Chris purchased the engine two years ago from Paul Thomsen of
Lewistown, Montana. ‘He had found it on an abandoned farm in
the foothills of the mountains just west of Lewistown,’ Romness
writes. ‘The only pieces missing on it were the carburetor and
fuel pump.’
The fuel pump was copied from a Faribault engine originally
owned by Andy Kruse which now belongs to Willmar Tiede of LeCenter,
Minnesota.
‘The carburetor was a different story, however. None of the
three Faribault engines currently known to exist had their original
carburetors. I was lucky enough to sniff out an original sales book
which showed a cutout view on the internal workings of the
carburetor and I had my Uncle Pete make a pattern and got one cast.
Believe it or not, it doesn’t work bad at all. As you can see,
you change mixture by raising or lowering fuel level.’
The engine is serial number 575, a tank cooled 5 HP. Willmar
Tiede owns a 6 HP tank cooled, serial number 626. ‘Everything
on Will-mar’s is physically exactly the same,’ writes
Romness, ‘in fact mine is 6**’ bore and his is 6′. I
suspect his being a little higher serial # it was just
re-rated.’ The other Faribault owner is Dale Hindahl of Byron,
Minnesota who owns a 4 HP hopper cooled, serial number 878. Romness
has heard unverified rumors of another one.
The Faribault Engine Manufacturing Co. of Faribault, Minnesota,
appears to have been in business from about 1903 up to 1914 or
1915. ‘As you can see,’ continues Romness, ‘they were a
high quality built engine.’
3-4 H. P. Mounted, Open Jacket Engine
MOUNTED on an all iron hand truck, it is strong but not unduly
heavy, and can be easily drawn from place to place by one person
without heavy lifting. Operates on the standard four cycle
principle with fly ball governor and is hopper cooled. It is well
suited for operating all classes of light machinery, such as cream
separators, water pumps, ventilating fans, corn shellers, clippers,
wood saws, feed grinders, meat choppers, ice cream freezers, air
pumps, printing presses, smith shops, machine shops, etc.
