N.M.P. Co. Hurricane Jr. Lawnmower

The business card he handed me read, Kirk Kahler, “Vintage Garden Tractor & Horse-drawn Farm Equipment Collector”. Fair enough, he does own some interesting collectables, like this Snappin Turtle , the mower that asks the question, “ Why don’t they put hood ornaments on lawn mowers any more?” We took a look at the Turtle back on 2/15/17. This post is about the mower you see in the background behind it, the N.M.P. Co. Hurricane Jr.

Kirk tells me he’s not been able to learn much about this mower. I’m inclined to agree. A search for “hurricane lawn mower” turns up results like, “Dad attacks son with chainsaw, son runs over dad with lawn mower.” I like this kind of post. We’re in uncharted territory here. Let’s get started with what little I have been able to glean. 

The most striking feature is the mow deck with N.M.P. Co. Hurricane Jr. boldly cast across the front. The fact that its aluminum is interesting and makes you wonder why? Not nearly as durable as steel and any savings of weight would be negligible. 

Next take a look at the friction wheel blade drive. No belt to replace but you have to wonder how well it would work when the grass gets tall and thick. In the original photo file size you can make out just to the left of the blade drive wheels, “National Metal Products Co. , K.C. Mo.” . Who were they? What did they do? Did they operate a foundry? I’ve found zero information about this company online.  

Power is supplied by a Clinton model B 700 - 22 four stroke gas engine. Not the ubiquitous Briggs & Stratton, but not completely unknown either. The data plate reads, “ Clinton Machine Company Inc. Clinton Michigan. According to Wikipedia, Clinton moved to Maquoketa, Iowa around 1950 , so it might be fair to  speculate that the engine and mower predate the move, sometime in the mid-to-late 40’s. The serial number of this motor is 97832A. If you had access to a list of Clinton serial numbers you might be able to approximate the date of the mower’s manufacture that way. 

There are at least two other surviving examples of this mower, judging by comments posted on smokstak.com. You can read the brief thread and see a couple of photos of one of them by paying a visit to that website.

Well that’s about all I’ve found on the Hurricane Jr. Maybe there’s someone out there in Muleland who’s sitting on a treasure trove of catalogs, owner’s manuals and other assorted goodies they would be willing to share. If so, I’d love to hear from you. Add a comment below or  send an email and I’ll add an update to this post. On the subject of comments, don’t expect to see them appear immediately. The internet being what it is, I have to screen them first, but anything that’s of value or fit to print will get there eventually. In the meantime enjoy these photos or pay a visit to the Steam Expo. 2019  at Cumming, Ga. Most likely Kirk will be there again with his collection.

Resources:

www.smokstak.com 

https://en.wikipedia.org 

 

A 1913 16 HP Aultman-Taylor Traction Engine

Cornelius Aultman got an early start on his career. At the age of fourteen he went to work with an uncle as an apprentice millwright. For reasons not recorded this arrangement didn’t work out and he was back at the homestead a few months later. Laying around the house, plopped in front of the electronic sewer and sponging off the “rents” wasn’t a career option for a young man back in the early 1800’s, so Cornelius soon found himself in a new job at a shop that made spinning wheels. This venture proved more successful but he didn’t hit his stride until he spent two more years as an apprentice learning the machinist trade.

In 1851 he opened his own shop in Canton, Ohio under the name of the C. Aultman Company. This was a time when machines were revolutionizing agriculture and the western frontier was opening up. In 1862 the Homestead Bill offered 160 acres of land to any farmer who paid $10 down and pledged to farm the land for five years. This created a huge market for tools and equipment produced in shops like Aultman’s.  

Sometime around 1856 Henry H. Taylor entered the picture as a sales agent for C. Aultman Co. Taylor was a wheeler dealer who had already made a fortune in Chicago real estate, banking and insurance. Apparently Henry’s chief function as a partner in the new Aultman and Taylor Manufacturing Co. was to bring bags of cash, along with his numerous business connections, to the table. C. Aultman Co. had been working on a new design for a vibrating threshing machine and by 1867 a new factory to produce it had been constructed in Mansfield, Ohio. 

Threshing machines needed a power source to run them and the best option available was the steam engine. I have not been able to find a definite date of when exactly Aultman began building steam engines, but in Jack Norbeck’s  Encyclopedia of American Steam Traction Engines, examples from 1889 are the oldest shown. 

