THE SHIRK GASOLINE TRACTOR 1909-1911

By Donald J. Summar
Published on May 1, 1977
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Shirk 4 HP tractor with New Holland engine.
Shirk 4 HP tractor with New Holland engine.
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1911 Shirk 12 HP tractor with Otto engine.
1911 Shirk 12 HP tractor with Otto engine.

Peter Shirk didn’t have sufficient capital or a large enough
shop to expand production to meet the increasing demand for his
tractors. He apparently sold the manufacturing rights for the
tractor to the Otto Gas Engine Works in the fall of 1911. A
brochure on the ‘Otto Gasoline Tractor,’ published before
the end of 1911, included a photograph of a tractor with Peter Z.
Martin, Peter Shirk’s son-in-law, at the wheel. This
photograph, used earlier in a flyer put out by the Blue Ball
Machine Works, was of a Shirk tractor. Such use of the photograph
would seem to indicate that Otto took up production of the tractor
without finding it necessary to alter Shirk’s design.

Specifications of the Otto gasoline tractor, designed by Peter
Shirk, show the type of vehicle which Shirk had been building for
almost two years prior to selling out to the Otto Company. The
frame was made of steel channels and the axles were cold-rolled
steel shafting. Drive fromthe Otto engine to the transmission was
by a shaft with bevel gears. The transmission, which was in
constant motion, provided forward speeds of 2? and 5 miles an hour
as well as reverse. The constant mesh transmission required only
the clutch shaft, the master wheels, and the axles and tractor
wheels to be stopped and started when the vehicle was reversed. The
gear change from high to low gear was simple and straight-forward:
the driver had merely to shift from high gear to neutral and then
press the ‘palm trip’ on the shift lever to engage low
gear.

Otto guaranteed their tractors to deliver fifty per cent of the
engine’s brake horsepower to the draw bar. The tractor bulletin
stated: ‘An attachment can be furnished for mowing.’ No
doubt the mowing bar attachment for the Otto tractor was supplied
by Shirk, who had been manufacturing it since mid 1910 asan
optional extra for his own line of tractors.

The Otto could be converted for any kind of farm work by merely
loosening a set-screw and putting the gears out of mesh. A friction
clutch could then be used to power a thresher, sheller, shredder,
buzz saw, or other equipment.

The Otto line, to which was added just one model not previously
offered by Shirk, is shown in the table on the following page.

Model

Brake HP.

Engine Speed

Shipping Weight

4-A

8 HP

300 r.p.m.

5600 pounds

4-A

10 HP

300 r.p.m.

5900 pounds

5-A

12 HP

260 r.p.m.

7400 pounds

5-B

15 HP

260 r.p.m.

7800 pounds

6-A

21 HP

240 r.p.m.

9700 pounds

After discontinuing the manufacture of tractors, Peter Shirk
concentrated on his other inventions, manufacturing a tobacco
cutter called ‘The Handy Tobacco Shear,’ which permitted
anyone to cut tobacco without stooping over. It was basically a
long-handled shear with one-wheel support and could be pushed down
a row of tobacco. One specialty of the Blue Ball Machine Works
after 1911 was the installation of electric light plants in homes
andbusinesses throughout eastern Lancaster County. Peter Shirk kept
two Shirk tractors for use around the machine works. The tractors
wereused in 1914 to drag a large boiler weighing several tons to
the shop for repairs. No Shirk tractors are known to have survived
to the present day.The Blue Ball Machine Works is still in business
at the present time, now operated by Peter Shirk’s grandson,
George P. Newswanger.

I would like to thank Mrs. Esther Newswanger, Peter Shirk’s
daughter, who provided brochures on the Shirk and Otto tractors and
all of the photographs used to illustrate this article. The other
major source of information was the back file of the New Holland
Clarion available for research at the Lancaster County Historical
Society, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.


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