Ferguson Black tractor

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The Ferguson Black tractor or Belfast tractor as Harry Ferguson himself called it after the city it was designed and assembled in, namely Belfast, Northern Ireland. Commonly known as the Ferguson Black prototype tractor, because of its gloss black paintwork and the fact it was world's first tractor with the Ferguson System. The Ferguson Black tractor was Harry Ferguson's first and only tractor to be built in Northern Ireland. Work started at his May Street Works in the centre of Belfast in 1931 and was completed their in 1933. The tractor was the result of over fifteen years of research and development by Harry Ferguson and was used to prove his Ferguson System of three point converging linkage worked in the hope to get a manufacturer to mass-produce it.

Harry Ferguson designed the tractor to be as light as possible using the latest lightweight materials because of the design effect of weight transfer of the Ferguson System, therefore the weight of the tractor was not important to provide traction. The two furrow capacity Ferguson Black tractor was powered by the latest American built Hercules 18HP 4 cylinder petrol/paraffin, water cooled engine. The tractor ready to use with fuel, oil and water, weighted only 16.4cwt (833 kg).

After extensive testing and improvements, the production version of the Ferguson Black tractor which followed the prototype tractor closely was built for Harry Ferguson by the Ferguson-Brown Company in Huddersfield, England from 1936 - 1939. Known as the Ferguson-Brown Type A it was the world's first production tractor with Ferguson System.

Today the Ferguson Black tractor is on loan to the Science Museum, London, although currently it is not on public display.

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