There are various figures in the history of farm mechanisation that stand out from the crowd and are recognised as pioneers in the field, Henry Ford and Harry Ferguson being the most prominent.
Yet they are not the only two despite the massive impetus they brought to tractor design and production, others have contributed in their own way to their indigenous industries and one such person is Francesco Cassani of Treviglio in Northern Italy.
Francesco was one of two brothers that founded Società Accomandita Motori Endotermici, the company we now know as SAME, which has gone on to become SDF, a parent company which also encompasses Deutz Fahr, Lamborghini and Hurlimann.
What’s in a name
Both the French and the Italians were partial to giving their businesses long names which explained the purpose and function of the company, which would then become an acronym by which they would be known, SOMECA and FIAT are two other notable examples.
The translation of the SAME name gives us an insight into the vision of Francesco and Euginio Cassani, for it translates to Internal Combustion Engines Limited Partnership, which says nothing about tractors or farming at all.
Instead, the intention of the brothers was to popularise the diesel throughout Italian industry and agriculture through the production of its own range of diesels, many of which would find a home in tractors, which the company also built.
SAME itself was formed in 1942, two years after the country had joined the war, yet it was not the first venture into tractors made by the brothers, for in the early 1920s they had produced a 40hp model running on a twin cylinder motor of their own design.
Cassani brothers back the diesel
This project had been inspired by the potential of the diesel engine which the Cassani brothers had recognised as having a massive future, nobody else in Italy was interested at the time so the brothers consumed as much literature on the subject as possible, most of it being written in German.
The resulting engine and tractor was presented to the world in 1926 and beat Landini and Fiat in a 1927 government run competition to find the best machine for contractors of the time.
From the early 30s onwards the Cassini brothers continually developed the diesel engine while still producing the 40hp tractor, a big tractor for the time yet this was the era of Mussolini and his drive for self sufficiency known as the Battle for Grain.
There were massive agricultural reforms taking place and the Fascist regime’s appropriation of land to bring into production called for larger tractors to till it, The Cassani 40 was one answer to this demand.
With diesel engines of this era there two main issues, starting and the injection pump. The Cassani company worked on both problems in partnership with Bosch and eventually sold it’s injector pump business to the German company in 1941, leaving Francesco to work on aero engine research.
Starting afresh
Yet he was not happy about this task =, and so it was that in 1942 he decided to return to his agricultural roots and started the SAME company, although it wasn’t until 1946 that he was free to produce a tractor again.
Yet the first product was neither a tractor as we would know it, nor was it even powered by a diesel, It was in fact a small 10hp petrol driven tricycle affair that was seen as a power source for a farm rather than a draught machine.
In post-war Italy, the emphasis had moved on from the tillage of vast tracts of newly reclaimed land to the support of individual farmers as the country was rebuilt, the SAME Universale 10 HP was designed to supply the new market.
The standard tractor had not been forgotten though and SAME, mainly under the direction of Francesco, focused on improving the breed with particular emphasis on air cooling and 4WD.
Rapid expansion
Euginio Cassani died in 1959 leaving Francesco in charge of a rapidly growing and thriving company that was by no means behind in technology, indeed the tractors were were of modern design and were up to date if not ahead of the more familiar rivals.
None of these achievements are greatly recognised outside of Italy, yet it was the drive of Francesco in the 1950s and 1960s that took SAME forward to the extent that it could absorb Deutz Fahr in 1995.
As a force within the development of agricultural machinery Francesco Cassani was quite distinct from Ford and Ferguson in one important aspect, and that was to him the company was a family.
Ford was a rather detached employer of thousands while Ferguson demanded, and mainly got respect and obedience from his staff through his character and leadership.
The Cassani ethos
Francesco though, had a different vision of his company and noted in a spiritual will towards the end of his life the following –
In the event of my death, I want my heir to remember that SAME with the help of my poor, dear brother Eugenio was created not to make a profit but to give Italy a prestigious industry in the field of tractors and combustion engines.
Nationalism and family before profit. It is not an ethos that is likely to survive in today’s commercial world but it does go to show that big companies can also have a soul.
