1922 - Outboard Engine Facts and Fancies

You May Own a Yacht as Big as a Liner or as Fast as a Hydroplane, but You Must Acknowledge that this Family is  Having Fun

WHEN the Red Gods call you to the Great Outdoors there are many ways in which you can journey upon the Outbound Trail.  Deep down in the heart of almost all of us is a love for the water. Probably this is inherited from our forebears who had to cross the ocean in cockleshell craft to reach these shores.  Commercial necessity has pushed the population away from the coasts, but even though the environment is changed the old love for smiling waters and the sting of spray is with us all.

There have been days when one could not commune with Mother Nature without an amount of laborious travel that did much to dull the keen edge of enjoyment.  The outboard engine has been one of the great factors in the increasing love of the open spaces and the possibility of reaching these places from the marts of trade without labor to which office-bound muscles are not suited.

A Crowd Does Not Seem to Bother this Outboard.

Rowing, as an exercise, is without doubt beneficial, but when taken with this result in mind, it must be assimilated in small doses.  Even in the best of cases it becomes irksome at the end of a day when picnicking has brought somnolence.  It is in cases of this kind that the diminutive outboard pays dividends.  The modern outboard is probably the best example of multum in parvo that science has perfected.

If you have any doubts as to the progress of science and the untold values of engineering experimentation, look at your outboard.  Small, concise, light in weight and economical, yet it opens up opportunities for exploration which may bring to the not too literal minded the supreme satisfaction of the discoverer.  Carried up a woodland stream by the faithful engine, you too, may stand on a spot like Robinson Crusoe, "Monarch of all you survey." 

All Ashore for Lunch! The Young Skipperess Has Made Her Landing in Exactly the Right Spot

Picture to yourself the situation.   Above, the trees arch over the stream forming a green canopy tempering the rays of the summer sun.  The rustling of the leaves are tuned by the Divine hand with the sweet songs of the birds into a sublime melody which no composer of this or any other day has even approximated.  Ahead—there is another bend, other vistas of delight which ever beckon onward.  Here the stream widens out into a quiet pool, the home of many turtles who plop merrily into the water at your approach.  From an overhanging branch a chipmunk scolds you for disturbing his apparently aimless scamperings.  A bit of white water is ahead.  A touch of the throttle and the boat springs ahead.   Careful there!   Watch your course till you jump into the still water above the rapid. 

For Towing a Fleet of Canoes to the Camp Site an Outboard is Ideal

The character of the stream changes.  Instead of the gently rising, wooded banks, you glide through a stream-carved cut in living rock.  Far above a bald eagle wheels, and wheels until it seems that his baleful eye has spotted you and he is ready for the sickening drop into your boat. 

Mr. Eagle finally swoops out of sight as you swing around another turn and find a shelving sandy beach which says "welcome" just as surely as if a host was standing with outstretched hand.

An outboard will turn your canoe into a speedster in short order!

With a swing of the tiller and a snap of the switch you glide up the beach and come to rest for luncheon. Spread a blanket, dig up the basket of lunch and a pile of cushions and sit you down to a feast that rivals the nectar of the gods. Right here you realize one of the great beauties of the outboard. There is no need of fussing with an anchor because the boat cannot be brought close to shore. There is no dinghy into which everything must be piled and several trips ashore made until you are worn and sulky. The boat will wait for you safely until ready for the down stream journey.

Hours of Paddling by Using One Outboard to Tow the Fleet

If the trip is a long one it may be necessary to pour a little more gasoline into the tank from a spare can. Add a bit of oil and she is ready again. Compare this with the procedure of getting a larger boat under way. If the stream happens to be a mountain one it may be necessary for you to carry the boat around some particularly difficult rapid or a dam. With the ordinary launch this would be impossible without a wagon and a gang of men. With a light rowboat or canoe and the faithful engine, you can make a portage and be off on another stream in a short while.

