[Help] Antique Worthington Gasoline Engine, 1921

Hi everyone,

I'm quite happy to have found this forum. Obviously, if i'm posting here it is because I need some helps and advices from you guys.
So here is the story.

I'm from France, and I have an antique gasoline engine from the Worthington Company.
For the details about the engine, here is the thing :

Worthington Gasoline Engine
Worthington Pump and Machinery corporation
Gas Engine Works
Milwaukee, Wis, USA

HP : 1 1/2 ; RPM : 600; serie Number : 46451.


So I did some researches on internet, and it appears that this engine is from 1921.
I was surprised to find out this engine at home, and the thing is it was initially bought by a french corporation, called "Moteur Atlantide",
but when I saw the huge company that Worthington is, that's not surprising me that some french corporations bought it.

I did a lot of researches but no very successful actually : I was wondering about the price of such a piece ?
It needs to be cleaned up, but it's still in great "shape"... If some of you needs some pictures to better see what i'm talking about, let me know, I'll be glad to share some pictures with you !

Lot of thanks in advance guys, and also sorry if my english is not so good.

Azurelio:

Welcome to our forum from the USA.

Your English is way better than the few words of French that I know, excellent in fact.

As for the Worthington gasoline engine: If you try googling "Smokstak" and "Enginads", you will get to a website specifically about old engines. Worthington was a huge company, best known as a builder of pumps. They had many different divisions, making things from small pumps to very large steam pumping engines for waterworks, as well as very large stationary and marine diesel engines, steam condensers, a division making steam turbines, and a lot more. They ceased to exist as a corporation sometime in the 1970's, I think.

Many manufacturers in the USA made gasoline engines of the slow-speed/horizontal type. These had open, or semi-open crank cases and had a water hopper (reservoir) cast with the cylinder for cooling. Some were governed by a system call hit-and-miss. In this system, the engine governor held the exhaust valve open when the engine reached governed speed. This did not allow the cylinder to "breathe" and suck in a fresh charge of fuel/air. The engine made a kind of "chuffing" sound and this was the "miss", since the ignition had no charge to fire. When the engine slowed a bit, the governor released the exhaust valve and the engine "breathed" properly, sucking in fuel/air and firing it. This was the "hit". The result was these engines never ran at a perfectly steady speed, and they have a very distinct sound: "chuff-chuff-chuff-chuff- BOOM- chuff- chuff-chuff- BOOM...." As the load increased, the "chuffs" are almost non existant and the engine is firing steadily.

The other system was "throttle governed". The governor worked the butterfly in the carburetor. Much simpler system, much steadier speed control.

either of these types of engines were built in the same general style- horizontal, one cylinder, fairly low speed, and water-hopper cooled. Not sure of the value of the engine, let alone in France. Here in the USA, a good old gasoline engine of the type you have, assuming it was complete, nothing missing or broken, and able to start and run might be sold for 500 US dollars- 1000 US dollars, depending on how rare the engine was. Worthington was not the most common maker of these types of engines in the USA. Fairbanks Morse, Economy, Witte, Hercules, and a few other firms were a lot more popular. Please post some photos if you can.

Worthington had a nice emblem. It was based on something from ancient Egypt, and included a pair of wings and two snakes. I've got a few of their cast bronze nameplates off junked steam pumps and turbines in my office. If the maker's plate is on your engine, I would think it has this emblem.

Best regards-
Joe Michaels

I do not recall seeing a Worthington engine, so they are probably rather scarce. Here is a video of an unrestored Worthington 1.5 HP 600 RPM Ser. No. 46106 hit and miss low tension (igniter fired) engine running. You can hear the distinctive sound of a hit and miss running with no load and see the winged logo on the name plate. This size and style engine was often used on farms that did not have electric power. The engine could run small machines like feed grinders, water pumps and firewood saws.

1-1/2hp Worthington gas engine - YouTube

Here is a very good video of a much larger Worthington engine running. 1919 Worthington Engine and Natural Gas Compressor V1 P1524.MOV - YouTube Note the comment: "This is a great video. I am glad to see one of our old compressors still running like new. If you ever need parts or service on this unit we are still around to assist you. you can reach me, Roger Brueckman, at [email protected] or 800-892-6189." So Worthington is gone, but they still have someone doing parts and service.

Larry