1914 - "Waterman Invents Porto Motor"

This article introducing the Porto appeared in the April 1914 Power Boating magazine.

 A few pages before this was a two page ad by Waterman for the Porto (included below).

Waterman Invents Porto Motor

It is perhaps known to only a few people in the trade that C. B. Waterman, founder and head of the Waterman Marine Motor Co., of Detroit, is the inventor of the detachable marine engine or rowboat motor. This occurred in 1903, when Mr. Waterman was a post graduate student in the law department of Yale University. At that time he owned a motorcycle—one of the first in this country—and the power of the little engine and its light weight impressed him so much that he began working on the idea of a similar engine for small boats.

After being admitted to the bar and returning to his home in Detroit in 1904, he hunted up a friend who operated a machine shop and they built the first Porto motor using a second-hand motorcycle engine. In the winter of 1905-6 a most convincing test of the new machine was made on the Detroit river with the result that a company was organized and the engines built by the Caille Co. under Mr. Waterman's supervision. They were marketed in the spring of 1906 in all parts of the United States,
but being of the air cooled type, they had their limitations. The next year they were changed to water cooled, a new factory was built and equipped, and Mr. Waterman gave up the law to take charge of the present Waterman Marine Motor Co. From that time the business has grown until it is now known all over the world.

It is little wonder, then, that with this experience as a guide that the present Waterman Porto motor is almost a perfect machine. Every year it has been improved by improvements in construction and the addition of needed accessories such as float feed carburetor, magneto, efficient rudder, underwater exhaust, etc. The new Waterman Porto for 1914 develops 3 horsepower and weighs the same as last year's 2-horsepower model. Its many exclusive features will be gladly explained and an interesting circular mailed to POWER BOATING readers who write.