The nameplate on Mike Tyler’s 2-1/4 HP Galloway, clearly showing serial number AC 1001, the earliest Galloway serial number found to date. Although not yet confirmed, it’s believed this engine dates from sometime around 1907.
I recently purchased a 2-1/4 HP water-cooled Galloway from a friend, Gale Rhoton. This engine was ‘barn fresh’ and complete, with the exception of the igniter trip, skids and gas tank. I already had a 2-1/4 HP Galloway, but the appealing thing about this new engine was its low serial number, AC 1001. This is the lowest serial number on a Galloway I have ever seen or heard of, and consequently my interest in researching this engine was piqued.
Tracing originality
The first thing I did was carefully clean the engine with kerosene to save any original paint that may have survived. At first look the engine appeared rusty, but after cleaning and applying a light coating of a half-and-half mixture of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits, much of the original paint surfaced. I decided to leave it in this condition, since original paint is much more attractive to me than a new paint job.
Researching an old Galloway catalog, I found an advertisement for this engine snowing a cylindrical gas tank. I sketched up the tank and Gale, who is a professional gas tank fabricator, made me a tank for the engine. I fabricated some skids from oak pallet material and milled a casting for the igniter trip. With the addition of those components the engine was complete. The compression on this engine is as good as new, and hardly any wear is evident on the moving parts. To top it off, Gale found me an original battery box with batteries to display with the engine.
As I’ve said, much of the original paint was still on the engine and its components. This is revealing, in that there is always a question as to the color of individual components when someone is restoring an engine to its original color scheme. The basic engine had been painted Galloway red, and a number of components had been painted silver, including the crank throw, the connecting rod, the head, the rocker arm, the mixer and the pushrod retainer on the head. The face of the flywheels may have been painted silver as well, but there is not enough paint evidence remaining to be conclusive. The exhaust pipe and muffler have no remaining original paint.
Additionally, there were differences noted in this early engine as compared to a later version of this model (s/n 13308), which I also own. The hopper opening on this early version is 2-1/2 inches in diameter versus 3-1/2 inches for the later model. Also, the engine tag for this early model is larger and advertises manure spreaders, cream separators and farm machinery. The engine tag also shows six patent numbers.
The low serial number of this engine stimulated some additional research. John Cullom has a web site page on Galloway engines (http://www.oldengine.org/members/jcullom/), and over the last few years he has been collecting as many serial numbers as he can on Galloway engines. To date he has over 500 serial numbers. Serial number AC 1001 is lower than the lowest serial number on his list, and when I contacted John about this engine he estimated its year of manufacture at 1907. The lowest serial number on his list is AC 1011, a 2-1/4 HP engine. The lowest serial number with a documented date on his list is a 5 HP engine, s/n 5299, which was purchased with a check dated Nov. 26, 1909.
Galloway timeline
I conducted some research aimed at trying to determine when Galloway may have started selling gas engines. In 1906, William Galloway incorporated his business and purchased the Cascaden Manufacturing Co., Waterloo, Iowa. Cascaden had been selling Davis engines designed by W. F. Davis of the Davis Gasoline Engine Works, Waterloo, Iowa, and the Cascaden and Davis companies were next door to each other. According to C.H. Wendel in his Power in the Past, Vol. 1, Galloway marketed the Cascaden engines as ‘Davis’ or ‘Success’ engines the first few years, and it was not until 1909 or 1910 that the first ‘Galloway’ engines appear. If serial number 5299 was made prior to November 1909, then the first engines with Galloway name-plates had to be 1909 or earlier. From the time serial number 1001 was made and serial number 5299 was made, over 4,000 engines were turned out in a factory that had previously been making about 625 engines per year. In order to accomplish this feat, the factory capacity had to double after the Galloway purchase. A two-shift operation could have easily accomplished this.
An original 1911 Galloway catalog, which I own, advertised ‘15,000 Galloway gasoline engines, that’s the capacity of our enlarged modern engine factory for 1911.’ This would suggest that Galloway probably started making engines in his new factory in 1911.