Engines were built under both the C. Aultman Co. and the Aultman Taylor brand name. Portable engines, steam traction engines and road locomotives were produced.  Horsepower ranged from 8 to 25 hp. Both simple and Compound engines were manufactured. All told, at least 5,870 engines were made before production ended in 1924. In addition to the steam engines they also built sawmills, windstackers, and horsepowers. 

By all accounts Aultman-Taylor made high quality products. Boilers were high pressure, rated for a working pressure of 150 psi and hydrostatic tested at 200 psi. An independent steel frame was used to mount the traction drive gearing and wheels. This isolated the boiler from the jolts and strains that was transmitted from the ground on traction engines that used the boiler itself as a frame. This design undoubtedly saved many a boiler from damage and stress due to everyday use and traveling the roads of the day. 

By the early 1920’s steam engines were rapidly being replaced for most applications by the internal combustion engine and electrification in many rural areas. Sales dwindled and Aultman - Taylor apparently failed to adapt to the new environment. The company faced liquidation by 1923 and it was eventually absorbed by Allis-Chalmers Co. 

You can find a detailed history of Aultman-Taylor Co. that was written by a Dr. Lorin Bixler and printed in the Nov. / Dec. 2000 issue of Farm Collector Magazine at their website. Collectors and history buffs will want to check out advertisements in a digitized version of The American Thresherman and Farm Power  from May 1915  available at Google Books. The 1913 16 horsepower Aultman Taylor traction engine shown in this post was photographed at the 2018 Steam Expo. at Cumming, Ga. presented by the Cumming Antique Power Association. www.capa-ga.com .

Resources:

Encyclopedia of American Steam Traction Engines by Jack Norbeck 

www.farmcollector.com 

https://books.google.com 

1 1/4 HP Type VJ Monitor Engine

What was to become Baker Manufacturing Co. dates back to 1872 when Allen S. Baker and Levi Shaw began to develop a rotary steam engine. In 1873 four local merchants signed onto the venture with Baker and Shaw with each of the partners pledging to contribute $1,000 to the enterprise. The company was named A.S. Baker Co. and a machine shop was opened in Evansville, Wisconsin in July of 1873 where work began on the steam engine. Several examples were built but the engine didn’t live up to expectations and the steam engine project was soon abandoned.

The machine shop remained in business doing repair work and making iron well pumps and wooden windmills which sold well and the company continued to grow. Incorporation as the Baker Manufacturing Company with working capital of $20,000 followed in 1879. By 1882 forty employees were on the payroll, building and shipping seventy windmills per month which were marketed under the Monitor trade name. 1910 saw windmills and pumps marketed worldwide and new products including gasoline engines being built by a workforce of 150 employees.  

Baker continued to expand their gasoline engine line with a range of horsepower to meet just about any demand. Windmills, pumps and water supply products remained the company’s mainstays, but a variety of farm implements like feed grinders and powered saws that could be run by the Monitor gas engines were also marketed.

No one could ever accuse the Baker firm of being afraid of innovation. The line of products they manufactured ranged from the eminently practical to downright bizarre. Windmill towers led to radio beacon towers for early twentieth century aviators. Steel flag poles were marketed. In the years prior to World War 2 they got into the toy business with mechanically animated toys sold as “Live Toys”. Su Panda and Annie Elephant production reached 9,000 copies. A hydrofoil sailboat was developed. Contributions to the war effort ranged from a sight for anti aircraft guns to a combat vehicle that could leap over four foot obstacles and bound 47 feet horizontally. 

The Little Monitor gasoline engines like the 1 ¼ hp example shown here were one of Baker’s best selling products. Used primarily for pumping wells, they came with a pump jack and belt pulley included. They could also be used to power washing machines, corn shellers, butter churns, buzz saws, cement mixers, and about anything that could be powered by a belt drive. 

The 1 ¼ hp Monitor engine was a four cycle with jump spark ignition and a hit and miss governor. It had a dust sealed, closed crankcase with hand-hole access for connecting rod adjustments. Moving parts were splash lubricated from an oil settling chamber. 

The engine shown here was displayed at the WNC Fall Harvest Days Show in 2018. The data plate identifies it as a Monitor type VJ 1 ¼ hp , # 41099 . No further information was supplied. My guess would be that it was built sometime between 1910 and 1930 but without a list of serial numbers, that is just speculation. 

