Monday, August 25, 2014
Sunny and very hot
Sunny and very hot
Early Outboard Toy Motor
Gas and Battery-Operated
I had the good fortune last week to meet (on the Net) a fine Montanan by the name of Mr. Dirk Soulis who is the owner of DirkSoulis Auctions. I wrote about an exceptional salesman's sample Adams Road Grader. These are not really toys, but actual scaled-down models of real machinery that would be taken by salesmen across America in the early part pif the 20th century when the railroad was more prevalent than the highway.
Naturally, I had looked at Dirk Soulis' items that he had sold, and I came across many nice items to write about in the future.What I also noticed with lots of excitement was the fact that Dirk or his photographer take a lot of photos to present their items up for auction. If you've been following my blog or if you haven;t you'll know that I'm a pro photographer and taught the profession for 32 years before I retired. As such, I am always appreciative of auctioneers who make the effort to present excellent photography, as wells lots of photos.
I've written before about these small outboard motors before, but just about the battery-operated ones. However, as I was looking at some of Dirk's previously sold items on Liveauctioneers, I came across a few gas-operated ones. I should have realized these would have been made long ago, but nevertheless I was very excited to see so many photos, and of course excellent photography.
The Battery Operated Outboard Motor
I like to be able to see an item and try to understand how it works mechanically.
With the fine series of photos below, you can easily see this. A small battery with wires would be attached to the two brass clips at the back of the steering handle. Hidden from sight are what I assume to be are tiny motors to be able to propel the three-bladed propeller. There is a long vertical shaft that is connected to the propeller at the bottom via interconnecting round gears, one form the drive shaft, and one from the propeller.
The Gas-Powered Outboard Motor
This one is gas-powered. There is a glow-plug pr spark-plug that you can see above. It's in the repeating round petal plates at the top of where the propeller side is, and at the back of that round plate on the engine top. What's interesting is that that round plate has some string still there, so I am wondering if the engine started just like it's big relative - the true real life outboard motor?
I'm "guessing" at what I'm looking at since I have never seen one of these engines, nor been around the model-airplamne ones either. The rectangular shape below the rotting start plate (with the string) is a gas reservoir,and the long shorted screw is, I assume a n adjustment for the gas.
Since I don;t know much about this old engine, I asked an ebay seller who had sold many of these a few questions.I haven;t yet heard back from him (or her), so if anyone knows about these great toys, please help me out!
My questions were:
1. Does this small engine need the plug to be replaced periodically like the real item?
2. How far can the to engine propel a small boat or does it have a rubber or plastic (plastic may not have been invented at the time of this engine) hose that attached to a "gas tank", like the later-model engines?
( I don't mind asking what might appear to be "dumb questions"!
As you can readily see, the photography is excellent, and if you do know about these great toy engines, I'm sure you'd readily say that the photos illustrate excellently how such an engine would operate.
Dirk or his photographer always take lots of photos for their items that go to auction. He has sold exceptionally rare items with many photos, and muchness items with plenty of photos. To me , that certainly tells you about the standard that Dirk, his employees, and his company maintain.
I appreciate and respect that, and the photos as well!
Thanks for dropping by to visit,
and as always,
have a great part of the day or night,
wherever you may be.
Stacey
toysearcher@gmail.com
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