Well, I suppose we are all busy trying to get many things done
and places visited to make us a bag of memories for next winter and
many years to come. We are about to take leave of Enola for a few
days and head for Williamsburg, Virginia and visit with our
daughter and hubby, Dana and Bob, who will be living there for
another year at least as Bob is stationed in the Navy there.
Williamsburg is a very historical area as most of you folks know
and we hope to see some of the interesting places while there.
Anyhow, it will be real good just to visit with them as distance
keeps our married children pretty far away, but as long as they are
content and living a good life, what else can parents ask for
except the joy of seeing them now and then.
Jeff Cain, who is writing a column for the magazine now called
‘The Younger Set’ had asked in an earlier letter if anyone
has some information on Economy and their relationship with Jaeger.
He says he had been in a junk yard and discovered an engine that he
could definitely identify as an Economy with the name Jagger or
Jaeger on it. Also, Jeff would like to know if he an reach a
curator of a gas engine museum near Camden, New Jersey. So he’d
appreciate hearing from any of you veterans who can help him. Jeff
is one of our young enthusiasts and his address is Mt Laurel Road,
Mt. Holly, New Jersey.
Auto Fire Truck No.3 OLEAN, N.Y.
Line up of engines at Early Day Gas Engine and Tractor
Association Show at Buda, Illinois 1967.
Fairbanks-Morse 25 Hp. type ‘y’, style H, 2 cylinder oil
engine belter to 9 x 8 Ingersall-Rand air compressor at
Mikkleson’s in August 1966.
A letter from Bill May of 1591 Green-field Drive. El Cajon,
California 92021 and he writes: ‘I noticed in an issue of GEM
that you had a bit of information on the Fairbanks & Morse gas
engines. Among my engines I have 3 F-M’s. I have written
Fairbanks-Morse factory that was transferred to Mexico City trying
to find out the year my engines were built according to the serial
numbers. I received a very nice answer and was informed they were
building engines at this lime and did I want to buy one. They never
did tell me when my engine was built.
I also have a ‘Standard’ upright 5 Hp. built in San
Francisco and was wondering if any GEM readers could help me find
any information or pictures. It has no carburetor or magneto. I
need to know what it looks like. It has an outside shaft that
operates the valve in the head.
Mr. Bove in Los Angeles and myself are trying to get a club
started in southern California but it seems very few people are
interested. If anyone else in this area collects engines I would
like for them to get in touch with with me.’
Wm. C. Kuhl, Jr., 464 So. 5th St., Sebewaing, Michigan 46759
tells us, ‘Would like to offer this bit of information in
addition to what Frank Hamata said in the Mar-April 68 issue of GEM
on page 25. When tractor or engine is not run very often, fill the
lubricator right full to the filler neck, not just to top of sight
level glass. By filling to top of lubricator, you give the hand
crank on lubricators a few dozen turns about once every three
months or so. you won’t have any trouble with a stuck
lubricator. The main thing is to keep it filled so the eccentrics
are flooded with oil’. Well, now there is a tip for you
fellows, we hope you give it a try and find it well worth
heeding.
Douglas Poor of Y. M . C. A. 340 Montgomery St., Syracuse New
York would like to know where he can obtain instruction manuals
showing valve and ignition timing and where he could buy a
carburetor for his Utilitor garden tractor. The nameplale on the
radiator slates: Midwest Utililor, Office, Dayton, Ohio, factory,
Miamisburg, Ohio Model IV. He is anxious for any information as he
would like to restore this tractor. So, all to the aid of Douglas,
fellows!
A hit of advice from Floyd W. Cook, 410 Hamilton, Washington,
Illinois 61571 He sends us this: ‘I thought some of the readers
might he interested in a good substitute for a standard make and
break ignition coil that I find to be cheap and very satisfactory
and even if a wet 6-volt battery is used it won’t burn the
ignition points. I use a standard, heavy door bell transformer, 115
volt-60 cycle with a 12 volt secondary and a 7 V. A. rating. Others
may not work as well, especially smaller ones with less iron in the
construction. Connect on the two secondary terminals only and
connect nothing to the primary terminals, ignore them
completely.’
Pictured is an engine I bought last fall. It is a Craff built at
West Union, Iowa about 1910. They are quite rare as there were not
too many of them built. It is 5 hp. with a copper water tank, no
cylinder head. The exhaust is under the front end of the cylinder.
The intake is on the side of the carburetor. I had one of these
engines back in World War One. My father traded a horse for it. It
was mounted on a saw rig. The builder of this engine was Isaiah
Craff.
This is my 3-? H.P. ‘New Way’ Built by the New Way Motor
Co. Lansing, Mich. It is the original air cooled gas engine
‘Goes and goes right’. Model A Type C No. 9239 Speed 300 to
450.
Pictured with me is my two of three sons. Robert on the left and
Ronald on the right. It was restored by John Ritter of Boiling
Springs, Pa. I bought it from him this past summer.
And a hint from Miles Lusk, R.R. 2, Knox, Penna. 16232 —
‘If you need an old non vibrating coil for an engine, screw the
adjusting screw down tight on a model T Ford coil or use a modern
auto coil and put a condenser across the sparker points or
breaker.’ A lot of this of course doesn’t make sense to me,
fellows, but I’m sure you get the message and I’m glad to
bring it to you.
You know, I’ve heard tell in the future we may have electric
cars and the way things progress today who knows-every-thing moves
so fast (that is, unless you are waiting for a part your plumber or
electrician has ordered-then I think the pony express would have
done better in the old days) but anyhow I recently read that a
federal advisory panel blamed the automobile for most air pollution
and called for a federal program to help develope a cleaner auto
and better antipollution devices. But it ruled out the electric car
as an immediate solution and said it will take at least a decade
before such a vehicle can be feasible economically.
But it said a ‘Piston’ type steam engine of advanced
design offers a potentially satisfactory solution to the current
automobile and should have very low pollution and noise factors –
it would be a kerosene burning steam engine — it you could get the
public to accept a steam car.
Now, how about that? Well, sometimes events go in cycles and who
knows the pendulum may swing back that way again. In this day and
age anything is possible, they say. (I often wonder who
‘they’ are you know when people say ‘they say’–may
be it’s good we don’t know.)
Well, that’s it for this time and do have fun at the
Reunions and Gas-Ups. Enjoy yourself, appreciate the old and new
friendships and look for the good points in others when you get
depressed. Sometimes when you really start looking for the good
qualities in others you find much more than you expected – and its
very rewarding. Life doesn’t look so bad after all.
Remember–It isn’t your position that makes you happy or
unhappy; it’s your disposition. Duly makes us do things well
but love makes us do them beautifully. It is doubtful whether one
can be good, without being good for something. A friend is one who
knows us yet loves us.
