In Reply to: Re: Ferguson vs Ford posted by Terry in Mo (T-Mo) on January 16, 2023 at 04:27:33:
Still without Harry's skills as a salesman the tractor would have died after December of 1941 when the steel allotments were restricted to military vehicles industry wide. Not saying Ferguson was overly responsible for the 9N, but still sometimes skills beyond those of inventor and engineer are required to bring a project into the full light. It really remains, that even though many of the Ford people believed him to be more trouble than help in getting the tractor into reality, probably justifiably so, it would never have seen the light of day without him and it likely would never have had a model past the 1942 9N had he not personally gone to Congress and then personally demonstrated one of the 9N's to FDR at Hyde Park. Roosevelt bought the tractor and authorized the steel allotment for the 2N for the remainder of the war.
I think Bob Gregorie, Edsel's design chief, told a great story about having to keep a draftsman near the door of the design studio equipped with dual badges for the clay mock-up of the hood. One said Ford, the other Ferguson and depending on which of these men were coming down the hall to look at things the appropriate badge went onto the clay hood. Such were things until the last of the project.