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It warms my heart to see young folks that truly appreciate and maintain the legacy of these old machines from a bygone era. I remember going to the fair as a kid of maybe 10, 55 years ago, and being fascinated with these old engines and the big steam tractors. I'd get yelled at by mom for hanging around there for hours listening to the old guy stories, the ones that actually used them, which they were more than happy to tell. And I had a very good idea about how each and every one of them worked, or as much as you can at that age. That payed off in retiring from a wonderful career since then, in a somewhat related field. Thanks you guys. Please pass it on once again.
I teach my kids all I know about old engines I have hit and miss myself and Farmall I love the stuff and work on other people old tractor's and pass it on we need more people like you and me thanks for sharing
I believe that industry worldwide in general looked around some 50-years ago and said to themselves. "We make things that last forever, and therefore have fewer and fewer new sales each year". And with that most makers of goods, but not all have reworked their designs with "Built-In Obsolesace" in mind. Meaning thing are by design made to wear out and fail in a given amount of time and not be easily rebuilt, if at all. This in turn leads to new sales and the growing consumer mentality of being a throwaway society.
That's only part of the reason the Ford 9" rear end is no longer made, it's also because Ford no longer had a monopoly on repair parts because everybody was making everything for them, so, time for a redesign, they also have to give the impression that they are making improvements.
@@mybeachshack true, I only buy commercial machines, not merely commercial grade from Whirlpool. These are the same ones found in most laundry mats. They can be about 20% more, but my family has gotten about 20-years use from any one pair (washer/dryer).
That old hit and miss is a rare find. From what I've been told you could find them up until WW2. They started going when farmers had electric from local power plants. You could run just about run any stationary machine Generator, water pump, rock crusher. The old tech is reliable a 1916 engine still works. That's 106 years old.
Electricity to farms...yes, first it was just single phase, but later, 3 phase....Thank You, Nikola Tesla....! One of the first important things on a farm....was a well with motorized pump....
Lovely. About 30 years ago I met a couple who owned a 1918 Maytag truck. I admired it and I asked where they found parts for it to maintain it. They told me that they never needed parts because they never needed to replace any parts.
Is it just me , or does anyone else feel like these beautiful things are alive,with all the snorting and breathing noises that they make ? Fills me with a sense of joy just to hear them , and to see them in action.
Every engine, and machine, is alive. People overlook this beautiful aspect of life. Even the computers we use are alive in their own way, each having their own tendencies and behaviors.
I actually came to leave a similar comment. I could imagine how soothing it would be working in say a wood working shop and listening to this animal breathe all day long.
Proof positive that a well engineered and maintained piece of equipment is a joy forever. My dad told me stories of a agricultural pump run by a hit-n-miss that ran night and day for years! Oil it, grease it and you'll get old before it wears out. Thanks for the memories, guys.
In 1964 I went with my Great uncle out to tend to some oil wells in SE Kansas and the wells were powered by some hit and miss engines, We filled the grease cups and some had big old jars filled with really heavy oil in them that would drip a drop oil every 15 mins. on some moving parts to keep them lubed up. My father said that those were some of the last engines like that ,and when those were needing repairs they were going to be replaced with electric motors. My father told me of when he went with him as a kid to help him, He went twice a day to service them 7 days a week until his death.
@@quadnation485 your response kind of blew my mind. "When they need repairs they'll be replaced with modern motors." Then, almost 60 years later: "Yeah enough of them are still running that it's my cousin's job to replace them."
You do need to know how mechanical engine management works though if you ever want to own a vehicle with one because it's going to be rare to find a shop that would work on anything carbureted.
@@dewaldsteyn1306 If you want fuel injection you need a computer of some kind but it could be a very basic computer. You just need to measure your intake and exhaust so each injector can be turned on for the correct time to get a good a/f ratio. Could be a basic system but unfortunately emission regs came in at the same time as EFI so there is more now than just the engine to manage.
My friend, who is a car mechanic, always tells me: "what isn't on it, can't break". This is such a pure example. Everything on this engine is so simple, yet marvelously engineered. Way more impressive than those computer-runned engines of today.
There are similar principles in software engineering. Every line of code adds complexity. But if people want small, high output engines, you probably need to add complexity. I am no mechanical engineer, but these old, large, low power engines are not efficient either. If you want more power, with the same displacement, you are going to have to do stuff like increase air and fuel, increase revs, increase compression, etc. I love old engines though.
In France we had the water pump manufacturer Julien & Mege : those were more powerful than spec, and almost silent, a lot of people have then still running.... ( those are 3 phase pumps ) The company went broke because pumps were too reliable and once everyone was equipped, sales went down. Today no one makes parts to refurbish those. The modern pumps are noisy, and last 2 to 3 years max. AAAAND you have to spec up in order for a pump to make that water go up the spec. EVERYTHING made today is worse than yesterday because it is made to be replaced soon, and difficult to repair. Each time my "modern" pup starts, I can't help but hear and feel that it goes closer to be broken, the moise the vibration tells everything.
That just says everything about modern engineering. There probably is a bullet proof car engine design that someone is afraid to release upon the world too
@George Jones maybe, but the facts still remain, when a product is too good, a company goes out of business. Only shit make good business, so business is shit.
yeah right we have a modern indoor pump its plob 12 year old now and it been outside the whole damn time i mean not sheided either and its canada it snows and every year we plug it in and it works. and still builds a good amount of pressure and no leaks so far.
My old mechanic neighbor found a 1890ish Nova farm engine that looked like a big ball of rust and two weeks later looking better than new I thought it couldn't get any prettier. But your old girl is at another level.
Beautifull . I used to go out to shearing sheds with my dad in the 60's and 70's. was always amazed at the simple old motors that ran all the gear on farms and out stations. old oil burner single pot engines with 3-4 sometimes 5 different belts running something. Running on diesel, kerosene and later, even vegetable cooking oils and old sump oil in a pinch. Later, (late 70's & 80's)working as a stockman on outback stations (Aussie ranches) most of our stationary motors were similar. Any oil changes were filtered and went into drums to run the simplest of engines. Old hit and miss engines turning generators or water pumps to power the place and pump water up from the river into overhead tanks for showers, gardens and drinking water. Summertime they were essential. No aircon in summer temps up near 50c were brutal. We had a grass house to sleep in. walls were 2 layers of wire mesh 12 inches apart stuffed with spinifex (spiky desert grass clumps), Sprinkler heads along the roof lines that sprayed water down the walls. As the breeze came through the grass it cooled inside. Often there was no breeze, so a couple of old 40 inch workshop fans saved the day. Without those old motors running pumps etc, life would have been a lot more uncomfortable. History that many never experienced and many more will never see.
Considering we are now at the mercy of profit making energy corporations and useless government, I am thinking home backup power might be handy using these old engines.
I never under stood how that kind of cooling worked. Seems like a good idea but. The actual perpose of air conditioning is to remove humidity than heat. Most the time the humidity level is 98-100% adding water to the air just helps conduct the heat. When I used to live in a poor little shack if we could get the humidity under 80% we were happy , temps averaged 85-90degrees in our cooled area. But that didnt matter because the humidity was low so you cant feel the heat
@@DRNEGOLICIS North west of West Australia dosnt have much in the way of humidity (unless a cyclone is close) just dry dry dry. Works the same as a car radiator. Wind passing over the copper or aluminium mesh fins cools the fins and the water inside. We just used the spinefex as the mesh. Evaporation transfers the heat and cools the air. Those little desktop room coolers work in the same way. water dripping over mesh cools the air flowing past. Old folks knew what they were about. We found a date of 1932 on one of the roof beams. Guessing that was when they built this one to replace the old bough shed (all wooden with brush on walls and roof)
The Coolgardie Safe worked on the same principle as your spinifex house, they kept the butter hard and the milk fresh on the hottest days. Water trickling over hessian cloth with a breeze blowing through did the trick. We had these in the days when there was no grid to be off.
@@ivanolsen8596 Yep, Coolgardie safe in the holiday home, then we upgraded to a kerosene fridge and Redbacks on the toilet seat. Eventually septic, electricity and paved roads made it there. All adventures and beaches for us kids.
This has been a deliberate part of manufacturing and industry for at least 50 years. It's called planned obsolescence. Everything from your refrigerator to the light bulbs you buy are made to fail after a certain, pre-planned amount of time, so that you are compelled to buy a new one and replace it.
@@danmartinez9497 by basic logic it should, its just that any kind of service you could get out of a durable machine doesn't match the economic benefit of being forced to replace it. This is because capital equiptment is overpriced.
That's a big beast! I want to hear the story how you found it. I have 9 and 12 horse Hercules built Economy and Champion engines. They don't have the compression release, so I start them by holding the exhaust valve open with the governor latch using my left hand on the pushrod ; while I spin the flywheels with the right hand. Love that sound!
