Fairbanks Morse 20 HP Model N Hit and Miss Gas Engine
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- Опубликовано: 2 июл 2014
- This 20 HP Fairbanks Morse Model N gas engine was rescued by Alan James. It came from Tanana, Alaska where it powered the telegraph station along the Yukon River. He restored it in 2003 and later sold it to the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum in Fairbanks. This startup demonstration was at the 2014 Midnight Sun Cruise-In Car Show. Unfortunately, Alan passed away last summer and attended in spirit only!
The engine weighs about 10,000 pounds and made its way to Fairbanks on a barge and later by train. It starts with the aid of compressed air and a special igniter designed by Alan which uses caps from a toy cap gun and a striker. 
Наука
I feel lucky to have accidentally found this amazing video. It is important to me, because the US Army also shipped my grandfather to Tanana, Alaska the same year, 1908. Since he was an electrician, he may have wired this very engine up. No doubt he at least saw it in operation at Tanana. His actual assignment involved maintenance of the telegraph line. There were log cabins built every ten miles along the line. Two men and a dog team were assigned to each cabin. In the event of a signal interruption, the crews from two posts would hook their dogs to a sled and converge at the trouble spot to make repairs. I have a photo of him and his partner with their sled and dogs. The only white men they saw was in the Spring before the.Tanana River thawed and again in the Fall after it froze. The Army would send supplies up the frozen river on a sled pulled by a team of horses. He loved to talk about his Alaskan adventures. Thank you for this video!
Were radio communication systems in use yet using a spark gap transmitter?
@@twistedyogert wire one to wire two
That's so cool! What're the odds
Can you show us the picture?
Your grandfather seems like he was a cool man. Nice memories, thanks for sharing.
The old engines are important of history. Thanks for sharing!
Engine: inhales, inhales, INHALES, Inhales... POW
So quiet! This engine is your legacy Alan, we thank you. It will outlive us all and still be running in 300 years!
I love listening to those old engines breath between firing. Then it takes a shuttering breath and fires BANG!
Ah, the sound of WORK! hehe
I am sad to see that Alan James died. I have never heard of him until now but people like him is needed to keep history alive. That is what people like him does when restoring stuff like this! RIP!
hello, how are you doing. I hope you are safe and in good health.
I just found your picture attractive, hope you don’t mind us chatting sometimes to get to know each other.
I know the rating is only 20 Hp, but look at the size of that fly wheel! The torque must be immense!
That’s what always blows my mind a 100 hp motor making 5000 tq
Horsepower rating were very misleading back then haha, it’s only 20 HP because the rpm is so low but the real number should be the torque down low
@@deborahchesser7375 I hear you. The earlier cummings diesels of the 90's that they were putting in the dodge pick ups had 400 pounds of torque.
This engine at speed, 300 rpm, would make 2500-3000 fp of torque. They would turn very heavy load values.
There's always that one dude that has to stand next to big fast moving spinning things.
Risky business. He wants to look macho and unconcerned but one wrong move and we’ll see the human body is just a skin bag of bone chips and wet bits
I believe he was considering tryouts for the Darwin Award.
You could tell these dudes really didn’t know much
@@iceman9549 just like you, eh?
Oh, you mean left arm jim
thanks for showing us this great old engine. and thanks to Alan James wherever you are.
The engine had a 12" wide by 36" diameter belt pulley attached to the left flywheel. This pulley had a clutch in it's center which was held in the engaged position by using an over-center locking mechanism. The clutch had a 12" wheel for a handle that could spin so that the operator could grasp it while the engine and pulley were turning. You pulled out to engage and pressed it in to disengage. It took all my strength to yank the clutch into the locked position. There was a smaller belt pulley (4" wide by 18" diameter) attached to the right flywheel that was used to run the cooling water circulation pump. A 10" wide belt connected the engine pulley to the pump pulley.
The engine cylinder had a water cooling jacket as part of the casting. Unlike the one in this video, our engine had a cast iron engine head. The top half of the head was water cooled from the jacket around the cylinder. The bottom half had a brass plug that we heated with a torch in preparation to start the engine. After the engine ran awhile, the bottom half of the engine head glowed a dull red, which could be seen in the dark.
