About Caterpillar

Caterpillar Origin

The Holt Manufacturing Company's steam tractor machines from 1890 are the company's ancestors. It was common for the steam tractors of the 1890s and early 1900s to sink into the soil of the San Joaquin Valley Delta agriculture near Stockton, California, due to their excessive weight, which might reach 1,000 pounds (450 kg) per horsepower. In an effort to solve the issue, Benjamin Holt widened the wheels to a maximum of 7.5 feet (2.3 m) tall and 6 feet (1.8 m) wide, creating a tractor that was 46 feet (14 m) broad. However, this increased the complexity, cost, and upkeep requirements of the tractors.

The construction of a temporary plank road in front of the steam tractor was another option examined, but it was time-consuming, expensive, and hindered earthmoving. Holt had the idea to encircle the wheels with the planks. He installed a system of wooden rails fastened to chains to replace the wheels on the No. 77 Holt steamer's 40 horsepower (30 kW) motor. He successfully tested the upgraded machine on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1904, by ploughing the swampy delta plain of Roberts Island.

In Grantham, Lincolnshire, England, Richard Hornsby & Sons created a steel plate-tracked vehicle at the same time and patented it in 1904. This tractor was the first to steer without using the steering wheel on the forward tiller by differentially braking the tracks. Many tractors were produced and sold for use in the Yukon; one of these was used there until 1927, and parts of it may still be seen today. In 1911, the same year that Holt registered the "Caterpillar" brand, Hornsby discovered that there was a little market for their tractor and sold their invention to Holt.

The tractor was said to have moved like a caterpillar, according to company photographer Charles Clements, and Holt immediately made the comparison. "It is a caterpillar. That is what it is called!" However, some sources credit this moniker to British soldiers who had seen the Hornsby tractor being tested in July 1907. Holt sold his first steam-powered tractor crawlers two years later for US$5,500, or roughly US$128,000 today. The track structure on each side was 9 feet (2.7 m) long, 42 inches (1,100 mm) wide, and 30 inches (760 mm) high. Redwood slats of 3 inches (76 mm) by 4 inches (100 mm) served as the tracks.

On December 7, 1907, Holt secured a patent for his improved "Traction Engine," which was the first continuous track that could actually be used with a tractor ("improvement in vehicles, and especially of the traction engine class; and included endless travelling platform supports upon which the engine is carried").