1916 - Yarning About Kickers

This is one of the best written casual and amusing articles concerning early outboards I've seen.  There were no illustrations, so I have included a few ads that were relevant from other mags in 1915 and 1916, plus added a bunch of ads that have nothing to do with outboards that were in Gas Review.
There was not one ad for a detachable boat motor in the whole year's issues of Gas Review though!

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IT was a beautiful warm summer evening, and the moon shone over the water, which was as smooth as a mirror.  The boys were gathered on a little observation balcony high up under the eaves of the clubhouse.  The balcony could only be entered from the upper story, and was known as the “Hurricane Deck.”  It gave a splendid view of the harbor, and was reserved for club members under all circumstances.  Here the boys could lounge and smoke without fear of visitors, the bane of all clubs.  There were several hammocks, big, rough, comfortable chairs, and a few military cots.  

On this particular evening they were watching a small skiff approaching the club float.  

Someone said: “That must be Joe. It looks like his boat, and he is the only one in our club who has a kicker engine.”  As the skiff approached, the faint pop-pop-pop of the engine became more audible.  It sounded like a motorcycle.  When close in, it stopped entirely, and the lone occupant was seen to unscrew something and lift the entire engine and propeller into the boat.  The boys called a greeting to him, and he waved back. 

Presently he was with them, and settled down for a smoke. Someone said: “Joe, how do you like a ‘kicker' outfit, and what is it like?”  “I like them pretty well. It consists of a complete engine, gasoline tank, and propeller which one can clamp to the stern of any boat and be propelled anywhere within reason.  I have had a lot of sport out of mine, also some experience.  When I first got it, I clamped it to the stern of my skiff and started out.  Now that skiff has a back board one inch thick, and in a short time the boat was leaking all around the stern, and finally the board split and the engine went overboard, and I would have lost it but for the battery wires which held it to the boat, and enabled me to pull it back.   

After that I reinforced the stern, with an extra thickness of board, also braced it to the sides with knee pieces, and the kicker has never given any trouble since.  I have used it in a great many boats, and it is the greatest power plant that one can get hold of.  I know a man who has a fine catboat of the skimming dish type.  He did not want to install an engine because of the cost, weight, and shallow draught.  So he bought one of these kickers and used it as ballast, instead of the usual pile of rock.  He had the center board well enlarged so that the propeller could be lowered into it, and a stout cleat bolted across the top. Now, when he is becalmed, he simply lowers the portable engine into place and starts out. He has it so rigged that he can not only go ahead, but backwards or even can force the boat sideways by swinging the wheel to one side, as these rigs steer by pivoting the entire propeller, engine, rudder, and all around in a circle. He says that it is much safer than an auxiliary propeller because such a propeller sometimes interferes with steering. 

I remember one time steering a yacht under sail, when she began to yaw something terrible, in spite of all that I could do.  I thought that we must have fouled something which was dragging her around when the engine suddenly turned over once while I was looking at it, from the current against the propeller.  Instantly, the boat yawed the other way, and I saw where the trouble was.  I released the reverse gear clutch so that the propeller could turn freely, and the yawing stopped immediately. 

 One of the members who had visited the Panama Pacific Exposition said: “Yes, I saw one of them working in a tank of water at the exposition, and it was kicking up a most unholy row. The tank was about three feet square, and the way that water tore around in there was a fright.  The engine exhaust was muffled, so that one could hardly hear it, but the propeller made the water travel some around that tank.” 

This ad is NOT from Gas Review, but was interesting given where they won an award.

Bill, the technical man and adviser-in-chief to the club, said: “Some years ago an electric portable propelling device was gotten out, but it never came to much. It consisted of a small, high speed motor enclosed in a water proof casing, and coupled direct to the propeller.  It was connected with a storage battery, but the device never became popular.  The care of electrical machinery is something that the marine man does not take to kindly, even for pleasure; it is so confounded invisible, and when anything is wrong, nothing short of a high-brow expert can find it.  Even on the gas engine, there is nothing that gives as much trouble as the electric ignition, referring of course, to marine engines and marine conditions.” 

One of the other members then spoke up, saying: “That must be the device that my brother in the West was writing me about. He is a farmer, and had a ditch that did not have quite fall enough to properly irrigate a certain field. He could not give it any more fall, because the land sloped the wrong way, so he bought one of these portable engines and propellers and installed them in a constricted portion of the ditch. This engine demonstrated that it could raise the water to the required height, and, being portable, he was able to carry it to the various fields to lift water from the ditches.”

Bill replied: “Yes, quite so. A great many steamships are using them for miscellaneous purposes, driving the Captain's gig, or one of the larger boats about the harbors. I saw a big square stern surf boat one time with three of them all going at once. It belonged to a firm that had the agency for them, and they were trying them out.  I have often thought of an improved form that could be hung over the side of a boat, because it is such a pity to take up the finest seat in the boat for a dirty old engine.  It might even be possible to construct a centrifugal pump with tubes over each side, and driven by an engine, all setting amidships where the boat is strongest, instead of aft where it is weak. It is well known that the pump idea is useless for general propelling purposes, but it might have a field in the propelling of small boats where comfort is the principal thing.  The portable engine is perfect if only some way could be found of moving it up forward so that the stern could be used by the guest of honor, particularly if it is a lady.  A pretty fair substitute for this is to fix up some seats forward with backs, and arrange the seats to face forward. It is much nicer than asking a lady to ride backwards. How do you do about it, Joe?”

“Well, my romancing days are about over, but when my wife went along she sat down astern, and nothing could move her. So I started the motor from the float, and jumped aboard, and she steered the boat all day.”

“How did you stop the boat?”
“I didn’t until we got back and we ran out of gasoline about a mile from the float.”

Somebody asked if the kicker type of engine could be applied to a canoe.

Jim said: “It is rather difficult to apply because a canoe has no stern board, also, because the kicker is just a trifle top heavy for a canoe.  However, I had a friend who equipped a canoe with two, one on each side, fastened to a board placed athwart the canoe about amidships. 

It could travel like a house afire with the two engines, and he could cut some of the most marvelous gyrations that I ever saw.  He said that canoe sailing wasn’t in it for excitement. He would take the two tillers, one in each hand, and come head on about twenty miles an hour for the float, and about ten feet before annihilation would swing in a boiling circle with both tillers hard aport and the canoe leaning in like a bicycle.  He always wore a bathing suit when aboard this hybrid. 

We didn’t know how to classify it for the races, but finally raced him against a two cylinder canoe model. One of his engines started before the other, and he rammed his opponent, sinking both boats, and that was the extent of my observations of ‘kickers’ in canoes.

However, the whole science and sport of yachting is to get amusement, and if he got his fun, why the main end was accomplished. 

Kickers are one of the handiest all around engines for sport that I know of. They can be used in almost any boat, and need almost no installation work. They can be taken to the shop for attention without dismantling, and are a source of much pleasure, and save a lot of hard rowing.

It was getting late. Most of the boys had emptied their pipes, mindful of certain wifely admonitions.  

One said: “Ten o’clock’s my limit. lowed out any later, you know.” 

Another: “That little boy of mine won’t go to sleep until I spin him a yarn. Good-night, boys.” 

Soon the balcony was deserted, the rising tide lapped sleepily around the little fleet of modest boats that meant so much in pleasure and health to the good fellows who owned them, and they returned to their homes better men for the harmless hobby which served to bring them together and satisfy the natural craving for fellowship.

Interesting!