Baker Manufacturing Company is still very much in business today. You can find a detailed history of the company at their website: www.bakermonitor.com/content/about-us/company-history 

Additional Resources:

www.gasenginemagazine.com 

https://www.old-engine.com 

1936 Massey-Harris Challenger

Massey-Harris introduced the Challenger model in 1936 in a bid to break into the lucrative row crop tractor market that had been dominated by International Harvester with the hugely popular Farmall line since 1924. While the Challenger was their first real row crop, it wasn’t the the first tricycle design they had marketed. Way back in 1917 when M-H was a farm implement manufacturer, the first tractor in their product line was the Big Bull Tractor, built by a company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While the Bull couldn’t be called a real row crop, it was a three wheeler. The Bull, however, turned out to be a disaster for Massey-Harris. 

The Challenger had what farmers wanted in a tractor and was well received during its short production run from 1936 through 1937. It was succeeded by the Twin Power Challenger in 1938 to 1939. A total of 14,000 Challenger tractors were built at the Racine Wisconsin factory. Massey -Harris serial numbers for the Challenger began at 130001 in 1936. Serial numbers can be found stamped on the oval plate attached to the left side of the main frame and stamped into the metal above the plate on the frame. The number of the tractor shown here is 130576. 

The Challenger was available in  a distillate version and as a gasoline powered tractor. The distillate model was evaluated at the University of Nebraska in test number 265 from August 10th to the 18th 1936 and recorded a maximum drawbar horsepower of 20.03 and 28.58 hp on the belt. The following year Massey-Harris sent a gasoline model for testing in October of 1937. As you might expect, it recorded increased performance with 29.8 hp on the drawbar and 34.9 hp on the belt in test number 293. 

Massey designed and built their own engine, a four cylinder with a bore of 3 7/8 “ and 5 ¼” stroke that displaced 247 cu. In. and turned at 1200 rpm. Speeds recorded at the test were: 1st 2.4 mph, 2nd 3.3 mph, 3rd 4.1 mph, 4th 8.5mph and 3 mph in reverse. 

The 1936 test tractor was equipped with an American Bosch model U4ED4V1 magneto, a 1 ¼” Kingston carburetor and a Handy No. RD2231 centrifugal governor. The clutch was a hand operated, twin disc single plate dry type. Belt power was supplied by a 12 inch diameter pulley with a 6 ¼” face turning at 831 rpm. 

Steel wheels were standard equipment on the 1936 model, drive wheels measured 52” in diameter with a face of 8” that mounted 28 2 ½” X 5” spade lugs per wheel. Rubber tired wheels were available as an extra cost option. The rubber tired version also measured 52” giving the tractor 25” of crop clearance. The rear tread stance was adjustable from 52 to 80 inches. The Challenger was provided with a rear PTO and a PTO driven powered implement lift was available as an extra cost option. Individual rear wheel brakes were standard and gave the Challenger the ability to turn on a dime.

The beautifully restored Challenger shown here is owned by Fran Manchik and was exhibited at the WNC Fall Harvest Days Antique Engine and Tractor Show hosting the Massey Expo of North America at Asheville, NC.   October 26 to 28th 2017. 

Sources:

University of Nebraska Tractor Test results published in the Cooperative Tractor Catalog, 22nd edition 1937 - 1938  page 166, available at https://books.google.com 

The Big Book of Massey Tractors by Robert N. Pripps ; available at https://books.google.com 

The Encyclopedia of American Farm Tractors by C.H. Wendel 

The first ever Golden Mule Award

Well here we are, the last post of 2018, where did the year go? This seems like a good time to look back at the events I visited and choose an exhibit that best represents the spirit of innovation that made the Industrial Revolution possible. With that in mind, I’m pleased to present the winner of the first ever Golden Mule Award for Innovative Excellence.

You can do a lot of things with steam. You can heat your home most effectively with it, you can cross oceans and continents with its power, you can make things in factories with machines that run on steam, you can even press your trousers with it. Of all the things steam can do, perhaps the most useful is generate electricity.

Unless you live in an area with abundant hydro, wind or solar, chances are the electricity powering your home is generated by steam. More electricity is probably generated by steam than by all the other methods combined. Nothing unusual about it. Gregory Deal’s “Portable Historical Display” however, is the first self contained steam powered electric generating plant mounted on a trailer, that I have ever seen.

The two key historical elements are a 1957 vintage Lookout boiler and a Engberg’s vertical steam engine. The boiler is a vertical fire tube type that has a maximum rated working pressure of 100 psi. If you’ve been visiting this site for a while, you might remember seeing the Lookout Boiler in an earlier post. The steam engine was built by Engberg’s Electric and Mechanical Works, located in St. Joseph, Michigan, most likely sometime from the early 1900’s to 1921. The data plate mounted on the mechanical oiler offers that it is machine number 5842, frame: C, with a bore of 5”  and stroke of 5” turning at 500 rpm. No date of manufacture given.