Of course all of us do not live where we have woodland streams for our week-endings. Possibly we have homes on the coast where boating is more strenuous. Even then the little engines will come to be a most valuable part of our equipment, for they can be clamped to the dinghy and used to take us out to the moorings as well as saving the back-breaking row to favorite fishing grounds.

To the sailboat owner the outboard is a godsend, giving the advantages of an auxiliary for small sailers without the disadvantages of having a machine permanently installed.

 Either the engine can be hooked to the yacht's stern or, if clamped to the dinghy, will turn that obsequious little craft into a tow-boat.  For making the trips to shore for mail, ice, picture postals and pie, which are the chief articles needed on a cruise, the outboard engined dink is worth its cost every trip. Naturally under these conditions the outboard is as useful to the power boat man as it is to the windjammer.

When an outboard is carried on a power cruiser it gives one a sense of security.  Even the best engines ever made will fail under certain conditions.  Instead of waiting around for a tow, the owner drops the dink overboard, hooks on the outboard and tows home.  The speed may not entitle you to entry in the express cruiser class, but you will get there, which after all is the main item.

ad from this 1922 issue

Outboards are now made in a variety of sizes, speeds and weights to accommodate them to practically even service that lies within the limits of their power.  Some of the double cylinder engines are made up to 3-h.p., although the average is about 2 horse.   This has been found by experience to be the power range required by the majority of rowboats and canoes.  For many years some people considered the outboard as a sort of mechanical toy until they suddenly realized that all over the world thousands were being used by fishermen, guides, forest rangers and wilderness freighters, in their everyday occupations.  If outboards are satisfactory prime movers for men engaged in making their livelihood from water transport, no one can claim that they are not suitable for pleasure service.

article from this 1922 issue

Travelers from all over the world, men who have braved snow-blindness in the frozen north and fever in the miasmic jungles of the Equator, come back and report outboards.  A caller recently told the writer that on a 1,200-mile trip by steamboat through the Canadian wilderness, the only power boat he saw was powered with an outboard.  It was engaged in towing food supplies up a rapid-torn river to a mining camp.

It must be remembered in connection with the use of outboard engines that a boat so equipped is a power boat in the eyes of the law and must be equipped with fire extinguisher, life preservers for all hands, whistle (a mouth operated one will do), a combination red and green bow light and a white stern light, as well as two copies of the pilot rules obtainable from any custom house.  On boats of 16 feet or more length the numbers required by law must be displayed.

If  This Does Not Exemplify the Spirit of the Great Outdoors You Must be a Chronic Cynic

The following bits and pieces are from the same year in The Rudder.

15 Tons and an Evinrude (in 1915)

 Evinrude Motor Company managed to get their motors placed in many magazines due to their creative photo stories!

1921 - Motor Boating on a Small Purse

You guessed it!  Outboard motors were the key to regular folks getting a motorized boat without winning a lottery first.  This article has many interesting photos, plus gives a good feel for how people in the early 20th century were thinking about outboards and boats designed for them.

There seems to be a major focus on the Lockwood-Ash. Even though the writer never mentions their name, the accompanying photo within the article must have made it clear to the attentive reader.  I have added a LA ad, but the other photos and diagrams are original to the article.

One of the conspicuous features of the rapid growth of motor boating as a sport is the detachable outboard motor and the small boat designed to carry it safely.  There are many builders of motors of this kind and the varieties produced are extensive.  Some builders favor the type in which the propeller is placed on the end of a vertical shaft and the motor carried in a horizontal plane.  Others prefer to extend the crankshaft of the motor and mount the propeller on its extremity.  The angle of shaft inclination in these types is rather steep, but the loss of efficiency is probably no greater than is occasioned by the bevel gear transmission of other types.

