820 West Third Anaconda, Montana
The fuel-ignition principle of mixing water and hydrocarbons in
vapor form called atomizing to produce engine power boosts and to
reduce engine heat and pre-ignition is believed to have been
discovered accidentally in about 1904 or 1905 by Fred J. Schneider
and his son John of Weston, Illinois.
Except for occasional bits, the Schneider story has gone mostly
unchronicled for three quarters of a century. The Illinois family
achieved neither fame nor fortune with their chance discovery, but
it never sought them either. Through the years, the Schneiders
revealed their secret only to select friends. It is hoped, in time,
that more details surface.
The 1904 Hart-Parr tractor (model 22-40) supposedly involved in
this historic discovery is restored, and owned by the Peterson
family members Barbara, Dan, Bill and Elizabeth of Lowell, Indiana.
The Petersons are first and second-generation descendants of the
Schneiders who reside in a small farming community south of Lake
Michigan.
If these revelations whet the appetites of antique tractor
buffs, their hearts surely will pound over what’s coming
next.
The 1904 Peterson tractor now is documented as the second-oldest
existing Hart-Parr in the world, next to the 1903 model preserved
at the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, D.C.
Displaying a serial number of 1341, the machine at Lowell is
about the 73rd Hart-Parr rolled out the factory doors at Charles
City, Iowa.
There’s more: The ancient work horse sports a push-rod valve
system, instead of rotary valves characteristic of later-model
Hart-Parrs. Only 147 Hart-Parrs incorporated this push-rod valve
feature.
The 1904 Hart-Parr as it appeared in August, 1955, mired-down in
a field on the Schneider farm near Weston, Illinois. How many years
it had been resting in this location is anyone’s guess.
Surprisingly, the tractor’s engine ran well and Fred W.
Schneider restored it in the I960’s. Photos by Frank Hamata of
Schuyler, Nebraska.
Illinois Researcher
Collecting these salient facts and making sense of them is
Hart-Parr historian and researcher Douglas Strawser of Oregon,
Illinois, who visited the Peterson farm near Lowell this past
summer. Strawser, incidentally, knows his hobby well; he retains
one of the most complete collections of Hart-Parr and Oliver
tractors in the nation. He also maintains an extensive serial
number listing of existing Hart-Parrs owned by individuals
throughout the U.S. and Canada. ‘The restored Peterson tractor
played a dramatic role in this century’s
mechanical-agricultural age,’ explained Strawser. ‘We now
know more details of this incredible story that involve the
Schneider family of Weston, Illinois.’
Fred J. Schneider (1862-1925), who purchased the 1904 tractor
originally, is a great grandfather of Bill and Dan Peterson of
Lowell.* They, along with their mother Barbara (Schneider) Peterson
and sister Elizabeth (Peterson) Manchester, own a quarter interest
each in the restored Hart-Parr.
John Schneider (1894-1979), the son of Fred J., had told the
water-fuel vaporizing tales to his two grandsons, Dan and Bill of
Lowell, Indiana.
Fully restored and operating, the Peterson family’s 1904
Hart-Parr was displayed in June, 1983 at their farmstead near
Lowell, Indiana. From This photo are Barbara, Bill and Dan
Peterson. The machine is the second-oldest-existing Hart-Parr in
the world, next to the 1903 one in the Smithsonian Institution at
Washington, D.C.
‘Grandfather was coming off the field with an open jar of
water,’ Dan Peterson said in an interview. ‘Somebody else
was driving. He ran alongside the moving tractor, jumped on the
back, and dropped the jar, breaking it over the air intake. The
water was sucked in. The tractor was pulled down when the water hit
the carburetor, then the tractor picked up RPMs.’
Bill Peterson added these comments:
‘Grandpa said the tractor was running hot that day. When by
accident they tipped the water jug over, the tractor suddenly ran
smoother. It was a fluke, but that’s how they discovered water
and fuel vaporize together. And to successfully mix, one must have
a warm engine as they had that day.’
Reconstructing the Past
What happened next is not documented entirely, and it’s
necessary to reconstruct the circumstances based on flimsy
evidence. But Fred. J. and John Schneider (or one or the other)
apparently wrote a letter to the
tractor-inventors Hart and Parrat Charles
City, telling them of their chance discovery of achieving extra
engine power through water-fuel vaporizing.
