Fairbanks-Morse Stationary Engines

In the dog eat dog world of corporate mergers and acquisitions, Fairbanks-Morse has to be counted a survivor. The company traces it’s origin back to 1832 when Thaddeus Fairbanks patented a design for a platform scale and formed a company to manufacture and market them. By the time this engine was produced in 1925, the firm was already ninety-three years old and the company is still going strong today.

Fairbanks commercial scales were a success and were marketed around the world. During the 1870’s Charles Morse was an employee who became a partner in the firm as a result of his role in acquiring the Eclipse brand windmills and pumps. Under the banner of Fairbanks-Morse Co. the product line continued to diversify. The 1890’s saw expansion into internal combustion engine production with a naphtha burning engine in 1893, kerosene in 1900, coal gas 1905, semi-diesel 1913 and finally to the subject of this post , the true high compression full diesel stationary engine in 1924.

The model Y semi-diesel engine was offered with one to six cylinders producing 30 to 200 horsepower in 1914. By 1924 the Y-VA, their first full diesel model was in production. It was upgraded and rebranded as the Model 32 in 1925.

This engine is powering a sawmill at the Richland Creek Antique Fall Festival at Saluda, South Carolina in November 2016. The sign mounted beside it describes it as a 50 horsepower diesel that prior to 1940 ran a cotton gin in Chesterfield, SC. That was about all the information that was available since I didn’t see any data plates on the engine but if it was manufactured in 1925 it’s reasonable to assume it is a Model 32.

The Model 32 was available in two sizes: a 1696 cubic inch displacement engine with a 12” bore and 15” stroke producing 40 to 50 horsepower that was offered with one to three cylinders and a 2617 cubic inch version with a 14” x 17” bore / stroke yielding 60 to 75 horsepower in one to six cylinder configurations.

The following weekend I photographed this Fairbanks-Morse engine while attending the Cumming Steam, Antique Tractor and Gas Engine Expo. This example illustrates how the cylinders could be ganged together to meet the horsepower requirements of the application.

These engines were remarkably simple in design which in turn made them very reliable. Economical operation and a long service life made them a popular choice for powering a variety of industrial applications in the days before widespread electrification.

They also saw service powering refrigeration equipment and generating electricity. There is a photograph of a Type Y engine powering an electrical generation plant in Southwest Florida posted at www.asme.org that looks very similar to this engine that is owned by the City of Cumming, Ga.

Finally, here’s a brief video clip of the Richland Creek engine powering a sawmill demonstration.

Sources:

www.fairbanksmorse.com

https://oldmachinepress.com  

V. Stands for Victory

Or does it? In an excerpt from his book about the B.F. Avery and Sons Company posted at bfavery.net , Luther “Dan” Thomas suggest that the single plow tractor introduced in 1946 called the Model V was so named because World War Two had just been won. A logical conclusion since the triumphal celebrations were still fresh in everyone’s mind. Or maybe the company was thinking about capturing a lucrative market with their new machine that was targeted at the small family farm that made up more than half of all the farms in the country at that time. That would have been a victory indeed for a small concern like Avery.

The Model V was well suited for that application. Powered by a four cylinder Hercules ZXB-3 engine displacing 64.9 cubic inches that produced 9 horsepower it filled a niche for a farmer who could get by with a single 14” plow and didn’t want to pay for power he didn’t need. Compact with an overall length of 105” by 74” wide and weighing only 1612 pounds it was an agile performer in a small field.Between 1947 and the takeover by Minneapolis-Moline in 1951 Avery produced 7,500 units but some believe a few more  left the factory under the new management.

The nicely restored example shown here was displayed at the Tri-State Antique Power Association’s 23rd annual show at Gray, Tn. in April 2016. No information about the owner was provided so credit can’t be given where due.

Sources:

www.tractordata.com

www.bfavery.net

Encyclopedia of American Farm Tractors by C.H. Wendel

Port Huron Engine Number 6166

“I remember that engine as though I had seen it only yesterday, for it was the first vehicle other than horse drawn that I had ever seen.” Henry Ford

If you visit www.thehenryford.org you can find a photo of a 1916  Port Huron Traction Engine in the museum’s collection that very closely resembles this 1914 model. So was it a Port Huron Traction Engine that inspired a young Henry Ford to create his Model T in 1908? We may never know. After tossing out that intriguing quote the very brief article wanders off to other pastures. Ford was a Michigan native but the Upton - Port Huron Traction Engine Company made its first engines in 1882. Ford would have been 19 years old at that time.

Engine number 6166  was making steam at the 15th Annual Cumming Steam, Antique Tractor and Gas Engine Expo. Nov. 11 & 12 2016. Like the one at the Ford Museum, this one,owned by Jake Hubbard, is a 19 / 65, 19 hp on the drawbar and 65 hp on the belt.

Jack Norbeck in his Encyclopedia of American Steam Traction Engines states that the Port Huron-Woolf Compound engines were the best ever developed for threshing due to their economical and reliable operation. Port Huron claimed that their compound engines reduced fuel consumption by 3 to 4 percent compared to other engines.

In essence the compound engine achieves its economy by using the same steam twice. High pressure steam is admitted to the first cylinder then exhausted into another cylinder where it continues to expand, thereby wringing more work out of the fuel and water consumed.

