BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Waterloo Boy

DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Waterloo Boy:

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Description of Pictures: Waterloo Boy
Ongoing
In the early 1900s farmers switched from horses to tractors. While much of the world continued to rely on human brawn or draft animals, Americans adopted the new technology of gasoline-powered tractors.
The development and use of gasoline-powered tractors in the early 1900s helped change the business of American farming. Turning away from animal power and labor-intensive production, farmers modernized their rural operations, seeking the efficiency, size, and use of machines typical of urban factories.
The plow and agricultural implement maker Deere and Co. experimented in-house with tractor design in the early 1910s, but got into tractor sales by buying the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Co. in 1918. The investment was a success. By 1936 a whopping 40% of John Deere’s sales came from tractors.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SIAHWB_180620_01.JPG: Waterloo Boy tractor, 1918
2. SIAHWB_180620_05.JPG: Icon of Agriculture: The development and use of gasoline-powered tractors in the early 1900s helped change the business of American farming. Turning away from animal power and labor-intensive production, farmers modernized their rural operations, seeking the efficiency, size, and use of machines typical of urban factories. Fuel Versus Feed: Horses eat 365 days a year; tractors consume fuel only when running. Abandoning the use of animal power meant that farmers could grow cash crops on land once used for raising feed. It takes about six acres to grow enough food for a single horse. Innovation: It takes much effort to stay competitive, and often more change to become dominant. Evolutionary biologists call this the "Red Queen Hypothesis," named for the character in Through the Looking Glass. When applied to business, the idea reflects the uncertainty of adopting new inventions. Do US farmers risk bankruptcy to buy new machinery and run twice as fast, or stand still and go with tradition?
3. SIAHWB_180620_16.JPG: Fuel Versus Feed: Horses eat 365 days a year; tractors consume fuel only when running. Abandoning the use of animal power meant that farmers could grow cash crops on land once used for raising feed. It takes about six acres to grow enough food for a single horse. Replacement of horses by tractors on U.S. farms
4. SIAHWB_180620_19.JPG: Innovation: It takes much effort to stay competitive, and often more change to become dominant. Evolutionary biologists call this the "Red Queen Hypothesis," named for the character in Through the Looking Glass. When applied to business, the idea reflects the uncertainty of adopting new inventions. Do US farmers risk bankruptcy to buy new machinery and run twice as fast, or stand still and go with tradition? "... it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" -- The Red Queen
5. SIAHWB_180620_40.JPG: Selling Change: In the early 1900s farmers switched from horses to tractors. While much of the world continued to rely on human brawn or draft animals, Americans adopted the new technology of gasoline-powered tractors, motivated by clever ads, competitive prices, and a desire to be modern. New Technology: The plow and agricultural implement maker Deere and Co. experimented with tractor design in the early teens but got into tractor sales by buying the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Co. in 1918. The investment was a success. By 1936 a whopping 40% of John Deere's sales came from tractors. Competition: As is common with new technology, a large number of early developers competed for a small market. In 1916 nearly 100 manufacturers sold tractors. By the 1930s only two major companies dominated the field: John Deere and International Harvester.
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2018 photos: Overnight trips this year: (February) Greenville, NC for a Civil War Trust conference,, (May/June) Newport News, VA for another CWT conference, (July) my 13th consecutive trip to San Diego Comic-Con (including sites in Reno, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles), (August twice, October) three trips to New York City (including New York Comic-Con), and (September) Chicago, IL for my CWT swansong event. Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. Number of photos taken this year: about 535,000.
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