I have a Fairbanks Morse model Z 3hp. not a hit and miss but from near the same era. I am like a little kid every I time I fire it up. It starts at 6 below and at 100 degrees. These are just amazing pieces of history from our past. I will never part with it. What a beautiful machine!
@@Briselance It will be, My son loves it and much as I do and he has been there every time I have started it and knows it about as well as I do. He is an adult now and I have had it since he was a child. It is very loved in my family.
Those type of engines were used a lot by railroads to power motorized track gang carts or "speeders" The East Broad Top Railroad (which I am an off again, on again volunteer at) has at least 3 speeders that are powered by such engines that were built, IIRC, sometime in the 1920's & 1930's. In addition to giving rides to tourists during the regular excursion season, EBTRR employees & Friends of the East Broad Top volunteers still use them for track work.
The only reason I would ever part with something like that myself is if someone I knew was able to fab that sort of machine. Then I'd let him tear it apart, 3D scan every part, change a thing here and there and start producing them. Put the plans on the web for free. Do a little Mechanical Necromancy ;)
Well, considering in the 1950s, you were lucky to get your car to 100k without some rather significant repairs, I don't know that I would say that all things were more reliable and long lasting. Heck, an automobile from 1950 required meticulously religious oil checks within a very narrow window. You failed to change your oil by a certain time and you'd probably done some damage to the engine... Getting an automobile to 200k-300k like a lot of Toyotas can today was almost impossible on a mid 20th century car without a complete overhaul.
That was only because they had weak breaker-point ignitions, very primitive lubricants and usually no preheated air intake for colder climates in winter. Pretty much ANY engine from that era would easily blow past 200k with a hotter electronic ignition, modern oil and minimized exposure to ice-cold intake air (when engine is cold and you DON'T want it).
I would say the 90s peaked automobiles and with the bailouts of the early 2000 recession the model was switched to planned obsolescence. A fair number of those 90s cars still on the road today as daily commuters
@@graver067966739 I tend to agree. I have a 97 Landcruiser, a 97 Tahoe 2door Z71, and a 97 Ford F350 7.3. All 3 of these vehicles are above 200k, run mint, completely reliable. My 2018 LTZ Duramax was a piece of shit. I spent 80k for a truck that broke down on me at least once every 6 months. Late 90s seems to be the pinnacle of reliability mixed with some tech and being able to be trouble free.
My 1972 VW Beetle had it's 1st major overhaul last year, at 49 years on the road. It is still a daily driver, and like this beautiful engine, requires regular maintenance. That however, is how it still gets an average 25mpg. New may be flashy and fun for a time, but the old stuff is still better.
@@MarkLoves2Fly Sweet, I have a '72 Beetle too, been in the family since new ..my only car under 6 liters, lol. Had to rebuild the engine at 80k about 12 years ago, but only because the studs were pulling out of the case and the pass side cyl head was falling off! The bearings still looked brand new. Put in a C25 cam with 87mm jugs, Pertronix electronic ign with SVDA dizzy and a bored out stock carb & header exhaust...sticking only with reversible mods due to originality...gets 34 hwy mpg now, as long as I stay at or above 70. 😁👍
This fantastic machine exemplifies everything that is wrong with modern junk, this old gal will still be chugging away for hundreds of years with just a little maintenance, while modern garbage will be rotting in landfill for hundreds of years. Great video,thanks for sharing!👌
When I was 13 to 16 I used to work in my dads scrapyard. We often got farm clean out jobs, old factory clean out jobs . . . scrapped lots of stuff from the turn of the century . . . 1900 I am talking. One complete 1880 generator set we kept for a few years, had a coal fired steam engine and a generator, made DC current and a LOT of it. It had been in a factory from before that part of the city had reticulated electricity. The company was a family business and the grand father had them keep it as backup power. It had been perfectly maintained, and we ran it a couple of times just for the interests sake. Imagine what it would be worth now. Eventually it went out to the steel-mill, and was scrapped.
A complete, well-maintained 1880s generator. Scrapped. 😨😨😨😔👎🏻 You know, I am no mechanic, but it still pains me to read that. Any museum would have loved such a machine.
@@Briselance Any man who saw it would have walked over to it and said "What in the world ? . . . what an amazing looking old machine . . ." and touched it avariciously, committing the sin of coveting. It had been made in the days that machines had inch thick cast-iron casings and pedestals with ornate, thick makers plates of brass, where we would have a sealed bearing with a grease-nipple, it had these little brass cups with springed-caps, both the motor and the generator identical in their design touches, like some art-deco piece . . . And it RAN, it was fully functioning and SMOOTH as a Rolls-Royce . . . I will obviously be in that circle of hell reserved for vandals and philistines.
Very cool to see one of these engines run. They were used in saw mills and in farming and industry. What a sweet simple means of solid horsepower. Obviously these guys were made to last.
The machine shop, gearbox repair business where I work had a machine that sharpens blades that make worm gears. It was 86 years old when it needed its first repair. The need? A thicker spacer. The engineering on the machine was so intelligent.
No pen pusher will appreciate this! The old people were not stupid, my wife has got a 100% working 1928 singer sewing machine that still uses a treadle, the mind of the old folks were sharp! Love this !!!🇿🇦
My wife is a professional seamstress that uses her grandmother's 1948 Singer as her main machine. I note one thing about it. In it's day, it cost almost half a year's wages. For that much money, you could buy at least two modern industrial machines that would last as long.
@@barrymorrisss Absolutely; some high-grade things became expensive... but only relative to the cheap stuff. It didn't get cheaper at the same rate as the low-grade stuff; it still got much cheaper than it used to be. But - a big part is that people actually cared to keep their expensive stuff and care for it, and pass it on. That said, there are things that definitely improved. The oil losses, the pollution, fuel efficiency. It's just packaged in a bundle that makes it much harder to keep caring for the stuff to make it last. It's quite nice that you don't have to replace oil and lubricate twenty different bits of a car every 1000 km like in the "good old days" :D But it also of course came with ridiculous abuse of cars (well sponsored by the oil & gas and automobile industries)...
My Great Grandfather drilled oil wells in Butler County, PA and used the natural gas from the well heads to power hit and miss engines to pump the oil. One of them did backfire while he was standing on the flywheel footpeg and throw him through the roof of the shack. Each engine had a different barker so they could tell from a distance if one stopped.
We had to watch safety videos in agriscience class that warned of PTOs ripping your junk off and other things. I always wondered how. After watching him lay on that clutch I get it now, lol.
The thing, or the information, concerning this engine, and like many others, is: If there had been a cam that opened that intake valve, much more HP would have been created. That was the secret of that time.
Reminds me of starting an old B John Deere I used to use in the hayfield sometimes, except the Deere had 2 compression relief valves, one on each cylinder. That thing was awesome!
Love it. I go to shows all year round that have these kind of working engines, steam, classic, military, agricultural, commercial vehicles. My passion is motorcycles. A slightly different story. When I was at college studying engineering, we used to do tests on a single cylinder 1100 cc diesel donkey engine. Brake dyno torque measurements mostly. One of my student peers complained that there was blowing from the engine and pointed to a 3 inch pipe. I told him it was the inlet stack. To disprove me, he put his workbook in the vicinity of the stack. Naturally, it sucked a 3 inch hole in his book and then consumed the rest. His whole year's worth of notes came out of the exhaust stack in tiny pieces.
I expect the torque is amazing. I remember we had a tug of war between a steam traction engine with I expect low horsepower and probably 50 people. Nobody won as the near two inch inch thick rope broke and sent us all flying. This was of course a long time ago before the days of elf and safety.
I never doubted that. The fact that steam engines, machine tools etc. that were maintained are still running but, modern stuff breaks almost as soon as you buy it.
What a beast. My dad used to work on things like that many many years ago. He could repair and indeed build so many bits of machinery, vitually out of nothing. I t had to be out of nothing because they couldn't get much out in the country with no money. No money but a very clever self taught brain and skill set. A lost art.
My dad used to repair and operate steam engines. Most were wood or coal fired. He said, "the way to tell a novice from an expert is the color of the steam coming out of the stack. If it's black, they're overfiring the boiler." I hated trains for so long because that was his primary focus in life, but now that he's gone I remember it fondly.
Beautiful engine! Had a friend who was a member of the Florida Flywheelers for a long time, so I got to go to various meets and see a bunch of these things. Wonderful.
