First, you need to know that ALL standard production Ford-Ferguson 9N and 2N tractors used the "9N" prefix in the serial number. There was NEVER a '2N' s/n prefix code. You also need to read the list of s/n's by production years to verify model year. There are lists available everywhere. Now, here?s the HISTORY. I?ll try to keep it short, but that may not be possible to do so. Harry Ferguson and Henry Ford were like two brothers from another mother. Both were of Irish decent, both were raised on farms, and both dreaded farming techniques of the day and wanted to make it so life on the farm was better and the farmer could actually make a living instead of the constant drudgery it had been. Harry Ferguson was in a partnership/business arrangement with David Brown in England. They had produced the 1936 Ferguson-Brown Type ?A? tractor which had the first crude working version of the new draft control lift system. Eber Sherman, whom was a former partner with Ferguson in their Ferguson-Sherman deal that produced a plow for the Fordson tractor, convinced Harry to go to Detroit and show this to Henry Ford. In mid-October, 1938, Ferguson and one of his engineers, John Williams, packed up a F-B tractor, s/n 722, and a few implements and sailed from Belfast, Ireland to New York on their way to Detroit. From New York they traveled to Detroit by train along with the tractor and implements for a meeting with Ford. On a crisp November day ( some say it was October but it took 2-3 weeks to sail from Britain to New York ) at Dearborn, Ferguson demonstrated the draft control to Ford and reportedly his response was, ??eureka! this is it!?. A kitchen table and two chairs were brought out from the house and the two men sat down to discuss a partnership for producing a new tractor. The details were never written down and only the two men knew what was actually said, but the bottom line was that Ford would manufacture the tractor and plow and Ferguson would be the distributor. They shook hands as what was known as a ?gentleman?s handshake agreement?. The following day the tractor and implements were in a hangar at the Ford airport where the Ford engineers would begin R&D?g for the new Ford Tractor with Ferguson System. A few years later this would be the site of the Willow Run plant for B-24 production during WWII. Building ?B? at the Rouge Complex was set up with engineering offices and production for the new tractor and by January, 1939, Ford had the basics drawn and prototypes were built for testing. Ford had to design their own tractor and plow as both were crudely built and not suitable for North American farming. Ferguson and his team sailed back to England as he had to first break his partnership with David Brown. They had only built and sold about 1200 Type A tractors from 1936 to 1939. Both men had wanted out for some time as they did not see eye to eye on many issues. Ferguson had not told his partner why he was going to the US to meet with Henry Ford neither before he went nor on his return. This was part of Fergusons? personality ?a bit devious and a shrewd businessman. He certainly wasn?t a true engineer. He had some technical training but the truth is Ferguson was not the inventor of the 3-pt/draft control system. The true inventors were his team of real designers and engineers, Willie Sands, Archie Greer, and John Chambers. Harry Ferguson held the patents to the 3pt system as well as many of the Ford 9N ones because Henry Ford despised patents and lawyers even more ever since his encounter over the Model T Selden patent suit, of which Ford was the victor. The patent rights would come back to bite Ford after the lawsuit was filed by Ferguson upon his dismissal at Ford in 1946 by Henry Ford II. Civil action 44-482 was filed in New York by Ferguson in January, 1948. It would take several years of legal arguments before the case was finally over in April, 1952 with an out-of-court settlement of $10 million being granted to Ferguson. This was only about 1/10th of his what he originally sought. A big factor that worked against him was that in 1946 after his dismissal at Ford, Harry had set up a factory in England to produce his own tractor, based on the Ford 9N as he had a set of original Ford blueprints. With a few of his own modifications, the new Ferguson TE-20 model, for ?Tractor?England? rolled off the line at Coventry, England. The success of this model resulted in Ferguson building his own plant in Detroit to produce a USA version, called the TO-20 Model for ?Tractor-Overseas?. The first TO-20 rolled off the new line in Detroit on October 11, 1948. On July 7, 1947, Ford had released their new model, the 8N, 8 for model year 1948. They had improved the 3-pt system now adding Position Control to it. The rest is history as the 3-pt changed the world of farming forever after. Both Ford and Ferguson needed each other. They could not have accomplished things on their own, that much is certain. If you want the best account of Ferguson, get a copy of Colin Fraser?s book, ?TRACTOR PIONEER -THE LIFE OF HARRY FERGUSON? of which much of these facts were taken from.
Tim *PloughNman* Daley(MI)