Book excerpt: This is the first in a trilogy of books profiling in detail David Brown and its products. David Brown was a Yorkshire company, based around Huddersfield. Its roots lay in wooden-pattern making for the looms and weaving machinery of the area in the 1850s. This led to the manufacture of the machine-cut iron gears in which the company excelled. In 1914 the company patented a worm thread for gears that eventually was adopted as the British Standard thread. Their involvement with tractors began before World War II when they had an agreement with Harry Ferguson to manufacture the Ferguson-Brown. When working with Ferguson proved difficult the company developed its own ranges of wheeled and crawler tractors, the VAK series. Development was interrupted by the war during which the company's gears were used in the Merlin engines that powered the Spitfires. This closely researched, highly illustrated title tells the full story of this remarkable company's early years. It concludes when the VAK 1/C became one of Britain's most popular tractors of the 1950s - the Cropmaster. Author Stuart Gibbard has interviewed many of the surviving engineers, designers and other staff involved in the development and marketing of David Brown's products.