The general average of power for these portable units is about 3 h.p.  This is ample for all ordinary requirements, for cases in which the motor is to be used in conjunction with a rowboat.  It occasionally happens that these motors are needed for heavier boats and there is even one small 18-foot cruiser built to be driven by this style of engine.  Here it is advisable to use more powerful motors of the two cylinder types which develop up to 5 h.p.  In fact cases have come to our notice where two of these portables have been coupled to a houseboat with a flat bottomed hull and were quite successful in moving from place to place.

The sport fisherman finds he can get out further from shore in his quest for game, and when it comes to trolling, why the little motors are able to move the boat just the correct speed for all cases.

What can be more convenient than a portable motor for the big yacht tender.  Generally, when it comes time to go ashore everybody is in a hurry.  In nearly every instance the visiting guests have lingered too long and must hasten to catch cars or trains and every minute counts.  In such anchorages where there is a swift current running it is a tedious job to row a boat loaded with four or five persons against the tide to the landing stage, and did you notice, the tide always manages to be running the wrong way?  The handy little motor over the stern is ready at all times to respond to a turn of the handle and be off with its load.  There are other uses too for these motors.  At many summer resort lakes in the mountains the vacationist spends the greater part of his day on the lake in a small boat.  How convenient it is to be able to move about without any exertion and vacation in a real leisurely fashion.

For operation by children and unskilled persons these motors are ideal.  Most makes of motors control by means of a pushbutton on the handle.  The motor may be quickly started, stopped, or reversed and the boat is always under perfect control by reason of a rudder which is fitted close to the propeller.  For ignition purposes there s generally a small magneto built into the same unit as the flywheel.  This simplifies the ignition and obviates the necessity for batteries and coil to be carried separately.  For those who prefer to place their trust in batteries this form of ignition is optional on many motors.

The general method for starting these small machines consists of twirling the flywheel by means of a small handle placed there for that purpose.  Some, however, have a built-in device which consists of a strap and a handle which spins the motor when it is pulled.

A clutch which permits of a free-engine is an advantage provided by some builders, while others can tip their motor up so the propeller can be with-drawn from the water and moved over any shallow places or cleared of obstructions, weeds, etc.

The extensive use of aluminum for crankcase castings and other parts has served to bring the weight  down noticeably.  In fact the average weight of all the motors tabulated on page 100 is only about 75 pounds.  The portability of these little motors has done much to popularize them.   They can be packed into a carrying case and readily moved about from place to place.   Of course, the weight of  75 odd pounds is not such as to permit of their being carried by children.  In spite of the fact that they are termed portable it requires some effort to move them.  

One of the principal objections to the large size built-in motors, namely the operating costs, does not exist with these little machines.  The tanks only hold a gallon or thereabouts of gasoline and the cost of this is trifling.  In most of the motors particularly of the two-cycle type the lubricating oil is mixed with the gasoline and furnishes at once an automatic positive lubricating system which will not fail to work.  These little machines will operate on about one quart of fuel per hour and a mileage of 25 miles to the gallon is not unusual.

The cost of maintenance is also negligible quantity.  If the cost of the motor is divided by its useful life it will be found to be under $10.00 a year.  The simplicity of these little motors is such that there is little to go wrong with them.  Their principal requirements being that they are kept reasonably clean and free from moisture.  One of the greatest evils of any electrical device is moisture in the wrong place.  Contacts with water present will short-circuit and the necessary spark will occur any place except at the spark plug points.

Some of the outstanding features of the latest models turned out by a western manufacturer
(Lockwood Ash) are a built-in gasoline tank, it being an alloy casting light and strong, so designed to form the upper half of the crankcase, making the gasoline tank and crankcase a solid unit to which the cylinder is attached.

The walls of this tank are light in weight, yet, being cast metal, has sufficient strength to withstand the accidental bumping that these machines are more or less subjected to when left upon the boat and tied in mooring places where parking space is at a premium, and, because of strength and rigidity, does entirely away with the vibrant sounding board effect of the older style sheet metal gasoline tank.

This 1921 ad was run in almost every sport magazine I could find.

