ALAMO
This is an early model Alamo made in Hillsdale, MI.
No history is known as it was acquired from another collector who
had started to repaint it.
Fortunately, the wheels and base still have the beautiful original
paint. It came to the museum
in the mid-1970s. It could
have been used for farm work or a small machine shop.
WEBSTER
This unusual inverted engine was built in Chicago, IL.
It uses hot tube ignition and hit and miss governing.
The crankshaft and wheels are actually on the top of the engine
requiring a very firm base
to run. These were once
quite common in the Pennsylvania oil fields and supplied with a
combination pumping power on a common base by Oil Well Supply.
This one was found in the scrap pile of National Fuel in Van, PA.
It came to the museum in 1968.
It is vintage 1900 and used to pump a single shallow oil well.
LITTLE GIANT
This was the small and “economy” model built by New Era of Dayton, Ohio.
It has the same high quality workmanship but omits the vertical
governor head. It is
interesting that the original gas bag is still with the engine and now
mounted on the wall. It was
in a large furniture store in Dayton, Ohio where is powered the freight
elevator. It arrived at the
museum in the mid-1980s.
Its vintage is early 1900s
LITTLE HUMMER
These unusual four-cycle engines were built by National Transit Pump and
Machine of Oil City, PA about 1917.
They were air cooled and used the exhaust to provide a draft of
cool air through the vertical fins.
This engine powered the straight lift Transit pump jack located
just outside this building and shown in another photo. It was originally
at Transit’s Wolf Run
Station to pump crude oil from two small oil leases.
This was located near Duhring, PA and it came to the museum about
1968.