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Bill, You're right about load control being claimed a lot in the Ferguson patents. I think this is why: Like most outfits that do a bunch of patents on basically the same subject, each successive Ferguson patent reiterates the claims of the previous patents. It's a good strategy to strengthen the patents. So you get, for example, a patent in 1937 which added sway blocks and control chains as the bottom claim, but also reiterates claims: 1. a tractor 2. a tractor with hitching means 3. a tractor with hitching means, said hitching means having load control. And so on and so forth until the 10th or whatever claim is about the sway block. The thing is that patents only last 17 years, but by patenting a refinement later on, you can give your key patent a new lease on life by claiming it all over again. So every Fergie patent would seem to be about load control. Stuff like this is why patent lawyers can charge 500 bucks an hour. In a trick bag like this, the Deere guys probably had the hitch on the M designed by a lawyer. They obviously could have just copied the Ford 3pt -- but patent suits get real expensive, real fast. And Ford / Fergie probably wasn't interested in licensing. It was as close to the Ford as the lawyer dared to get and yet have something that could try to compete with the Ford in the marketplace. Another strategy is something like seeing those rock shafts on late A's and B's, etc. If you have 10 or 20 or 30 aftermarket shops building hitch parts to fit on the rockshafts which are then installed by dealers or farmers -- there are maybe a few thousand or 10,000 infringers. Just too many defendants to go after to economically defend the patent --even though it has no load control -- people thought they were getting a 3pt. I've got a book that says the M was Deere's first product that functioned like the Ford / Fergie 3 point. You're right, no load control, so it didn't really do the job for plowing. It was Deere's first try at something close -- and wink, wink, nudge, nudge, don't use the word 3 pt 'cause we don't want a patent suit. Call it a "Touch-O-Matic" instead. They needed to do something similar as they were getting beaten badly in the market. The load or draft control device meant a '39 Ford could plow about as much in a day as a big '39 model G Deere. Funny how all the compact and utility tractors you see now have "3 points" -- but top arm is bolted to nothing but dumb metal so the load control is accomplished by your hand on the lever -- and they're generally a pain to try to plow with (least here in Indiana clay) yet they're called 3pts. Also when you consider all the no-till going on, the whole subject is becoming less and less relevant. Fun to discuss history of ideas in machines and all the twists and turns that were made for personal, legal, economic, polictical, etc. reasons. Thanks for your compliment, zane, hope I didn't put too many people to sleep. Steve
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