 Big M, The styled machines have had the magic touch of the "stylist", industrial designer, or what we used to call "chrome slingers" when they were out of earshot. There's an interesting history to the competition in styled tractors and a lot of US products that brings to mind Abe Lincoln's story about one lawyer in town starving, but then a 2nd lawyer moves in and they both do quite well. A guy named Raymond Loewy styled a locomotive for the Penn Central railroad which caused another guy named Henry Dreyfuss to get a hired to style the New York Central railroad locomotives. In the same sort of way, Loewy hooked up with Farmall and did their letter series tractors, while Dreyfuss hooked up with John Deere to do the styled letter series, number series, and the new gen tractors. If you go to the Smithsonian's design museum, you can see the original John Deere new gen styling drawing done in 1959 by the Dreyfuss studios. These artsy type stylist guys like Loewy and Dreyfuss pull in hefty fees, make mechanical engineers crazy, but most importantly their work seems to help sell more products. Here's the caption of the new gen drawing at the museum. Wonder if their human factors studies killed the hand clutch?
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" In 1937, Deere & Co.'s engineers decided that, while they knew how to create dependable and efficient tractors, what they needed was a more cohesive appearance that projected these qualities. Consultations with Dreyfuss led to a more unified design of the tractor and all its different models. In restyling the Model B, Dreyfuss and the engineers combined the hood and radiator cover and grouped components rather than simply covering them up. Later, Dreyfuss created a "corrugated" radiator shield that farmers could clean with their gloved hands--a change that resulted from watching how people actually worked. By the mid-1950s, Deere & Co. management decided to completely overhaul their existing line. Dreyfuss's firm was a fundamental force in shaping the "New Generation of Power" tractors (1960). In addition to changes in external appearance, materials, and color schemes, the firm helped develop a more versatile seat that suited a wide range of users. The new seat became a vital selling point to farmers, who often spent the better part of their day aboard these machines.
----- -- Steve
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