, take a look at this.

‐ A new factory?

‐ That's right, we're finally gonna build it.

‐ [Narrator] By 1918, Ford outperforms all his competitors,

selling a stunning 34,000 tractors

to small family farmers.

Though he doesn't know it,

there's a new challenger determined to stop him.

(dramatic music fading)

(upbeat music)

‐ [Narrator] After years of struggle,

two companies lead the tractor market:

Holt's Caterpillar and Henry Ford's Fordson.

But a new player is about to enter the game;

one of the biggest names in farming equipment.

In 1918, they're already worth over $33 million

or more than half a billion today.

‐ [Neil] They're building everything from plows

to manure spreaders, farm wagons,

grain binders, corn shellers,

pretty much everything you can find on the farm,

except for the tractor.

They just didn't think there was enough of a market

to make the business profitable.

‐ [Narrator] The company's name is John Deere.

(dramatic music)

But with the tractor market in a frenzy,

John Deere's president, William Butterworth,

is finally ready to challenge Holt and Ford.

‐ Now, Frank, come over here.

I want you to watch me write a check for $2.5 million.

‐ We're buying it?

‐ It better be worth it.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] Rather than build their own tractor,

John Deere spends nearly 38 million in today's dollars

to acquire a company with a familiar name,

John Froelich's former Waterloo Gas Engine Company

which has recently started building tractors again.

‐ The acquisition pays off very quickly for Deere.

Waterloo sells just under 6,000 tractors in 1918.

(tractor engine revving) (dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] Today, Deere sells over $30 billion worth

of farm equipment and supplies every year.

It's the top selling tractor brand in the United States

and supplies nearly 20% of the world's tractors.

But Froelich, the man who built

the first gas powered tractor,

sees none of that wealth;

dying penniless in 1933.

Benjamin Holt also falls on hard times.

‐ After the war, Holt manufacturing was challenged

because most of their contracts were government

or military related,

and so their sales were essentially cut in half.

‐ If you built an entire business

that's focused on only one or a few customers,

then if those customers go away,

you're gonna be in some deep, deep trouble.

‐ [Narrator] Holt's Caterpillar, a vital machine

during the war,

finds few buyers back on American farms.

‐ I'm sorry, I just can't afford to keep you on right now.

‐ [Narrator] In 1920, Holt dies after a month long illness.

To save the company,

the new president agrees to a merger

with rival, C. L. Best Tractor Company.

Now known as the Caterpillar tractor company,

Holt's business goes from the brink of ruin

to the largest manufacturer of construction equipment

in the world,

with revenue nearly 50% more than John Deere.

‐ Caterpillar was involved in everything

from the Panama Canal to the Golden Gate Bridge,

to really the major interstate system.

Caterpillar literally paved the way

for the world to be built as we know it today.

‐ [Narrator] But at the time,

the biggest force in tractors is still Henry Ford.

‐ Within a few years, he has 75% market share.

The industry goes from building

40 and 50,000 tractors a year.

By 1920, they're producing more than 120,000 a year.

‐ [Narrator] Then in 1928,

after selling nearly 650,000 tractors,

Ford shocks the market

by abruptly ceasing U. S. production

and focusing entirely on the automobile.

‐ [Donny] Ford makes a killing in the tractor business,

and then all of a sudden says, "No, I'm just gonna go back

"and focus on cars."

He realized that the bigger growth still came back

to his core competency;

that if you really think about

what Ford is synonymous with, its automobiles.

(upbeat music)

‐ [Narrator] But not before lending a hand in one

of the world's greatest inventions.

‐ No one person can take credit for the tractor.

It was many different people tinkering around

to make the tractor become

what we know it is today.

And oh, how it changed America.

It changed America forever.

(upbeat music)

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