Ninety years of the Ferguson System Spanner
Some people use the Ferguson System Spanner to dip the fuel level in a tractors’ fuel tank, but this was never its intended use by Harry Ferguson. Like so much developed by Harry Ferguson, the Ferguson System Spanner has a very interesting story.
Harry Ferguson had been thinking about a single wrench or spanner as the one tool to adjust Ferguson implements over a number of years. As the tractor and different implements was to be a single mechanised farming solution that he first envisioned a century ago in 1925 and with his Ferguson System finally perfected in 1935 he thought why not have the tractor also use the same size of nuts and bolts as the implements, another brilliant but simple idea from Harry Ferguson.
After building his first Ferguson System tractor and its perfection with the Ferguson System in 1935 at County Tyrone he returned to developing his special spanner. This was all part of the simplicity of use in the Ferguson System.
A spanner to adjust implements was not a new idea, every company usually supplied a spanner or two to fit the nuts and bolts on their own implements. However what was more unusual was the idea of just two sizes to fit all so that one open ended spanner could be used. Incorporating a measure on the stem was unusual and meant the spanner could be used to measure furrow width/depth and for setting and adjustment in one tool.
One of the best known spanners with a measure was made by the LA Crosse Plow Company at LA Crosse, Wisconsin, USA which was incorporated in 1881. The Company was famous for their silky ploughs and from 1916 also for building tractors, including the Happy Farmer tractor. A few of these tractors and ploughs would be sold in the UK and the company was known to Harry Ferguson. However their plough spanner had four different sizes.
Another Company and which Harry Ferguson had links with was the Henderson and Company Foundry that was established by William Henderson at Castlederg in County Tyrone in 1872 and later became the Tyrone Foundry at Omagh. The company would cast some of the parts for the first Ferguson ploughs in 1916 - 1917. William Henderson was an innovator himself and came up with the Henderson opened ended spanner that on the back had inch divisions for measurement, this was in the 1870’s so perhaps this or the LA Crosse spanner is where Harry Ferguson got the idea for the measurement on the Ferguson System Spanner. Either way it was a great idea and it’s surprising that more companies did not incorporate a measuring scale on spanners.
The Ferguson System Spanner would be supplied as standard with all Ferguson System tractors from 1936 until the early 1970s when the spanner only fitted a few of the different nuts and bolts on the tractor and implements, sadly defeating its original objective.
For me the Ferguson System Spanner is a great way to illustrate the three points of the Ferguson System linkage with the three points of the spanner as a single unit or tool. The two lower links are represented by the two open ends of the spanner - open to fit any implement for a wide range of different tasks and joined by the single top or control link represented by the stem of the spanner with measurements for control.
In 2025 as well as celebrating the centenary of the modern tractor and ninety years of the Ferguson System’s perfection it is ninety years since the development of the Ferguson System Spanner, the only Ferguson System tool.
Stevan Patterson, Castlederg, Co. Tyrone.