10907 Cleveland, Kansas City, Missouri 64137
In the beginning, all you wanted was a gas engine, any gas
engine, that you could work on, get greasy on and be proud of.
Then, as the ‘Bug’ bites deeper, you want more. Like maybe
a real nice engine, or a real rare engine. And, if you are lucky,
you might find a real nice rare engine. But to find two real nice
rare engines in less than a year, is almost too much to even dream
about.
Yes, that sounds like a dream, but it is exactly what has
happened to my dad and I. The two engines are even brothers, both
are Industrial Iron Works engines, built about the turn of the
century. One is a 7 HP side shaft, with 49 inch flywheels, the
other one is a 2? HP tank-cooled engine which is unfortunately not
a side shaft, but I guess even a dream can’t be perfect.
The 2? HP was owned by an old man in a little town near Kansas
City and had been there for a long time. It took some doing but we
finally talked him into selling it to us. The 7 HP was a little
more fun because it was still in the Bush, so to speak. There dad
was, driving down the road, when all of a sudden he thought he saw
some flywheels off to the side of the road. So he made a quick
U-turn and went back to check. The wheels he had seen turned out to
be part of a sawmill, but when he turned around to go back to the
road, there it was, setting right in the middle of a chicken
yard.
It’s not just an engine, but an engine on an original wooden
saw rig, with a battery box that doubles as a seat and the original
coil was still in the box.
Well, enough of this bragging; on with the reason for all this.
We only know of four of these Industrial Iron Works engines, and
all four of them are different. There is a 16 HP side shaft
tank-cooled, a 5 HP side shaft hopper-cooled and our two engines.
We would like to know if there are any more of these out there
anywhere. We live in Kansas City, Missouri which is about 80 miles
from Clinton, Missouri where they were built. We are pretty sure
that there are no more around this area, at least not in the hands
of any collectors. So, if any of you have or know of any Industrial
Iron Works engines, we would sure like to know about it. Thank
you.