That is as BEAUTIFUL as it is INCREDIBLE!!! I WISH I COULD SEE IT IN PERSON!! Imagine the simplicity!!! Technology that was INTENTIONALLY discarded so someone could line their pockets with more cash. Also look at how efficient it is... TOTALLY INCREDIBLE. I've ALWAYS loved old creations because they were invented to do EXACTLY what was needed at that particular time, coining the term "getting what you paid for". Also, in a sense-the older technology was just better-actually making it NEW technology! The tech of today is backwards because it's more harmful to the enviornment and costs way more to operate. These days there's all kinds of extra stuff in new technology because it's COST driven. With the old tech, it was VERY cheap to actually USE the equipment & it made for a greener planet. Documentaries come on all the time talking about how pre-civilizations DESTROYED themselves through their technology-which is EXACTLY what society is doing today. Keep it simple & it could possibly last forever in a sense. I see why this fella appreciates/is crazy about this piece. I would be too...
Look at how efficient it is. And look at how impossible it is to keep farming as many acres as on today's farms with tech that is 100 years old. Also, would you enjoy the exposure to elements and total lack of comfort on a 1910s tractor, when the modern ones are that well made? Probably not. Saying we destroy ourselves with tech is like saying we should never have used electricity. That's way too generic and blanketting (if that word even exists, that is) to be accurate. Even though I am not a mechanic by any stretch, I still like old stuff like that. But I still don't mindlessly bash at modern tech just because it is modern. I am no hard-core Luddite.
I firmly agree with the statement made in the title of this video. Used to work for a defense contractor that made various military gear, so it was a sewing factory & when we were building a large, mostly automated piece of equipment, when it came time to select the 3 sewing machines, there we’re basically two options…buy brand new commercial brother sewing machines (great products) for a cheaper price, or 1940’s era refurbished American Standard machines for a decent amount more money, the decision was made to go with the 80 year old machines for more money. Rightly so.
3:00 that’s because engines don’t have detonation unless they’re knocking, they have deflagration. Burning smoothly like that is more efficient and doesn’t damage the engine. Pretty much all large engines are actually quiet like this. The loud sound mostly comes from the rapid puffs of exhaust, but if you’re running at 50 RPM or less, it sounds more like a chain of puffs than the engine sound we are familiar with
Nice! I have the 5 HP version of that engine. It hasn't run in years. Moves by hand, and seams to be in great shape. Where did you get your springs? Most of mine are missing.
I don't know that I'd go as far as calling it better than modern equipment, but it sure as hell is a whole lot more interesting. All those spinning wheels and moving parts and various and Sundry noises that the thing makes, just like a mechanical Symphony. Just brings a smile to your face.
Considering that the owner just bid on an anvil, one use for that engine would be great for would be powering a blacksmiths power hammer of about the same vintage or running a small sawmill set up.
I've always known older is better. I'm still driving a 1981 Chevy C10. Less than $9K in it. Had it for almost 30 years. Wouldn't trade it for anything. MAINTENANCE, people... MAINTENANCE! Learn how to work on what you drive. Can save you tens of thousands.
I bought a minicar EV. When all your stuff stops working because there's no more gas I'll still be able to charge mine with solar for the next 20 or 30 years. My EV is chinese on purpose, it doesn't come with a ton of microchips like their western counterparts. There's something to be said for old technology, but when it requires oil, it will just be a chunk of metal at some point in the near future. The only old technology that will survive is wind and water powered.
What a beautiful machine. And it gots the perfect owner who cares about it so it will last many more years. I'm very impressed how easy it starts up. Love those hit-and-miss engines. Many greetings from Germany.
I don't believe it would power a modern home. It would only be good for around 7000 watts, and most modern homes use far more than that at peak. To have no disruptions most people would need a peak supply of 20,000 watts or so, and larger homes might need much more. It would also require a significant gearing system to spin the generator faster as the speed on this was far too low for electrical generation at 50 or 60 cycles and 120 or 240 volts AC. The fact that it is a hit-and-miss also means that no matter what you do, the cycles will fluctuate a lot. Some things are more bothered by that than others. While it would be a fun project, it wouldn't be practical on a daily basis.
@@edifyguy If you add a good bank of beefy capacitors to smooth the power fluctuations and batteries to store the excess then you can have a very energy efficient home power solution with the hit and miss or steam engine. Remember that if you have a large enough battery bank and a decent capacitor bank set up then you can power your home while the engine is not running and in-between ignition without fluctuations in electricity flow.
Thanks for sharing your work with me and my family! Awesome thanks. I seen a 1922 Fordson tractor today at my friend's house! I was awe struck to see it sitting as yard art. Wish it was being worked on.
Loved this video. This guy is freakishly knowledgeable about the engine and able to quickly and entertainingly explain the intricate nature of the beast to us laymen sittin' on our couches enjoying the video.. Bravo! Bravo! Thanks for sharing.
The reason these old engines are still around today is that most of them haven't run or pulled a load in 80 years or more. Anything will last forever if it isn't used.
Not all true. Ford used to manufacture straight six engines that would easily go 400 thousand miles with minimal maintenance. It was their simplicity and durability that made them twice as efficient as digital heavy modern motors and systems
@@ethanfleisher1910 "twice as efficient"? How many MPG did it do (or % efficiency)? How often did fluids need to be changed? How much power did they have? What about specific power, kW or HP per kg? And last but not least: If they were so good... why does nobody today build them? Not the US, not chinese, indian, simply nobody. I like old stuff. But acting as if it was the best thing ever is absurd.
@@leocurious9919 I would look more into THAT PARTICULAR engine. I'm not saying on average, or making a comment about other combustion engines, but there were a few that really were insanely efficient not just for their time but remain that way today. And maybe reliability was the correct word, I suppose, I can't say how mathematically true the efficiency is, this is A fucking yt comment haha
Older vehicles didn't need security devices to keep people from stealing them. If you didn't know the code you weren't starting that thing. Pump 3 times hold starter for 5 seconds,wait 60 seconds pump once hold starter for 10 seconds. Don't touch the gas turn the key and it starts. No one could start your car but you.
Lol, my old 78 is loyal -20 or could be -40. Good pumping and Betty fires right off. Granted shes cold blooded so it takes a try or two but she comes to life just to push snow or be a skidder. Granted, theres a trick to starting that only people who run the truck know. My F700 you gotta hit a switch before it even thinks of firing off. Will crank but wont start.
Well, we're having a slight bias here to be honest. The stuff that has been running the last 100 years is unlikely to break down anytime soon. Everything that could and did break down already has been replaced, so we're looking at the toughest survivours of what was made a century ago.
@@dikkie1000 not quite true,most surviving peices of machinery are because of those who 1. Looked after it. 2. Didn't update working machinery. 3. Have saved it from the scrapman!
I know a guy that got a McCormick that sits under an old barn with no walls , he says it's done for , i say it looks pretty good for a tractor that's supposedly done for !
The amount of hit fire or whatever they're called that my friend and his dad had, tens of thousands of dollars probably more considering that just single ones cost more than that, sitting in their driveway or their garage was insane. Absolutely beautiful machines
This is really cool and i love seeing these ancient machines run its so good to see these things still running. However that doesnt mean your title is true... it isnt better but it is a great example of the legacy of piston engines
The key to making something last forever is to make it run with as low-stress as possible. This thing has 16 horsepower. Granted *true* horsepower, but even for that 16 is rather small. It's RPM never went past 200 here. And I don't see the compression on that enormous piston being particularly strong. Especially with the exhaust valve open so much. There is not a lot of heavy banging from high compression & smooth 4 stroke Operations. So the piston rings, piston & cylinder walls have virtually nothing wearing them. There is not much temperature change on the engine with it firing so sparsely. So thermal expansion & contraction wear isn't really an issue. There is not much centrifugal force being put on all the internal components, such as the crankshaft, camshaft & their respective bearings. With such a slow RPM You could probably get _5 years_ out of this thing by running it dry! *DRY!* AS IN WITH NO OIL WHATSOEVER IN IT! These days, you won't get 10 MINUTES out of a dry engine! But put oil and/or grease in it? Once in awhile. That thing'll outlive your grandchildren, and _their_ grandchildren's grandchildren. Just keep the EPA away from it. They have a tendency to make life hard for the average person like you and I.
@@micahanglen4331 Stationary engines like this were used primarily for agricultural equipment, like threshers, winnowers, balers, and the like. Of course people also connected them to pumps, generators, and other less agriculture-specific things. Nowadays we certainly can make the needed power with a lot less weight, but the robustness of this design is impressive.
I work for a car dealer and i can see a definite decline in quality over the last 10-15 years. Manufacturers don't want your vehicle to last forever. Cars are disposable now. They are now lease vehicles and not going to last, regardless of maintenance. They last the lease and or warranty period and are too expensive to fix outside of warranty. People are having to continually trade their vehicles every 5-7 years by design.
Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view!" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment ?
Does anyone else remember all the promises we got from government in to 1960's about how the cars of the future were going to become so fuel efficient in the future? My 1970 Ford got 20 mpg. My 2003 Ford gets 12 mpg. That's what happens when there is no accountability. In Europe the gas mileage is much better than is allowed in the U.S. because of corporate influence on politicians that depend on corporate sponsorship.
Yes, however many things got complicated once environmental impact assessments came into the mix. A lot of restrictions were put in place from cars to refrigerators.
I forget the year, but my dad had a Ford Festiva that was probably 40, maybe 45 mpg. Crap now I am heartbroken; I remember the day it finally broke down and we had to let it go. I was small when dad used to drive me around in it and it carried him everywhere he didn't need a truck. With a wry smile he told me "I've driven that thing longer than I've known your mother." Now that I'm older it occurs to me how much that loss must have hurt for him.
Hey it's Salt'n'Peppa, "ahh push it" lol !! If they wanted to, they could design an engine that would never wear out. But where would there be a market for replacement parts?? Thanks for the video.
There’s just something about these old ‘corn popper’ engines of yesteryear that’s far too endearing to ignore. No Ops. Computer regulating fuel modulation; no complex inter systemic control systems giving vague readouts concerning whatnot; just basic analog of it’ll run or it won’t ⚙️
The Owls Head Transportation Museum in Owls Head, Maine has a old steam engine with a 18 foot flywheel on it. Impressive museum with some awesome antique machines.
At Bridgewater.VA during "Bridgewater Days" steam and gas meet, there's this monstrous 50 HP (F&M) They start it with kerosene powered Fordson tractor driving an air compressor. very impressive,I don't know what that old engine powered. Talking about old is maybe better, one Farmer had an old biggest 2 cyl JD tractor, doing comparable work the old 2 cyl consumed significantly less fuel than the newer many pistoned tractor.
Larger cylinders produce more torque and as a result often need less total power, therefore less fuel consumed, to do the job. Torque differential is part of why my 7.3L diesel engine uses significantly less fuel to pull 12,000 pounds (itself and a 5,000 pound trailer) than my 5.7L gasoline engine does pulling 10,000 pounds (also itself and a 5,000 pound trailer)....it's about HOW it's used. The greater compression and longer stroke at lower RPMs utilizes the energy created in the burn more efficiently. The same principle is illustrated by the old 2-cylinder using less fuel. Doubtless it used a longer stroke which extracted the energy better than the newer designs.
@@kevinmccune9324 Also if it was a gasoline engine, there's a minimum amount of fuel required to make a gasoline engine go bang, hence fewer cylinders tend to have an advantage there too, though lower displacement is the main advantage, hence the increased use of small turbo gasoline engines in the automotive world today, as they scale better from a fuel consumption perspective; if you need the extra power, the turbo will shove more air in so that more fuel can be burned at a time, but if you don't, it doesn't, and the minimum to go boom is lower, hence lower cruising fuel consumption.
Back in the day when they built things to last, unlike today. I remember working on a farm and the owner was an engineer who told me he worked for a car company before farming and his job was to design things that wouldn't last too long. Now I was only 18 years old back in the late 70s when he told me about this and I couldn't believe it, I remember being totally blown away by this term"planned obsolescence" To my young mind i thought this was the dumbest idea, my thinking is we want stuff to last, but like he said the companies don't want that. I still think it's a disgrace
MAGNIFICENT, AWESOME, MEZMERIZING AND BEAUTIFUL. What a joy and marvel to behold. Thankyou so very much, for sharing your wonderful example, of engineering progress, with us. Be safe, well, content and free. Bob. Australia.
Grandpa had one of those almost identical to that on his farm that was used to run Everything from a hammer mill, to a huge buzz saw, and the generator We called it old reliable. I believe my cousin still has it
A modern engine would be an order of magnitude (not a joke) more efficient, saving its cost in fuel several times over its lifetime. It also will be smaller, more quiet, and WAY cleaner.
Wait really? They made improvements to internal combustion engines in the last 100 years?! Get out of town! What else, did they massively improve cars too?!
@@bellatoramatbellum kinda yes but they run like shit after a while unless you buy a honda but they are becoming shit too. its a sad thing. they might be smaller more quiet and easier to the standard city person, but they don't last long at all.
I think his point was that older stuff was made to last. Yes the new engine would be more efficient. But it would also require way more things to run. I’m sure if you made a modern version of this with just better geometry and lighter parts it would great. But that’s not what modern companies do
IDK, $13k or so (adjusted for inflation), with about as many steps to start the dang thing as you get in horsepower, and an inefficient design... it was fine for its time, but it can't compete with anything modern.
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It warms my heart to see young folks that truly appreciate and maintain the legacy of these old machines from a bygone era. I remember going to the fair as a kid of maybe 10, 55 years ago, and being fascinated with these old engines and the big steam tractors. I'd get yelled at by mom for hanging around there for hours listening to the old guy stories, the ones that actually used them, which they were more than happy to tell. And I had a very good idea about how each and every one of them worked, or as much as you can at that age.
That payed off in retiring from a wonderful career since then, in a somewhat related field.
Thanks you guys. Please pass it on once again.
we're not common, but we're out here
I have my grandfather's and great grandfathers Model A Ford Tractors (2 original Ford tractors)
And I want to fix his D4 dozer.
Sir, if I had the room, and even though I don't know anything about the hit&miss engines, I would happily own one and try to restore it
I teach my kids all I know about old engines I have hit and miss myself and Farmall I love the stuff and work on other people old tractor's and pass it on we need more people like you and me thanks for sharing
And once gas goes to ten bucks it will be electric and we are screwed
I believe that industry worldwide in general looked around some 50-years ago and said to themselves. "We make things that last forever, and therefore have fewer and fewer new sales each year". And with that most makers of goods, but not all have reworked their designs with "Built-In Obsolesace" in mind. Meaning thing are by design made to wear out and fail in a given amount of time and not be easily rebuilt, if at all. This in turn leads to new sales and the growing consumer mentality of being a throwaway society.
Truth !!!
GM had planned obsolescence as early as the late 1920's.
Planned obsolescence. Domestic washing machines are a good example.
That's only part of the reason the Ford 9" rear end is no longer made, it's also because Ford no longer had a monopoly on repair parts because everybody was making everything for them, so, time for a redesign, they also have to give the impression that they are making improvements.
@@mybeachshack true, I only buy commercial machines, not merely commercial grade from Whirlpool. These are the same ones found in most laundry mats. They can be about 20% more, but my family has gotten about 20-years use from any one pair (washer/dryer).
That old hit and miss is a rare find. From what I've been told you could find them up until WW2. They started going when farmers had electric from local power plants. You could run just about run any stationary machine Generator, water pump, rock crusher. The old tech is reliable a 1916 engine still works. That's 106 years old.
I guess they stayed around longer in Europe because of the war, at least farmers fairs are full with them and Lanz Bulldog tractors.
@@vHindenburg I go to vintage machinery shows in Australia, I guess about one in ten engines on display are hit-and-miss.
Electricity to farms...yes, first it was just single phase, but later, 3 phase....Thank You, Nikola Tesla....! One of the first important things on a farm....was a well with motorized pump....
@@dougankrum3328 I would say after that, some form of refrigeration.
No, its at least a thousand years old... along with most of the other now forgotten tech
Lovely.
About 30 years ago I met a couple who owned a 1918 Maytag truck. I admired it and I asked where they found parts for it to maintain it. They told me that they never needed parts because they never needed to replace any parts.
Is it just me , or does anyone else feel like these beautiful things are alive,with all the snorting and breathing noises that they make ? Fills me with a sense of joy just to hear them , and to see them in action.
Every engine, and machine, is alive. People overlook this beautiful aspect of life. Even the computers we use are alive in their own way, each having their own tendencies and behaviors.
@@dragonmaster391 I've never seen two machines operate the exact same, except for computers.
Buy one...search.
I actually came to leave a similar comment. I could imagine how soothing it would be working in say a wood working shop and listening to this animal breathe all day long.
Proof positive that a well engineered and maintained piece of equipment is a joy forever. My dad told me stories of a agricultural pump run by a hit-n-miss that ran night and day for years! Oil it, grease it and you'll get old before it wears out. Thanks for the memories, guys.
i think some oil field engine ran for many years continuously
@@dont-want-no-wrench That might be very true because I heard of very abandoned ones still running to this day.
"You'll get old before it wears out." If God used planned obsolescence, then maybe it's not such a bad thing, we just shouldn't take it too far.
