Reflections

27/5/35 MM Avery Model V Q. I have an Avery
Model V built by Minneapolis-Moline. It has serial number 6V649,
but this does not correspond with any of the serial number lists I
have. Can anyone provide the year built for this tractor?
George Millen, Rt 1, Box 48, Tillatoba, MS 38961.

A. Our listings show that for 1952 the
beginning serial number for the Avery V was 6V422. That would make
your tractor a 1952 model, and this was the last year the Model V
shows up in the serial number guide at hand.

27/5/36 Haas Genealogy Q. I am presently
engaged in researching the Haas family of Mahantango Valley,
Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. This family was in the foundry
business, and also built steam and gas engines, plus a few
experimental automobiles. If anyone has any information on the
above, please contact: David P. Rhine, 1124 Park Dr., Palmyra,
PA 17078.

27/5/37 Ride-A-Mower Q. See the two photos of a
Ride-A-Mower built in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The engine is a
foot-start Clinton. I would appreciate any information on this
machine. Roger R. Frens, 3467 W. 72nd St., Newaygo, Ml
49337.

27/5/38 Sattley Engine Q. See the photo of a
Sattley 5 HP engine, s/n 10207. Can anyone tell me when it was
built? Donald Layton, Box 16, River-lane, Riverton, WY
82501.

A. There is no serial number information
available on the Sattley engines.

27/5/39 Terrill Saw Company Q. I am 15 years
old, and just inherited this chain saw from my grandfather. I have
been to local chain saw dealers and no one has heard of the name or
date it was made. Before I restored it the colors were only red and
yellow. The nameplate reads: Model CS-5, s/n 80220, Mfd. by D.D.
Terrill Saw Co., Inc., Bangor, Maine. Any information on this saw
will be greatly appreciated. Ken Shearhart, 181 Loftus Road,
Port Townsend, WA 98368.

A. If anyone can be of help, kindly do so.

27/5/40 Siamese Cat Q. Back in 1951 Farm
Implement News noted a huge Siamese Cat headed for the King Ranch
in Texas. It was a huge crawler that was built with two engines,
and had a total weight of about 72,000 pounds. Does anyone have any
information on this huge Caterpillar tractor?

27/5/41 Maytag Question Q. See the photo of a
twin-cylinder Maytag engine. It has a die cast tank on the bottom
of the engine rather than the usual cast iron combination gas tank
and mounting base. There are no mounting provisions on this engine.
Can anyone advise further on this model? John Miller, 34127 Lee
Avenue, Leesburg, FL 34788.

27/5/42 Hercules Engine Q. I have a 1916
Hercules 7 HP throttle governed engine. It was converted to a
hit-and-miss, using the original carburetor. I would like to
convert it back to throttle governing, but need to have the
information on doing it. Can anyone help? Ray Bennett, 159
Sycamore Drive, DeBary, FL 32713.

A. You will need a different mixer of course,
plus there will be some changes to the governor linkage so as to
extend it to the butterfly valve. Those are the major changes, with
other changes being minor by comparison.

Readers Write

26/12/20 Cutaway Engine. In the above article,
this is a ? horsepower military standard engine built by
Continental Motors Corporation in 1959. It was Model 1A03-1. This
was the smallest in a series of engines designed by Continental to
government specs. This particular engine was cancelled after a
pilot run of 100 engines were made. The primary purpose of this
engine was to power a 300 watt generator for the Signal Corps. I
have complete engines, serial numbers 000035 and 000099. Ronald
C. Parks, 22 South Cane Ct., Houma, LA 70360.

Thanks!. Thanks to all who responded to my call
on the corn sheller listed in the January issue of GEM. I want to
thank in particular, Marion J. Robb, as his picture of his sheller
is exactly the same as mine. I didn’t receive any responses on
the riding lawn mower. Thanks again! Robert A. LeBaron, 5801 E.
5th St., Tucson, AZ 85711.

