THAT TAKES THE CAKE of ALL the old machine startup videos I've seen on YouTube thus far. The best content to date is that. Those devices are AMAZING. The antique tractor in the first scene is probably a diesel, and the fire is working as a glow plug to start the engine. Just fantastic. GREAT vintage machines You're welcome for the video.

The advancements made by humans in internal combustion technology over the millennia are astounding. These primitive machines are radically different from our current technology, despite being quite stunning and intriguing. I'm curious what would happen if humans focused their research and development efforts on hot air (Stirling, Manson, and Erikson) engines rather than IC ones for a hundred years.

I was sadly driven around on a 1949 Fordson for a very brief period of time when I was a small child on a farm in Wales, but I have loved them ever since. Thank you so much for this wonderful look at one of my favorite subjects.
It's unfortunate that so many of these manufacturing figures are now lost forever, but thankfully some people have saved some of them for the enjoyment of many.

In the 1970s, when I was a young child, I used to visit the Steam Show in Barlow, Ohio. There were about a dozen distinct Case Traction steam engines on display. It was incredible to witness these holdovers from a bygone period continuing to do the duties they did almost a century before. The largest bales of hay or straw I have ever seen were made by a hay baler that was used at the show; they were well over 100 pounds in weight. The steam press on the baler exerted so intense pressure that the hay was really compressed into a bale so dense you could hardly move it. Such amazingly complex gearing was used in these incredibly extraordinary machines, which generated immense torque.

I bought a farm with a big barn and a lot of outbuildings. The enormous barn's inside was painted by painters who left their names and the date of completion on the work. The original was created in 1853. We found large flywheels, wheels with belt drives, and parts from such steam tractors. Wonderfully crafted cast iron with graceful serpentine spokes. I saved all the massive steam tractor pieces after selling the farm years later since I wasn't sure what to do with them.