Q 01/05

The word 'tractor' comes from the Latin verb 'trahere'. What does it mean?

A) To plough

B) To push

C) To pull

D) To turn

Answer · why

C) To pull

This root gives English 'traction' and 'tractable'; the farm-machine sense grew out of the earlier phrase 'traction engine'.

Q 02/05

In what year was 'tractor' first recorded meaning a vehicle for pulling wagons or ploughs?

A) 1896

B) 1904

C) 1912

D) 1921

Answer · why

A) 1896

It grew out of the phrase 'traction motor', which had been in use since 1859, well before petrol engines reached the farm.

Q 03/05

Which Hart-Parr sales manager is credited with coining the word 'tractor' in 1907?

A) Cyrus McCormick

B) Edward Johnston

C) W. H. Williams

D) Wilmot Crozier

Answer · why

C) W. H. Williams

Hart-Parr's Model 3 of 1903 is recognised by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as the first successful farm tractor powered by an internal-...

Q 04/05

The pioneering Hart-Parr tractor company was organised in 1901 in which town?

A) Waterloo, Iowa

B) Springfield, Illinois

C) Charles City, Iowa

D) Racine, Wisconsin

Answer · why

C) Charles City, Iowa

Charles Hart and Charles Parr met as students at the University of Wisconsin and pooled $3,000 to start their gasoline-engine business after graduatin...

Q 05/05

In which state did John Froelich build the first forward-and-reverse gasoline tractor in 1892?

A) Ohio

B) Illinois

C) Iowa

D) Nebraska

Answer · why

C) Iowa

Froelich and his blacksmith bolted a one-cylinder Van Duzen engine onto a Robinson frame, then hitched it to a Case thresher and threshed 72,000 bushe...