Self-propelled combine from Massey Harris.

This is the first installment in a new I&T series of people, machines and technological advances that changed or enhanced the course of agriculture in the U.S. and throughout the world.

While other harvesting mechanisms were still hung on tractors, Massey Harris introduced farmers to the first totally integrated, self-propelled combine in 1938. The man behind the new invention was Tom Carroll, the chief harvesting engineer at Massey Harris.

The harvester Tom Carroll envisioned had a dedicated power unit that supplied all components, from cutter bar to grain cleaning system. Kevin Bien, product marketing manager for Massey Ferguson, today's company that evolved from Massey Harris, said "His innovative design became the industry standard with its large front drive axle and rear axle steering," Bien said.

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The key to Carroll's design was the synergy that was achieved between the individual components, his recognition that the cutting, feeding, threshing, separating and cleaning component capacities had to match with sufficient power for all. "This was as vital to the success of that first machine as it is in our current Class VIII machines--the gold standard our engineers follow today."

During World War II, the U.S. Government allocated precious materials specifically for the building of Massey-Harris (Model #21) combines for the "Harvest Brigade." Built on the idea and persistence of Joe Tucker, vice-president of Massey-Harris at the time, this fleet of 500 self-propelled combines was manufactured and sold to custom cutters, who, along with a group of company technicians, cut grain throughout the American wheat belt in 1944 and 1945--beginning in Texas and ending in North Dakota--much as custom harvesters do today. *

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Following World War II, popularity of the Massey-Harris combines continued to grow. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, each new model included new features, and capacity increased and special hillside and rice models were introduced.

Innovations in the new generation of combines in the early 1960s, under the Massey Ferguson name, included the engines being mounted above and forward of the cylinder and the concave, a saddle-type grain bin with increased capacity that also lowered the combine's center of gravity and a turret-style unloading auger. Bien said these features raised the bar for the entire harvesting industry.

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Massey Ferguson combines introduced in the 1970s and 1980s were larger and more powerful. The company also began to transition from conventional design to axial rotary technology, which had been developed by White Farm Equipment. Both Massey Ferguson and White Farm Equipment are among the AGCO heritage brands.

The 2008 Model 9895 Class VIII is the biggest Massey Ferguson combine built by the company. It still uses the axial rotary design, which Bien says is the result of the years of design and development begun by Tom Carroll's design for the fully integrated, self propelled combine of 1938.

* The article "A Tribute to the Harvest Brigade" appeared in the March/April 2005 issue of Implement & Tractor. A history of the Harvest Brigade and its reenactment by Lenwood Holo in 2004 is available online: http://customcombinetribute.tripod.com.