page_title: Two-wheel tractor
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Two-wheel tractor / History / United States
caption_attribution_description: English: An advertisement for the Detroit Tractor Company in the Automobile Trade Journal, July 1913.
context_page_description: Two-wheel tractor or walking tractor are generic terms understood in the US and in parts of Europe to represent a single-axle tractor, which is a tractor with one axle, self-powered and self-propelled, which can pull and power various farm implements such as a trailer, cultivator or harrow, a plough, or various seeders and harvesters. The operator usually walks behind it or rides the implement being towed. Similar terms are mistakenly applied to the household rotary tiller or power tiller; although these may be wheeled and/or self-propelled, they are not tailored for towing implements. A two-wheeled tractor specializes in pulling any of numerous types of implements, whereas rotary tillers specialize in soil tillage with their dedicated digging tools.
context_section_description: Two-wheel tractors existed in the U.S. at least as early as 1913, when the Detroit Tractor Company advertised a tractor whose operator, riding on the implement, controlled the tractor via reins, just as he would a horse team. By 1918, the Moline Plow Company's Moline Universal Tractor likewise relied on its implement to supply the rear wheels in a four-wheel articulated unit, though its design dispensed with the long trailer tongue and horse reins. A 1918 example of Moline advertising called the Universal "the original two-wheel tractor", which was a fanciful claim in light of the Detroit Tractor and other machinery described with that phrase from 1913 through 1915. But Moline Plow no doubt felt pressured to claim priority in response to a very similarly built competitor, the Allis-Chalmers Model 6-12, which Moline Plow alleged was a patent-infringing copy.
  E.R. Beeman invented the Gas Garden tractor, two wheeled walk behind model, in 190_. He had been a V.P. at Moline Plow Company prior to his invention. The BEEMAN Tractor Co. was located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Previous to inventing Gas Garden Tractor, Mr. Beeman invented the Gas Garage door opener.
  As early as 1911, Benjamin Franklin Gravely of Charleston West Virginia began with connecting the Indian motorcycle to a manually operated push plow. In 1916 he incorporated and, after obtaining partners, began producing single-wheel tractors and attachments under the name Gravely Tractor. The Model "D" Gravely Power Plow, like the prototype, was a single-wheeled affair, with a 2 horsepower (1.5 kW) air-cooled engine. It wasn't until 1937 that Gravely would introduce the Model L two-wheeled tractor with a 5 horsepower (3.7 kW) engine. Through the 20th century, Gravely became arguably one of the most successful and recognizable two-weeled tractors produced in the United States, at one point offering 120 individual attachments for their all-gear drive machines.
  In 1915, Rush Hamilton of Healdsville, California, designed grouser drive wheels for his tractor, which came with an articulated two-iron-wheeled sulky to which wagons or plows could be attached. It was about this time that he formed the Hamilton Tractor Company. About 10 years later, the wheels were called "Hamilton wheels" when used on a Fordson tractor. In 1916 he helped form the Fageol Motors Company, where he assisted in the development of the Fageol tractor.
  In 1932, Mando "Steve" Ariens, having just taken over the reins of his fathers' Brillion Iron Works, had to declare bankruptcy at the height of the Great Depression. In 1933, in his father Henry's garage and Steve's basement, he and his father developed their first Ariens Rotary Tiller, a 30" tiller, powered by a 14 hp (10 kW), front-mounted, four-cylinder V-type engine.
  In 1930, automobile manufacturer Cadwallader Washburn "Carl" Kelsey was introduced to the rototiller by H.B. Hiller, a German immigrant who once worked for Siemens' "boden frasen" division. Kelsey opened a sales office using the name Rototiller Co. on Broadway in New York City. He then started importing Siemens boden frasen from Germany. In 1932, Kelsey incorporated using the new company name Rototiller, Inc. and the "Rototiller" trademark (Kelsey didn't coin the name 'Rototiller' it was already being used in Europe). The operation was moved to Long Island City, NY. and SIMAR from Switzerland was added to the line. Carl Kelsey designed, patented and made several improvements to the SIMAR and Siemens machines because of the different American soils versus the European soil that had been farmed for many more centuries. One major improvement was a shock absorber to reduce tine spring return bounce. In 1934 Kelsey and Rototiller, Inc. introduced its first rotary tiller of its own design, the Model AA All-American. And in 1937 Rototiller, Inc. moved from its Long Island City facility to 102nd Street and 9th Avenue in Troy, New York.  In 1945 after selling the larger B-series Rototillers and trademark to Graham-Paige Motors, Rototiller, Inc. converted to full-time production of various models of
caption: An advertisement for the Detroit Tractor Company in the Automobile Trade Journal, July 1913.[6]
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