The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-06-03
A NEW CONCERN FORMED
DEGREES THERMOTOR COMPANY
WILL BUILD GAS ENGINES.
Arthur Jordan Has Formed a Part
nership with Thomas VI. De-
frees, the Inventor.

The addition to indianapolis of a prac-
tically new manufacturing industry is the
result of contract entered into last
Thursday by Arthur Jordan and Thomas
NJ. Defrees. Mr.. Jordan has interested him.
self in the thermotor, a gas and oil engine
without valves, invented by Mr.. Defrees,
but which the latter has. from lack of suf-
foient capital, been unable to develop to
any considerable extent Work will begin
to-day in cleaning up and putting in shape
the plant at the corner Of Pike and Hovey
streets. formerly used by the Howe pump
works. and as soon a this is done, which
will be within two or three days, Messrs.
Jordan and Defrees, under the business
title of the Defrees Thermotor Company,
will commence the manufacture of the en-
gines on large scale. Mr.. Jordan is now
the president and treasurer of the COM
pany and Mr.. Defrees is vice president and
sc cretary.
The value of the thermotor lies in its en-
tire absence Of valves, which removes the
prime cause of trouble in ordinary engines,
especially when they are used to furnish
motive power for automobiles and cars.
Valves readily become choked with dust,
and this causes the engine to work badly
featuring his engines on a small scale for
the past three years, and now has 200 Of
them in active operation in various locali-
ties. Not one of them has ever been re-
turned to have fault corrected or because
it was not as represented. One OF the
principal claims made for the engine is that
IL is economical in the matter of fuel and in
that it requires attention. y janitor Of
hrrfI oil. .
his experience or lack of experience with
engines or machinery, can start ther-
motor in the morning and leave it abso-
luteiy unattended through the day, going at
night to shut off the power. A generator
may be attached to the engine for the pur-
pose of using crude petroleum as fuel, thus
reducing still further the expense of run
ming the engine The Progress laundry has
a thermotor of twenty-five horse power
that has been in use sixteen hours a day
for the past two years. Gas for the en-
CINE Is taken by meter measurement, and
the laundry people say that the cost of this
fuel has been only 81 per month.
a test mas been made to determine the
difference in cost of running a steam en-
CINE and n thermotor of equal horse power
Estimating coal al SO per ton and the pay
of a fireman or engineer at S1.25 per day,
together with the actual expense on ac-
count of the boiler, the steam engine costs
s. a day to operate. The expenses of "A De-
frees thermotOr were estimated to include
cost OF gasoline ana an nOur time or an
employe for day, showing an expense of
only lbs. With the of generator
and burning crude petroleum al cents per
gallon, the expense can be brought down 20
% cents per day.
In addition to manufacturing Defrees
thermotors the new plant will make pumps,
particularly for irrigating purposes, TO be
used by farmers. also small pumping out
fits to replace windmillS and pumping sta
tions for railroads The latter device will
meet long felt want of railroads, since il
will enable them to dispense with the serv-
ices of a high-salaried engineer, for the
station master can start and stop the en-
CINE. The use of crude petroleum, together
with the doing away with the extra en-
the pumping station to one-twelfth of its
former cost
The building in which the thermotor will
be made is fifty feet wide, $50 feet long and
three stories high. The third floor of the
plant will be used i'm the manufacture of
Columbia voting machines. which the COM
pany expects to turn out in large quaint
ties in the near future.
Frank ID. Stalnaker. who owns vacant
land near the new factory. has signified
his intention TO erect six cottages for use
by employees of the Defrees Company.
other property owners in the vicinity will
Il is said. erect similar cottages on de-
mand.
The friends of Mr.. Defrees are greatly
pleased to learn that his valuable inven-
ton is at last to have an opportunity 10
be fairly tried in the market. Mr.. Jordan is
well known man who does not take
hold of any enterprise i'm which he is not
deeply interested and TO which he is not
willing TO devote his best thought and en-
lieved. result in building up very soon 4
large industry