The 100th anniversary of the 60, we talk about the significance, the design of
this machine, the DNA of this machine, it still threads through today with our products.
Absolutely.
This was a game-changer and everyone knew it was a game-changer.
So, how was this a modern day machine?
You could say that this is the equivalent of the D8 today.
The undercarriage, the tracks, the systems our machines kind of run on today all come
from C.L. Best and from this machine. He knew manufacturing, he knew design and he knew
how to make a quality machine.
Hi everyone, Rusty Dunn here again and history just keeps on happening.
Here with my friend and colleague Lee Fosberg, head of the Corporate Heritage Services,
and our corporate archivist. Good to see you again Lee!
Thanks Rusty.
We've got a significant anniversary coming up. Tell us what we're celebrating...
Rusty we're celebrating the hundred year anniversary of this machine. Two companies merged to
form Caterpillar in 1925. One the Holt Manufacturing Company, the other one was
the C.L. Best Tractor Company. C.L. Best became our first chairman at the time of
the merger and he created a machine of - you would say like - high quality,
very similar to our brand promise today 'I'll make a high quality maybe a little more
expensive machine but it'll pay for itself through time because of how it's built'.
So he comes out with the sixty, well what sort of reaction was there to this machine.
Well the world started to change when this machine came out, you know.
For example, before the majority of our machines were used for agriculture, right?
That's how the track type tractor, invented by Benjamin Holt, that's what
he used a [farming application that's common] because of the
durability and the horsepower and the strength behind it was really one of
the first successful machines pushing dirt. And that's why we have these great
stories of it working on these great and grand projects of the era
because it could do that. It had that kind of power behind it.
These machines were used to build like Hoover Dam, they were used to build the
Zuiderzee Canal. They were a global product. They worked on projects, they
built roads - well documented in India, they built roads in China. These
tractors, which we have some great photos of, they actually brought the letters of
the Hollywood sign - in Hollywood - you could say they built Hollywood.
I remembering seeing that photo - it's a really famous photo for us.
This was really the future.
This laid the foundation for the company that we know today.
Absolutely this was what you would call a game-changer and it really tells the
story of not only C.L. Best, our first Chairman, but it also talks about
innovation and our modern tractor line, you know, of the D Series tractors.
Kind of a funny story, it's like you know, we've talked about like the track type tractor.
Holt invented the first kind of model - his first test model 1904. You know
the first gas models were coming out in 1908. So when this came out in 1919
this was relatively new technology. Well, Best used to joke before this model
that you would sell a tractor to a farmer and you'd run that check to the
bank right away before it broke down. Well this was reliability. These machines
they didn't do that, right. And that made them easily sellable you know.
Kind of just like the quality equipment that we put out today.
Do you think in their minds this was the 60 - it was one of the best things they would ever accomplish in their lives?
Oh absolutely. You know part of the other little story with this is Cat Diesel.
We're powered by diesel power today. Well that came from an idea
from Best where he saw in 1915, at a World's Fair, Rudolf Diesel's engines.
He was like how can I apply that to one of my machines?
Well after the merger he was able to do that and this was our big popular machine.
It was the Cat 60 at that time. So we came out in 1931 really with
our first diesel engine on, you would say, the frame of a 60. And to show you how
impactful that was: literally two years later we were making over half the
horsepower in the United States with diesel power with Cat engines.
Isn't it interesting with people like C.L. Best, these aren't folks who worked in
the office, they were true inventors. And you think about the impact still today with our machines.
Well, you know, C.L. Best's father whose name was Daniel Best,
he was a master inventor himself. He was in the tractor business. He made those big steam tractors.
Well C.L. worked for him actually going back to the age of 13.
He would go - they were a California company - and he'd
go kind of from sales places to sales places and he kind of learned the
business from his dad. He became a head of his dad's plant at the age of 18 but
he really had very little education other than he knew he went through some
training as a draftsman. But he was, you would say, a hands-on guy.
And we've still got a few of these machines floating around.
We do. In fact we have one as part of our archives collection. It's actually serial number 351.
So, it was a first year production it's going to be celebrating 100 year anniversary
itself and it's still out there and runs. And kind of another thing, Rusty, that's
really hard to believe the first machine was sold on June 24th, 1919.
That machine actually still exists and runs with the gentleman in California.
Isn't that wild? And that says something about durability and reliability.
Absolutely, yeah.
Lee, thanks so much.
The 100th anniversary of the 60, very cool, and we look forward to hearing and
seeing more about it. Keep the stories coming. It gets us good stuff.
We'll keep them coming Rusty.
Thanks everybody for watching. More history being made all the time. We'll talk to you soon.