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Unique things

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
Most of us know that International Harvester made freezers and refrigerators. I didn't know until about a year ago that they also made guns during WW 2. What other unique things, to a farm equipment manufacturer, did they make? Also, did John Deere make anything like the guns and freezers?
 
Don't know that JD made those kinda things, but have you ever seen the armored JD A that they submitted to the army as a gun platform?
 
I would be willing to bet that just about every manufacturer was making something for the war effort, even if it was a subcontractor making a small part for a tank, gun or airplane. Heck, the AC spark plug division of GM was making .50 BMGs, as was Frididaire, not to mention Colt, High Standard and Savage.
 
Singer sewing machines made guns. Locally, refrigerator company built gliders used in the invasion of France. Yeah, I know, not farm machinery mfrs.
 
The Louisville IH plant manufactured crushed grain plywood used in the construction of the DeHavolin (sp?) Mosquito bomber (British)
 
AC built the Ontos gun platform (tank killer), was first to build ejection seats for aircraft, also built the large turbines for lots of hydro electric plants, also had an experimental reactor (atomic). Also built a 6 wheeler similar to an argo hunting vehicle, a 5 hp mini-bike, the list goes on...
 
Deere built the main case/drives for Sherman tanks. Buick built the M18 tank killer.Cadilac introduced the 1st high volume production high speed diesel, the 6-71 Detroit Diesel.
Military personal felt and were somewhat safer surrounded by diesel fuel tanks instead of gasoline tanks.
 
In addition to what others have said, Ford built B24 bombers. Before the war ended they were rolling out one B24 every 55 minutes. That building, almost one mile long, is today a General Motors transmission factory. A guy on the N board whose handle was "Barnstormer" worked there. As I recall, there were no cars built for the civilian market in 1943 and few tractors. Many of the tractors came with steel wheels due to the shortage of rubber.
 
In the Marine Corps in the late '50's I was once issued an M1 made by IHC. Everyone had to come and look at my Farmall rifle.
 
I worked at a nuclear plant in SC that had "Q-List" 12 ft dia intake butterfly valves made by AC.
AC also produced steam and hydro turbine/generators.
 
In basic training, at Fort Leonard Wood Missouri,
I had an M1 made by International Harvestor.
Later, in Korea, My M1911A1,Colt design .45
pistol was made by Singer Sewing Machine. I saw
some .45s made by Remington-Rand, the typewriter
company, and M1s made by Harrison & Richardson.
 
I am almost certain that I saw flat head Cadillac V-8's in some old tanks that we were shooting at with a rocket launcher one time. Did Cadillac make a flat head V-8 way back then?
 
I have an M-1 carbine that was made by Underwood typwriter. Just think if/when it happens today we'll have to get it all from china and mexico and sri lanka(wherever that is)....
 
Did you know that Oliver had an aviation division? They employed nearly 3900 people. In the early 50s (after WWII) they build all of the main fuselage assemblies for the Boeing RB47E Stratojet. Then there was the Marine division. They built outboard motors.
 
Curtis Wright built aircraft ajoining Standiford field. After the war it became International Harvester, Louisville Works.
 
To Crem,

In 1960 in my high school auto shop we had two Cadillac flathead V8 engines on stands, painted army green. They were canted, one to the right and the other to the left. We were told by the instructor that they were a matched pair, donated by GM and that they were from a military tank, maybe a Sherman. We had a great time tearing them down and putting them back together.

Dean
 
A couple of my reatives worked there. Several worked at Cadillac, they built light tanks, engines, elevating mechanisms for artillery, and a lot of smaller stuff.
 
Funny you should mention that. We had close farm neighbors that had one of those twin V-8 Cadillac tank engines on a trailer for years. They bought it surplus and planned to use it for an irrigation pump, but never did. Don't know what ever happened to it.
 

We need to have the same willingness to "Do what needs to be done" now, as was, then..

If we will, we won't need to Hock our Children's future, because of the absolute laziness of the Average (so-called) American..who would rather draw unemployment than take a job that would get his hands dirty...
I gripes me, just to see the grocery carts left in the parking lot..!!
After 14 years of horrible back pain, I never once left one out in the parking lot..(Surgery last year has been a God-send)..!!
I think that one thing; the carts left all over the parking lots is a perfect sign of the average American (american??) mind-set...
NO Pride..PERIOD...
FWIW.
Ron..
 
Twin cadyllacs were used in earlier tanks.Ford built a large overhead valve engine for Sherman tanks.Chrysler built a very unsual engine,using five six cylinder engines to power Sherman tanks.I will try to find the sites to show these.
 
I had one of my uncles working on that project figuring out guidance systems for them while he worked at Westinghouse
Did you or a relative work there, or live close?
My dad and his 3 brothers worked there from the 40s till the 70s, when the plant closed
 
I think that it was at Fort Leonard Wood in 1964 that I saw the tank with the Cadillac flat head engines in it. I wonder what kind of transmission they used and how they coupled it together. Thinking back I wonder why they allowed us to go down range to look at the tanks after shooting at them.
 
The Oliver Corp was no slouch when it came to defense production. They built gun mounts for the Army's 106 mm recoiless rifle. Also 76mm guns for the Walker Bulldog tank, 155 mm howitzer parts and fuselages for the Boeing RB47. I remember the 106mm recoiless rifle very well circa 1957-59. And yes, the gun mount said "Oliver Corp" on it. One of my best friends in high school flew the B47s and RB47s for years as a member of the Strategic Air Command. He told about making wide swings over Russia and China with the RBs. Mounted in the bomb bay was a camera with a 36" lense. The Reds didn't have anything at the time that would fly or shoot that high and they didn't want to admit that to the world so, for years, we overflew them.
 
Up thru 1948 all the Cadilac cars were flat heads, first overhead valve Caddy was 1949 but used same body in 1948 and 1949
 
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