Stress on the maintenance part
In 1964 I went with my Great uncle out to tend to some oil wells in SE Kansas and the wells were powered by some hit and miss engines, We filled the grease cups and some had big old jars filled with really heavy oil in them that would drip a drop oil every 15 mins. on some moving parts to keep them lubed up. My father said that those were some of the last engines like that ,and when those were needing repairs they were going to be replaced with electric motors. My father told me of when he went with him as a kid to help him, He went twice a day to service them 7 days a week until his death.
That’s what my cousin does in middle of ks, replacing a lot of those with 480v motors
@@quadnation485 your response kind of blew my mind.
"When they need repairs they'll be replaced with modern motors."
Then, almost 60 years later:
"Yeah enough of them are still running that it's my cousin's job to replace them."
@@scottcantdance804 Just goes to show the long-lasting nature of the designs and parts.
Would he have to fuel all of them too?
Your great uncle was a “pumper” in oilfield terms.
The reason old engines always want to run is because there's no computer telling them they can't.
Exactly! These computers they put in nowadays is just so unnecessary. And of course its just a money making scam.
Based
You do need to know how mechanical engine management works though if you ever want to own a vehicle with one because it's going to be rare to find a shop that would work on anything carbureted.
@@dewaldsteyn1306
If you want fuel injection you need a computer of some kind but it could be a very basic computer. You just need to measure your intake and exhaust so each injector can be turned on for the correct time to get a good a/f ratio. Could be a basic system but unfortunately emission regs came in at the same time as EFI so there is more now than just the engine to manage.
You don’t need a shop to work on something carbureted.
My friend, who is a car mechanic, always tells me: "what isn't on it, can't break". This is such a pure example. Everything on this engine is so simple, yet marvelously engineered. Way more impressive than those computer-runned engines of today.
There are similar principles in software engineering. Every line of code adds complexity. But if people want small, high output engines, you probably need to add complexity. I am no mechanical engineer, but these old, large, low power engines are not efficient either. If you want more power, with the same displacement, you are going to have to do stuff like increase air and fuel, increase revs, increase compression, etc. I love old engines though.
That thing is a work of art. Almost everything on it was built not only to be functional, but also aesthetically appealing.
Thanks for sharing!
In France we had the water pump manufacturer Julien & Mege : those were more powerful than spec, and almost silent, a lot of people have then still running.... ( those are 3 phase pumps ) The company went broke because pumps were too reliable and once everyone was equipped, sales went down. Today no one makes parts to refurbish those. The modern pumps are noisy, and last 2 to 3 years max. AAAAND you have to spec up in order for a pump to make that water go up the spec. EVERYTHING made today is worse than yesterday because it is made to be replaced soon, and difficult to repair. Each time my "modern" pup starts, I can't help but hear and feel that it goes closer to be broken, the moise the vibration tells everything.
That just says everything about modern engineering. There probably is a bullet proof car engine design that someone is afraid to release upon the world too
@George Jones maybe, but the facts still remain, when a product is too good, a company goes out of business. Only shit make good business, so business is shit.
W o W that is Amazing and Heartbreaking in the same time .. what a story.
yeah right we have a modern indoor pump its plob 12 year old now and it been outside the whole damn time i mean not sheided either and its canada it snows and every year we plug it in and it works. and still builds a good amount of pressure and no leaks so far.
@@hunterbear2421 it would be interesting to know brand and model, because the exceptions to the "new is shit" rule are rare.
My old mechanic neighbor found a 1890ish Nova farm engine that looked like a big ball of rust and two weeks later looking better than new I thought it couldn't get any prettier. But your old girl is at another level.
Beautifull .
I used to go out to shearing sheds with my dad in the 60's and 70's. was always amazed at the simple old motors that ran all the gear on farms and out stations. old oil burner single pot engines with 3-4 sometimes 5 different belts running something.
Running on diesel, kerosene and later, even vegetable cooking oils and old sump oil in a pinch.
Later, (late 70's & 80's)working as a stockman on outback stations (Aussie ranches) most of our stationary motors were similar.
Any oil changes were filtered and went into drums to run the simplest of engines. Old hit and miss engines turning generators or water pumps to power the place and pump water up from the river into overhead tanks for showers, gardens and drinking water.
Summertime they were essential. No aircon in summer temps up near 50c were brutal.
We had a grass house to sleep in. walls were 2 layers of wire mesh 12 inches apart stuffed with spinifex (spiky desert grass clumps), Sprinkler heads along the roof lines that sprayed water down the walls.
As the breeze came through the grass it cooled inside. Often there was no breeze, so a couple of old 40 inch workshop fans saved the day. Without those old motors running pumps etc, life would have been a lot more uncomfortable.
History that many never experienced and many more will never see.
Considering we are now at the mercy of profit making energy corporations and useless government, I am thinking home backup power might be handy using these old engines.
I never under stood how that kind of cooling worked. Seems like a good idea but. The actual perpose of air conditioning is to remove humidity than heat. Most the time the humidity level is 98-100% adding water to the air just helps conduct the heat. When I used to live in a poor little shack if we could get the humidity under 80% we were happy , temps averaged 85-90degrees in our cooled area. But that didnt matter because the humidity was low so you cant feel the heat
@@DRNEGOLICIS North west of West Australia dosnt have much in the way of humidity (unless a cyclone is close) just dry dry dry.
Works the same as a car radiator.
Wind passing over the copper or aluminium mesh fins cools the fins and the water inside.
We just used the spinefex as the mesh.
Evaporation transfers the heat and cools the air.
Those little desktop room coolers work in the same way. water dripping over mesh cools the air flowing past.
Old folks knew what they were about. We found a date of 1932 on one of the roof beams. Guessing that was when they built this one to replace the old bough shed (all wooden with brush on walls and roof)
The Coolgardie Safe worked on the same principle as your spinifex house,
they kept the butter hard and the milk fresh on the hottest days.
Water trickling over hessian cloth with a breeze blowing through
did the trick.
We had these in the days when there was no grid to be off.
@@ivanolsen8596 Yep, Coolgardie safe in the holiday home, then we upgraded to a kerosene fridge and Redbacks on the toilet seat. Eventually septic, electricity and paved roads made it there. All adventures and beaches for us kids.
These machines are always going to do their job, & that's why I became a machinist so I can help keep everything operational.
This machine needs a machinist to love it.
What job? It's in the museum. Give it some work for a few years and everything will be needing replacement.
This has been a deliberate part of manufacturing and industry for at least 50 years.
It's called planned obsolescence. Everything from your refrigerator to the light bulbs you buy are made to fail after a certain, pre-planned amount of time, so that you are compelled to buy a new one and replace it.
If I remember correctly, a LOT of an engineers study goes into planned obsolescence......
Even more ridiculous is 'planned needs'. People don't need luxury, but they are told it's normal. Convenience is overrated.
More like 90 years.. if not for this government imposed law everything we us would last much longer but it wouldn't help the economy
@@danmartinez9497 by basic logic it should, its just that any kind of service you could get out of a durable machine doesn't match the economic benefit of being forced to replace it. This is because capital equiptment is overpriced.
Consumerism has gone too far. Certain people need to stop pushing it!
love to see these old machines, still doing their thing today! nothing made since about the mid-70s will ever outlast these durable machines
maybe some international tractors from the early 80s but thats probably it or maybe a case ih magnum after that ya get shit
We could male a bunch of stuff simple and old old like this again but as you can see you could just buy the original 😂😂
That's a big beast! I want to hear the story how you found it.
I have 9 and 12 horse Hercules built Economy and Champion engines. They don't have the compression release, so I start them by holding the exhaust valve open with the governor latch using my left hand on the pushrod ; while I spin the flywheels with the right hand.
Love that sound!
I have a Fairbanks Morse model Z 3hp. not a hit and miss but from near the same era. I am like a little kid every I time I fire it up. It starts at 6 below and at 100 degrees. These are just amazing pieces of history from our past. I will never part with it. What a beautiful machine!
Make sure it is passed down to someone worthy and trustworthy, in case something happens to you.
These pieces of historical engineering are worth it.
@@Briselance It will be, My son loves it and much as I do and he has been there every time I have started it and knows it about as well as I do. He is an adult now and I have had it since he was a child. It is very loved in my family.
Those type of engines were used a lot by railroads to power motorized track gang carts or "speeders" The East Broad Top Railroad (which I am an off again, on again volunteer at) has at least 3 speeders that are powered by such engines that were built, IIRC, sometime in the 1920's & 1930's. In addition to giving rides to tourists during the regular excursion season, EBTRR employees & Friends of the East Broad Top volunteers still use them for track work.
The only reason I would ever part with something like that myself is if someone I knew was able to fab that sort of machine.
