Tom Carroll, Massey-Harris Engineer: Building a Better Harvester
This article was originally written and submitted as part of a Canada 150 Project, the Innovation Storybook, to crowdsource stories of Canadian innovation with partners across Canada. The content has since been migrated to Ingenium’s Channel, a digital hub featuring curated content related to science, technology and innovation.
Tom Carroll upon his retirement in 1961: Courtesy of AGCO Ltd.
In 1936, Tom Carroll and a team of researchers with Massey-Harris Canada (now Massey Ferguson) in Ontario began work on a revolutionary new combine harvester. Earlier versions of the combine used horse or tractor power to pull the machine through the fields. The new and affordable combine was self-propelled, reducing the cost of fuel and labour needed to bring in a harvest.
With the Second World War on the horizon, the MH-20 was rushed into production. The first self-propelled Massey-Harris combines hit the market in early 1939 and were an instant commercial success.
Wartime metal shortages put Massey-Harris in jeopardy, until an enterprising sales manager proposed an ambitious project. If the governments of Canada and the United States would allow the production of 500 new MH-21 harvesters, the company would sell only to farmers willing to join a “Harvesting Brigade”. By bringing large-scale harvest automation to a multitude of smallholders across North America, the scheme was designed to save fuel, free up thousands of tractors and labourers, and harvest crops that might have otherwise gone to waste for lack of resources. Not coincidentally, the project also gave the company unprecedented exposure to the North American marketplace. The Brigade began work in the southern United States in late spring 1944 and moved north to finish the harvest on the Canadian Prairies in the fall.
The 1944 Harvesting Brigade was a huge success, delivering 25 million bushels of grain, and saving about 333,000 hours of labour and 500,000 gallons of fuel. The operation was repeated in 1945.
Affiche de production alimentaire de la Seconde Guerre mondiale : VOICI NOTRE FORCE – L’AGRICULTURE : LES PROGRÈS DANS LA MÉCANISATION AGRICOLE, LES MÉTHODES ET L’ÉLECTRIFICATION RURALE PEUVENT NOUS PERMETTRE DE RELEVER LE DÉFI DE LA PAIX: Musée canadien de la guerre 19920196-008
Second World War Food Production Poster: FOOD WE MUST HAVE BUT FARMERS NEED HELP! YOUR AID ON THE FARM IS VITAL TO VICTORY: Canadian War Museum 19910108-012
Canadian Stamp Featuring the MH-21 Combine: Courtesy of Canada Post 1552b
Canadian War Museum
The Canadian War Museum is Canada’s national museum of military history and one of the world’s most respected museums for the study and understanding of armed conflict.
The Museum traces its origins back to 1880, when it consisted primarily of a collection of militia artifacts. The Museum opened at its new location on the LeBreton Flats site in downtown Ottawa on May 8, 2005. Its opening not only marked the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe (V-E Day) but also the 125th anniversary of the Museum itself. Since its opening in 2005, the Museum has welcomed approximately 500,000 visitors every year.
