Deer's "Most Copied Machine

Deer's "Most Copied Machine COMBINES Miscellaneous 22-6-5 "The most copied machine Deere ever built" is how Deere describes the first self-propelled combine it produced more than 50 years ago. What most people don't know is that the machine nearly never saw the light of day. George Duke, a Deere engineer at the time, had definite ideas about how the machine should be designed. The problem was that his ideas didn't jibe with Deere's. It seems Massey-Harris had come out with a self-propelled combine two years earlier, with features Deere determined should be included in its own machine. The Massey had the engine mounted under the belly, a holding bin off to one side and two 5-ft. wide canvas conveyors to bring grain to the threshers. Duke didn't like the design, but following orders he designed a combine for Deere with the same features. During a trial run, the engine caught fire and a man was seriously burned. Duke and some of his associates decided the engine should be on top to reduce risk of fire. They also decided the holding bin should go on top and that canvas conveyors should be replaced with an auger on the cutterbar. However, Deere's chief engineer was less-than impressed and ordered Duke to stop work on the machine. Duke continued work on the machine on his own and eventually the chief engineer had a change of heart and instructed him to work full-time on the new design. "All during the Christmas holidays, while the Battle of the Bulge was being fought in Europe, our mechanics were driving that machine around the race track, testing it," Duke re-called. Deere invited all of its North American branch managers to a demonstration of the finished product, which resulted in orders for 1,000 combines. The company had to build a 90-acre factory to produce them. "I knew what was right and how the thing ought to be put together," Duke said. "It was as simple as ABC to me." He takes the success of the machine, "the most copied machine Deere ever built" according to the company, in stride. "You have to realize," he says, "that's what they hire engineers to do." (Resource Magazine)

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