Hi Kids!
Pop!..click….click….click…Pop! Boy, do I love the sound of an old “one lunger” engine running! I guess this is a “related” tractor subject and I was just wondering how many of you tractor folk are involved in collecting and restoring the old one lung engines?
I got hooked on the hobby a few years back when I saw them at a show in Florida and asked “what is that”? An elderly gentleman explained their interesting history and I found them fascinating. Upon moving to Vermont I started my search for them and have accumulated a couple of dozen of these old beauties. Some were buried in the ground for sixty years and some were under two floors of collapsed barns.
Some collectors like to keep them as found, however, I like to rebuild them and restore them to museum quality to display their original grandeur. Both rebuilding the engines and building new carts has been a very rewarding pastime. My oldest engine is a 1907 1HP Gilson and the newest is a 1938 IH.
Here are a couple of pictures of some of my engines:
1. Ideal 1-2: This is a ½ HP air cooled engine used on old lawn mowers.
2. Gilson-Air1: This is a 1908 air cooled Gilson originally used to pump water.
3. Ideal-1: This is a 1HP Ideal air cooled engine used on a golf course lawn mower.
4. Show: These are four of my engines on a trailer at a show. The blue engine is a 2HP Jaeger that is water cooled and was used on a cement mixer. The black engine is a 1 ½ HP Nelson Brothers engine used to power a small hay lift. The red engine in the foreground is a 1907 Gilson 1HP “Johnny on the Spot” which is water cooled and was used to power various farm machinery.
Ok, who else is into the “old iron”?
Ken
Pop!..click….click….click…Pop! Boy, do I love the sound of an old “one lunger” engine running! I guess this is a “related” tractor subject and I was just wondering how many of you tractor folk are involved in collecting and restoring the old one lung engines?
I got hooked on the hobby a few years back when I saw them at a show in Florida and asked “what is that”? An elderly gentleman explained their interesting history and I found them fascinating. Upon moving to Vermont I started my search for them and have accumulated a couple of dozen of these old beauties. Some were buried in the ground for sixty years and some were under two floors of collapsed barns.
Some collectors like to keep them as found, however, I like to rebuild them and restore them to museum quality to display their original grandeur. Both rebuilding the engines and building new carts has been a very rewarding pastime. My oldest engine is a 1907 1HP Gilson and the newest is a 1938 IH.
Here are a couple of pictures of some of my engines:
1. Ideal 1-2: This is a ½ HP air cooled engine used on old lawn mowers.
2. Gilson-Air1: This is a 1908 air cooled Gilson originally used to pump water.
3. Ideal-1: This is a 1HP Ideal air cooled engine used on a golf course lawn mower.
4. Show: These are four of my engines on a trailer at a show. The blue engine is a 2HP Jaeger that is water cooled and was used on a cement mixer. The black engine is a 1 ½ HP Nelson Brothers engine used to power a small hay lift. The red engine in the foreground is a 1907 Gilson 1HP “Johnny on the Spot” which is water cooled and was used to power various farm machinery.
Ok, who else is into the “old iron”?
Ken
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