Hi Dear Friends out there all over the nation. Hope you are
enjoying your summer. And while you are out there sniffing the gas
and fumes from the engines and piling up memories for the long
winter — we back here had a harrowing experience with gasoline in
another form. Our daughter Dana and hubby Bob and Baby Ryan live
about 8 miles from us in a nice second floor apartment, but
recently it has come out in the paper about a gasoline leakage
underground in that area — a very mysterious thing. It’s been
going on for a long while but just came to light last week and last
Sunday evening when my daughter was drawing her bath water (which
after a period of time made the water heater go on again) the
gasoline fumes were in the basement and caused an explosion. (It
has been raining every day for a long time in this way and they say
the gasoline that was floating around underground was forced to the
surface causing plenty of trouble.) They managed to get down
through the smoke polluted hallway and were not harmed but as of
now they are with us and their apartment is very messy as the
firemen were tramping around the apartment and everything has a
fine greasy film on it from the smell of gasoline and the fire that
followed. The fire was brought under control, thank goodness and
only damaged some things in the basement, but the smell — ugh!
Several other families have now been evacuated from their homes
and the State is conducting an investigation, but as yet everything
is a mystery as to where this gasoline is coming from — one
businessman has brought up over 56,000 gallons on his properly, but
no large company seems to be missing the gasoline and as I said it
seems to be puzzling everyone. Anyhow, we are all very thankful as
no one was hurt. It is depressing but one must look at the bright
side — they could have been blown ‘sky high’. We’re
thankful their Guardian Angel was on duty.
I was typing a poem for the Gas Engine Magazine this week (it
will be in this issue or a future one) but it was called
‘Sniffing the Gasoline’. I did a lot of thinking on that
one. The day after the explosion we were down at the apartment for
some clothing and the basement had several inches of what I presume
was water and gasoline mixed, but it certainly smelled like pure
gasoline. The firemen have been busy pumping the cellars of these
homes that have been affected.
Just thought you might be interested in the above, but you folks
have a lot of fun with your little gas engines and I know when you
‘sniff the odor’ from those — there are much happier
thoughts to go with it.
On page 28 in Jan.-Feb. 1969 GEM in my column, there was a
request for help in identifying an engine from J. Gordon Thomson of
1 Inlet Place, Huntington, New York 11743. T. H. Krueger, our
faithful helper, wrote Mr. Thomson, but I thought some of you other
folks might be interested in that information. Ted writes: ‘I
seem to recall quite strongly that I had some engine parts on which
the part numbers were prefixed with ‘A’. The uncertainty
came from my said building project, where I had to move and pile up
so much of my loose stuff, so I would have room to build. I just
found those parts I referred to, because since his question was on
my mind, I looked at every opportunity to see if 1 could locate
something on it. Way back in 1961, I found an engine in a junk
dealer’s yard, badly broken up, rusted, deteriorated and beyond
repair — so I usually then buy some little parts if still there,
as a keepsake; especially if the engine is a rare one. As far as
I’m concerned, this one was rare to me. But those parts answer
Mr. Thomson’s question — the engine is a Rawleigh made in
Freeport, Illinois, a 1? hp. size, horizontal, hopper-cooled, 600
rpm. No. AA18686 and all part numbers on the engine begin with
‘AA’. I didn’t buy that engine, nor do I have one of my
own. I have no catalog or parts book on Rawleigh engines — only
those parts I bought and seeing the engine and recording what few
notes I took is what helped me now. Will add, this Rawleigh family
of engines, all in Freeport, Illinois, the home of the W. T.
Rawleigh medicines (Patented) goes by: ‘Rawleigh,
Rawleigh-Schryer and Ziegler-Schryer’ but I don’t know in
what order those names became public nor do I know the years built.
Those are fine engines, in sizes 1? to 25 hp. and as early as 1911
or earlier. I’ll need to ‘dig’ more on these
engines.’
From R. F. Somerville, 12498 14th Ave. N., Haney, British
Columbia, Canada comes this request: ‘Would you please help me?
I would like to get information and some threshing pictures of the
12-25 hp., 2 cylinder opposed, chain drive Mogul tractor. It came
out from 1914-1919. I saw several of them in England and France
when I was overseas during World War I, but only saw one here in
Canada. So — fellows, if you have any info, or pictures you would
like to share with Mr. Somerville, I’m sure he will appreciate
it.
One of our good contributors, Denis McCormack of 180 John
Anderson Drive, Ormond Beach, Florida 32074 sent us a letter from
an English friend of his, a Mr. J. M. Frogley and of course, it
made us feel good and I thought it was worth re-printing. Mr.
