20601 Old State Road Haubstadt, Indiana 47639
There are always some new things to be learned in regard to gas
engine history. Back in early April, while visiting a show at White
Springs, Florida, I saw a 6 HP model XK Economy engine. I checked
the serial number (7128), and it was an engine I had seen several
years earlier at Zolfo Springs, Florida. When looking it over
carefully, I noticed a casting date on the engine head. It was
January 1, 1929. That’s New Year’s Day! Did the Hercules
foundry actually work on New Year’s Day? Perhaps the heat was
kept up in the foundry cupolas and they were kept busy even on
holidays. Maybe New Year’s Day was not a holiday in 1929. Then
there is also the possibility that some foundry worker misdated the
casting on purpose or by mistake. Who knows the answer, but I found
it unusual to find a New Year’s Day casting date.
A while back I commented about some of the lesser known brands
of engines produced by the Hercules Gas Engine Company at
Evansville, Indiana. Since then another Saxon brand engine has
turned up with the Brackett, Shaw and Lunt, Boston, Massachusetts,
tag on it. It is also a 11/2 HP and has
serial number 234,588 on it. Again its origin was from someone in
the northeast area of the USA.
Two more Phillips drag saw engines have shown up, both are
11/2 HP. One has serial number 210,043 with
another number, B571. The other has serial number 214,079 followed
by B589. The meaning of the B numbers is currently unknown. All
known Phillips serial numbers occur within a rather narrow range.
It suggests to me that Phillips made a one-time contract for
several hundred engines. It also suggests that Phillips went in and
out of the Hercules powered saws in 1920. Were there Phillips saws
powered by other engine brands? Interestingly, Hercules and Economy
drag saws did not make their appearance until the latter part of
1921. Did they take over the Phillips saw business?
Here is one for you Thermoil enthusiasts. I have a report of a
11/2 HP model T Thermoil. So far there is no
verification, but if it’s true, it will fill in one more
missing piece of the Thermoil history puzzle.
Every now and then someone comes up with questions about an
engine that has a missing data tag. Reproduction tags are available
for both the Hercules built engines and the Spartas. Once the
characteristics of the engine are well enough identified, it is
possible to go through the list of some 3,000 known engines and
pick out a number currently not known. A number then can be
assigned that will be consistent with the particular engine’s
characteristics. There are two problems. One is that an engine may
turn up with the original number that has been assigned to a
missing tag engine. The odds of that are slim. The other problem is
that it is very hard to find metal stamps that have the right
figure design to match the originals.
A call recently came from Kansas in regard to a 5 HP engine of
Hercules design with a LEVIS identification and other data
indicating it to be of Canadian origin. There will be more about
that later on.
