The Evinrude outboard motor, designed and built by Ole Evinrude,
has been honored as a National Historic Mechanical Engineering
Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Evinrude designed his first internal combustion engine for
powering boats in 1907. He and his wife, Bess, formed the Evinrude
Motor Co. in 1909 and began manufacturing what became the
world’s first truly successful outboard motor.
His first engine was two-cycle, developed 1 HP at 1,000 rpm,
weighed 62 pounds, and used ‘an engineering design that has
remained standard for outboard motors ever since,’ the
ASME said.
When Evinrude began, other outboard ‘motors’ had not
proved practical. In the 40 years preceding his breakthrough,
methods devised to power the boats had included something a little
more than a paddlewheel operated by foot, or use of steam, or
storage batteries.
Evinrude, born in 1877, apprenticed in a farm machinery shop in
Madison, Wis., worked in Pittsburgh and Chicago, then opened his
own pattern shop in Milwaukee.
The internal combustion engine was just beginning to make
headway. Ole and a partner formed the Motor Car Power Equipment
Co., to build a standardized motor that could be installed in any
‘horseless carriage’.
Then he designed his prototype of the outboard motor which Bess
called a ‘coffee grinder’. At her urging he built the
‘coffee grinder’ in quantity.
The company grew, but when Bess became ill, Ole sold the firm in
1914 and they retired. He agreed to stay out of the outboard
business for five years, but as Ole and Bess traveled and she
regained her health, he was envisioning a new outboard, to use two
cylinders instead of one, weigh 50 percent less, yet develop 50
percent more power.
Ole and Bess were back in business in 1921 as the Elto Outboard
Motor Co. (Evinrude Light Twin Outboard). The first Elto motor
utilized aluminum. It developed three HP instead of 1, and weighed
47 pounds.
Many innovations followed. In 1928, the two-cylinder
‘barrier’ was broken when Elto introduced the four-cylinder
to meet the growing demand from boaters for speed.
Corporate changes took place. The original Evinrude Company,
which had been through several hands, was bought by Briggs &
Stratton Corp. in 1928. In 1914, Evinrude merged with Elto and
Lockwood-Ash to form the Outboard Motors Corp.
Bess died in Milwaukee in 1933; Ole died a year later, at age
57. Their only son, Ralph, carried on the business.
Outboard Motors Corp. acquired the other major outboard company
in the U.S., Johnson Motors of Waukeegan, Ill, in 1935. Ralph
headed the new firm, Outboard Marine and Manufacturing Co.
The company is known today as Outboard Marine Corp., with Ralph
Evinrude as board chairman. Its sales are over $700 million a year;
it is international in scope, and employs more than 10,000
persons.
An impressive list of Evinrude ‘firsts’ has been
compiled for the ASME. If you want a copy of a brochure telling
about the award and company accomplishments, ask for ‘A
National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark’, and send
the request to American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 345 E.
47th St., New York, NY 10017.
