The Aultman & Taylor Company

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'4. The Aultman-Taylor traction engine has what all others lack, and what every traction engine should have, and that is a simple, easily managed arrangement for reversing the motion and propelling the engine backward as well as forward. In bad roads, and especially when the roads are full of mud-holes, this really is a prime necessity, and it is a feature we cannot praise too highly, as many men will now feel free to buy traction engines who have always refused to buy them because they feared in heavy roads they might get 'stuck in the mud,' and being unable to get any purchase by backing, would be greatly annoyed and delayed.

'The points named by us, taken in connection with the general excellence of the Aultman-Taylor traction engine, are so important as to lead us to say that, unquestionably, in our opinion, this engine is worth to any purchaser more than any traction engine in the market; and as it meets and overcomes all the objections ever made to traction engines, it must find a very general and, we cannot help but feel, an enormous demand.'

A team was used only to steer the engine, for it propelled itself. The testimony of this group of men became a selling gimmick. Such testimony given by a group of competent men whose prestige was high carried considerable weight with prospective customers and so became an effective instrument in selling the engine.

The engine was propelled by an inclined shaft on the right-hand side of the boiler extending from the crankshaft of the engine to the rear axle and that was connected with large bevel gears. Hence they became known as bevel gear engines. They also became popularly known as the 'Sunflower Engine' since the large bevel gear connected with the crankshaft resembled a sunflower. For many years an exact model of this first engine was on display in the office of the company .

Within a few years following the building of their first engine a number of improvements were made, such as self-steering, the link reverse, and iron wheels. With the rapid increase in the demand for these engines it became necessary to construct additional shops exclusively for the building of the Aultman & Taylor farm engine and the Aultman & Taylor traction engine.

From the bending of the boiler plates to the painting of the finished engine all of the work was done under one roof. Even at that time there was a considerable amount of division of labor so that the men who were responsible for certain jobs became competent in those phases of engine building.

During the 1870s and 1880s, when the firm began building steam engines, Aultman & Taylor enjoyed rapid expansion of its business. In a typical year during those decades the company used the following amounts of materials in the manufacture of threshing machinery: molding sand, clay, etc., 50 railroad car loads; coal, 300 cars; oil and varnish, eight cars; sail and wire cloth, seven cars; lumber, belting, etc., 507 cars; hardware, nine cars; and iron, 326 cars. A total of 1,207 car loads of materials were used during one year. It was stated that this number of cars would make a train of 15 miles in length.

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