One of the very few tidbits of information I’ve been able to glean about Engberg’s came by way of a small classified ad in a publication called “Power: Devoted to the generation and transmission of power.” Vol. 28 issue 17, April 28, 1908 available courtesy of books.google.com . On page 107 there is an advertisement for an Engberg’s generating set with an illustration of one of their steam engines connected to a dynamo. The ad copy reads, “ Will maintain with perfect steadiness, from 30 to 500 lights, requiring very little steam and less of your attention.”  

Mr. Deal’s generator seems to be having no difficulty maintaining the lights strung around his trailer. Note also the box fan that’s available for use on hot summer days. 

What else he could power up is limited only by your imagination. So there you have it the winner of The Golden Mule Award for 2018. Look for his trailer at the Western North Carolina Fall Harvest Days next year to see what he’s come up with for 2019. 

Resources:

Books.google.com

www.vintagemachinery.org 

Collings Foundation Tour 2018

On Thursday, October 25th I was working in my yard, cleaning up the debris from the latest storm when an unusual sound grabbed my attention. Nothing else sounds like a radial aircraft engine, especially a lot of them. Passing by not far to the North was a B 24 Liberator and a B 17 Flying Fortress, headed Southwest toward Greenville, South Carolina. It was two of the four vintage aircraft that make up the Collings Foundation Wings of Freedom Tour. They weren’t due to arrive until Friday but bad weather was on the way so I guess they decided to fly in in front of it.

If you have any interest at all in historic machinery, this is an event you won’t want to miss. Accompanying the two bombers mentioned above are a B 25 Mitchell medium bomber and a TF 51D , a two seat trainer version of the Mustang. Where else can you see these famous aircraft together at the same time?

Rides are available on all four aircraft and walk through tours are offered between flights on the B-17 and B-24. You can find information about the aircraft and prices by visiting www.collingsfoundation.org. 

If you have deep pockets, the Mustang is the obvious first choice for anyone considering going for a ride. The Packard-Merlin V-12 engine turns out 1,450 horsepower that moves the Mustang at a maximum air speed of 440 miles per hour. Since this is a trainer version, the passenger seat has full instrumentation and functional controls. Once airborne, you can actually fly this iconic World War Two fighter. 

For a more modest fee, you can catch a ride on the Mitchell. Not a fighter like the P-51, but still an impressive performance aircraft. Powered by two Wright R2600-92 Cyclone radial engines it has a top speed of 272 miles per hour. Best known for its role in the Doolittle Raid, it was able to launch with a full load of fuel and bombs from the deck of the USS Hornet , and that was before the day of steam catapult assisted launch. During WW-2 it saw service as a Medium Bomber and in the Ground Attack role. In the Pacific Theater it was used extensively to attack Japanese shipping.  

The Collings Foundation has painted their B-17 in the war time markings of a plane that flew 140 combat missions as part of the 91st Bomb Group, 323rd squadron that the crew named “Nine O Nine”.  That aircraft survived those missions and brought all of its crew home safely, only to be scrapped after the war ended. This aircraft, affectionately known as serial # 44-83575 rolled off the assembly line at the Douglas plant at Long Beach , CA. in April 1945, too late to see combat in WW 2.  It may have missed the war, but it has a story of its own that’s every bit as interesting as the Nine-O-Nine. Lets’ climb inside and look around while I recap that tale. 

The Air Corp accepted delivery that same month and assigned it to the Air / Sea 1st. Rescue Squadron where it was used for long range search missions. Following that tour of duty it was transferred to the Military Air Transport Service where it hauled cargo until 1952 when it was assigned to participate in one of the strangest chapters in American history, Operation Tumbler - Snapper. 

From 1945 until 1962 the Atomic Energy Commision and the Defense Nuclear Agency were lighting off atomic weapons like some overgrown kid with a box of cherry bombs on the Fourth of July. A total of 235 above ground, or atmospheric, tests were conducted during this period. Tumbler - Snapper was a series of tests or shots as they were called, that were conducted at Yucca Flats in the Nevada desert in April, 1952. One of the many experiments was designed to measure the effects of nuclear blasts on parked aircraft. To that end a total of 28 aircraft were parked at various ranges from ground zero and nuked three times. This B-17 was one of them. 

