International Harvester Inc
Biography
International Harvester Company (IHC) was an agricultural machinery, construction equipment, vehicle, commercial truck, and household and commercial products manufacturer.The roots of International Harvester can be traced back to the 1830s, when Cyrus Hall McCormick, an inventor from Virginia, finalized his version of a horse-drawn reaper. The reaper was demonstrated in tests in 1831 and was patented by Cyrus in 1834. Together with his brother, McCormick moved to Chicago in 1847 and started the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. The McCormick reaper sold well, partially as a result of their savvy and innovative business practices.
Their products came onto the market just as the development of railroads offered wide distribution to distant market areas. He developed marketing and sales techniques, developing a vast network of trained salesmen able to demonstrate operation of the machines in the field.
One of the first early products (besides the harvesting equipment that McCormick and Deering had been making prior to the merger) from the newly created International Harvester Company was the Traction Truck: a truck frame manufactured by Morton Traction Truck Company (later bought IHC) with an IHC engine mounted on it.
From 1902 when IH was formed to the early 1920s, the McCormick and Deering dealerships kept their original brands unique, with Mogul tractors sold at McCormick dealers, and Titan tractors at Deering dealerships, due to the still present competitiveness of the former rivals.
IH produced a range of massive gas-powered farm tractors under both the Mogul and Titan brands. These tractors had varied success but the trend going into the mid-teens of the 1900s was "small" and "cheap".
The first important tractors from IH were the model 10-20 and 15-30. Introduced in 1915, the tractors (which were comparatively smaller than their predecessors) were primarily used as traction engines to pull ploughs and for belt work on threshing machines. The 10-20 and 15-30 both had separate, but similar, Mogul and Titan versions.
Their products came onto the market just as the development of railroads offered wide distribution to distant market areas. He developed marketing and sales techniques, developing a vast network of trained salesmen able to demonstrate operation of the machines in the field.
One of the first early products (besides the harvesting equipment that McCormick and Deering had been making prior to the merger) from the newly created International Harvester Company was the Traction Truck: a truck frame manufactured by Morton Traction Truck Company (later bought IHC) with an IHC engine mounted on it.
From 1902 when IH was formed to the early 1920s, the McCormick and Deering dealerships kept their original brands unique, with Mogul tractors sold at McCormick dealers, and Titan tractors at Deering dealerships, due to the still present competitiveness of the former rivals.
IH produced a range of massive gas-powered farm tractors under both the Mogul and Titan brands. These tractors had varied success but the trend going into the mid-teens of the 1900s was "small" and "cheap".
The first important tractors from IH were the model 10-20 and 15-30. Introduced in 1915, the tractors (which were comparatively smaller than their predecessors) were primarily used as traction engines to pull ploughs and for belt work on threshing machines. The 10-20 and 15-30 both had separate, but similar, Mogul and Titan versions.
Born/Established
estab. 1902
Died/Ceased
closed 1985
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