Starting the pump and engine took at least an hour on a good day. Once the torch was lighted and heating the engine head, we had to prime the main pump. To do this, we had a small manual pump with a lever that was pushed and pulled back and forth to operate it. As I recall, it had leather valves or valve seats inside to make a good seal. It was designed so that it pumped with both the in and out stroke. We used the manual pump to suck all the air out of the suction pipe and pump body of the main pump so that they were filled with water. The small pump was connected to a fitting at the top of the pump body. It took about half an hour of intense aerobic work to lift that much water up to fill the 18" to 12" tapered suction pipe and 24" diameter pump body, which sat a good 8 to 10 feet above the water. All the air had to be evacuated in order for the pump to "catch" and start pumping water up and over the dike. As you might expect, this system of pipes and valves had minor air leaks, so that one dared not stop pumping for fear that much of the work would be wasted.
Once the pump was primed, it was time to start the engine. On the engine cylinder, there was brass needle valve attached to a pipe that led directly into the cylinder. The valve was opened by unscrewing the top. Once unscrewed, it revealed a 1/4" hole in the side of the valve above the valve seat. When open, the engine could be turned by hand with a fair amount of work. As the flywheel was turned, the port would blow air out of the cylinder above the piston head when on the compression stoke. Once it started to suck air in, we would add a "sip" (about a tablespoonful) of gasoline and two shots of diesel by operating the fuel injector by hand with the handle provided. Once the engine stopped sucking air into the cylinder through the port, we closed the valve and the engine was primed to start.
Steve Jenks Z
I used to start them by hand for years before I bought an electric starter, my starter is a rubber wheel that presses against the bull wheel and runs off my truck battery, the one shown is a good size one for a oil well pump jack
Those pieces of engineering will outlast humanity for sure!
amazing i love seeing the tech that got us here that everyone(most) takes for granted
These engines still have practical use. They make excellent electrical generators in a pinch!
@@VinnyMartello would be cool to run a lathe or something maybe a mill aswell
Glad to know this engine has been preserved. There is something magnificent about being able to see it operate.
The engine had no muffler. Instead, it had a 4" cast iron pipe about 10 feet long attached directly to the exhaust port. Before the engine got warmed up, the exhaust contained visible smoke. During this time, the engine would blow visible smoke rings that could travel 30 feet or more while growing up to 18" in diameter! The exhaust was loud enough, you could hear it running from at least half a mile away... Thump, thump, thump at somewhere around 90 beats per minute. This was as fast as it could run under load. Since the engine fired every other rotation, the engine was actually running around 180 RPM.
The engine had to be monitored continuously to be sure the cooling water stayed at the right temperature (about 180 degrees) and none of the lube boxes ran dry, or the main belt started slipping. We had a waxy substance that could be applied to the running belt to prevent slipping. There was never any lack of things to do to keep the pump running during your shift. As you can imagine, it was extremely difficult to start the engine by yourself. For one, you had to turn the flywheel and pour gasoline in the the port at the same time. And if you weren't exhausted from priming the pump, you certainly were by the time everything was running. Usually, we had two or more people to start it up. Since I was the youngest, I got the privileged of having to start it by myself after all the siblings were out of the nest. I was amazed to see the ease with which the man in the video was able to start the engine with compressed air compressed using a small engine of the same design of it's big brother. Either this was an earlier model or the diking district that bought the engine originally had done it on the cheap!
Some of the comments here have been about the lack of safety precautions made while running the engine in the video. Looking back, I'm amazed that none of us got killed or maimed running this thing. The person starting the engine was always at risk of being thrown back from the engine. None of the belts were guarded. To open or close the knife valve at the pump discharge, one had to walk about a dozen feet along the 18" steel pipe, which ran above and just feet from the belt between the engine and the pump. It would have been so easy to fall into the belt. It makes me shudder just to think about it now. I'll never know why Dad didn't build a catwalk over the length of the pipe so it was safe to get to the valve. The best approach was to run so you didn't have time to get off balance. My practice was to err toward the direction of falling away from the belt if I were to fall which sometimes happened. For the past 15 years, I have had ringing ears and some hearing loss: It's no wonder. I didn't even know what hearing protection was.
