Engine Spotter's Guide: Famous Engine Photos Only

[Colin Rush]

This is a 1916 or 1917 engine, with serial number VC40506, and is owned by Benny McKeehan. I do not know much else about it.

[Colin Rush]

Osborne was a manufacturer of engines back in the late 1800 or early 1900s, and when IHC decided to get involved in building engines, rather than start from scratch, they purchased the D.W. Osborne Company in 1907 and incorporated them into the McCormick product lineup. At that time, they were painted blue. Knowing IHC, they used the blue paint until it ran out. At that point, they renamed the line "Famous", and continued building them for use on their equipment and by itself.

[Colin Rush]

This is a very nice original, with a few repop parts. I know nothing about it, but it is a very good photo. This is currently for sale in Georgia, if anyone is interested.

[Colin Rush]

This is a rather poor photo of an original portable unit on a factory truck. Again, I know nothing else about it.

[Colin Rush]

This engine belongs to Bert Juffer with T. Juffer & Sons in Oldebroek/Oosterwolde, Holland. It is Serial Number U476. To give you an idea of its size, the flywheels are 68 inches in diameter!

[Colin Rush]

Below is a photo of a nice Famous mounted on what is supposed to be a factory-built saw cart. This came with the seat mounted. This one was at a show in Australia.

Here is some explanation of these units from a thread on SmokStak:
"Altough I have never seen a live one, the sales lit does show a tank-cooled Mogul on saw trucks. Usually it's a bigger one (8 or 10HP). The saw trucks I believe were all made at the Milwaukee works (where the Famous/Titan engines were built) along with the plain trucks. The saw trucks are different than the regular-type trucks as the engine is mounted the other way. For example, on the plain truck the head end is on the non-pivoting axle, on and the saw truck the head end is on the pivoting. I would imagine that IHC would have built any combination of engine/saw truck if the buyer wanted it."

"The IHC saw truck has a metal seat on an upright flat spring on the left side of the frame rails along with a cast bracket for a foot rest (also to the left of center). All the photos I saw on the net last night show a elevated full bench seat with a full width foot rest."

The full-width foot rest and bench seat were used on the standard truck.

[Colin Rush]

Below are some photos of the optional clutch that could be ordered on Famous and Titan, and later Mogul, engines. These are usually quite rare, especially in usable condition.

These pics are all of the same unit, which according to the IHC parts manual, fits the 1907 to 1910 15HP engines, as well as those tractors that also used the same Famous engine, which I believe were called the A-series.

The carrier is part number G6448, and the drum is part number G926. The drum is 26" diameter x 9 1/2" face width. You see the shoes that cause engagement. I believe that may be why the tractors that used these engines were also called the Friction Drive models. (If you know otherwise, feel free to contact me to correct me.)

Currently, this is for sale by Anderson Machine for $800 as it sits. I wanted to post the photos here before it disappeared.

This type of clutch assembly was offered as an option on the later Model M, and the L/LA/LB engines too, abeit much smaller.

[Colin Rush]

Here is an interesting note I found today:
"According to (Charles) Wendel's Gas Engine book they were the same. Engines sold through Deering dealers were called Titan, engines sold through McCormick dealers were called Famous. They used the same flywheels and other parts as the Tom Thumb."

I am not sure how to reconcile this against what John Hammink had said (earlier post in this thread). Maybe this only applies to the 1914 and later engines.

In another thread, I see a person that quoted their IHC book, which said "IHC Famous Titan 1HP Water-Cooled Engine". So I guess that they are indeed one and the same, except for the name.

[Colin Rush]

There were some small differences between the Nonpareil and Famous engines. In each photo below are a Famous and a Nonpareil standing side by side for comparison. The one with all of the arrows was made by John Hammink. The other was shot by a fellow named Mick in Australia. I am not yet versed enough to say which is which. Once I know, I will edit this post.

Paul Spence in New Jersey also had this to say:
"I was asked what's the difference is between an IHC Famous Nonpareil and a IHC Famous.
1-Mixers are different.
2-Fuel lines routed differently. .
3-Most Nonpareil's had magnetos
4-Cylinder base is round, not square.
5-Base is circular, not rectuangular.
6-Hand hole is round, not square.
7-Most Nonpareil's had speed change devices
8-Nonpareils were lighter and I'm sure some others will add some more differences that I'm not aware of, or I missed."
You can visit the thread here:
http://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4701&highlight=nonpareil

[Colin Rush]

The color photo is a very good detail shot of the Motzinger Autosparker mounted on a 20HP Famous horizontal. The second one is the same unit mounted on a 4HP Famous horizontal. There were two different brackets used for mounting the Autosparker. The one in the color photo and the next one are the vertical type. The third one in the last is the horizonta type mounted on a 5HP Nonpareil. The fourth is a detail of the vertical type used on the engines in the first two pictures. The fifth is the horizontal type mounted on a 4HP Nonpareil, taken from Harry Matthews' site here.

For those that do not know, the Autosparker was a dynamo used to generate power to make spark. It was very similar to the generators used on bicycles when I was younger, that rubbed against the tire. If you are familiar with the old Singer sewing machines that used a motor with a rubber wheel rubbing against the handwheel to drive them, this is more or less the same idea except that the engine drives the generator instead of the other way around.