Then I'd let him tear it apart, 3D scan every part, change a thing here and there and start producing them. Put the plans on the web for free. Do a little Mechanical Necromancy ;)
Well, considering in the 1950s, you were lucky to get your car to 100k without some rather significant repairs, I don't know that I would say that all things were more reliable and long lasting. Heck, an automobile from 1950 required meticulously religious oil checks within a very narrow window. You failed to change your oil by a certain time and you'd probably done some damage to the engine... Getting an automobile to 200k-300k like a lot of Toyotas can today was almost impossible on a mid 20th century car without a complete overhaul.
That was only because they had weak breaker-point ignitions, very primitive lubricants and usually no preheated air intake for colder climates in winter. Pretty much ANY engine from that era would easily blow past 200k with a hotter electronic ignition, modern oil and minimized exposure to ice-cold intake air (when engine is cold and you DON'T want it).
I would say the 90s peaked automobiles and with the bailouts of the early 2000 recession the model was switched to planned obsolescence. A fair number of those 90s cars still on the road today as daily commuters
@@graver067966739 I tend to agree.
I have a 97 Landcruiser, a 97 Tahoe 2door Z71, and a 97 Ford F350 7.3. All 3 of these vehicles are above 200k, run mint, completely reliable.
My 2018 LTZ Duramax was a piece of shit. I spent 80k for a truck that broke down on me at least once every 6 months.
Late 90s seems to be the pinnacle of reliability mixed with some tech and being able to be trouble free.
My 1972 VW Beetle had it's 1st major overhaul last year, at 49 years on the road. It is still a daily driver, and like this beautiful engine, requires regular maintenance. That however, is how it still gets an average 25mpg. New may be flashy and fun for a time, but the old stuff is still better.
@@MarkLoves2Fly Sweet, I have a '72 Beetle too, been in the family since new ..my only car under 6 liters, lol. Had to rebuild the engine at 80k about 12 years ago, but only because the studs were pulling out of the case and the pass side cyl head was falling off! The bearings still looked brand new. Put in a C25 cam with 87mm jugs, Pertronix electronic ign with SVDA dizzy and a bored out stock carb & header exhaust...sticking only with reversible mods due to originality...gets 34 hwy mpg now, as long as I stay at or above 70. 😁👍
Great article!!! My husband has restored many antique tractors over his 40+ year career. He's a master mechanic!
This fantastic machine exemplifies everything that is wrong with modern junk, this old gal will still be chugging away for hundreds of years with just a little maintenance, while modern garbage will be rotting in landfill for hundreds of years. Great video,thanks for sharing!👌
what is it called
Maybe I'm weird but I really like to see well built, maintained, oiled and greased machinery.
Yeah it will, and after only like 5 years of service. Though alot of it gets recycled but that's not the point.
the motors so quiet
But it's not chugging away. It spends almost all of its time sitting in a shed.
When I was 13 to 16 I used to work in my dads scrapyard. We often got farm clean out jobs, old factory clean out jobs . . . scrapped lots of stuff from the turn of the century . . . 1900 I am talking.
One complete 1880 generator set we kept for a few years, had a coal fired steam engine and a generator, made DC current and a LOT of it. It had been in a factory from before that part of the city had reticulated electricity. The company was a family business and the grand father had them keep it as backup power. It had been perfectly maintained, and we ran it a couple of times just for the interests sake.
Imagine what it would be worth now. Eventually it went out to the steel-mill, and was scrapped.
A complete, well-maintained 1880s generator. Scrapped.
😨😨😨😔👎🏻
You know, I am no mechanic, but it still pains me to read that. Any museum would have loved such a machine.
@@Briselance Any man who saw it would have walked over to it and said
"What in the world ? . . . what an amazing looking old machine . . ." and touched it avariciously, committing the sin of coveting.
It had been made in the days that machines had inch thick cast-iron casings and pedestals with ornate, thick makers plates of brass, where we would have a sealed bearing with a grease-nipple, it had these little brass cups with springed-caps, both the motor and the generator identical in their design touches, like some art-deco piece . . .
And it RAN, it was fully functioning and SMOOTH as a Rolls-Royce . . .
I will obviously be in that circle of hell reserved for vandals and philistines.
Scrapping such a perfect machine is sacralige. 😭
Very cool! I love seeing old tech still working. I love tech that you can actually figure out by looking at its parts and watching it work.
Very cool to see one of these engines run. They were used in saw mills and in farming and industry. What a sweet simple means of solid horsepower. Obviously these guys were made to last.
The machine shop, gearbox repair business where I work had a machine that sharpens blades that make worm gears. It was 86 years old when it needed its first repair. The need? A thicker spacer. The engineering on the machine was so intelligent.
No pen pusher will appreciate this! The old people were not stupid, my wife has got a 100% working 1928 singer sewing machine that still uses a treadle, the mind of the old folks were sharp! Love this !!!🇿🇦
My wife is a professional seamstress that uses her grandmother's 1948 Singer as her main machine. I note one thing about it. In it's day, it cost almost half a year's wages. For that much money, you could buy at least two modern industrial machines that would last as long.
@@barrymorrisss Absolutely; some high-grade things became expensive... but only relative to the cheap stuff. It didn't get cheaper at the same rate as the low-grade stuff; it still got much cheaper than it used to be. But - a big part is that people actually cared to keep their expensive stuff and care for it, and pass it on.
That said, there are things that definitely improved. The oil losses, the pollution, fuel efficiency. It's just packaged in a bundle that makes it much harder to keep caring for the stuff to make it last. It's quite nice that you don't have to replace oil and lubricate twenty different bits of a car every 1000 km like in the "good old days" :D But it also of course came with ridiculous abuse of cars (well sponsored by the oil & gas and automobile industries)...
Have you actually told your wife the 1928 Singer sewing machine has been updated?
I'm so glad you still have this video and was able to post it on your new channel. Thanks.👍👍
My Great Grandfather drilled oil wells in Butler County, PA and used the natural gas from the well heads to power hit and miss engines to pump the oil. One of them did backfire while he was standing on the flywheel footpeg and throw him through the roof of the shack. Each engine had a different barker so they could tell from a distance if one stopped.
I can see why you love that old girl so much. She's a living, breathing work of art and built to last.
We had to watch safety videos in agriscience class that warned of PTOs ripping your junk off and other things. I always wondered how. After watching him lay on that clutch I get it now, lol.
The thing, or the information, concerning this engine, and like many others, is: If there had been a cam that opened that intake valve, much more HP would have been created. That was the secret of that time.
@sourand jaded exactly! low rpm and high torque is what gives the engine its longevity.
A cam has more wear than a spring valve
Whoever engineered these galloways were GENIUS!
Reminds me of starting an old B John Deere I used to use in the hayfield sometimes, except the Deere had 2 compression relief valves, one on each cylinder. That thing was awesome!
Love it. I go to shows all year round that have these kind of working engines, steam, classic, military, agricultural, commercial vehicles. My passion is motorcycles.
A slightly different story. When I was at college studying engineering, we used to do tests on a single cylinder 1100 cc diesel donkey engine. Brake dyno torque measurements mostly. One of my student peers complained that there was blowing from the engine and pointed to a 3 inch pipe. I told him it was the inlet stack. To disprove me, he put his workbook in the vicinity of the stack.
Naturally, it sucked a 3 inch hole in his book and then consumed the rest.
His whole year's worth of notes came out of the exhaust stack in tiny pieces.
Justin seems like a great guy to work with to make the work days fun and stress free.
I expect the torque is amazing. I remember we had a tug of war between a steam traction engine with I expect low horsepower and probably 50 people. Nobody won as the near two inch inch thick rope broke and sent us all flying. This was of course a long time ago before the days of elf and safety.
There is a Snow gas engine that produces 600 hp at 100 rpms and has a torque value of 31,500 ft lbs
Grease is still cheaper then building new parts. Excellent video information.
I never doubted that. The fact that steam engines, machine tools etc. that were maintained are still running but, modern stuff breaks almost as soon as you buy it.
What a beast. My dad used to work on things like that many many years ago. He could repair and indeed build so many bits of machinery, vitually out of nothing. I t had to be out of nothing because they couldn't get much out in the country with no money. No money but a very clever self taught brain and skill set. A lost art.
My dad used to repair and operate steam engines. Most were wood or coal fired. He said, "the way to tell a novice from an expert is the color of the steam coming out of the stack. If it's black, they're overfiring the boiler." I hated trains for so long because that was his primary focus in life, but now that he's gone I remember it fondly.
its not the colour of the steam
try the air ratio to heat from burning coal
know your physics
steam is white blue trace if to hot
Absolutely Brilliant, I love those old hit n miss motors. Looked after it would last for a thousand years!!!!