A new and highly improved magnet is supplied on this new model. The magneto has been greatly enlarged - both the magneto and electrical parts - solely to insure a margin of ignition strength sufficient to counteract a reasonable mis-adjustment. 

Appreciating that these machines go into the hands of operators who, in many cases, know nothing about the theory of their operation, this margin of safety is provided so they may operate satisfactorily even though not operating at their maximum strength of efficiency. This additional strength immediately shows itself in the starting qualities of the motor, and continues very much in evidence throughout the life of the engine by the marked absence of the necessity for frequent adjustments. With this new magneto the engine may run in either direction, and shows equal strength whether running right- or left-handed.

A new and highly improved magnet is supplied on this new model. The magneto has been greatly enlarged - both the magneto and electrical parts - solely to insure a margin of ignition strength sufficient to counteract a reasonable mis-adjustment. 

This new aluminum tank is provided with a removable top to allow of easy cleaning out of the tank if occasion ever necessitates it. It is further provided with a very efficient removable strainer, which effectually prevents accumulated water or sediment from reaching the mixing valve, and the result of this construction eliminates the one fragile feature of the rowboat motor, the same strength of metals as the cylinder itself, and is scarcely more likely to receive damage from accidental shock than would the cylinder itself.


An entirely new mixing valve of proper capacity and design into which has been built a choking device, whose sole purpose is an aid in starting.  This choking device is so arranged that inflow of air is never entirely cut off, as it is obvious that the gasoline vapor cannot be drawn into the engine unless a suitable amount of air is drawn in to cause this gasoline to vaporize, and with the proper use of this built in choke, the old priming operation and the resultant disagreeable feature of oily clothing and soiled hands has been entirely done away with, as has the disagreeable feature of the heretofore ever-present gasoline and oil spray on the stern seat of the boat.

This rowboat motor steers by rudder, a feature fully appreciated by the experienced  operator, but perhaps only given a passing notice by the inexperienced prospective purchaser.  The rudder has been steering ships since ships were known, and in all these years man has not been able to improve upon it.  The ease in which the boat can be handled; the fact that the boat is under control all the time it is under motion, the ease with which the rudder line may be attached and steering effected from the forward part of the boat, makes the rudder the one logical means of steering.

A great many lovers of the great outdoors will be disappointed this summer when they go to buy an outboard motor boat.  Having been in touch with all the large builders of small boats during the last few weeks we were surprised to learn that there were less than fifty unsold or unordered outboard motor boats in stock with the builders on April 1st.























































There is a bigger demand today for this type of boat than all the other models of boats put together.  There are sure to be a great many disappointed when the season opens.  There is yet plenty of time for the building of many more boats of this type and the way boat builders are receiving orders shows that many of those who were disappointed last summer are taking no chance this year!  The wise man is he who places his order early.

It is our advice to those who contemplate purchasing such a boat that they get in touch with some first class builder at once, and have a boat reserved for them when they are ready to use it.   

A large boat building concern in New York has made a special study of the outboard motor boat for several years, and are today perhaps building more boats of this type than all of the rest of the builders put together.  After considerable experimenting they found that a boat built of white cedar was the most practical.  In order to get a boat that was dependable under all conditions, whether on open water or small lakes, a boat sixteen feet long by four feet wide was found to be most practical.  

The next difficulty to overcome was the matter of price in order to make it popular with everyone.  In order to do this it was necessary to make them on a standard production line basis.  Hundreds of them are being built right along.  The boats are reenforced throughout in order to get the vibrations down to a minimum.  The smooth skinned boat, which finds favor in many localities, is riveted at  the bilge and at all points that carry a strain.  The weight of the boat is complete is approximately 150 pounds.  Its large, wide keel, on which planking is rabbeted, insures protection to the boat when it is being drawn upon a rocky shore and also that it will remain upon an even keel when resting in the boathouse or on the shore.





The list which follows contains complete details of all outboard motor boats as well as the little motors designed particularly to propel them, built by American manufacturers.