27/2/13 Gladden Products. Several people
responded to this query. Thanks in particular to Fred Howard, 2305
W. 11th St., Plainview, TX 79072 for sending us a copy of the
Instructions and Parts on the BB Series Gladden engines.

Hocking Valley Corn Sheller. In regards to this
item, it is advertised in the reprint of the 1894-95 Montgomery
Ward catalog. At that time, the one-hole sheller sold for the
princely sum of $5.40, with the belt pulley costing an extra 50
cents! Thanks to Wesley G. Ball, 11239 Alleghany Rd., Forestville,
NY 14062 for sending along this information.

Unleaded vs. Leaded. I am certainly no
petrochemical engineer, but I know enough to realize that common
sense should prevail on this subject. I don’t know when lead
was added to gasoline on a regular basis, but I don’t think it
was used in the very early years of gas engines. If it was, it
would make little difference if our old, low compression, slow
speed engines burned lead or not. I understand that high speed,
high compression gasoline engines of the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s
can suffer valve damage, due to the lack of the cushioning effect
of lead and higher firing temperatures, from running unleaded, but
our old one-lungers? I don’t think this is possible and even if
it did matter, these engines would need to spend their time running
hard on a daily basis, to ever see any effect. This is almost never
the case on vintage engines running slow, with no load on them most
of the time. In fact, the build-up of carbon on the valves,
ignitor, etc. can cause more trouble than the lack of lead ever
could in these engines; even excessive lead in gasoline can add to
the problem by leaving lead deposits.

Engines that use an oiler to lubricate the cylinder manage to
burn some of that oil as well, maybe helping to ‘cushion’
the exhaust valve seat a little bit. As in all hit and miss
engines, the valves remain idle a large percentage of the time.

What about engines fueled by natural gas or kerosene? There has
never been any lead added to these fuels, at least not to my
knowledge. I don’t think that the use of unleaded gasoline
could harm early tractor engines, for many of the same reasons. As
for later, high speed, high performance tractor engines, the type
of fuel burned may very well make a difference.

I really believe that any problems with the use of unleaded fuel
should be worried about by collectors of ’57 Chevys, 1960s
vintage muscle cars, etc., and not by vintage gas engine
collectors. I have always run my engines on unleaded gasoline (nine
years) and have never had a problem. Todd W. Kuhns, PO Box 142,
Kingman, KS 67068.

Judging Engines and Tractors. I believe that
judging engines and tractors at shows is very sad, to say the
least. If anything could lead to the demise of our hobby as we know
it, this would be a leading cause. There have been a few others who
have written on this same subject and I have to agree with them
100%.

Judging engines, etc. on appearance, quality, rarity, etc. would
not only lead to collectors who compete against each other, but
would lead to a ‘rich man’s hobby’ like others we know
so well. This would lead collectors with ‘common’ engines
not to exhibit anymore.

Who’s to say what makes a ‘prize winning’ engine or
‘Best of the Show’? Is it the restoration, originality,
rarity, or brand name? This is all a matter of opinion. ANYONE who
brings ANY vintage engine to a show, should be welcomed with open
arms. I may happen to own a small Mogul, but I also own, have
owned, and still admire the more ‘common’ engines such as
LBs, F-M, Kohler, Briggs, etc. Each engine is special to its
owner.

I am happy to say none of the shows I attend do any judging, and
I hope they never do. As far as giving out prizes for ‘most
miles traveled’ or ‘slow flywheel contests’, slow
races, tractor pulls, etc. I see no problem. This is all done in
good fun and entering such a contest is of course, voluntary.
Todd W. Kuhns, PO Box 142, Kingman, KS 67068.

Notebook Items

Novo Correction In our Notebook we have DuPont
143 AH Green listed as the color match. However, we find that this
number is maroon, not dark green. Therefore, make a note of this!
Meanwhile, we’ll go back to the older DuPont number of 93-77161
Dark Green as being somewhere near correct.

