Well, Tom, I was nosing around a bookshop this evening, and happened to
find one called “American Stationary Engines from 1872 On”. There were
picture adverts and short paragraphs on about 200-300 different
companies that tried to get into the engine business mostly from
1890-1920.
Four of the pictures looked close enough to the Juneau mine engine to
say they are probably blood relatives in some way, though none were an
exactly-exact match.
Acadia Engines of Bridgeport, Nova Scotia
Associated Manufacturing Co. of Waterloo, Iowa
Gade Bros. of Iowa Falls, Iowa
United Gas Engines of Lansing, Michigan
Complicating the somewhat sketchy history of this industry is the fact
that Associated made engines for other people to put their names on,
like Sears Roebuck, and they also sold licenses for other people to make
engines to their design, so it may be difficult to get an exact identity
on this one. One by International Harvester also looked similar. They
sold for between $50 and $100 and were touted as being the farmer’s
helping hand for running cream separators. There was even a photo of one
rigged up on a Santa Claus type sleigh, the world’s first snowmobile.
To bring this thread back to a tentative automobile link, some other
familiar names were listed. David Buick, Harry Miller, Lozier and Thomas
also were in the stationary engine business before they got around to
making cars. And for some XK content, Daimler sold a license to somebody
in New York to make Daimler engines just like he did in England.
Thanks to a link that lister Marv James provided, the mystery engine has
been definitively identified. Needless to say there are old engine freaks
out there whose intensity make our Jaguar passion seem absolutely bland!
Here’s a portion of a message one particularly salty fellow wrote:
“That is a 3 hp gade engine made in Iowa Falls Iowa.
Igniter type
Some of them engines did not have a tag when they were sold.It was
probally made between 1907 -1912 Weight is 950 lbs 350 rpms 5 in bore 7
in stroke 28 in flywheel 176 lbs each 1 3/4 in crankshaft 3 hp had 9
ribs on cylinder .Very easy engine to get running.Would take me about 15
minutes to get this one running if we had spark and compression.I have a
2 hp pretty much the same.I know this type of gade very well.If anyone
up in Alaska need help have them e-mail me.Should be able to help .These
gades are very nice engines.”
This old boy pretty clearly knows his Gades!
Anyway, it looks like we’ll have all the help we may need, and in fact that
we’ll be able to find parts!
Again, thanks to everyone for their interest and knowledge.
Tom Carson
Juneau, Alaska
1954 XK120SE OTS S674946
1962 Mark 2, 3.8 MOD> From: “R,J,G&KReilly” xk120q@ix.netcom.com
Reply-To: xk@jag-lovers.org
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 01:04:44 -0500
To: Jaguar XK list xk@jag-lovers.org
Subject: [xk] Antique Stationary Engine
…
Four of the pictures looked close enough to the Juneau mine engine to
say they are probably blood relatives in some way, though none were an
exactly-exact match.
Acadia Engines of Bridgeport, Nova Scotia
Associated Manufacturing Co. of Waterloo, Iowa
Gade Bros. of Iowa Falls, Iowa
United Gas Engines of Lansing, Michigan