Beautiful engine! Had a friend who was a member of the Florida Flywheelers for a long time, so I got to go to various meets and see a bunch of these things. Wonderful.
That is as BEAUTIFUL as it is INCREDIBLE!!! I WISH I COULD SEE IT IN PERSON!! Imagine the simplicity!!! Technology that was INTENTIONALLY discarded so someone could line their pockets with more cash. Also look at how efficient it is...
TOTALLY INCREDIBLE. I've ALWAYS loved old creations because they were invented to do EXACTLY what was needed at that particular time, coining the term "getting what you paid for". Also, in a sense-the older technology was just better-actually making it NEW technology! The tech of today is backwards because it's more harmful to the enviornment and costs way more to operate. These days there's all kinds of extra stuff in new technology because it's COST driven. With the old tech, it was VERY cheap to actually USE the equipment & it made for a greener planet. Documentaries come on all the time talking about how pre-civilizations DESTROYED themselves through their technology-which is EXACTLY what society is doing today. Keep it simple & it could possibly last forever in a sense. I see why this fella appreciates/is crazy about this piece. I would be too...
Look at how efficient it is. And look at how impossible it is to keep farming as many acres as on today's farms with tech that is 100 years old.
Also, would you enjoy the exposure to elements and total lack of comfort on a 1910s tractor, when the modern ones are that well made?
Probably not.
Saying we destroy ourselves with tech is like saying we should never have used electricity. That's way too generic and blanketting (if that word even exists, that is) to be accurate.
Even though I am not a mechanic by any stretch, I still like old stuff like that. But I still don't mindlessly bash at modern tech just because it is modern. I am no hard-core Luddite.
Very well maintained..... Most beautiful thing in the world is to see these century old engines running.... 👍👍
I firmly agree with the statement made in the title of this video. Used to work for a defense contractor that made various military gear, so it was a sewing factory & when we were building a large, mostly automated piece of equipment, when it came time to select the 3 sewing machines, there we’re basically two options…buy brand new commercial brother sewing machines (great products) for a cheaper price, or 1940’s era refurbished American Standard machines for a decent amount more money, the decision was made to go with the 80 year old machines for more money. Rightly so.
I knew an old man who had one of these set up with an ice cream maker that could make five gallons at a time of extremely good icecream!!! 🤠👍🍦
I knew a gentleman in Carterville, Mo. who has a 1909 Model T Touring. The engine has never been opened up much less overhauled and it still runs.
3:00 that’s because engines don’t have detonation unless they’re knocking, they have deflagration. Burning smoothly like that is more efficient and doesn’t damage the engine. Pretty much all large engines are actually quiet like this. The loud sound mostly comes from the rapid puffs of exhaust, but if you’re running at 50 RPM or less, it sounds more like a chain of puffs than the engine sound we are familiar with
Cool to see such a remarkable piece of machinery. Appreciate your uploading the video.
Nice! I have the 5 HP version of that engine. It hasn't run in years. Moves by hand, and seams to be in great shape. Where did you get your springs? Most of mine are missing.
There are quite a few Hit and Miss engines on YT. but this is one of nicer ones that I've seen.
I don't know that I'd go as far as calling it better than modern equipment, but it sure as hell is a whole lot more interesting. All those spinning wheels and moving parts and various and Sundry noises that the thing makes, just like a mechanical Symphony. Just brings a smile to your face.
Considering that the owner just bid on an anvil, one use for that engine would be great for would be powering a blacksmiths power hammer of about the same vintage or running a small sawmill set up.
its always amazing to see art in motion such as this engine here
I've always known older is better. I'm still driving a 1981 Chevy C10. Less than $9K in it. Had it for almost 30 years. Wouldn't trade it for anything.
MAINTENANCE, people... MAINTENANCE! Learn how to work on what you drive. Can save you tens of thousands.
I bought a minicar EV. When all your stuff stops working because there's no more gas I'll still be able to charge mine with solar for the next 20 or 30 years. My EV is chinese on purpose, it doesn't come with a ton of microchips like their western counterparts.
There's something to be said for old technology, but when it requires oil, it will just be a chunk of metal at some point in the near future. The only old technology that will survive is wind and water powered.
That is a sweet picture to see in great condition!! And running that easy and quick is priceless.
What a beautiful machine. And it gots the perfect owner who cares about it so it will last many more years. I'm very impressed how easy it starts up. Love those hit-and-miss engines. Many greetings from Germany.
That was worth my time. I could make an excuse for owning something like that. Pretty girl!
Built over 100 years ago and it still runs when they made stuff they made it last forever not like today
I'd like to see one of these hooked up to a generator head and powering a modern home!
I don't believe it would power a modern home. It would only be good for around 7000 watts, and most modern homes use far more than that at peak. To have no disruptions most people would need a peak supply of 20,000 watts or so, and larger homes might need much more. It would also require a significant gearing system to spin the generator faster as the speed on this was far too low for electrical generation at 50 or 60 cycles and 120 or 240 volts AC. The fact that it is a hit-and-miss also means that no matter what you do, the cycles will fluctuate a lot. Some things are more bothered by that than others. While it would be a fun project, it wouldn't be practical on a daily basis.
@@edifyguy If you add a good bank of beefy capacitors to smooth the power fluctuations and batteries to store the excess then you can have a very energy efficient home power solution with the hit and miss or steam engine. Remember that if you have a large enough battery bank and a decent capacitor bank set up then you can power your home while the engine is not running and in-between ignition without fluctuations in electricity flow.
Thanks for sharing your work with me and my family! Awesome thanks. I seen a 1922 Fordson tractor today at my friend's house! I was awe struck to see it sitting as yard art. Wish it was being worked on.
Loved this video. This guy is freakishly knowledgeable about the engine and able to quickly and entertainingly explain the intricate nature of the beast to us laymen sittin' on our couches enjoying the video..
Bravo! Bravo! Thanks for sharing.
The reason these old engines are still around today is that most of them haven't run or pulled a load in 80 years or more. Anything will last forever if it isn't used.
Not all true.
Ford used to manufacture straight six engines that would easily go 400 thousand miles with minimal maintenance. It was their simplicity and durability that made them twice as efficient as digital heavy modern motors and systems
What a load of cope. Stop pretending tech was better 80 years ago. Give me a break 🤦🏻@@ethanfleisher1910
@@ethanfleisher1910 "twice as efficient"? How many MPG did it do (or % efficiency)? How often did fluids need to be changed? How much power did they have? What about specific power, kW or HP per kg? And last but not least: If they were so good... why does nobody today build them? Not the US, not chinese, indian, simply nobody.
I like old stuff. But acting as if it was the best thing ever is absurd.
@@leocurious9919 I would look more into THAT PARTICULAR engine. I'm not saying on average, or making a comment about other combustion engines, but there were a few that really were insanely efficient not just for their time but remain that way today. And maybe reliability was the correct word, I suppose, I can't say how mathematically true the efficiency is, this is A fucking yt comment haha
@@ethanfleisher1910You just made that up. They aren't more efficient. Digital efi is way more efficient.
Older vehicles didn't need security devices to keep people from stealing them. If you didn't know the code you weren't starting that thing.
Pump 3 times hold starter for 5 seconds,wait 60 seconds pump once hold starter for 10 seconds. Don't touch the gas turn the key and it starts. No one could start your car but you.
Lol, my old 78 is loyal -20 or could be -40. Good pumping and Betty fires right off. Granted shes cold blooded so it takes a try or two but she comes to life just to push snow or be a skidder. Granted, theres a trick to starting that only people who run the truck know. My F700 you gotta hit a switch before it even thinks of firing off. Will crank but wont start.
Over 100 year old Gear: *Still runs perfectly*
5 year old Gear: *either already breaking or already broken*
Well, we're having a slight bias here to be honest. The stuff that has been running the last 100 years is unlikely to break down anytime soon. Everything that could and did break down already has been replaced, so we're looking at the toughest survivours of what was made a century ago.
New gear last as long as the warranty does, and not a minute longer. Hahaha slaves! 🤣
@@dikkie1000 not quite true,most surviving peices of machinery are because of those who
1. Looked after it.
2. Didn't update working machinery.
3. Have saved it from the scrapman!
I know a guy that got a McCormick that sits under an old barn with no walls , he says it's done for , i say it looks pretty good for a tractor that's supposedly done for !
The amount of hit fire or whatever they're called that my friend and his dad had, tens of thousands of dollars probably more considering that just single ones cost more than that, sitting in their driveway or their garage was insane. Absolutely beautiful machines
I'm pretty sure I remember watching this years ago on Chuckee's channel. Didn't this east Texas museum guy quit or either close the museum thing?
She is gorgeous gal. Really sounds good. I want to thank you very much for sharing.
