As printed in the Wild Harvest 1999

"America's Foremost Tractor". These statements were made by the J.I. Case Plow Works and Wallis Tractor CO.. Today, in our contemporary world, we run across statements like these and dismiss them as so much sales hype. How many times do we hear or read statements of a product being "the wave of the future" or "setting the standards for al others to follow". The fact is, J.I. Case Plow Works and Wallis Tractor Co. made a statement that was a fact then and is still a fact and true claim today. That is "the measuring stick of the tractor industry" and "America's Foremost Tractor". The fact is the majority of outstanding features in the modern tractor today and some that didn't come out until the fifties in automobiles are a direct result of advanced engineering principles used by Wallis in 1913.

With all due respect to all those revered monumental pillars of tractordom built at or around 1912 or even as late ad the 1920's and 30's compare the facts. Take a photo of a Wallis Cub, Cub Jr., 20/30. 10/20, Massey Harris 25 and a list of their features, make a comparison. Your conclusion will be that the other machines look like a backyard tinker's nightmare. Henry M. Wallis called the "freak machines".

The Wallis tractor was sold on facts and the facts are indisputable. Henry, as in Ford, wasn't first. In fact, Henry, we know you took a Wallis tractor and evaluated it on your estate to develop the Fordson. Patent # 1,0205,982 shows Clarence M. Eason & Robert O. Hendrickson of Wallis Tractor Co. in 1913 were first to use a solid one piece frame that did away with "I"-beams and crossbeams. The frame was made of three sixteenths of an inch boiler plate combining the engine, crankcase and transmission together. They developed the first tractor to weigh less than any other tractor of equal piston displacement. The first tractor to pull more with less. Think of it, 3 to 4 plow class tractors weighed 1000-5000 lbs more than a Wallis.

The first tractor to enclose all gears and mechanical moving parts, running them in oil. The first to use roller bearings everywhere possible. A standard brass or babbitt bearing has a mechanical efficiency of 50% where as a tapered roller or ball bearing gives 70% of engine power delivered to the drawbar. Compared to cast gears carried on shafts mounted on babbitt bearings will use up to 3 gallons of fuel out of 10. Cast gears were standard at the time. Wallis used drop forged nickel steel gears that were double heat treated and ground to exact size within .001", one-one thousandth of an inch.

Consider these features of the Wallis:

     - Roller bearings & seals in front and rear wheels (most other manufacturers used bushings with no seals) 

     - Burned any fuel, but advertised that fas was really cheaper, at a time gas was unpopular to use   

     - Used valve in head "L" configuration which proved most efficient. 

     - Rear axles 3 1/3" diameter made of 40-carbon steel 

     - Cylinder sleeves of special close grained cast iron 

     - Everything undercover 

     - Exhaust ports unusually short 

     - Combustion space hemispherical and precision machined to equal size 

     - Camshaft drop forged steel and hardened at a time the standard was to have separate cams keyed to a cast shaft 



Consider some more Wallis firsts:



     - Use removable cylinder sleeves that are honed to size, no hot spots, even thickness of walls, maximum cooling and lubrication 

     - Use light-weight piston 

     - Offset cylinders 

     - Oil flushing air cleaner which the University of California found to be 98.8% efficient 

     - Deliver more power to live axle 

     - Separate the impulse starter from magneto 

     - Place the differential ahead of rear axle 

     - Inserted rod and main bearings 

     - Heat treated valve ends 

     - Inserted hardened valve seats 

     - Oil supply forced metered pressure and splash system to bearings 

     - Oil filter with reusable filter 

     - Rods high carbon steel drop forged 

     - Pistons, rods, crankshaft all moving parts balanced statically and dynamically 

     - Camshaft set in bronze bearings 

     - All adjustments-mag, carbm heat, made at driver's seat 

     - Oil throwgear used to lube the transmission good for just doing belt work 

     - Chrome vanadium front axle 

     - All transmission shafts made of chrome vanadium 

     - Special alloy valves, non-burning 

     - Lifter guides replaceable 

     - Chrome vanadium crankshaft 

     - A positive belt pulley brake 

     - The use of spiral bevel gears in the transmission (we recognize them as ring & pinion gears) 

     - Belt pulley outside conical in shape flat in back eliminating spokes

       and inner rim surfaces to which mud and dirt would adhere and cause imbalance. 

     - Crank case breather with filter 

     - Turning radius at 14 feet   

     - Differential located between the motor and axle the torque

       strain is lessened in proportion of 19 to 110 as when used

       in a rear axle assembly.  No one has ever seen a Wallis or

       Massey Harris rear end pulled out. The same design of the

       1916 Cub Jr. was used up to 1958.  In fact the same basic

       parts of the 20/30 were used until 1959 when the 555

       Massey Harris was discontinued.  These final drives are

       still sought after to be used in competition pulling tractors.  

     - The vaporizer used for carbueration is so efficient

       that when kerosene or distillate is used for fuel the

       tractor will idle indefinitely.  Water is injected

       automatically at ¾  load or over. 

     - An exclusive feature at the time was the internal power

       take off - on drawn machines with a balance wheel or cylinders

       the speed of the drawn machine can be obtained with the tractor

       standing still and the gears shifted and the tractor started

       without having to start both at the same time. (Before the advent

       of the "live" PTO)



     - PTO first with a ratchet jaw clutch so equipment will not

       over-run tractor.

The last variation of the Wallis tractor is the Massey Harris 25 which dialer sales price lists show available in 1940. The 201 being introduced to replace it.

In conclusion remember this: all these features and firsts were made at a time when tractor claims and quality were so poor Nebraska started testing and publishing their findings. That is why Wallis ran the one thousand mile durability test to prove its case (no pun intended) that Wallis is the best tractor ever placed on the market while the enthusiastic wave of tractors purchased at the time proved unsatisfactory.

In every industry one manufacturer becomes the leader. The Wallis became and still is America's Foremost tractor. You will find all of Wallis' features and first in a modern built tractor of today.

We are developing a series of articles to clarify and document the origins of the Wallis, Massey-Harris, Massey-Ferguson and Ferguson tractors. This being part 1, Part 2 will be "The Men Behind America's Foremost Tractors".

Many hours of research has gone into this ongoing series. If you have any information to add, please relate this and documentation to Dan Whalen. There are too many books, articles and VCR tapes on this subject that are in whole or in part inaccurate and misleading which has damaged and eclipsed the reputation of these fine tractors as the facts show.

Notice - We want the public to know that the Wallis tractor is made by the J.I. Case Plow works, Inc. of Racine, Wisconsin and is not the product of any other company with "J.I. Case" as part of its corporate name.