Benjamin Holt - Citizendia

Benjamin Holt (1849 – 1920) was an American inventor who developed David Roberts' design for one of the first practical caterpillar tracks for use in tractors. Year 1849 ( MDCCCXLIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Year 1920 ( MCMXX) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display 1920 of the Gregorian calendar David Roberts (born 1859 Chester - April 1928 Grantham was the Chief Engineer and managing director of Richard Hornsby & Sons in the early 1900s Continuous tracks are large (modular tracks used on the so-called caterpillar Tanks construction equipment and certain other off-road vehicles A tractor is a Vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high Tractive effort at slow speeds for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used The caterpillar type track is used to spread the weight of heavy agricultural and engineering vehicles out over a large area to prevent the vehicle from sinking into the mud. Engineering vehicles, known by the other terms construction Equipment, earth movers heavy equipment or just plain equipment are machines specifically designed to execute He acquired the patent from Richard Hornsby & Sons in 1914. Richard Hornsby & Sons was an engine and machinery manufacturer in Lincolnshire, England from 1828 until 1918

Sinking into the mud was a common problem on farmland surrounding Stockton, California where Holt made his residence. Stockton is a City in California and the seat of San Joaquin County (the fifth largest agricultural county in the United States Caterpillar tracks allowed practical cultivation on an industrial scale on the rich farmland.

Holt formed The Holt Manufacturing Company in the early 20th century. Caterpillar tracked tractors were credited as providing some inspiration for the invention of the tank. A tank is a tracked, Armoured fighting vehicle designed for Front-line combat which combines Operational mobility and tactical Later, after Benjamin Holt's death in 1920, the Holt Manufacturing Company of Stockton, California, merged with C. L. Best Tractor Co. of San Leandro, California, to form the Caterpillar Tractor Co. , which is now Caterpillar Inc. of Peoria, Illinois, USA. Caterpillar Inc ( is a United States -based Corporation headquartered in Peoria Illinois. The Holt tractor was constructed under the Caterpillar banner as the Caterpillar 60. The Caterpillar Sixty Horsepower tractor crawler of 1919 became the world's first successful Bulldozer.

A street in northern Stockton is named Benjamin Holt Drive in his honor. There is also a school named after him.

Benjamin Holt is most often cited as the founder of Caterpillar Inc.

See also