Sawyer-Massey Co. Ltd.
(Page 2 of 2)
May/June 1984
Jack C. Norbeck
The first portables and early traction engines were all of the return flue type. In the late 1880's a change was made to the open bottom, locomotive type boiler without a dome. Hundreds of little 13 HP simple, single cylinder, side mounted engines were built in the 1890s. Soon Sawyer-Massey was turning out 18, 20 and 22 HP for the eastern trade.
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The western Canada market was not overlooked. A large warehouse was constructed in Regina, Saskatchewan, to supply the prairie needs and the demand for heavy plowing engines was met by designing a rear mounted engine which was built in both simple and tandem compound sizes up to 35 HP. Except for the re-arrangement of the gears and the omission of springs, both types of engines were practically the same.
Sawyer-Massey did not overlook the gasoline engine and, seemingly, worked backward at the idea by building the first gas tractors for the West in the 30-60 HP size, using the steam engine road wheels and gearing, and mounting a slow speed vertical four cylinder engine lengthwise on the frame and driving the belt wheel and traction with a bevel gear. Succeeding models were built in smaller sizes but retained the slow speed motor and the same general design.
Postwar conditions in the 1920s caused the firm to concentrate on the production of road rollers, rock crushers, power graders, etc., leaving their threshing machinery soon to become only a memory to those who used to operate them. IMA
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