Tuesday, December 29, 2009

McCormick-Deering Engine



This little throttle governed engine is an education in motion. The advances in gas engines during the early Twentieth Century made the operation of farm engines progressively easier for farmers, and this engine has a few important improvements to note. It uses a sparkplug instead of an ignitor, which is a much simpler system to maintain. Most hit-and-miss gas engines had only a mixing valve, but this throttle governed engine has a real carburetor. If you examine the plumbing you will note that the carburetor does not use a float, but it has an overflow line that takes gasoline back to the fuel tank. The crankcase is enclosed, but you should note the grease cups which are visible. Type M's, which were introduced in 1917 had a dry crankcase, and the bearings were lubricated by grease cups. There are still plenty of exposed moving parts to oil, and I think the most interesting gizmo is the handle on the fuel pump, which can be used to push fuel to the carburetor when it is dry.

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