Once all six kids grew up, Dad had no reasonable way to keep the engine running for days on end, so he bought a used electric pump from another district and installed that in it's place. He sold the whole setup to a fellow who was a collector. I have no idea what came of it after that. Eventually, the island was sold to a land conservation group who plans to breach the dike and let the water rush in and out. They said the flooded land would make a great habitat for salmon fry to rest and grow up some on the way to the ocean. It pains me to think how much work went in to clearing , fencing, draining and planting the land. But alas, the farm was Dad's dream and all we saw was a lot of hard work and had little interest in continuing. Now the whole thing is but a fading memory. Proof positive that nothing last forever.
nope
Steve Jenks
I was too. But, it turns out this is one of several (5?) comments that Steve kindly shared here on YT. I found it fascinating to scroll thru and read them in order..... so the trick would be to scroll down and find them all, then order them .... fascinating bit of family history from "yester year" ... his dad's vision to farm that particular piece of land .... wow.
Thanks Steve! I know it was a bit to write! Needs to be put in a blog somewhere, so as not to be lost.
Thank you for sharing Steve
P
Lovely old engine , and restoration is a credit to those that did the job .
To start the engine, dad would pull himself up in the air with one foot on a spoke and his hands on the rim of the the flywheel. This would start the engine turning in the direction opposite of what was needed to run the pump. Once he reached the ground, he moved his foot to another spoke while he continued pulling on the flywheel. Part of the learning curve was discovering exactly which spoke to have your foot on when making the final push to maximum compression. You had to be sure to not lock your knee at this point, because if we had given it too much gasoline, it had the potential of throwing a person right through the roof!
If everything was "just so" and we got the flywheel turning fast enough, it would compress the diesel and gasoline mixture to to the point where it would auto-combust somewhere near the top of the compression stroke. If we were lucky, the engine would fire with enough force make it past top dead center on the counter rotation (which is the direction we wanted it to run). The fuel injector was run off a cam off the main crankshaft. There was a handle mounted on the rod such that you could pump fuel in manually, or stop the flow of fuel completely by hold the lever hard over. Sometimes the engine began to rock back and forth firing before reaching top dead center and/or without enough momentum to push the cylinder past top dead center against the force of the exploding fuel in the chamber. When this happened, it took a good deal of skill and timing to add a shot of extra fuel or withhold it at just the right times to get the engine to start running the right direction (it could run equally well in either direction). If the engine got too warm during this period, it was almost impossible to get the engine running, since the fuel would explode even sooner with the increased temperature. If that happened, we had to just stop and wait for things to cool down.
Once the engine was running, and depending on how long it had taken to get it running, we always had to "top off" the main pump and suction with the manual pump so that the system once again contained no air. Then we had to run back up past the engine exhaust and around the engine itself so that we could engage the pulley on the left flywheel. Once that was engaged, we ran to open the 12" knife valve on the discharge side of the pump. This had to be done quickly, or the pump would lose prime. If that happened, we would have to shut the engine down and restart the entire process. You knew you had a success when you could hear the engine slow down and start firing hard under load.
Needless to say, once everything was running, we did our best to keep it running 24 hours a day for days while it pumped until the pump had pumped the water so low that the intake pipe lost suction. It took so much time for the water to get to the network ditches and sloughs inside the island, that there was enough water to fill everything back to almost the level it had reached before we started pumping within 24 hours of stopping pumping. We repeated this process until it took less than 8 hours to pump the water out to the bottom of the suction pipe. It was only then that we knew we were done for at least a week. This went on for as long as the "freshet" (high spring flood waters) was finished.
I am told the smaller Hercules hit and miss engines told you to use the spokes on the flywheel as handles when you bump started it. That sounded bad enough. I can't imagine standing on them.
