Object Details
- Allis-Chalmers Company
- Description
- In its search to develop electric power through chemical reactions, Allis-Chalmers in 1951 began research on fuel cells. In October 1959 near West Allis, Wisconsin, this fuel cell tractor plowed a field of alfalfa with a double-bottom plow. Fuel cells produce electrical power directly through a chemical reaction, without heat, smoke, or noise. Unlike standard batteries, fuel cells do not store energy but convert chemical energy to electric energy.
- This tractor has 1,008 fuel cells joined in 112 units of 9 cells each arranged in four banks that produced power to run a standard Allis-Chalmers 20 horsepower dc motor. Using a fuel cell to produce power was not a new idea in the 1950s. Over a century earlier, Sir William Grove originated the idea of a fuel cell that would run on hydrogen and oxygen. Over the years inventors experimented with a number of fuels and configurations. The search for an efficient and economical fuel cell unit continues.
- Location
- Currently not on view (fuel cell)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Allis-Chalmers
- 1959-10
- ID Number
- AG.76A8
- accession number
- 232284
- catalog number
- 76A08
- Object Name
- tractor
- fuel cell tractor
- tractor
- Physical Description
- steel (overall material)
- rubber (overall material)
- place made
- United States: Wisconsin, West Allis
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Agriculture
- Agriculture
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_687671
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-1384-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
