Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-07-17
Dan, The M otor.

Dan, as our engine was named
was two-cylinder paraffin motor
which according to some peculiar Dan
ish system of calculation was rated
sixteen horse power. and in my opin
ion was nearer twenty-five" writes
Henry c. Rowland in Appleton's, land
he weighed a ton and a half! Captain
Amundscn had Dams twin in his ship
when he made the Northwest Passage.
and he ran for a solid week without
once stopping the motor.
Dan was a brute any way that
you took him, but he was rough, open,
honest sort of a brute, once you
learned his ways. His system bore
the same analogous relations to that
of an automobile engine that the syS-
tenn of a gorilla bears to tht human
species, but it was 'simplifed' by the
absence Of carDuretor and electric ig-
milton. The first explosion was pro-
duced by heating the ignition cham
bers by means of blast lamps, and
once started, the repeated combus
tions sustained the requisite heat for
those subsequent, while the work of
the carburctor was done by automa-
tic air-inlet valves.
Nothing could be simpler, more eff
fectiNe, or heavier. AS d commercial
engine l know of nothing better than
Dan, but he was about as we'll fitted
to the Beaver as a truck horse would
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IN any desired position. turned in her
length, and laid alongside without
cracking an egg.
But Dan, the malignant deus eX
machina. needed every bride check
and martingale which you could put
upon him. He was a brutc-a morose
grumbling, growing. swearing, power
Jul. hard-Working, economical brute
ana we always hated each other!
The expression, strain the motor
was joke as applied to Dan. You
couldn't strain him; he was far too
husky You might strain yourself, or
the boat or the nerves Of the
community which you happen to
infest. but Dan never He would
run without water. without lu.
bricating oil. heat up and swear. of
course but pound along at mis- three
hundred and sixty revolutions he
would even run without fuel if he felt
like 1t; on what ! am sure don't know,
| think that he would have run on beer
or absinthe or castor oil if we had fed
1t to him; perhaps he would have liked
it. He never seemed to care what
brand of grease he got. but he did like
the night air and always 'bucked up
after sunset. When, he was getting
his full ration he worked along on
about a gallon an hour, at cost, in
England, of about sixpence"