Neat machine great restoration-- sounds like it has asthma!!
This is really cool and i love seeing these ancient machines run its so good to see these things still running. However that doesnt mean your title is true... it isnt better but it is a great example of the legacy of piston engines
What a beautiful old lady beautifully restored!
The key to making something last forever is to make it run with as low-stress as possible.
This thing has 16 horsepower. Granted *true* horsepower, but even for that 16 is rather small.
It's RPM never went past 200 here.
And I don't see the compression on that enormous piston being particularly strong. Especially with the exhaust valve open so much.
There is not a lot of heavy banging from high compression & smooth 4 stroke Operations. So the piston rings, piston & cylinder walls have virtually nothing wearing them.
There is not much temperature change on the engine with it firing so sparsely. So thermal expansion & contraction wear isn't really an issue.
There is not much centrifugal force being put on all the internal components, such as the crankshaft, camshaft & their respective bearings. With such a slow RPM
You could probably get _5 years_ out of this thing by running it dry! *DRY!* AS IN WITH NO OIL WHATSOEVER IN IT!
These days, you won't get 10 MINUTES out of a dry engine!
But put oil and/or grease in it?
Once in awhile.
That thing'll outlive your grandchildren, and _their_ grandchildren's grandchildren.
Just keep the EPA away from it. They have a tendency to make life hard for the average person like you and I.
What is this type of work is this engine used for, cause carring around a 1/2 ton block of steel for 16 horses power doesn't seem very practical.
They need constant lube actually. They would burn up fast without oil.
@@micahanglen4331 Stationary engines like this were used primarily for agricultural equipment, like threshers, winnowers, balers, and the like. Of course people also connected them to pumps, generators, and other less agriculture-specific things. Nowadays we certainly can make the needed power with a lot less weight, but the robustness of this design is impressive.
10 years with no oil?
Smartest dude who zerks it to low compression low efficiency engines
beautiful engine and that looks like a really fascinating building inside.
exquisite; technology at its finest.
The reason it seems to use little fuel is that there is no load on it. Belt it to something that takes hp to turn, it it will get really thirsty.
Excellent video! Very informative. Thank you very much for sharing on social media. Best regards and blessings.
I love those old hit n miss engines.
So simple. When I have a mill and a lathe, I'll start building miniature ones.
I can understand this... love the hit-N-miss motors!❤️
Id love to have a small hit and miss engines and add a belt to a alternator to make a generator to run a couple electrical things in my house
I work for a car dealer and i can see a definite decline in quality over the last 10-15 years. Manufacturers don't want your vehicle to last forever. Cars are disposable now. They are now lease vehicles and not going to last, regardless of maintenance. They last the lease and or warranty period and are too expensive to fix outside of warranty. People are having to continually trade their vehicles every 5-7 years by design.
Which is why I'll continue driving and fixing my old truck.
Man that is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time
Imagine all the resources that would still be in the ground if they built things to last like this gorgeous beast.
Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view!"
Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam."
Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!"
Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..."
Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!"
Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky."
Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction."
Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment ?
if the horsepower is 16, at say, 100 RPM, then its torque is actually frightening!
About 1100 Nm if you do the math (16hp x 750W/hp / (100 rpm x 2Pi / 60))
@@peterhaas2503 I did mine with the SAE horsepower equation, inverted. From torque×RPM÷5250=HP, to torque=(HP÷RPM)×5250. Came up to 864 ft. lbs
@@ericcaves7530 1 ft lb is around 1.35 Nm, so we are in the same ballpark! Impressive figures anyway
Does anyone else remember all the promises we got from government in to 1960's about how the cars of the future were going to become so fuel efficient in the future? My 1970 Ford got 20 mpg. My 2003 Ford gets 12 mpg. That's what happens when there is no accountability. In Europe the gas mileage is much better than is allowed in the U.S. because of corporate influence on politicians that depend on corporate sponsorship.
Yes, however many things got complicated once environmental impact assessments came into the mix. A lot of restrictions were put in place from cars to refrigerators.
my 2013 subaru gets 23ish mpg
I forget the year, but my dad had a Ford Festiva that was probably 40, maybe 45 mpg.
Crap now I am heartbroken; I remember the day it finally broke down and we had to let it go. I was small when dad used to drive me around in it and it carried him everywhere he didn't need a truck.
With a wry smile he told me "I've driven that thing longer than I've known your mother." Now that I'm older it occurs to me how much that loss must have hurt for him.
This guy has an absolute passion for this engine! Well done!
What a beautiful piece of machinery this is. It’s as if it comes to life when it starts up. Simply fascinating.
Hey it's Salt'n'Peppa, "ahh push it" lol !! If they wanted to, they could design an engine that would never wear out. But where would there be a market for replacement parts?? Thanks for the video.
There’s just something about these old ‘corn popper’ engines of yesteryear that’s far too endearing to ignore. No Ops. Computer regulating fuel modulation; no complex inter systemic control systems giving vague readouts concerning whatnot; just basic analog of it’ll run or it won’t ⚙️
That is awesome!! Thanks for sharing
The Owls Head Transportation Museum in Owls Head, Maine has a old steam engine with a 18 foot flywheel on it. Impressive museum with some awesome antique machines.
Chucky you're BACK! I thought you were gone forever! Thanks for doing more videos.
With Brandon in office that will be the new power station
Brandon couldnt find his ass with his hands
At Bridgewater.VA during "Bridgewater Days" steam and gas meet, there's this monstrous 50 HP (F&M) They start it with kerosene powered Fordson tractor driving an air compressor. very impressive,I don't know what that old engine powered. Talking about old is maybe better, one Farmer had an old biggest 2 cyl JD tractor, doing comparable work the old 2 cyl consumed significantly less fuel than the newer many pistoned tractor.
Larger cylinders produce more torque and as a result often need less total power, therefore less fuel consumed, to do the job. Torque differential is part of why my 7.3L diesel engine uses significantly less fuel to pull 12,000 pounds (itself and a 5,000 pound trailer) than my 5.7L gasoline engine does pulling 10,000 pounds (also itself and a 5,000 pound trailer)....it's about HOW it's used. The greater compression and longer stroke at lower RPMs utilizes the energy created in the burn more efficiently. The same principle is illustrated by the old 2-cylinder using less fuel. Doubtless it used a longer stroke which extracted the energy better than the newer designs.
@@edifyguy Yep as evidenced by the Marine 2 stroke Diesels( most efficient ICE currently)
@@kevinmccune9324 Also if it was a gasoline engine, there's a minimum amount of fuel required to make a gasoline engine go bang, hence fewer cylinders tend to have an advantage there too, though lower displacement is the main advantage, hence the increased use of small turbo gasoline engines in the automotive world today, as they scale better from a fuel consumption perspective; if you need the extra power, the turbo will shove more air in so that more fuel can be burned at a time, but if you don't, it doesn't, and the minimum to go boom is lower, hence lower cruising fuel consumption.
@@edifyguy -Great reply, most of the manus have grokked this these days.
Back in the day when they built things to last, unlike today. I remember working on a farm and the owner was an engineer who told me he worked for a car company before farming and his job was to design things that wouldn't last too long. Now I was only 18 years old back in the late 70s when he told me about this and I couldn't believe it, I remember being totally blown away by this term"planned obsolescence" To my young mind i thought this was the dumbest idea, my thinking is we want stuff to last, but like he said the companies don't want that. I still think it's a disgrace
MAGNIFICENT, AWESOME, MEZMERIZING AND BEAUTIFUL.
What a joy and marvel to behold.
Thankyou so very much, for sharing your wonderful example, of engineering progress, with us.
Be safe, well, content and free.
Bob. Australia.
Grandpa had one of those almost identical to that on his farm that was used to run Everything from a hammer mill, to a huge buzz saw, and the generator
We called it old reliable.
I believe my cousin still has it
A modern engine would be an order of magnitude (not a joke) more efficient, saving its cost in fuel several times over its lifetime. It also will be smaller, more quiet, and WAY cleaner.
Wait really? They made improvements to internal combustion engines in the last 100 years?! Get out of town! What else, did they massively improve cars too?!
@@bellatoramatbellum kinda yes but they run like shit after a while unless you buy a honda but they are becoming shit too. its a sad thing. they might be smaller more quiet and easier to the standard city person, but they don't last long at all.
I think his point was that older stuff was made to last. Yes the new engine would be more efficient. But it would also require way more things to run. I’m sure if you made a modern version of this with just better geometry and lighter parts it would great. But that’s not what modern companies do
IDK, $13k or so (adjusted for inflation), with about as many steps to start the dang thing as you get in horsepower, and an inefficient design... it was fine for its time, but it can't compete with anything modern.