PlacesPages: Stationary Engines in the Hilands Building at Antique Powerland

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Stationary Engines in the Hilands Building at Antique Powerland

The Antique Implement Society maintains a number of large stationary engines inside the Hilands Building. These pictures were all taken on August 1, 2009, during the Great Oregon Steam-Up.

1887 Crossley Brothers “Otto Silent” Engine

German engineer Nikolas Otto produced and patented his first atmospheric gas engine in 1867 and exhibited it at that year's Paris Exhibition, where Frank & William Crossley of Manchester saw it. Two years later, the Crossley Brothers' engineering business started manufacturing engines under Otto's patent. Their relationship with Otto allowed them the gain the rights to his later four-cycle patent as well. Otto's four-cycle design was much quieter than atmospheric engines at the time and became known as the Otto Silent engine. The Crossley Brothers first started building the Otto Silent in March 1877. This 1/2-horsepower example, built to burn "town gas," a mixture of hydrogen and methane gas, left the factory a decade later on March 31, 1887, and represents the Crossley Brothers' final version of the Otto Silent. It is one of only four remaining in the United States and is owned by Wayne Thackery of Keizer, Oregon.

“The Ball” Butler 25-Horsepower Stationary Well Pump Engine

"The Ball." The Butler Engine & Foundry Company of Butler, Pennsylvania, a supplier of stationary steam engines to the petroleum industry, started building gas engines in 1895. The company offered engines in eight sizes from 12 to 35 horsepower. 25-horsepower engines like "The Ball" were used to pump oil wells 2000 to 3000 feet deep. This engine was used in western Pennsylvania into the early 1990s and was stored in a flood plane before being brought to Oregon. It was restored by Ted Harper of Salem beginning in November 2002 and ran again in the spring of 2003. It is owned by Mark Utlaut of Scappoose, Oregon.

1900 Springfield Stationary Engine

This 1900 Springfield Stationary Engine was originally owned by a farmer in the area of Lancaster, Pennsylvania who was murdered in the early teens in a dispute with one of his hired men who fed his remains to hogs and was never convicted because there was no body and took over the farm. The engine was later displayed at the threshing & engine show in Kinzers, Pennsylvania for 35 years. It was purchased from Kinzers by Buzz Stetler of Stockton, California.

Foos-Edison Generator Set

This Foos-Edison Generator Set is a typical example of an early electric generator driven by a gas-operated flywheel engine from the turn of the century. The 15-horsepower engine was built by the Foos Gas Engine Company of Springfield, Ohio around 1905 and was designed to run electric generators as evidenced by its extra-heavy flywheel rims. The No. 2 Edison "Z" type bipolar DC generator was built around 1882 and is rated at 8.5 kilowatts. For demonstration purposes, it is connected to a light bulb bank.

1910 Fairbanks-Morse 80-Horsepower Stationary Mill Engine

This 1910 Fairbanks-Morse 80-horsepower gasoline engine was used to run an alfalfa seed cleaning mill near Echo, Oregon, west of Pendleton. It burns 5 gallons of gasoline in 45 minutes with no load. It is owned by Les & Dee Layton.

1912 Fairbanks-Morse 25-Horsepower Drawbridge Engine

This 1912 Fairbanks-Morse 25-horsepower gasoline engine was used to turn the railroad bridge at Celilo Falls on the Columbia River from 1913 to 1956 when The Dalles Dam was built. It is owned by Les & Dee Layton.

1909-1914 Otto 40-Horsepower Gas Stationary Engine

This 40-horsepower gas engine was built by the Otto Gas Engine Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania between 1909 and 1914. It was used as a hands-on training aid in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Washington in Seattle. It is owned by John & Cindy Neiteel of Port Orchard, Washington.

1920-1925 Lister 7-Horsepower Ball Top Stationary Farm Engine

This 7-horsepower Ball Top engine was built by R. A. Lister & Company of Dursley, England between 1920 and 1925. It was originally used on a farm. It is owned by John & Cindy Neiteel of Port Orchard, Washington.

1928 Western 2-Cylinder 200-Horsepower Irrigation Engine

This 2-cylinder, 4-cycle natural gas fueled engine was built in 1928 by the Western Machine Company of Los Angeles, California. It weighs 41,600 pounds and has a displacement of 10,913.79 cubic inches. It is rated at 200 horsepower at 200 revolutions per minute, but produced 228 horsepower during a 10-hour run test at the factory. It is one of only 46 200-horsepower engines built by Western between 1925 and 1930.

1928 Western 2-Cylinder 200-Horsepower Irrigation Engine

The engine was originally sold to the Riverside Highlands Water Company of Colton, California, now a suburb of San Bernardino, where it and another 200-horsepower Western engine sat side-by-side, each connected to a 3-stage, high pressure centrifugal pump that delivered 2,000 gallon of water per minute over a 400-foot high hill to a distribution reservoir in Riverside 8 miles away that provided irrigation for over 7,500 acres of orange and grapefruit orchards. From early spring to late fall, the two engines ran continuously at full speed for months at a time.

1928 Western 2-Cylinder 200-Horsepower Irrigation Engine

The engines were in regular service until the 1950s, when they were placed in standby service, and were last used commercially in 1988 when the 60-year-old engines ran non-stop for two weeks straight while the company switched from internal combustion engines to electric pumps. The only major repairs made to this engine during its service life was the replacement of a cylinder in 1944 and a new rod bearing before the final 2-week run in 1988. It is now owned by Wayne Thackery of Keizer, Oregon.

1928 Atlas Imperial 70-Horsepower Fishing Boat Engine