7 Douglas Street, Mannum, 5238, Sth, Australia
In November, 1897, Mr. James Livesey Scott and his son Ernest
commenced work at Mannum, South Australia. They worked on Paddle
Steamers, in the dry dock where today the P.S. Marion rests. In
addition to this, Mr. Scott had an agency for imported stationary
engines and pumps which he sold along the River Murray.
Directly opposite the dry dock, Mr. Scott rented a building in
which, in 1905, Mr. Em Scott designed a stationary engine and
centrifugal pump, patent No. 5473. The factory had its own brass
foundry, but all the iron castings were done in Adelaide by Stewart
& Harley. Otherwise the design, pattern making, machining and
fitting were done in the Mannum workshop by a team of very capable
tradesmen.
All the Scott engines were of the vertical, 2 stroke type,
available in 8, 5, 3, and 1? HP ratings. The 8 HP was mainly used
for driving pumps and for normal farm work such as driving chaff
cutters or saw benches. The 5 HP Scott engine and centrifugal pump
were built onto a cast iron base and were always sold as a pumping
unit. It weighed approximately ? ton. The engine was directly
coupled up to the pump by an over-center cone clutch.
The 3 HP was mainly used as a marine engine, but some were used
on farms to drive machinery. The 1? HP engines were air-cooled and
were used on all kinds of small jobs on the farm.
Mr. Ern Scott fitted one of his 3 HP engines to a Sunshine
harvester to drive the drum and winnower. For this achievement he
applied for a patent. This resulted in Mr. Scott being the first
person in Australia to apply for a patent for a motor to be used on
a harvester.
In 1910 The Scott Engine Co. finished building engines at Mannum
and formed a partnership with Mr. H. V. McKay of Sunshine,
Victoria. Mr. Scott continued building his own engines at Sunshine
for a number of years until he sold out completely to H. V.
McKay.
The Scott engine had no governor fitted which meant that it had
to be loaded all the time. All the Scott engines had magneto
ignition and the 8, 5, and 3 HP were water cooled and had wet sump
lubrication.
The early engines just had a splash feed big end, but as more
engines were made they changed that idea by fitting an oil slinger
to the crankshaft which, when the engine was going, fed oil to the
big end by centrifugal force.
The engines were also lubricated from a brass drip feed
lubricator fitted on the cylinder. It had 2 lines going to the
cylinder walls, one to each main bearing and the other line fed oil
into the crankcase. The oil was pressure fed into the engine by its
own crankcase compression. All oil lines had adjusters fitted to
them, so that they each received the right amount of oil.
A novelty of the design of this engine was its tapered brass
main bearings which could be screwed further into the engine to
compensate for wear and to maintain crankcase compression.
This engine was made in England. It took 4 weekends to pull the
engine to pieces, and transport away. The flywheel alone weighed 7
tons and took 9 men to roll along a floor.
The second project was the dismantling of a 60 HP single
flywheel, Kynoch Oil Engine, made in England about 1890. The engine
was originally a Suction Gas type, but had been converted to a Cold
Start crude oil engine. This took 2 weekends to dismantle, with the
engine situated 15 ft. below ground level. It was directly coupled
to a huge Centrifugal Pump, used for pumping water. It had to be
removed by crane through the roof of the Pumping Station. Both of
these engines will be assembled again when the Society purchases
some land. The flywheel weighed 7 tons and was 8 ft., in diameter,
and 2ft. in width.
As my sister was going to South America for the holidays, I
asked her to post this letter in the U.S.A. to save time.