A 1912 original Galloway catalog shows pictures of the first office and factory starting in 1906 and the second enlarged factory in 1912. Numerous pictures of the inside of the factory show up and describe how engines were made. The 2-1/4 HP engine is advertised for $47.50, cash with order. In the catalog, William Galloway states that he purchased the Cascaden Manufacturing Co., including its plant, patents, patterns, equipment and material. At the time of purchase in 1906, Cascaden was making about two engines a day. In 1912, Galloway stated he had the capacity to make 75-125 engines per day, working overtime and nights.
I am concluding from this that during the early years, from 1906 or 1907 through 1910, Galloway sold engines that were probably manufactured in the old Cascaden plant, thus enabling him to acquire funding to build his new plant. These engines probably were shipped with the larger brass plate, which advertised manure spreaders, etc. After Galloway’s purchase of the plant, the rate of production at the Cascaden plant was necessarily higher than two engines per day.
By 1911 the new Galloway plant was on line, capable of manufacturing up to 15,000 engines per year. Based on a six-day work week, this is about 48 engines a day. Of course, manufacturing capability is one thing and actual production is another. There is also a question as to what serial number Galloway chose to start with when he took over the Cascaden line of engines. Also, to what does the AC prefix before some of the serial numbers refer? And there is an additional item of interest I uncovered during my research, and that has to do with the engine tag.
Patent questions
The original tag on my engine lists six patent numbers. I was curious as to what these patents were for and what relevance they had, if any, with the engine design.
Patent number 583,982 was assigned on June 8, 1897 to W.F. Davis. That patent, which is reprinted in its entirety in Power in the Past, Vol. 1, discloses a design of a governor-controlled fuel adjustment for an oil/gas engine carburetor. As the engine would slow down due to an increase in the load, the carburetor governor would open the mixture adjusting needle, thus allowing more fuel to enter the cylinder. As the engine would speed up, due to a reduction in the load, the governor would close the mixture needle. This design provided increased fuel efficiency for operation of oil or gas engines. The primary design concept described above was not used on the Galloway engine. The other five patents listed on the tag were researched from the United States Patent Office web site (http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html). This is an interesting site to research old patents since all that is needed is the patent number.
Patent number 563,140 was assigned on June 30, 1896 to W.F. Davis. This patent describes a design of a gas engine cylinder with surrounding water jacket and a detachable cylinder head. This basic concept is a part of the Galloway engine and many other engines of that period.
Patent number 577,158 was assigned on Feb. 16, 1897 to W.F. Davis. This patent was for an electric igniter for ‘explosive engines.’ The design describes a conventional igniter mounted in the center of the cylinder head and tripped by a rod protruding from the face of the piston. Essentially, this was a piston-tripped igniter design, and a design not utilized in the Galloway engine.
Patent number 604,405 was assigned on May 24, 1898 to J.W. & A. Mathis. This patent was for a ‘pneumatic dispatch apparatus.’ This design was an improvement to the pneumatic dispatch lines that were used to transmit carriers with notes or money in them. I can remember this apparatus being used in the old J.C. Penny stores. This patent has no relationship to the gas engine or its components.
Patent number 723,540 was assigned March 24, 1903 to T.C. Menges. This patent describes an igniter operation mechanism. The igniter trip was operated off the cam gear through a roller/slider type push rod that was pivoted off a stud mounted near the igniter. This design was not utilized in the Galloway engine.
Other than the patent for a gas engine cylinder with surrounding water jacket (number 563,140), none of the patents noted on the engine tag were incorporated as part of the Galloway engine design. This would appear to be simply a list of patents purchased by Galloway as part of the acquisition of the Cascaden Manufacturing Co.
The conclusions on my part are purely deductive based on the research I had been able to do. There may be other opinions and additional information available that might cause me to conclude otherwise, but it was fun doing the research and trying to uncover the history of this early Galloway engine. Other opinions are invited and encouraged.
Contact Mike Tyler at: 320 S. Locust St., Ridgecrest, CA 93555, (760) 375-3658, or e-mail at: tylermn@earthlink.net
