The Hercules Engine News

By Staff
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20601 Old State Road Haubstadt, Indiana 47639

Hercules engines and the other brands built at the Hercules Gas
Engine Company factory are of great interest to many collectors.
For interested buffs, there are many new little bits of information
that keep turning up.

One of the supplies that often came up with Economy engines was
a quart of gas engine cylinder oil. The can was sometimes shown in
the Sears catalogs. These cans are now a rare find. At the June
engine show at Cool springs, Pennsylvania, such a can as shown here
was on display among a collection of spout type oil cans. The label
reads, ‘Economy Gas Engine Cylinder Oil’ followed by
‘Recommended Especially For Use In Economy Stationary Engine
and Motor go Engines.’ The label goes on to say, ‘The Best
Oil It Is Possible To Make For Gas and Gasoline Engines.’
Nearer the bottom of the can in smaller print is a catalog number
with the prices per gallon of additional oil listed as follows:

1 Gal Can/per gallon

0.37

5 Gal Can/per gallon

0.31

10 Gal Can/per gallon

0.29

50 Gal Wood Barrel/per gal

0.22

50 Gal Steel Barrel/per gal

0.27

Nothing is mentioned about the cost of a one quart can. It
surely looks like a 50 gallon barrel would outlast any Economy
engine built in those days.

Some time ago there was a story about the Economy gas engine
bow-tie decal. I recently acquired a 3 HP model G Economy parts
engine number 307,037. It had reasonably good remains of the
bow-tie decal on one side of the hopper. There was enough there to
get good details of the original. My own reconstruction of the
original is shown here with the light yellow background and the
twin black striped outline with the gold stripe in between. The
lettering is gold with black shadowing. Of course, the blackened
‘scales of justice’ emblem appears in the background.

Another interesting feature of the above Economy engine is its
light green flywheels. This green, similar to John Deere or perhaps
David Bradley green, has been observed before on original Economy
engines. I am beginning to wonder if there weren’t some Economy
engines of this vintage (1924) produced with green flywheels.

  • Published on Dec 1, 1998
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