The featured gas engines for the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, for 2023 are inverted engines. What is an inverted engine? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an inverted engine as “an engine whose crankshaft is above the cylinder.” It also could be described as an engine that sits on its head. An inverted engine is an upside-down version of the common vertical engine style seen at shows.
Early Inverted Engine Designs
Inverted engine designs date back to the earliest versions of engines produced. Back in the day, these engines were described as vertical engines since the cylinder was vertically arranged. Many early engine builders used the inverted design, but all referred to it as a vertical engine. Even after conventional vertical engines became the norm, the few companies offering inverted designs still called their engines verticals.
The early Otto & Langen non-compression engine design of 1867 was one of the first internal combustion engines. The free piston design, which launches the piston upward then returns it via gravity, was arranged in an inverted configuration. The 4-stroke engine by Nicolaus Otto came in 1876, and its principles were soon applied to engines with an inverted configuration. Otto engines by Crossley Bros. of England and Gasmotoren-Fabrik Deutz of Germany, among others, were offered in inverted designs into the late-1890s.
By 1900, the more conventional vertical engine with the crankshaft below the cylinder had prevailed as the choice of most manufacturers. Still a few held onto the inverted configuration. Two of the most successful with the inverted design were based in Chicago, Webster Mfg. Co. and Temple Pump Co. Webster produced inverted engines from 1896 to 1906. Temple Pump started making inverted engines around 1901 and made an extensive line of single and 2-cylinder engines. In 1911, they also began marketing their engines through the United States Engine Works, but by late 1916 all engine production stopped with the failure of the Temple concern.
Other companies that made inverted engines around the turn of the 20th century included Gemmer Engine Co. of Marion, Indiana, and Racine Gas Engine Co. and Pierce Engine Co., both of Racine, Wisconsin. Hart-Parr of Madison, Wisconsin, made unique inverted engines when the company began in 1897 and continued offering them for a few years after relocating to Charles City, Iowa.
Inverted engines essentially disappeared from the market by the mid-1910s. A curious exception to this appeared around 1919 from Elgin Gas Motor Co., of Elgin, Illinois, with the introduction of their small engine known as the “Little Pet” or “Hafa-Hors.” This small engine was rated at 1/2hp and carried a 2-inch bore and stroke.
It is unusual to see inverted engines at shows, as they were made in relatively small quantities as compared to the more popular horizontal and vertical engines. This rarity makes inverted engines highly coveted by collectors today, a prized piece in any collection.
Inverted Engine at the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion
We are fortunate at the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion to have had an inverted engine shown nearly every year since the mid-1960s. This engine (shown in the feature image at the top of this article) is a 15hp Master Workman 2-cylinder engine made by Temple Pump Co. The owner is our featured gas engine exhibitor for 2023, Paul Gorrell of Burlington, Iowa.
Paul originally found the engine based on a tip from the president of the board of directors at a meeting at Old Threshers. The tip led him to a barn outside Colusa, Illinois, where he discovered the Master Workman still set up to power a lineshaft, along with two other engines, all amongst a huge collection of rocks. All three of the engines were purchased and became part of Paul’s collection.
A photo and write-up about Paul and the Master Workman engine appeared in the first issue of Gas Engine Magazine in the January/February 1966 issue (see opposite page). Paul and his family have been faithful exhibitors, along with the Temple Pump Master Workman engine, at nearly all Midwest Old Threshers Reunions ever since, for 50-plus years!
The 2023 inverted engine feature is sure to bring out some unique engines to see. If you have an inverted engine, be sure to bring it to Mt. Pleasant and be a part of the big show, August 31-September 4. You will not want to miss seeing the unique feature of engines turned upside down!
2023 Midwest Old Threshers Reunion
For more information on the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion visit Old Threshers.
Barry Tuller can be contacted at btengines@gmail.com.
Originally published as “Turned Upside Down” in the June/July 2023 issue of Gas Engine Magazine.
