Ferguson-Brown Company

The Ferguson-Brown Company was a Northern Irish agricultural machinery manufacturer formed by Harry Ferguson in partnership with David Brown. It produced the Model A Ferguson-Brown tractor, which carried a Ferguson-designed hydraulic three-point linkage hitch; 1,356 were built and 400 of them were sold in Norway, the only export market. The early tractors used the Coventry Climax model E engine, a descendant of the American Hercules engine, and engine manufacture was later taken on by David Brown Ltd, which made improvements such as a deeper sump after some early tractors suffered oil starvation on hillside work. David Brown started the company in 1936, and the partners disagreed over design details, which led Brown to design his own David Brown VAK1 tractor, introduced in 1939. In 1938 Ferguson made a handshake agreement with Henry Ford to build Ferguson System tractors, and in 1953 Ferguson merged with Massey-Harris.