Heinrich Lanz AG

Heinrich Lanz AG was a German manufacturer of agricultural machinery located at Mannheim. The company and its mark LANZ were repurchased in 1956 by manufacturing American John Deere.

History

from 1859 to 1918

After the entry of Heinrich Lanz in the paternal company in Mannheim, the company was devoted initially to the importation and the repair of agricultural machinery, such as for example of the machines cutting fodder or the combine harvesters. Later the company launched out in the manufacture of its own products and in 1878 it built its first Locomobile S as well as pick-up balers.

At that time the machines manufactured by Lanz are transfered to give of many prices on European fairs . And, after having begun the manufacture of a reaping-machine with vapor driven by a transportable steam-engine, the share of the products of importation, consisted hitherto primarily of English reaping-machines , dropped more and more. The Lanz company then became the largest manufacturer of agricultural machinery on the continent of Europe and employed more than thousand workmen.

In 1885 the thousandths together of harvesting to vapor is sold, and starting from 1887 all the Lanz machines were equipped with protections in order to avoid the accidents, which made to this company a pionnière in the field of safety. Between 1888 and 1899 followed constant enlargings of the factory as well as the development of additional products.

At the time of the World Fair of 1900 to Paris, the Lanz company had already with its credit forty years of success during which it had sold:

more than 10.000 transportable steam-engines for agriculture and industry
7.000 large reaping-machines and more than 120.000 of smaller size
180.000 machines for the preparation of fodder
60.000 mills with animal haulage for 1 to 6 horses
16.000 machines various

Heinrich Lanz is deceased the 1905 and bequeathed a company which counted then nearly 3.000 employees who produced 900 whole of harvesting with vapor and 1.400 transportable steam-engines per annum. His/her son, the doctor Karl Lanz, then took again the company and managed to manufacture increasingly powerful and powerful reaping-machines which appeared then among the best in the world.

In 1907 the locomotive 20.000e was manufactured and since 1859 it is more than 550.000 machines on the whole which had left the factory.

At the time of the fiftieth anniversary of the company, in 1909, the bar of the 4.000 employees was already exceeded and, one year later, during the World Fair of Brussels, Lanz presented the largest transportable steam-engine to the world of a power of 1000 horses and which was rewarded by three gold medals.

In 1911 Lanz signed a contract with Johann Schütte for the construction of airships whose 22 specimens were built under the mark Schütte-Lanz. During the First World War, between 1914 and 1918, the company lost many employees and at the end of the war there remained nothing any more but 3.800 about it on initially more than 5.000.

from 1918 to 1945

After the death of Karl Lanz, deceased in 1921 at the age of only 48 years, engineer Fritz Huber presented a new engine to lighting with incandescent bell, or " swell chaude" ( Glühkopfzündung ). This engine equipped the first tractor Lanz Bulldog . The following model, a Bulldog standard HP launched in 1923, had the 4 driving wheels and an articulated direction, which made a machine of it technically very advances some over its time.

But the Bulldog standard HL and HP cost too much to the production between 1924 and 1929, of the years of world economic recession. They were replaced by the type HR, more economic to produce, and which was going to become the standard product of the mark during several years.

But the development of various agricultural machinery also continued. Thus, in 1929, was presented the Stahl-Lanz , the first combine harvester entirely built in Acier ( stahl in German). At the beginning of the Années 1930 the pneumatic was gradually introduced and starting from 1934 one also proposed tracked Bulldog .

The Lanz company was touched hard during the Second world war, period during which the factory was destroyed to 90%. But the activity continued by assembling Bulldog starting from spare parts and by repairing machines.

from 1945 until the repurchase by John Deere

Between 1946 and 1951 one continued to produce of Lanz with incandescent bell, but this type of engine had become obsolete and, moreover, consumed too fuel. The tractor of transport Lanz Alldog was proposed with the sale but, in spite of a revolutionary design, its engine still presented many defects of youth and its marketing was transformed into failure.

Bulldog semi-diesel engine were marketed starting from 1952. They were equipped with an intermediate model of engine, also called engine with pressure of average injection, which reached a very good level of consumption. But the principal defect which characterized the two-stroke one-cylinder engine was to generate important vibrations which were less and less accepted by the users. Those had from now on a preference for the diesel engine multicylinder with more regular and calmer operation proposed by competition.

In 1953 the 150.000e Bulldog was delivered, one year later first self-propelling combine harvester MD240S was proposed with the sale and starting from 1955 Lanz equipped all the Bulldog with one-cylinder diesel engines two times.

Until 1956 it is not less than 200.000 Bulldog which had been built and, during this same year 1956, the American company " John Deere" became the majority shareholder of " Heinrich Lanz AG". The following year the last Bulldog , the D4016 model of a power of 40 CV, was born. In 1958 the traditional color blue and red of the machines manufactured by Lanz was abandoned with the profit of the yellow and green of John-Deere. The first modern multicylinder diesel engine tractors were developed then and, into 1960, the name of the company, hitherto named Heinrich Lanz AG Mannheim , was changed into John Deere Lanz AG . The production of the Bulldog ended and the tractors John Deere (Lanz) replaced little by little the entirety of the range of the Bulldog . During one short duration the name of Lanz still appeared on the products under the denomination " John Deere Lanz " before disappearing completely after a history from company of more than 100 years.

Source

Text translates partly since Wikipédia into German.

External bonds

operation of the two-stroke engine Lanz semi-diesel engine

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