Funny that your dad found an easier way to pump water once the kids moved out :)
Thank you for sharing a little piece of your life
Unfortunately I was born in 1990 so I never got to see these things in operation but I have a feeling I will be stockpiling these engines as much as I can to keep them out of the scrapyard. Thanks for this little piece of your life, really cool and really important to keeping this technology alive. Don't worry, not all us young'ns are a complete waste ;) haha
This is amazing, so glad to have stumbled across this and so glad there are people in the world with enthusiasm for these sorts of things.
Great piece of history. Sad to hear Alain is gone. Thanks for the great video.
Hi Randy how are you doing
There are a bunch of old hit and miss rotting away in northwest and north central PA from the old oil field days kinda sad just seeing them rust away
My uncle has one of these Model N behemoths. He rescued it from a farmer's field in Nevada when I was a little kid and finally got it running again just after I graduated high school.
I lived in Tanana with my family CA 1946. (I was a CAA brat, FAA now) . I remember a small building with a horizontal one cylinder engine in it, apparently used to drive a generator. There was a steel antenna tower alongside the building that had been toppled onto its side so it wouldn't be a tempting hazard. I don't remember how big that tower was, but it looked tremendously big to my six-year-old eyes. There was a leather belt that coupled the engine to the generator still on the equipment. I wonder, could that be the same engine?
Jesssus H Christ ! I ran to get my cap out of storage just watching you guys! God bless your hearts!
20 horsepower and probably an unbelievable amount of torque!
I like how the smart guy stands so close to the 6000 lbs flywheel as it starts turning trying look impressive
10 seconds in and I'm upvoting this!
When I was a kid, I thought these things were deep magic from the ancients.
from ze Germans
Great restoration. The Laws Railroad Museum also has a working 20Hp F-M model NB that was built about 1915. That engine is hand started by releasing about half the compression and then standing on the spokes. These engines are beasts and will definitely hurt you if you don't watch them, but they are fun to run.
Max Cox o_O
What an amazing piece of engineering for the time era!
Awesome to see old iron taken well care of and in operation - thanks for posting..
I witnessed a 25 HP model of the same brand running at the South Haven, Mi fairgrounds tractor show back in 2015. That fella ran his at the same speed. It was painted red, and sounded identical to yours. I do have a video of it running on a trailer similar to your setup. Nice job!
Many people might find this video boring.
Those who cherish the evolution of machine and engine technology would find this video fascinating, as did I!
I understand the love for these hit and miss engines, that many restore and demonstrate these at fairs, as I operated an maintained the three generation WW2 power generator, at the family’s cabin for years until retiring it.
It’s stored in it’s original crate, and may run again someday, but needs new rings.
Amazing machine. Must have been something to see it spinning that generator in the twenties.
I'm glad it is in a museum, where it can be preserved for future generations.
What a fantastically beautiful engine
Beautiful. Well done everyone concerned for conserving this machine!
I grew up on a cattle and sheep ranch 25000 acres in the mountains of New Mexico. We had three smaller Fairbanks Morse engines that ran out pump jacks and our water pumps. My grandfather purchased the engines in the very early 1900’s sometime between 1912-1920. We used a crank handle to spin the large flywheels. On top of our units there were very temperamental solenoids that we would have to tap once we got the wheel spinning fast enough to introduce propane. One person would crank while the other pushed the exhaust valve spring to the open position, then once it was spinning from the hand crank, we turned on the propane, and use the hand crank to hit the solenoid that was always stuck. The pound ignition boom always scared new comers. But you couldn’t put a modern muffler on the system. I remember these machines being extremely reliable but when they broke..... they were not always easy to repair...
Thanks Alan you are in my heart
Great work by persons of that time. I love this work.
Laughing at the guy trying to flex on everyone by standing inches away from the flywheel on wet metal. Outstanding move.
You think he doesnt know what hes dealing with?
Daniel Cannata if he did he wouldn’t be standing there
@@youtubertoo what about the men who originally worked on this engine?
Were they morons?
