A Spotless Engine

Well, maybe just a smudge here and there. I know that this is a Spotless Engine because it says so, right on the brass badge that’s fastened to the water hopper. “ The Spotless Co. Inc. The South’s Mail Order House, Richmond, Va.” It also list the horsepower as 4 ½ hp. And the engine number as 7724.

So it’s the company, not the engine that’s spotless, or so they would like their customers to believe. Spotless was a regional competitor to Sears and Roebuck that served the greater southeast. One advertisement features a map that shows shipping available to Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. Like Sears, they sold almost anything that could be packed up and hauled to your location. The list of their inventory included such diverse items as: farm implements and buggies, barbed wire fence and rubber roofing material, stoves, ranges, sewing machines and organs. 

And engines. In 1912 they offered: 1 ½ hp, 2 ½ , 3 ½ , 4 ½ , 5, 7, 9, 12, 13 and 16 hp. Models. The 5 hp model sold for $115, the 7 hp version brought $146.50. Every engine came with a 5 year guarantee. You had a 30 day trial period to return the engine if you were not satisfied. 

Spotless sold engines but they didn’t make them, like Sears they contracted with a manufacturer to build engines for their house brand. Spotless engines were produced by the Jacobson Machine Manufacturing Co. located in Warren, Pa. They also made engines that were sold under the trade names: Bullseye, Maynard, Moody, Unito and Sturdy Jack Jr. 

An advertisement that ran in a 1914 issue of Tractor and Gas Engine Review boasted that Jacobson made an engine of every type and for every service. Air cooled, oil cooled and water cooled. Hit and miss, throttling and automatic. Stationary and portable engines. Jacobson had you covered no matter what your power needs. 

The 1912 Jacobson / Spotless engine shown here was exhibited at the Western North Carolina Fall Harvest Days Antique Engine and Tractor Show 2018. For information about the 2019 event visit: www.applecountry.org . 

Sources:

www.jacobsonengines.com 

https://books.google.com Tractor and Gas Engine Review 1914 

www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=143185 

Rumely 25-45 Type R

The early 1920’s saw a shift in the tractor market, away from the big heavy models to smaller, lighter and most importantly, more economical versions. Rumely had offered lightweights since 1916, but 1924 saw the introduction of four new lightweight models, the L at 15-25 hp , the Type M at 20-35 hp , the Type R at 25-45 hp and the Type S at 30-60 hp.  These models would remain in production into 1927.

In this post we’ll take a look at the Type R, like this example that the Shealy Family brought to the Richland Creek Antique Fall Festival at Saluda, South Carolina in Nov. 2016.

Kerosene was the preferred tractor fuel in the early years of the twentieth century because it was cheaper and more commonly available than refined gasoline but it had its drawbacks. A higher operating temperature was needed to properly vaporize the kerosene but the higher temperature created cooling problems as well. The boiling point of water was too low to be a suitable coolant for a kerosene burning tractor as many a Fordson owner could attest. Rumely solved the problem by using oil as a cooling medium since it boils at 400 degrees F. Think maybe that’s where the name “Oil Pull” came from? 

Rumely shipped a Type R to the University of Nebraska in 1925 where it was evaluated from July 7 to July 14 in test number 116. The following observations were recorded. Brake horsepower for the rated load test was listed as 45.55, drawbar rated at 27.42 hp. Advertised speeds were: low, 2 mph, second, 2 ½ mph, high, 3 mph. Total weight as tested, with operator, 11,900 pounds. 

The R was powered by a Rumely built 2 cylinder, horizontal, valve in head engine with a bore of 7 13/16 inches and a stroke of 9 ½ “. Engine speed was listed at 540 rpm.  The engine speed was controlled by a Rumely built flyball governor. Rumely advertisements claimed it could pull 5 or 6 14” plows or a 10 foot road grader. It came from the factory equipped with a price tag that read, $3200. 

Sources:

Encyclopedia of American Farm Tractors  by C.H. Wendel

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu