Vintage Pages from “The Farm Cushman Engine”

Mid-1910s publication explains the precision of a good cylinder.

By Staff
Updated on July 11, 2023
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“A Good Engine Must Have a Good Cylinder” is the headline atop the following exerpt. These vintage pages were found in The Farm Cushman Engine: Power for the Farm distributed by Cushman Motor Works, Lincoln, Nebraska. The exact date of original publication isn’t clear; my best guess is mid-1910s. The booklet goes into extensive detail introducing the consumer to Cushman‘s factories and attention to precision. Here’s a little taste! — Editor

A good Engine Must Have a Good Cylinder

The above picture shows our new special cylinder grinding machine. It grinds cylinders to a 1-1000 of an inch. The cylinder revolves, while the cutting tool remains stationary, avoiding any chattering. While the cylinder then slowly revolves in one direction, a little emery wheel, running at 700 revolutions per minute in the opposite direction, grinds the interior of the cylinder to a perfect glass-hard finish. This means more expense for the manufacturer, but greater dependability and durability for the buyer of the engine.

The cylinder is the most vital part of the gasoline engine. Ever since Cushman engines became generally known they have been noted for wonderfully perfect cylinder design and finish. Experts from automobile plants have come to our factory at Lincoln to investigate our methods of casting and finishing by which we obtain such results, and some of the large gasoline engine factories of the country have adopted our special valve grinding machine, invented in our factory.

The cylinder is made all in one piece. This prevents all danger of leaky water joints or “blown packing.” Note the uniform thickness of wall, in the small picture on the next page, and the distribution of water-cooling space — not an ounce of useless weight or space. See how easy it is to get at the plugs and valves, as shown on the next page.

Machining and finishing the cylinder casting is equally important. “Rapid production” is the cause of poor work in almost all factories — and of course the quality of the production suffers. We still, and always intend to machine and finish our cylinders to 1-100 of an inch by the same expensive, careful, and accurate method that established the country-wide Cushman reputation for perfect cylinders.

We have proven conclusively that none of the new and generally adopted “factory production” methods and cheap or unskilled labor can give such accurate work as found in every Cushman engine.

With a Cushman cylinder there is no chance of leakage of gas or compression. There is no perceptible wear after years of service. This point is recognized as much more important than most engineers realize. An engine may run well enough, but loss of power and gasoline by leakage on account of poor piston or cylinders may be from 15 to 40 per cent.


Please send your antique engine pages to Gas Engine Magazine, 1503 SW 42nd St., Topeka, KS 66609-1265 or email editor@gasenginemagazine.com. Images cannot be returned.

Originally published as “Farm Cushman” in the August/September 2023 issue of Gas Engine Magazine.

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