Surprisingly, the first walk-behind tractor (or cultivator -? You can't say for sure, but there were cutters on it) was assembled in 1911 in Germany by Dr. von Maenburg. It happened at the Siemens plant, and the engine of the device was electric. Siemens started producing petrol cultivators in the 1920s.
But the history of motoblocks draws on a separate material, and today I want to talk about an even stranger and more amazing thing - a homemade one-wheeled mini-tractor. About this walk-behind tractor told the magazine "Popular Science" in the January issue of 1933.
Everything was remarkable in it, right from the location of the engine, which was located inside the large wheel. The engine was developed in England for a one-wheeled car (there is no exact information about it, but most likely it is "Dinasphere" by John Parves). The single-cylinder motorcycle engine was used unchanged, except for the installation of an additional gear (to control the clutch it was possible to control the handle on the handlebar).
The wheel was welded from sheet steel. T-shaped lugs on the outer surface were supposed to provide a reliable grip on the ground. A steel ring is welded inside the wheel, which holds, with the help of steel pins, a rack with a fixed toothed gear. And this tricky gear is powered by a chain from the engine's planetary clutch.
Each handle of the tractor plow is hollow and made of cast iron. Inside one handle is a container for gasoline, and in the other for oil. Controls are found next to each handle.
Promotional video:
Feature in Popular Science, January 1933.
Almost any agricultural tool can be attached to the rear coupling. A tractor with a four-horsepower engine could run for eight hours on a gallon of gasoline, moving at a speed that a person could follow.