Kettlersville, Ohio 45336.
I got an early start with gas engines. We got our first engine
in 1900. It was an air-cooled 1? HP engine. In 1906 I got started
in threshing and sawmilling with steam. In 1910 I bought a 12 HP
gas engine for wood sawing, corn shredding and field cutting and in
1915 I bought my first tractor. It was a 10-20 Mogul and it was a
big change, being self-propelled.
When the farmers began to replace their windmills with gas
engines there was plenty of trouble ahead. Most did not know
anything about a coil or carburetor or ignitor…so I was called
many times to get these engines started. They were mostly small
troubles…empty tanks, stuck valves, coil trouble, loose wires,
switch problems…all kinds of troubles, some funny ones. Here is
one of my own troubles for being a thresherman.
It is a wood buzzing experience. Our section of the county is
timberland country. Every farmer had a woods and every farmer used
wood for fuel. We were kept busy buzzing wood all through the
winter. It was some life, getting around in the woods with a steam
engine. We would get wired down, stuck or everything would freeze
up. We had to work hard to keep up steam.
In 1910 I bought a 12 HP United gasoline engine. I mounted it on
a high wheeled farm wagon and the saw brush put on a two-wheeled
trailer. I hooked it up to the back of the engine. Now we were
really set to buzz wood. We could go anywhere. If two horses could
not get us there, four could. There was no water tank to drag
around, no water to haul, no more pump and pipe freeze. ups.
However, our troubles were not over. We did not have a Chevy or
Ford to run home every night so we stayed with the farmers all
week. There were no homes with hot air furnaces; the best they had
was a
cooking stove and wood-heating stove. Most of the farmers had
their spare beds up in the attic under the rafters. And there was
no deluxe innerspring mattresses to lay on. You slept on a sack
filled with straw or corn husks. We covered with a feather blanket
and oh, those darn feather ticks. Many a night I slept with a coat
on and woke up with snow on my head.
My gas engine had a make and brake ignition run with four dry
cell batteries. On cold mornings the spark would not be too strong.
We would heat the carburetor and really get warmed up swinging
flywheels until it finally took off. By this time, I found out that
ether was highly explosive and if you gave the engine a slug of it
it would go or else…
So I got me a bottle of ether. I did not know how much to use so
I gave it a big slug, turned on the switch and gave the flywheels a
twist and bang, boom, it took off with a loud bang. Loud enough to
be heard in the next county. Now we had our starting troubles
whipped.
So then I heard that this ether was the same stuff they used on
people when they wanted to put them to sleep. Why won’t that
work for me in those cold attic beds? So I took my bottle of ether
along to bed. Right before I got into bed, I took half a dozen or
so good whiffs of the bottle and jammed the cork back on, dove into
bed, pulled on the covers and 1..2..3..4..5..6.. gone. Oh what a
beautiful night’s sleep.
I did not have to worry about waking up early enough in the
morning. The farmer would take care of that. He would be there at
4:30 to get us out. Then we got up and went out gave our faces an
ice water shampoo. Then three or four slugs of whiskey, light the
pipe and sit by the heating until the good farmer’s wife called
us to breakfast…fresh buckwheat cakes with molasses and good hot
coffee as thick as soup.
Then the pipes were lit again, we left for the woods, gave the
engine a slug of ether and the flywheels a twist and bang, we were
off for another day of buzzing wood.
Pictured is a Model T Ford tractor attachment built by Standard
Detroit Tractor Company. The 1917 model is called the
‘Tracford.’ There were two in our neighborhood. It would
pull a small disk or harrow, would get red hot and burn the
transmission bands up in a hurry.
