The Dieter foundry was started as a blacksmith shop by George B. Dieter in 1877, and later became the Cherryville Foundry. His son David W. Dieter was a molder at the age of 17 in 1900 in the foundry. In 1904, the foundry was kept busy supplying castings to Frantz Manufacturing for use on the equipment and kerosene engines they were building. On April 1, 1905, David took possession of the foundry from his father.
In 1907, David Dieter expanded his foundry, probably for the manufacture of engines, and, in 1908, Rev. Hiram Frantz sold his Kerosene Engine manufacturing business to the Luzerne Foundry and Machine Co. The first known sale of a Dieter engine was in October 1909. He became known as “The Gas Engine Man” and had to hire another foundryman to keep up with his engine orders.
It is believed that the Rev. Hiram Frantz, an inventor and manufacturer, helped design the Dieter Engine. This sounds logical, since he sold his engine business around the same time David Dieter started his, and the Dieter Foundry worked with Frantz in the past.
The engines were of the water-cooled design, either hopper or tank cooled, from 2hp to 25hp, except for one 1hp air-cooled engine that was built for the Dieters’ own use.
All the engines were gasoline, hit-and-miss governed and battery coil with spark plug ignition. It appears that the 25hp engine cylinder was cast with an ignitor boss but was built for a spark plug. Except for the 1hp air-cooled, all the engines had double-rimmed flywheels. On the 2hp and the 25hp engines, the exhaust push rod was bent to go around the intake pipe and the spark plug on the 25hp.
From what I have seen, the larger tank-cooled engines were probably fitted with a water pump that was belt-driven from a pulley machine on the inside of the pulley side flywheel. The smaller tank-cooled engines were fitted with a tin funnel-type hopper.
It’s mentioned that David Dieter and his men were busy making engines and repairing automobiles in August 1913.
In September 1914, David Dieter sold his machine shop to his foreman, Thomas T. Matchett, son of Civil War Capt. Joseph Matchett, who would continue to make engines known as the David W. Dieter Gasoline Engine built by Thomas Matchett. I could not find any reports of a new Dieter engine being sold after this date, only used engines at public auctions.
In May 1915, Joseph Matchett and sons went under the business name of the Cherryville Machine Works and manufactured engines from 4hp to 12hp, while also doing general repair work. They greatly increased their output of high-grade gasoline engines that found a ready demand in the local territory.
In December 1917, Joseph Matchett, Capt. Matchett’s son, left Cherryville, where he was foreman at the Cherryville Machine Works, and took a new position at a large machine shop in nearby Palmerton, Pennsylvania.
Nothing else is known about what might have happened to the Cherryville Machine Works and the Dieter engine.
In 1941, the foundry was taken over by six of David’s children: Harold, Leon, Laird, Merritt, Roland and Orpha, all equal partners. Three other children were not involved in the business. In 1943, the foundry caught fire when a hot casting ignited fuel oil being tapped for a large 2-cylinder diesel engine that supplied power to the foundry. The front part of the foundry, along with the core and pattern room and the Dieter homestead next door, burned to the ground.
Leon bought out his partners in 1955. Vince Dieter, Leon’s son, took over as plant manager in 1961. After losing a large customer base because of a strike in 1983 and environmental regulations, the foundry’s assets were auctioned off in 1987.
At the time of writing, there are 11 Dieter engines known to exist: a 1hp air-cooled, two 2hp tank-cooled, two 3hp hopper-cooled, a 6hp hopper-cooled, a 9hp hopper-cooled, a 12hp tank-cooled, two 15hp tank-cooled, and a 25hp tank-cooled. I do not think there were any engines built between the sizes of 15hp and 25hp.
Paul Schmidt is relatively new, but much appreciated, contributor to Gas Engine Magazine and Farm Collector. For more information, you can email Paul at shmitato@ptd.net
