The founder of the JCB company, Joseph Cyril Bamford, holds the honour of being the only non-American in the U.S. Holopainen for the first hydraulic thumb.Īlthough Wain-Roy Corporation no longer exists, the Wain Roy product line of backhoe attachments and couplers is still available through the Woods Equipment Company of Rockford, Illinois, USA.īecause of the long-time predominance of the JCB marque in the United Kingdom and Ireland, it has become a genericized trademark there, and all backhoe-equipped diggers are commonly called JCBs, while the term "backhoe" as an excavator component is almost unknown to the general public in this context. Patent #3,273,729 was filed in January 1965 by Vaino J. Case Corporation filed a patent #3,249,244 for the first extendable boom. Wain-Roy Corporation bought the AC Anderson Company and then the company suffered. Wain-Roy continued to produce them for Ford until 1963 when Ford made their own and Wain-Roy could not compete with such a large company after that. In 1960 Vaino Holopainen was introduced as “Mr. In 1954 Wain-Roy Corporation got a deal with IH for the Hough TLB full-scale production on several other models of Hough loaders. By early 1954, two Hough “Payloader” model wheel loaders, the HE and the HF, were available with Wain-Roy backhoes. Hough Company was a subsidiary of the International Harvester Company. Hough model “HE” in 1952 in Holden, Massachusetts, USA, for the Holden Water Department. The first Tractor Loader Backhoe was a Wain-Roy backhoe mounted to a Frank G. The first hydraulic wheel loader was invented by Frank G. The 4-bar linkages were also used on the Wain-Roy backhoes after 1954.
Pilch filed for patent #2,678,741 in September 1950. Pilch of Ware Machine Works, Ware, MA, developed the first 4-bar linkage to achieve greater bucket digging and dumping rotation. The patent for the first reversible seat was developed at Wain-Roy by Carroll Arnold and Vaino Holopainen and then filed by Vaino under patent # 2,784,768, and in June 1954, Vaino filed patent # 2,781,927 for individually controlled outriggers. In 1965, they would follow this with the world’s first 360° excavator. Then in 1957, while Case produced the first “integrated” Tractor Loader Backhoe in the USA (whereby all the components were manufactured and warrantied by the same manufacturer), JCB introduced the first dedicated backhoe loader (whereby the loader and backhoe were permanently attached to the chassis, allowing them to be more robust, rather than being demountable accessories for an agricultural tractor). In the same year, 1948, JCB launched the first European hydraulic loader, and followed that in 1953 with a backhoe with a 180° slew, fitted to a tractor. Approximately 7000 Wain-Roy Backhoes were manufactured and sold between the fall of 1948 and early 1954, mainly through Ford dealers. Wain-Roy also made them for Sherman Products of Royal Oak, Michigan, and Ford.
In April 1948 Wain-Roy Corporation sold the very first all hydraulic backhoe, mounted to a Ford Model 8N tractor, to the Connecticut Light and Power Company. This patent also included the invention of the out-rigger bar, and high flow control. The swing frame breakthrough allowed the hydraulic digging arm to swing to the side to dump the bucket. In July 1948, patent # 2,698,697 was filed by Vaino J.
(thus the company name “Wain-Roy”), and assigned to Wain-Roy Corporation of Hubbardston, Massachusetts, United States. Holopainen (pronounced “Waino”) and Roy E. The invention of the first backhoe swing frame was developed in July 1947 by Vaino J. 1949 Sherman Brochure picture showing the Wain-Roy Backhoe.ĬEG takes a look back at this history of a true workhorse in the world of heavy equipment - the Backhoe Loader.Įarly development of hydraulic systems for what would become the backhoe loader proceeded in parallel in the USA and the UK.