Daniel Cannata a lot of them were maimed or killed. Big difference between working on the engine and standing there with your thumb up your ass to try and look cool
@@davecrupel2817 Well, here you are again being Mr. Know-It-All. What do the men who originally worked on this engine have to do with ANYTHING?? Do you honestly think that this engine was originally mounted to a trailer back in 1908 and the guys who worked on it were standing around on wet slippery fenders that shook back and forth, a foot-and-a-half from a spinning flyweel? In service, this thing would have been bolted SOLIDLY to a concrete pad. Flippant, douchy millennials such as yourself have **SERIOUSLY** been getting on my nerves lately.
We have a smaller version of this in a burned down mill from the 1920's. That engine was in perfect condition and ready to start. It is exposed in the remains of the mill, but took a LOT of heat. Telegraph fire, Mariposa, Ca. 2007 RIP
imagine having something like that in something like a car or a truck. just hearing a loud bang every half minute would be beautiful to the owner, but a worrisome to anyone nearby.
This is why it baffles me that there's nothing on TV. This is a genius idea, lets do that.. with a reproduction of course.
I love these old engines. This one sounds like an old xylophone meets a velociraptor farm in a 1970s horror movie when oil was only made from cooking grease.
Great video thanks for sharing!!
I love that rhythm on the small engine.
Thanks for sharing!
i remember a tangye engine at my grandad's water mill and it had a little engine to start the big engine with a drive belt. the small engine was put to maximum RPM then the belt was pulled tight and it spun the 8 foot diameter flywheels up and then BANG the engine fired.
Nice to have that dedicated trailer all set up
I love these damn machines. As much as I love the sound of my old American V8's, I think I like these even better.
I and a friend restored one of these, the bore is nine and five eights of an inch by a sixteen inch stroke.
Beautiful engine ,lost art.
That guy in the blue shirt is determined to get stuck in a flywheel!
Ya I was saying to myself, boy I don't think I would stand quite that close to the flywheel!
Here's a heartwarming story.
cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19090208.2.10&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1
Most certainly! If I was operating that I'd refuse to start it until he got off the trailer.
OMG! right?
though, i feel like i would stand that close as well, but i am retarded and should not come anywhere near heavy machinery.
why i am not allowed to drive in texas at all...
I worked with a guy who got caught in a flat belt he got whipped around the shafting a few times BEFORE they could stop him it almost ripped his arm off. He never worked another day in his life. And the belt was only driven by a small powerful electric motor NOT one of these huge BEASTS.. Take care out there.
These are called "Hit and miss" but I think they are more "Hit, miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, hit" engines. I love them and wish I had one. The first one I saw was running an ice cream machine several years ago. I watched it for 20 minutes.
Ya need to do a video on that truck in the background.
yes please
Rustaholic777 that looks like a 1916 Mack Truck.
Sounds like the machine that makes everlasting Gobstoppers in willie wonka.
And the dude near the flywheel is an
Oompa loompa.
Nice engine
I had a friend who used a hit and miss to run a small saw mill. I loved to hear the chuff chuff chuff go slower and slower and then BANG. Under a full load they hit repeatedly.
Your engine is very beautiful!! I envy the owner
I found some really heavy springs to mount one like that on and it don't vibrate the pump jack to pieces
All these old engine videos, I've never seen one that explained how the parts worked or what the parts are named. Be nice to see one explained....
All the parts are basically the same as a modern engine. Just larger, and less of them. The only thing this engine does that a modern one won't is the hit & miss governing. Instead of using a throttle to change the amount of fuel and air given, a latch holds the exhaust valve open so the engine can coast until it needs more power. Then it draws a full charge and lights it off.
What is the function of the exhaust pot? Is it some sort of resonant setup?
Its a piece of our history ,should be protected maybe a museum, where a lot of people can view it.and a sign to tell of its history
I am glad it isn't in a museum. It actually gets to run this way.
loads of them about.
Horsepower: 20
Torque: yes
Oak Chandlee and 10,000 lbs. The 20 HP engine in my lawn tractor weighs 60 lbs.
lel, so true, torque beast.
Must be a serious amount of kinetic energy built up in those flywheels.
Very cool! Love this stuff. Makes me gain hope for humans. We were figuring this stuff out 100 plus years ago. Side note. The guy in the blue denim shirt, is way to close for no good reason to the running gear. Those fly wheels would rip your arms or legs right off, if not just tear you in half. Why stand there? You could ask the same questions and observe from the safety of the ground.
