563 West View, Springfield, Missouri 65807
Having just returned from the show grounds doing some work and
reading and re-reading GEM, I find there are several collectors who
have unusual engines. Well, I think we have one that is unusual as
I have found NO ONE who has heard or seen one like it.
First, I will tell how we found it. We used to drive by an old
barn, one half mile from home, for about 20 years. One day we
noticed the gentleman had passed away and his widow was cleaning
out to have a sale. As I passed on a Saturday morning, I saw a Bean
Orchard Sprayer. Upon stopping, I saw this very rare engine on it.
Well, I got my buddy, Vance West, and we went back and talked to
the lady, Mrs. Sturey. She told us it had been in the barn for over
40 years. It had been used to spray fruit orchards.
After making an offer, it was accepted when Mrs. Sturey learned
we wanted to restore it and show it at our show. She said:
‘This would be the way Frank would want it.’
We found out that our offer was much less than another man had
offered, but she would not sell it to him because he wanted to put
it outside of his business and let it ‘rot down.’
This engine was a 3 HP air cooled Olds built by R. E. Olds, Olds
Gas Power Company, Lansing, Michigan.
It’s hard to believe this engine still has original paint
and name on it. The engine was not stuck. It still had five
telephone batteries in the battery box and after checking the wire
connectors and grease cups and putting the original spark plug in
it, it started the first time we tried.
After much research on this engine out of Lansing, we found it
was built before 1908, when Seiger bought out Olds Gas Power
Company and they started to use their own carb.
This engine has an unusual valve system and the only ignition
system I know of like it.
Needless to say this is our ‘PRIDE’ of the many engines
that Vance and I have in our collection.
We had the National Gas Engine Show in Springfield in 1977.
Collectors from all over the states were here but no one had ever
seen an Olds air cooled like this one. It seems to be one of the
very rare ones!
