Vertical side shaft engine

[DJoksch]

I am trying to identify this engine. My dad acquired this engine in 1968 then painted it and set it next to the fireplace as a house ornament. Visitors always asked about the strange little coffee grinder. The crankshaft was badly repaired at some point so I made a new one years ago to get it running leaving the old paint job. I tried to make it look like a coffee grinder using a coffee can for cooling and some creative brass pipes to add character. The gear driven make and break ignition came with it but is clearly an add on. There is a ground down post on the piston that originally worked as a the ignition. It has similarities to a Pacific model I’ve seen advertised. The seller said it came from England and ran a small printing press, but that story was past down through his grandfather.

 

[idahoan]

Yes it does have some similarities to the Pacific engine especially the valve chests. My guess is the lunk. mixer is also an add on and it would have had a vapor carburetor on it. With the valve chests and piston tip ignitor I would think that is quite early (late 1800s) and probably rare. Have you posted the photos on Smokestack?
Here is a video of my Pacific running.


Dave

 

[idahoan]

Your engine very similar to the Oriental Gas Engine pictured in Jack Alexander's book The Regan Vapor Engine (The Beginning of California's Gas Engine History) Page 134. The advertisement is from 1891, if your engine is indeed an Oriental it is rare and valuable.

You are in CA which makes it all more likely.

Dave

 

[DJoksch]

I left it as found until I could find actual information on it. I posted it on Smoke Stack and someone guessed it was a converted compressor. The castings and cylinder construction looked like a Pacific, but I had not seen one this small. The flywheels are 15” and the height is 23”. I assume the butterfly screw on the intake is speed adjust. The original crankshaft sits next to the engine.

 

[DJoksch]

The Pacific is fantastic.

 

[idahoan]

Not sure about the compressor theory, notice the hole in the base under the gas tank where the air intake pipe would have gone?
Also the compressor would not have had the feed through locations for the ignitor. How is the cam gear mounted does it look like an add on or part of the engine? I would be curious to see some more photos of it.

 

[idahoan]

Found this, notice the similarities in the shape of the head.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US445110A/en?q=Marcellus+Graham&oq=Marcellus+Graham&sort=old

 

[DJoksch]

The head does look close. I did not think it was a compressor. I can see where a governor mounted to the intake would work. On the piston is a ground down plug I suspected to be a post for ignition. The cam gear and mechanism looks original.

 

[DJoksch]

I cleaned it up a little.

 

[myrickman]

The patent Dave found has a lot of similarities. The rotating electrode in the cylinder and it being driven at half speed makes me think it is pre-1900 also. The three holes in the flywheel spokes may have been for a drive pulley. The crank handle is an afterthought. NICE early piece of iron and definitely not a compressor IMO because compressors typically have very low clearance above the piston at TDC. Can you post pix of the con rod and the underside of the piston?

 

[idahoan]

Myrickman yes I was also thinking the same thing with regards to the compressor having a much smaller volume over the piston. If this were a compressor it likely would have not had that much volume above the piston.

 

[DJoksch]

Crankshaft, rod, and piston. The new crank is a copy of the original shown. The ornamental ridges on the base match the head.

 

[DJoksch]

I think the first thing to do is to design and build a vapor fuel system into a base similar to the Pacific model. The Briggs gas has to go.