20601 Old State Road Haubstadt, Indiana 47639
During this last series of articles, much of the story of Sparta
Economy engines had been told. There are a lot more illustrations,
pictures and details that haven’t been shown or written about.
New bits and pieces of information keep popping up from time to
time.
There are still unsolved mysteries in regard to the Sparta
Economy engines. I am sure that there are still new pieces of
information to be discovered and that there is information in hands
of collectors that has yet to be shared.
To sum it all up, production of the Sparta Economy engines began
at the Sears-owned Holm Machine Manufacturing Company in Sparta,
Michigan, in the summer of 1909. Production continued until the
early fall of 1913. In over four years of operation, some 33,000
engines were produced. There were five different models and as many
as seven different horsepower sizes. In addition to the Sparta
production, an estimated 3,000 Sparta type engines were assembled
at Evansville, Indiana, after the move there in late 1913.
Parts peculiar to Sparta Economy engines are hard to come by,
except for some repro parts and some generic parts. It seems that
almost everyone who has a parts missing Sparta type engine is
looking for the rest of the parts needed to make a complete engine.
Luckily, many parts for the Sparta CX model will interchange with
the later Hercules-built engines.
Of the 373 Sparta Economy engines that I am aware of, here is
the breakdown according to horsepower.
| HP | ||
| HP | Number Known | % of Total |
1 | 40 | 10.9 |
Early 1? | 4 | 1.1 |
Late 1? | 24 | 6.5 |
2 | 148 | 40.3 |
3* | 1 | .3 |
4 | 69 | 18.8 |
6 | 62 | 16.9 |
8 | 15 | 4.1 |
10 | 4 | 1.1 |
I have actually seen this engine, and it appears to have the
original tag. Unfortunately, no measurements were taken, so
comparisons could be made with the two and four HP sizes.
There are another six engines that I don’t have the HP data
on. How these percentage figures for the existing engines compare
to actual production percentages is unknown.
Even though the Sparta Economy story has come to an end, the
collection and recording of data on existing engines continues. If
you have any information to share or engines to add to the list,
please let me know.
Over these past several years, many telephone calls and many
letters have been received in regard to both the Hercules-built and
Sparta-built engines. I have tried to answer all with information,
data, advice, illustrations, pictures, literature and where to find
parts. There are times when I just don’t know the answer to
questions. Thanks goes out to all of those who have shared
information. It all helps to make the gas engine hobby enjoyable
and interesting.
What’s coming up next time? Although a lot of information
has been given, there are many questions that keep coming up. There
are also new bits of interesting information. In future stories,
we’ll pick up on these kinds of things.
