The January/February 2021 issue of Antique Power magazine is available in our gift shop and will be available in subscriber mailboxes and on newsstands soon. Our latest cover tractor is the Jerred Ruble’s 1919 Twin City 16-30 Model A. This feature is written by Robert Gabrick and photographed by Brad Bowling.

The year 1919 will be one of achievement,” declared the May 1, 1919, Chilton Tractor Journal. “It marks a milestone on the road of progress of the tractor industry. The production figures show that close to 300,000 tractors will be built. This means that the tractor industry will, in all probability, pass the truck industry, for there is every reason to believe that this year, for the first time, more tractors than trucks will be manufactured.”

Significantly, this was the year our featured Twin City 16-30 tractor was manufactured by the Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Co. (MS&M), one of the nation’s manufacturers intent on helping to achieve the production “milestone on the road of progress.”

Explaining that MS&M was “one of the big industries of the northwest,” Tractor World, in October 1918, indicated the company initially had been known as a “designer and builder of very large bridges and it has furnished a great deal of steel for buildings, most of these erected west of the Mississippi River. In 1902, the company succeeded the Twin City Iron Works, a builder of engines and machinery. It began building Muenzel engines [producer gas-burning engines patented by Hermann Schumm and Max Muenzel of Germany] soon after organization, and this led to experimental work and the construction of farm tractors, the first of which were produced commercially in 1910.”

To promote its line of tractors, MS&M offered The Factory Behind the Tractor. The booklet explained, “Realizing that it is impossible for every one [sic] to visit the factory in which Twin City Tractors are made, we have endeavored so far as possible in this book, to let the factory visit you.” Among the features highlighted was the “giant crane” handling a huge tractor “as though it were a toy.” The booklet also called attention to the heat treatment of crankshafts, gears, and axles to create the hardness and toughness in these parts that were necessary for a quality tractor. In addition, it noted that while the company took pride in its modern equipment, “the pride and confidence reposed in our army of trained workmen and skilled mechanics, is far greater.” At the time, the 35-acre plant employed more than 3,500 people.

In 1917, the company introduced the Twin City 16, declaring it was “designed on graceful lines. Built like an automobile, it is a tractor to be proud of in appearance, as well as in its ability to do the work required.” This emphasis on both form and function was unusual at the time. Aesthetic considerations generally played a minor role in a tractor’s design. The company proclaimed the automobile-like appearance was also functional and said, “The Twin City ‘16-30’ is a radical departure from the average tractor construction, both in design and material.” In 1918, Twin City sales literature also indicated “no pains have been spared to make this tractor as near the ultimate as possible. Built like an automobile, with all gears enclosed and dust proof, and equipped with roller bearings throughout the transmission and in the front and rear wheels.”

To read more about the 1919 Twin City 16-30 pick up a copy of the January/February 2021 issue of Antique Power magazine!

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January/February 2021 Antique Power

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