Charcoal Tractor

The International Harvester Titan 10-20 Kerosene Tractor was in production from 1914/15 to 1922. †The Titan 10-20 was the most versatile International Tractor of its time. Production peaked in 1920 with 21,503 Titans built that year.† An International two-cylinder engine with a 6.5" x 8" bore and stroke with parallel cranks powered the Titan. The engine used a thermo-siphon cooling system by means of a water tank, which eliminated the need of a fan or water pump. †Two forward speeds were used. The tractor produced a maximum 13.67 draw-bar and 28.15 brake horsepower. In the midst of tractor production, World War I raged on… Many of the boys who ran these tractors were off to war…

"July 19, 1918
Wish I was there and could help with the wheat harvest. I believe it would be a regular picnic after the few months of this war I have had. I had a little harvest experience one year about a century ago. That was the year we graduated and you spent a big part of the summer in Nebraska. That was the finest year of my farming experience. I came very nearly saying "in my life," but I won't do that for I believe you and I will have the happiest time when this war is over and the soldiers will go sailing the other way across the Atlantic.

"…I, too, am doing my little bit. For you are my America and embody all the ideals that our great country stands for. Maybe if America had let her task slide by undone it would not have affected me or you materially, but we would not have upheld the ideals that our country was founded on and sooner or later the effect would have been tremendous. We would have left America a mere puppet to some gross power built upon false ideas. So what am I that I should not go and fight against the evils before us? If I should fall, there certainly could not be anything nobler in my short lifetime to fall for. I think that most everyone in our Army has some of the same sort of an idea. This is a fine bunch of boys over here and anyone should be proud to be with such an outfit of real red-blooded Americans. Don't you know I believe I have some of the same feeling as the old crusaders had when they left to conquer the Holy Land? We are here to preserve a Holy Land and make it indestructible forevermore. I am coming back someday and I will not be so far away that you will have to even talk loud to make yourself heard. When I do get back and anyone even mentions the idea of leaving USA, I am going to knock some sense into him right on the spot…."