Benjamin Holt (1849-1920): The Father of the Caterpillar tractor
Holt Manufacturing
Co.’s tractor-type No. 77, arguably Benjamin Holt’s greatest
innovation: A track laying machine that would put down its own steel
path, crawl over it and then pick it up as it passed.
by Gwenyth Laird Pernie
As a boy in the mid 1800s, Benjamin Holt mastered his
inventive and innovative skills working in his family’s wagon factory
and sawmill in Concord, NH. He would later apply these skills to
revolutionize farming equipment as the world moved into the 20th
century.
Several of his major accomplishments include the
development of the Link Belt Combined Harvester, his contribution to
the conversion from horse powered to steam-operated machines and the
development of the track-laying steam engines, named “Caterpillar” by
Holt in 1904.
Benjamin Holt was born Jan. 1, 1849, in Concord, NH, the
seventh of eight children. In 1864, the first of eventually all four
Holt brothers moved to California to further the family’s hardwood
products business. In 1883, Benjamin joined his three brothers in
Stockton, CA, and the four set up the Stockton Wheel Co., which
produced season woods in a way that would prepare them for use in the
arid midlands of California and desert of the West. The entrepreneurial
brothers soon realized that the expansion of farming in California’s
fertile San Joaquin Valley was going to fuel a boom in agricultural
machinery, and Benjamin began putting his technical skills to use
modernizing agricultural equipment.
Holt’s inventions were inspired by the needs of farmers.
In order to help the farmers increase their productivity, in 1886
Benjamin designed the horse drawn Link Belt Combined Harvester. This
piece of machinery allowed the farmer to merge the cutting and
threshing of grain into one mechanical operation, allowing farmers to
cut more wheat in one pass, thus increasing productivity and cutting
labor hours nearly in half.
Holt later redesigned the combine to work on hillsides. He
designed it with two separate wooden frames, permitting the drive
wheels to be raised or lowered independent of each other so the
threshing machine could remain horizontal while the combine operated on
slopes as steep as 30 degrees.
During the 1880s, the company sold combines ranging in
size from a 14-foot cutting bar (pulled by 18 horses) to a 50-foot
cutting bar (pulled by 40 horses). The down side to the farmer was the
cost to control, house and feed the large horse teams. Holt, again
responding to the farmers’ need for a more compact power source, began
experimenting with steam powered tractors.
By 1890 Holt built his first steam traction engine capable
of hauling 50 tons of freight at 3 miles per hour. These tractors could
harvest large fields at one-sixth the cost of horse drawn combines. But
they were huge and heavy. Holt’s first one weighed 45,000-pounds and
carried 600 gallons of water. Holt would address this problem in 1906,
when he began manufacturing lighter weight gasoline powered tractors.
In 1892, soon after the company began manufacturing steam engines, the
Stockton Wheel Co. was incorporated into Holt Manufacturing Co.
Perhaps Holt’s greatest innovation came when he was
challenged to improve farming in the very fertile Delta region of
California. Farming in the Delta was risky because the heavy steam
machinery tended to sink into the soggy, soft earth of the region.
After several unsuccessful attempts to design machines that could
maneuver the soggy terrain, Holt and his associates traveled to Europe
and found the answer: A track laying machine that would put down its
own steel path, crawl over it, and pick it up as it passed. The
combine’s weight would spread over an area potentially as large as the
combine itself instead of concentrating at the points where the wheels
met the ground. Benjamin added 9-foot long and 3-1/2-foot wide wooden
block-linked treads around the idlers of a Holt No. 77. On Thanksgiving
Day, Nov. 24, 1904, the machine was put to test plowing land and the
experiment was a success. Company photographer Charles Clements
observed the tractor crawled like a caterpillar — Holt replied,
“Caterpillar it is. That’s the name for it.”
In 1906, Holt sold his first steam powered tractor
crawlers for $5,500. The first commercial production of Caterpillars
had a track frame on each side that measured 30-inches high by
42-inches wide by 9-foot long. The tracks were 3-inch by 4-inch redwood
slats. Holt registered “Caterpillar” as the company’s trademark in 1910.
Within a few years, Holt increased the horsepower and
decreased the weight of the tractors by switching from steam to
gasoline power. The first 40-hp gas powered models went into production
in 1908. The most popular gas powered tractor was a Model 75
manufactured a few years later. It weighed 24,000-pounds and had a
75-hp engine.
By 1916, 2,000 Holt tractors had been sold worldwide. As the company
grew, Holt moved the tractor manufacturing operations to a more central
location in Peoria, IL, where Caterpillar Inc. is still headquartered.
In 1925, the Holt Co. merged with the C.L. Best Co., and took the name
Caterpillar Tractor Co. Then, in 1986, the name was changed to
Caterpillar Inc.
In the history of off road machinery, Benjamin Holt stands
out as one of its greatest inventors, innovators and businessmen. His
contributions to the field shaped the country’s transition into the
20th century as he led the way from horse drawn tractors to steam
driven combines to the track laying system utilized by much of the off
road equipment of today. His innovations contributed not only to
improvements in farming, construction and forestry equipment, but also
greatly to advancements in military equipment. Holt’s designs provided
the inspiration behind the British tank, utilized first in WWI. The
British tank adapted the track laying principle to a metal shrouded
machine that could shrug off machine-gun fire, break through barbed
wire, and cross trenches — profoundly altering ground warfare tactics.
Benjamin remained the president of the Holt Co. until he
died in Stockton, CA on Dec. 5, 1920. He left behind a wife, Anna
Brown, and five children. Today, Benjamin’s legacy continues through
his great-grandson, Peter Holt, chief executive officer of HOLT CAT,
headquartered in, San Antonio, Texas, one of the largest Caterpillar
dealers in the world. Meanwhile, according to Forbes Magazine,
Caterpillar Inc. has grown into the 133rd largest company in the world
with a market value of $45.13 billion in 2008.