I Get A ‘Kick’ Out of GEM

By Staff
Published on October 1, 1989
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701 Park Forest, Garland, Texas 75042

Quite a ‘kick’ to discover your magazine, particularly
since I was 1500 miles from home at the time. The ‘news’
stand at Big Trees and Roaring Camp Railway yielded up a current
copy while on a serendipitous visit there in February of this year.
I have formerly lived a number of years in Indiana, and there is
considerably more interest in antique machinery there than here, as
near as I can tell, so I have missed the shows, etc. I figured
there must be a journal of the hobby of old motors, and was glad to
find yours.

I have had a continuing love affair with engines as long as I
can remember, much to my father’s consternation, and my dear
old mother always thought me a bit eccentric, but tolerated my
inquisitive mechanical energy. I recall late nights, way after
bedtime, gazing out the window across the Cumberland River in
Nashville watching war-time steam trains of the L & N and NC
& STL snaking their lights into Union Station. I was drawing
good pictures of steam engines, cars, trucks and airplanes by the
age of five. The drawings were detailed and improved as I grew. One
summer in the early 50’s (I was nine or ten years old) my dad
became angry with me because I had removed the end plate from his
new rotary mower (which had a 2 HP VS-700 Clinton on it) to watch
the inner workings. The 30 seconds or so of running with no oil
splashing did no harm, but transformed me, enraging my father.
‘What’s the matter with that boy!’ he would often
exclaim. By the time I was 12, I had actually repaired a number of
old gas engines, obviously with no help. I started hanging around a
lawn mower shop, earning the nickname ‘Satellite’. As it
turned out, I went to work there by the age of 14 and earned money
during summer vacations from school. I stayed there till I
graduated into Uncle Sam’s Air Force, to do electronics
instead. I have always had two or three old motors around, and kept
the neighborhood ‘running’ wherever I lived. I also enjoyed
heavy modification of 4-strokes for racing, too. No different
today.

Anyway, over the years, people who know of your passions often
seem to perpetuate them, vicariously maybe, or just maybe to be
nice, but one motor I have been given this way is a curiosity to
me. Maybe someone can identify this piece. I believe it to be a
Briggs because of the carburetor, but there’s no guarantee
it’s original. The missing cooling shroud may help identify it,
being open this way. This motor runs very slowly by modern
standards-seems to labor to reach 3000 rpm, max. is more
comfortable at 1800-2400, but will just sit there and ‘tick
’em off’ at idle, of 500 rpm. I would sure appreciate any
help your readers could give as to model number and ratings, as
well as years made.

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