I won’t go into all the high strangeness that went on out there in the desert. That would take several books to cover. If you are interested visit  www.dtra.mil and search Operation Tumbler - Snapper, enough documents will pop up to keep you busy for quite a while, many of them available in PDF for download. Makes for some very interesting reading.

After the tests, this B-17 sat in the desert, glowing in the dark at night for 13 years until it had “cooled down” enough to be sold as scrap.  It takes a lot to stop a B-17 and this one wasn’t about to quit yet. It was purchased by a firm called Aircraft Specialties Co. and incredibly, restored to flying condition. It spent the next 20 years fighting forest fires as a fire bomber.  The Collings Foundation bought it in 1986 and returned it to it’s wartime design. With the exception of down time for another rebuild, It has been touring the country with the other Wings of Freedom aircraft ever since.

Sources:

www.collingsfoundation.org 

www.dtra.mil 

Gibson Garden Tractors

In 1945 Soldiers by the thousands suddenly found themselves civilians again, and like troops headed home throughout history, they had only one thing on their mind, “Get out there and mow the grass, or better yet, plant a garden.” The Gibson Manufacturing Corporation was one of dozens of companies that were eager to help them realize their ambition.

Gibson was around before they got into the garden tractor business. Harry Gibson opened a shop in Seattle, Washington that built railroad cars. Early in 1946 the decision was made to jump on the tractor bandwagon by opening a plant in Longmont, Colorado under the direction of Wilbur Gibson that was dedicated to the production of small tractors. According to a local newspaper article that was dated March 2, 1946, the 70 newly hired employees at the Gibson plant had just completed the first 52 Gibson tractors ever produced. Serial numbered tractors 1 to 16 had already been shipped to dealers in Denver. 

Gibson designated their first design the model A which was rapidly followed by the D,  SD and Super D versions.  All were powered by a six hp Wisconsin AEH engine, although some early D’s reportedly were equipped with a 9 hp AHH mill. Three forward speeds plus reverse were provided. Gibson ads claimed it could pull a trailer at 12 mph and plow with 10 or 12 inch bottoms. 

An astute observer has probably already been wondering, “what happened to the steering wheel? “  Short answer, there isn’t one. The tall lever on the right side was used to guide the tractor. Push forward to turn left, pull back to turn right. The reason Gibson chose this method is one of those mysteries lost to time. More than one potential customer found the method too awkward to buy the tractor. The A, D and SD models were fitted with the lever. By the time the Super D rolled off the assembly line it had been replaced by a conventional steering wheel.

With the introduction of the Super D, Gibson attempted to address their customers complaints about other shortcomings. A hood and grill were added to protect the engine plus fenders to protect the operator. An electrical system and hydraulics were offered as optional equipment.  

A pricelist from 1949 had the Model D selling for $545 and the Model SD at $580. Gibson also offered a line of implements made especially for their tractors. One source that I found placed the total production run for Gibson’s small engine tractors, the models A, D, SD and Super D, at 60,000 units  sold in the United States and globally. Gibson also built a Model EF tractor that had a 2 cylinder Wisconsin TF motor. In the early Fifties Gibson made a brief foray into production of full sized farm tractors with the Models H and I, but very few of these were sold. 

In the early 50’s Gibson tried it’s hand in other markets beside the tractors. At one point they had a contract to build forklifts for the Navy. They also made a golf cart that they named the Country Clubber. It was also during this period that financial problems began to develop. For a three week period in 1952, workers were laid off and the factory shut down. In August 1954 a company called Western American Industries assumed control of Gibson’s operations. Accounts vary according to the source, but as many as 1000 more model D’s SD’s and Super D’s may have been produced by Western before operations were shut down permanently in 1958 but Gibson Manufacturing ceased to be in 1954.

The Gibson shown in these photos was offered for sale at the Western North Carolina Fall Harvest Days show in 2018. No information about it was displayed. Gibson serial numbers are supposed to be stamped into the frame rail on the right side. I looked this one over carefully but could not find any markings that would help to identify it. My best guess is that it is a model D but as for the year of production, I don’t have a clue.

Sources:

www.oldirongardentractors.com  offers a collection of original source material consisting of Gibson advertising, letters from the manufacturers agent to retailers, and newspaper clippings from the period. 

www.gasenginemagazine.com  A History of the Gibson Manufacturing Company by Dave Baas published July / August 1985 

www.hemmings.com  1947 - ‘52 Gibson Model D  by Mike McNessor ,  published July, 2007