20601 Old State Road Haubstadt, Indiana 47639
It wasn’t unusual for some of the established gas engine
manufacturers to contract to provide engines to various others,
including jobbers and industrial concerns, for sale under their own
individual brands. The Hercules Gas Engine Company contracted to
build engines other than their own Hercules brand. The most notable
other brands were the Economy for Sears and Roebuck, the Jaeger for
the Jaeger Machine Company, and the ARCO for the Hardie
Manufacturing Company.
There were several lesser known brands built by Hercules.
Included in this group are Reeco, Saxon, Phillips, Champion,
Williams, Rohaco, Ajax, Atlas Mixer, Enen, American and Loane.
There are a couple of others but the brands are unknown.
So far I have become aware of four of the Saxon brand. They all
have a Brackett, Shaw and Lunt of Boston, Massachusetts tag on
them. They are all 1 HP model E engines. Serial numbers are 144728,
146106, 148242 (all 1918), and 185363 (1919). They are reported to
be black in color with stripe color unknown at this time.
A call came earlier in the winter about a Champion brand engine,
bringing the total known to four. This last one was reported to be
black with orange stripes. There are two l HP E models with serial
numbers 196845 and 197145 (1919). There is a 6 HP EK number 69371
(1915) and a 9 HP E number 89559 (1916).
Three Phillips drag saw engines are currently known. The generic
Hercules type tag has been replaced with a Phillips tag, but
apparently the Hercules data was used on the new tag. Those known
are all 1 HP E with numbers 209993, 210292, and 214574 (all
1920).
Last October the first Reeco turned up. The Reeco name stands
for the Rider-Ericsson Engine Company. It is a 3 HP model E with
serial number 223794(1920).
While we are on the story of the lesser known Hercules built
engines, there are four more to mention. There is a 5 HP EK, serial
number unknown, with a Loane tag on it. There is a 5 HP E American
brand with serial number 284788 (1923). There is a l HP model F,
number 267521 (1922), that is simply labeled ‘Milking Machine
Engine.’ And then there is engine number 265374 (2 HP 1922)
that has the remains of a diamond-shaped emblem on the hopper
sides. It has an oil field conversion to a hot tube and has a
natural gas mixer.
So far, no literature has turned up in regard to any of these
lesser known brands built by Hercules. Is there any out there
anywhere? Color and stripe information is also sketchy or
nonexistent. It is likely that some of the lesser known brands have
lost their identity and have been restored as Hercules, Economy,
ARCO or Jaeger brands.
It has been very interesting to follow information about engines
made by the Hercules Gas Engine Company. New unknown brands pop up,
and there is always some new gadget, modification or odd thing that
wasn’t known about before. I’ve been at this Hercules thing
for over 15 years now and it is very interesting that new tidbits
of new information are still out there waiting to be
discovered.
Coming next time will be illustrations of the stripe and
decorating patterns used on the Sparta Economy engines.