Frogley writes: ‘Many thanks for the copy just received of the
‘Gas Engine Magazine.’ I read it from cover to cover and
thought it one of the most interesting publications from the U. S.
A. that it has been my luck to spend a happy hour with.
‘It was doubly interesting in that it is obviously written
by enthusiasts for home consumption, and it gave an insight —
otherwise difficult for us to grasp without being there in the
flesh– of country life in U.S.A.
‘What a wonderful contribution ‘Spark Plug of the
Month’ by Joe Fahnestock and the ‘Homey News’ as he
calls it, I could almost feel myself chatting with Luther Breymier
in his farm workshop.
‘Excellent photos by your goodself at the Florida show,
including the one of your good lady and Colonel Huston L.
Herndon.
‘I would be grateful if you could arrange for me to be on
the mailing list for future copies and I will settle with you in
July.’
Thanks Denis, for sending Mr. Frogley that copy of Gas Engine
Magazine and thank you for sharing his letter with us.
A letter from Donald H. Hansen, 68 Cliff St., Plymouth.
Massachusetts, is asking for help from you folks out there. —
‘I have one small horizontal gas engine that I was wondering if
anyone could help me find out who made it. It is hopper-cooled, has
two 14′ spoke flywheels, closed crankcase cover and has oil in
it. Roller bearing mains, 4-cycle. The plate on the hopper reads
Type XL, 1930 Model A., No. 1010. All the moving parts in this
engine are Model A Ford engine parts. Valves, rings, piston,
con-rod, split valve guides are all marked Ford. The crankshaft
looks just like a Model A Ford cut off at one throw. The bore is 3
and stroke is 4? — same as Model A Ford engine. The cylinder and
head are all in one cast. The carb. is a brass Mayer updraft
governor controlled. I’ve asked around and was told the Ford
Motor Company had nothing to do with building this engine. This is
a very heavy built engine for its size. It uses a Model T spark
plug and buzz coil. Thanks for any help on this one.’.’ —
There, Fellows, it sounds like it has to be made by Ford, but is
not — so help Don out if you know anything about this one.
Case ‘K’ 18-32 purchased in June of 1968. It had been
standing about ten years outside. Motor stuck, holes rusted in
sheet metal, but otherwise, tractor is in good shape. I hope to get
it going this spring.
Oliver ‘Hart-Parr’ 18-28 purchased March of 68. It needs
a little restoration -fenders straightened, valves ground, magneto
restored — the rest is all right. I hope to get it repaired by
this spring.
Verne W. Kindschi, Route 1, Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin 53578 when
sending in some material to be published added this paragraph
–‘Sometime in the near future I wish you would put a good word
in for Roger Eshelman’s GEM Indexes. Any of the fellows who do
not have these are missing a good thing. I use mine often — it is
real handy when I’m looking for a picture or article about a
certain engine, to refer to this index. The index will tell you
what issue and even the page numbers where this is located. It sure
beats leafing through a lot of magazines trying to find something
you know you have seen in there before.’ I agree with Verne —
as recently Bob Hartwig of 1442 Lincoln Drive, Flint, Michigan
48503, stopped at the Ritz-man’s to see the Korn Krib and I
happened to be there. Bob brought his indexes in and showed them to
us. They are worthwhile. Bob has started contributing some nice
articles to GEM — we’re glad to have him in the family. By the
way, Roger’s address is: Roger L. Eshelman, Box 63, College
Springs, Iowa 51637.
We also had a letter from Bob Hartwig in June and he wrote:
‘Want to thank you folks for printing my ‘What is it’
story in May-June 1969 GEM, page 25. In no time at all we had the
answer — right back from Pennsylvania. J. Rex Haver from Lock
Haven sent me a letter. Said the engine was a Bluffton, made by the
Bluffton Cream Separator Co. of Bluffton, Ohio. Seems that his dad
had purchased a used one like it in 1910.
Engine was painted red and had a decal on the side of the water
hopper.
‘This one runs fine in its original condition though I think
that one day Bill will tear it apart and restore it. A few days ago
we belted it to a 12 hp. Titan to help start it – to start the
Titan, that is. Was a bit light in the power end.’
Well, I must hurry and finish packing as we are leaving for the
shore tomorrow morning for a week’s stay. Another family and we
are sharing a cottage — so we hope we have good weather. I love to
see the ocean — as I’ve said many times — makes me feel so
close to God — so beautiful and powerful — I respect its every
mystery. See you next issue. Bye Bye — Love to you all.