Guy in the blue shirt: the reason why everything has safety guards now
I also wonder why the operator lets him stand there.
Great video of a great work horse engine. We are all getting older. It might be helpful if you make a check list for starting the engine. Maybe you won't forget to turn the battery switch on. Just a thought.
Bring that rig down to the vintage farming days exhibition in Lynden Washington.
4:42 Hahahaha she said "it runs surprisingly quiet". Oh really? Cuz ummm it's not running yet, that's just the air pressure turning the flywheel on the failed first start up attempt😂
Yeah... she doesn't get... that ain't your grandpappy's Studebaker... It takes a minute before it's running. It is still quiet though even when running cept when you get that hit stroke.
I need to find little events like this around me, I'd be probably the only 29-30 year old guy standing there with a giant grin on my face, I freaking LOVE hit & miss motors. Now if you put a steam engine in front of me then I might jump up and down with joy like a weirdo.
Hopefully, though, you won't wear a blue shirt, jump up on the fender and look like you're going to fall into the thing, and then elicit 100 youtube comments about it...
I work on these for a bit! We could overhaul these things in a few hours, usually.
I remember back growing up at our family dairy farm, things dont get forgotten. Do your told, or get the belt.
Using a 2hp "Z" to drive the starting air compressor.
5:52
Dude is standing on a slick peace of metal that is wet from the rain that is also tilted in toward a giant bone crushing body mangling hunk of steel spinning at 200rpm in the most non tread having shoes I’ve ever seen.
Every thing seems in order to me.
There seems to be an IQ deficiency in that part of the world.
Did you see how he is asked 4:22 "You wanna get outta there?" and the dude sez Yea as everyone chuckles while he shuffles 2 feet to the right
What confounds me is how these peoples' ancestors found their way back to the trees every nightfall in the days of The Dawn of Man
Tommy Petraglia
Yeah that part kind of made me cringe.
Right after that he asks “you want me to help turn it” as if to be more involved.
Then pops shoots him down with a “NO, get away” lol
Blue shirt man is a gambler. Yeah dude, stand on that wet fender 2" from a 3000lb flywheel. Real bright.
Makes between 350-375 ft/lbs of toque and operational rpm..
7:00 the sound you heared when you walked into your parents bedroom on a saturday night
Ha ha then you know in 9 months you’ll have competition.
I would love to hear that engine under the load of something.
Old is gold
took me a while to get the hit&miss system... it's only fireing occasionally
Is that a steam f&t trap for a muffler or something
Idle curiosity,is the fellow on the fender still alive?
Anyone out there with video of early 6 h.p. Fairbanks and Morse water cooled stationary engine? Had one as a kid . It was used as a backup for a farm generator during the depression.
20 Actual horses power.
Very good
how does it handle the new fuels?
Awesome
Precious!!
What was the idea behind the hit-n-miss engine design? Conserve fuel as much as possible?
Any idea how much these engines cost back then!
And another hero died... Sigh.. Rest in peace good soul...
Are you still looking for a manual for this engine?
what can it run
Neat engine. Maybe make. Starting check list?
hello, how are you doing. I hope you are safe and in good health.
I just found your picture attractive, hope you don’t mind us chatting sometimes to get to know each other.
I have one an mexico how can I fix iam used for waterpum river
Chitty bangin' for real🎵
Yeah woah! Methinks that trailer should have had chocks placed at _both_ ends...
Ничто не мешает сделать таких двигателей новых с новыми технологиями металлов и обработки. Подобные есть ещё в специфичных местах
How could anybody give if a thumps down? Awsome
Hello David
Is that a Clinton, Wisconsin 4x4 truck in the background?
Circa WW2 farm tractors in the UK used the same method of starting up on petrol (gas) and then switching to TVO (Tractor Vaporising Oil, equivalent to Paraffin/Kerosene in the UK).
Can anyone tell me where I can find model of these old engines? Is it stamped somewhere?
RIP Alan.