We also have some NAPA (Martin-Senour) numbers cross matched
from DuPont and Ditzler as follows:

Modelmaker’s Corner

An Old Engine Q. I need some help identifying
this little piece (See MM-1 and MM-2). It is all brass, including
the gears, with nickel plating. It has a safety on it so that it
can be cranked forward or backward. It is four inches long and
1⁵/₈ inches high. In MM-1 you can see a small
flywheel. It works like a clock until it turns a sideshaft. MM-2
shows the rear view of it. I also have a small engine, as shown in
MM-3. It is well machined, and is tank cooled with a brass water
jacket. On one side is cast DENNIS in raised letters. This engine
has a 2? x 3 inch bore and stroke, and two flywheels with a
diameter of 9? inches. Cun anyone supply any information on either
of the above items? Nick Rowland, Johnston Road, New
Washington, OH 44854.

A New Norman Model.  In the northern part
of Wisconsin, about 1937, my father owned a machine shop. As a boy
would do, I went to my Dad and asked him if we could buy a little
model airplane engine. A couple of my young friends had them.
I’ll never forget his comment to me. He said, ‘If you
can’t build one in this shop you don’t need one.’
I’m sure he knew there was a possibility that I could build
one, because he always told me nothing was impossible.

It took about seven months to come up with an engine, and after
about a half dozen pistons, I finally made that little engine run.
It didn’t run well and the way I started it was by turning the
bicycle upside down and rubbing the flywheel against the rear tire
that I was cranking. It turned out to be way too heavy to put in a
model airplane. When my dad saw that engine run he said,
‘Norman, how much did you say that model airplane engine
cost?…I’ll give you the money for the airplane engine, but I
want this one.’ That was the beginning of Norman and his
miniatures.

See photos MM-4, -5, and -6 of my latest miniature engine, a ?
scale Briggs & Stratton Model FB with a kickstarter. Norman
D. Brockelsby, 1127? North Sherman, Grand Island, NE
68803. 

An Olds Model. The Olds engine in MM-7 and MM-8
is from the Paul Breisch castings. Starting with 12 cast pieces,
about 350 hours later I had a total of 180 pieces of stuff like
shafts, springs, studs, rods, etc.

I would like to thank Homer Stevens for all his time and
knowledge. Without Homer’s help I’m sure I would still be
adding up time. Note the simple and straightforward, no-nonsense
carburetor…it was Homer’s idea. Bob Schneider was more than
willing to get his shop buzzing to help with the stout maple
base.

I’m presently building a Fairbanks-Morse
¹/₆ scale Model N 25 HP engine from Tom’s
Engine Shed in Oregon. It is a nice set of castings, and a pleasure
to work on. When it is completed, I’ll send a photo. Jim
Limacher, 2024 Gambels Way, Santa Rosa, CA 95403.

A Closing Word

This month we’ve got a lot of interesting material, and for
ye olde Reflector, the models shown above represent some nice work.
Just in the past few years, engine enthusiasts in America have
begun taking to model engine building, whereas in England, the
model scene has been very popular for over a century. Keep up the
good work!

As this issue is closed up in early March, the mid western
weather is warming a bit, and thoughts are returning to bringing
some old iron back to life. By the time this issue is in your
hands, there’ll be thoughts about getting some engines ready
for the 1992 shows, and no doubt, those who are on show committees
are already working like beavers trying to work out the details.
It’s a great hobby, but always remember that this old iron
wasn’t designed with safety in mind. So, be careful. Don’t
strain your back trying to lift some iron that properly requires
two or three people. Keep your mitts (and those oil can spouts) out
of places they shouldn’t be, and all-in-all, treat this old
iron with a bit of respect. That way you can go to shows all summer
and still be happy about it. It sure ain’t fun wearing a back
brace for those strained muscles, a cast over a mashed finger, or
bandages over a toasted face! And by the way, we plan to see many
of you at the annual Waukee Swap Meet coming up in May!

Previous