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| - He was born at Growell, near Dromore, County Down, Ireland, and was the son of a farmer. In 1902 Ferguson went to work with his brother Joe in his bicycle and car repair business. Whilst working there as a mechanic he developed an interest in aviation, to the extent of visiting airshows abroad. In 1904 he began to race motorcycles. Ferguson saw at first hand the weakness of having tractor and plough as separate articulated units, and in 1917 he devised a plough which could be rigidly attached to a Model T Ford car - the Eros, which became a limited success, competing with the Fordson Model F.
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| - He was born at Growell, near Dromore, County Down, Ireland, and was the son of a farmer. In 1902 Ferguson went to work with his brother Joe in his bicycle and car repair business. Whilst working there as a mechanic he developed an interest in aviation, to the extent of visiting airshows abroad. In 1904 he began to race motorcycles. In 1909 Ferguson became the first person to fly in Ireland, when he took off on December 31 in a monoplane he had designed and built himself. After falling out with his brother over the safety and future of aviation Ferguson decided to go it alone, and in 1911 founded a company selling Maxwell automobile, Star and Vauxhall cars and Overtime Tractors - eventually to be named Harry Ferguson Limited. Ferguson saw at first hand the weakness of having tractor and plough as separate articulated units, and in 1917 he devised a plough which could be rigidly attached to a Model T Ford car - the Eros, which became a limited success, competing with the Fordson Model F. Ferguson eventually founded the Ferguson-Sherman Inc., along with Eber and George Sherman. The new enterprise developed a ploughing system that incorporated a Duplex hitch system which fitted the Fordson line tractors. Ferguson's new hydraulic system was first seen on the Ferguson-Brown Model A tractors. Ferguson eventually made a handshake agreement with Henry Ford so that Ford could use Ferguson's three-point hitch system on his new line of tractors (Fordson 9N, 2N, and 8N). Henry Ford II, Ford's grandson, abruptly ended the handshake deal on June 30, 1947. Ferguson's reaction was a law suit demanding $251,000,000 in all. Ferguson then set up his own company to build Ferguson Tractors, the first model being the Ferguson TE 20, which was very similar to the Ford-Fergusons, built by Fordson. The disagreement was settled with Ferguson receiving the then huge sum of £9,500,000 in April of 1952. A year later Ferguson tractors merged with Massey-Harris to become Massey-Harris-Ferguson Co. This merger eventually turned into the Massey Ferguson Company. Ferguson's research division went on to develop various cars and tractors, including the first Formula One 4 wheel drive car. See Ferguson Research Ltd. The Ferguson 4 wd system was used in the Jensen Intercepter, a car ahead of its time, being built nearly 20 years before the Iconic 4 wd Audi "Quatro" Rally cars that popularised the use of 4 wd in road cars.
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