Hart and Parr took the letter seriously. In the winter of
1904-5, the partners conducted experiments with water and kerosene,
devising a two-bowled carburetor to combine the vapors of both to
operate their tractors. This procedure led to saving about half in
fuel costs.
Hart and Parr adopted the water-kerosene principle on their
tractors manufactured during the 1907 model year (at serial number
1604), according to Strawser’s research. They also retrofitted
other Hart-Parr tractors in the field with water-kerosene vaporizer
carburetors, a changeover package that consisted of adding another
float and bowl assembly to the fuel feeder.
Hart and Parr’s true ‘first’ in the industry was
employing kerosene as a fuel years before other tractor
manufacturers did. The tractor partners also had gone on record for
discovering and perfecting the atomizer principle. That, of course,
is not true entirely, if, indeed the Schneider story has
credence.
Hart and Parr did develop the mechanics of atomizing to a
contemporary state of the art. In 1915, C. W. Hart patented the
‘atomizer’ carburetor, although he had applied for the
patent six years earlier in 1909.
Part II
Now comes the rest of the story.
The 1904 Hart-Parr tractor owned by the Petersons was restored
in the 1960s by Fred W. Schneider (1908-1974), also of Weston,
Illinois, the son of Fred J. Schneider. The machine had rested in a
field on the Schneider farm for at least several decades.
A writer for the Pantagraph newspaper of Bloomington, Illinois,
in the August 31, 1959 issue, quoted Fred W. Schneider as saying
that ‘Father never traded anything when he bought a new one.
He’d always say, ‘Put it out to pasture.’ ‘
The World War II scrap scavengers missed the machine, and Fred
W. Schneider had told friends a half dozen persons had tried to buy
the tractor to restore it.
Frank Hamata of Schuyler, Nebraska, a former Hart-Parr dealer
and traveler of note, said he witnessed the ‘mired-down’
tractor in 1955 for the first time: ‘The rear wheels were sunk
into the ground about eight inches and the front wheels half way up
to the axle. The spokes show that from rust close up. Surprisingly
the engine runs smoothly.’
Because he leased out his farm in Illinois and because he had
ample time for his avocation, Fred W. Schneider devoted hours
(which turned into years) to restoring the dilapidated Hart-Parr.
Fred died in 1974, and the 1904 machine was transported to his
brother John at Lowell, Indiana. When John died in 1979, the
Petersons took possession through inheritance of the historic
tractor. And the two grandsons Dan and Billtake particular pride
today in the tractor’s upkeep and historical significance.
And Frank Hamata, who collects tidbits of Hart-Parr history, to
his delight saw the tractor again this time fully restored in 1979
at the Central States Thresher Reunion at Pontiac, Illinois.
The Schneiders were cognizant of their revolutionary discovery:
They told close friends during leisure moments that ‘we were
the inventors of that process’ of mixing water and fuel. Such
casual comments help carve out a slice of American history.
Other Applications
Atomizers, of course, were not limited to tractors. Airplane
pilots during World War II and racing car drivers in recent years
have applied the principle to achieve additional engine bursting
power.
‘Old timers say that under load, the Hart-Parr engines
burned as much water as kerosene,’ said tractor researcher
Strawser of the grand legacy that the Schneiders and Hart and Parr
left the mechanical world. ‘The mixture of water and kerosene
made the engines develop more power than just gasoline
alone.’
What a grand legacy it was!
Ironically, the Schneiders inaugurated it on a scorching, hot
day on an Illinois farm when a water jug was dropped inadvertently
over an engine air intake.
If the truth were known, perhaps many major inventions were
conceived in such aimless ways.
(Editors note: Jack Gilluly, Anaconda, Montana, is a grandson of
inventor C. W. Hart of Hart-Parr tractor fame. The foregoing story
is distilled from a book he wrote about his grandfather. Assisting
him on the article’s preparation were Douglas Strawser of
Oregon, Illinois; Everett Althaus of Mendota, Illinois; Frank
Hamata of Schuyler, Nebraska and members of the Peterson family
Barbara, Dan and Bill of Lowell, Indiana.)
Other accounts say that Schneider purchased the tractor as a
‘used’ model.
