Fairbanks Morse power plants evolved by burning kerosene in 1893, coal gas in 1905, then to semi-diesel engines in 1913 and to full diesel engines in 1924. Small lighting plants built by the company were also popular. Electricity generation and oilfield work also used these engines. The Fairbanks Morse gas engine became a success with farmers. They had the idea that an engine could be used as backup power for when one of their Eclipse windmills wasn't getting wind. The Fairbanks Morse Company began producing oil and naptha engines in the 1890s with the purchase of the Charter line of engines (the first commercially available gas engine).
Canadian and American cities had branch dealerships, with Fairbanks first coming to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1876 and later opening a factory there.įairbanks Morse model 32 was a 1932 update of the Model Y diesel engine. Morse later became a partner in the Fairbanks Company and by the end of the nineteenth century, it was known as Fairbanks Morse & Company and was headquartered in Chicago. As part of this expansion, Morse brought Wheeler and his Eclipse Windmill pumps into business with the Fairbanks company. At about the same time, a Fairbanks & Company employee, Charles Hosmer Morse, opened a Fairbanks office in Chicago, from which he expanded the company's territory of operation and widened its product line. Soon half a million windmills dotted the landscape throughout the West and as far away as Australia. Wheeler set up shop in Beloit just after the Civil War. In Wisconsin, a former missionary named Leonard Wheeler designed a durable windmill for pumping water, the Eclipse windmill. It became the leading manufacturer in the US, and the best-known company the world over until Henry Ford and the Ford Corporation assumed this title in the 1920s. Fairbanks scales won 63 medals over the years in international competition.
Fairbanks & Company was selling thousands of scales, first in the United States, later in Europe, South America, and even Imperial China. That device was patented in June 1832, and a generation later, with his brother Erastus Fairbanks, the E. Though unsuccessful in fabricating for fiber factories, another invention by Thaddeus, the platform scale, formed the basis for a great enterprise. In 1829 he started a hemp dressing business for which he built the machinery. Johnsbury, Vermont, to manufacture two of his patented inventions: a cast iron plow and a heating stove. Fairbanks Nijhuis is a part of Pentair Water in Kansas City, Kansas, and manufactures pumpsįairbanks Morse and Company began in 1823 when inventor Thaddeus Fairbanks opened an ironworks in St.Fairbanks Morse, a portfolio company of Arcline Investment Management, is a company based in Beloit, Wisconsin, that manufactures and services engines.Fairbanks Scales is a privately owned company in Kansas City, Missouri, that manufactures scales.All claim the heritage of Fairbanks Morse and Company: There are three separate corporate entities that could be considered successors to the company, none of which is a complete and direct descendant of the original company. Originally a weighing scale manufacturer, it later diversified into pumps, engines, windmills, coffee grinders, radios, farm tractors, feed mills, locomotives, and industrial supplies until it was purchased by Penn Texas in 1958. The engine featured in Stationary Engine issue No 71 (January 1980) when it was up and running, however at that time it was operating with high tension magneto and spark plug mode of ignition.Scales, Windmills, Engines, Tractors, Radios, Pumps, Locomotives.įairbanks, Morse and Company was an American manufacturing company in the late 19th and early 20th century. The engine fell into disuse during WW2 and was subsequently removed from the Mill by Mr G S Bevan, grandson of Mr Mountford, in 1969 and restored.
I have the pleasure of owning an early 2hp Fairbanks, Morse & Co “Jack of all Trades” engine, serial number 35455, that was supplied new in 1904 by Messrs R H Bunner, Ironmonger, Montgomery, to a Mr John Mountford, Malster, Bacheldre Malthouse, Churchstoke, nr Newton, Powys who used it to power a crushing mill. Fairbanks, Morse & Co Jack Of All Trades Stationary Engine | September 2017