Surf on over to https://www.midwestagmuseum.com/1919-port-huron-thresher/  to checkout the 1914 Port Huron sales brochure they have posted on their site. Within the first twelve pages you will find a series of very nice illustrations of the traction engine line they offered that year: A 16 hp compound,  20 hp “Longfellow” simple, 19 hp “Longfellow” compound, 24 hp “Longfellow” compound, 32 hp compound engine; and that’s just the beginning of the good stuff. Keep turning pages for cutaway diagrams of boiler construction, firebox and boiler tube details, boiler specifications and more. There’s even a cutaway illustration of the Port Huron - Woolf Compound Engine and a detailed explanation of the operation of the slide valve of this engine.

Port Huron claimed that the extended length of the tubes in their boilers made more efficient use of fuel because less heat was wasted up the stack, and that the 28” to 30” smokebox provided a measure of safety by reducing sparks and embers escaping with the exhaust. This extended length of the boiler was the origin of the name Longfellow.

The company was also quite proud of the construction of their operator’s platform, claiming that it could support the weight of the entire rear end of the machine, thus saving many lives and engines. A photograph of an engine that has collapsed one of the rudimentary bridges of the period is included on page 29 and sure enough, the platform is the only thing holding up the back end of the tractor. Since the 19 hp engine weighed in at 17,200 pounds, this was probably not an unusual occurrence.

Caterpillar Model 44 Pull Grader

A favorite to do on this blog is posting old iron that’s in search of a new home.

I had driven by this location a number of times without noticing this old pull grader because it has only recently been recovered from the vines and weeds that had completely engulfed it. Makes you wonder how many other antiques might be lurking under mounds of vegetation out there.

The plate on this machine identifies it as a Caterpillar, Grader # 8H770 but no model  is listed.

The best source of information about Caterpillar pull graders that I have found is at www.chriscomachinery.com/pullgraders.htm . The list of graders here identifies the 8H designation as belonging to the 44 and 30LW group, manufactured between 1937 to 1942.

Some specifications that might be of interest to a prospective buyer; weight: 7540 pounds, wheelbase: 15 feet, length with tractor pole: 28 feet, blade: 10 feet, blade pressure without scariffer: 7740 pounds.

Because all adjustments are manually controlled, a restoration would be greatly simplified, no expensive hydraulics to replace.

Possibly the largest single expense would be replacing the tires on this machine.

The asking price of $1200 makes it an affordable addition to any collector's inventory. Restored to operating condition, it could be a practical solution for someone with a private road to maintain. Send inquiries about this machine to stevedritch@gmail.com .

It's a Snap

I know what you’re thinking and the answer is yes, this bizarre looking contraption really is the great grand daddy of that Snapper Zero Turn you ride around your yard all summer.

A visit to the home page of snapper.com boasts that snapper was the builder of the industry’s first self propelled rotary lawn mower in 1951 but provides little else in the way of history for their product. One would hope that a Corporation as big as Briggs and Stratton could afford to provide a little more but in this era of bean counter business administration I guess that’s asking too much. From this point on the picture only gets murkyer.

Wikipedia offers the most complete story I’ve found on the Snapper mowers but contradictions crop up here and there. The mower was manufactured in McDonough, Ga. located about forty miles south of Atlanta under the brand name Snappin Turtle in the early 1950’s. William Raymond Smith, a lifelong resident of McDonough bought the McDonough Power Company in the 1940’s and shifted production from products for the lumber industry to manufacturing lawn mowers for the rapidly growing suburban market. The Wikipedia account credits W. R. Smith with patenting the mowing blade used in the mower, but one of the sources, an article that appeared in the New York Times on July 21, 2003 states that he acquired the patent from two Florida residents, Neal and Alex Smith who shared his name but were not relatives.

Surf on over to the Nostalgia Ranch ( www.nostalgiaranch.com ) to check out an ad for Snappin Turtle Week, April 7 to 14, 1956 “The Premiere of America’s finest mower”.  Here another question arises, are these well dressed turtles telling us that production began in 1956 rather than 1951?  Whatever the case it’s an interesting period advertisement. Among the tidbits of information it offers: four models were produced, 19” and 25” with 2 to 6 hp engines, “Just guide, it glides”, “No wheels, follows contours, can’t scalp”, “Self propelled to climb banks”, “Fingertip control and power reverse”, “ Pulls sulky and other implements”. On that last note, while you’re visiting the ranch be sure to watch the video of a Snappin Turtle pulling the operator on one of those sulkies. It’s a surprisingly agile rig.

William R. Smith served as President and CEO of the company from the late 1940’s until 1979. In 2002 Snapper was acquired by Simplicity Manufacturing which brings us to one last resource you might want to check out:  https://www.fastcompany.com/54763/man-who-said-no-walmart  an interesting account of how and why the CEO of Simplicity turned down distribution of Snapper products by WalMart. It’s an entertaining read. As things turned out he could have saved himself the trouble. In 2004 Simplicity was acquired by Briggs and Stratton. If you visit the Snapper web site today you’ll find WalMart listed prominently among the retailers. Moral of story: You can say no to WalMart but that doesn’t mean WalMart will take no for an answer.

Special thanks to Kirk Kahler for bringing his Snappin Turtle to the C.A.P.A. 2016 Expo.