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Comment by billjings | Hacker News Reader

That headline didn't pass the smell test for me, so I decided to do some quick research... who did invent the tractor, anyway?

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/220609/John-Froehl...

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, it was John Froehlich - an Iowa blacksmith - who invented the first gasoline-powered tractor. Apparently a Frenchman (nicolas cugnot) had a steam-powered tractor in 1769, but apparently this was not used for agriculture.

Can't find precisely where he lived, but I imagine that as an Iowan blacksmith he had some experience with the demands and opportunities in farm work.

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Any bets that he grew up on a farm?

But the blogger's original point is that people with a different point of view make inventions outside their own itch. My contention is really the opposite.

A quick google search indicates that he ran a feed mill and took a threshing crew to ND every year, and the tractor was developed to address problems he encountered doing that work.

One of a few rough sources: http://iagenweb.org/boards/clayton/biographies/index.cgi?rea...

So, yeah, it's actually a perfect example of someone taking his technical skills and using them to come up with an innovative solution to something close to home.

If this page is correct

http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/downs/9828/fergy_12.htm

it was probably somewhere near Waterloo

    > This was the first tractor built by Froelich who with
    > others formed the Waterloo GasolineTraction Engine
    > Company. This company manufactured the Waterloo Boy
    > tractors starting in 1914. The Waterloo Company was
    > purchased by John Deere in 1918 and became the John
    > DeereTractor Company.

As of not too long ago, almost everyone was somehow involved in agriculture, and if they managed not to be, they were surrounded by people that were. this is a link to a good ted talk on how recent it is that we got the luxury not to think about food, and ideas on what that means: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/louise_fresco_on_feeding_...

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