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The History of Outboard Motors: Johnson Motor Company Part 2 in a series By Scott Wahlberg Those of you who know me know that Johnson is my favorite motor to collect. Early Johnson outboards can be found and made to run, usually with a minimum of effort. With that said let's look at their early years in the industry. It all started around 1902 with four brothers from Terre Haute, Indiana. Their names were Lou, Harry, Julius and Clarence Johnson. Julius was active in their early years but not officially involved in the outboard project. The four brothers built an eighteen foot rowboat to use on the Wabash River that they would row to a destination some ten miles upstream where there were some black walnut trees. Not liking the idea of rowing all that distance Lou engineered a single cylinder engine with a five inch bore and stroke that developed three horsepower to replace oar-power. That worked so well that they built a larger engine, developing twelve horsepower and incorporated a brass water jacket. It didn't take long for other boat owners to notice and in 1905 the brothers began building engines in a two story building behind their father's house in Terre Haute. The first engines produced were three horsepower, with a single cylinder, weighing 65 pounds. They later used the same basic engine and expanded it into two and four in- line cylinders. Power for the factory came from that original three horsepower engine driving a shaft to power the machines. In 1908 they had outgrown the building behind the house and moved to another building in town where they built four, six, eight and twelve cylinder V engines for aircraft and boats, some developing 180 horsepower. Lou, Harry and Clarence provided the engineering while Julius provided the machine skills. Marine engines were the primary concern of the company but Lou had a serious interest in aircraft. Lou designed and built a lightweight V 4 engine that produced 60 horsepower, but were unable to attract customers for use in an airplane. Harry decided to build an airplane and in 1910 completed his design, seven years after the Wright brothers had their historic flight in Kitty Hawk. Construction of this design produced an overweight tail heavy airplane, so Lou designed a new version. What makes this so significant is that they built the first successful American monoplane. This was years ahead of it's time with many features not found on any other plane of it's time. In 1911 Lou strapped himself in, and without any prior experience, made his first flight in an airplane. The Johnson's became local celebrities and they later started the Johnson School of Aviation. They still produced marine and airplane engines that sold as fast as they were produced. This went very well until Easter Sunday, 1913. A tornado struck that night, leveling the factory and taking all the patterns and equipment. Adding insult to injury the Wabash River overflowed and flooded the newly demolished site. Unfortunately the business was uninsured so it was a total loss. Some would have simply quit and went on to other jobs, but not the Johnson's. Clarence suggested building a small motor with a propeller to propel a boat but this proved to be a bad idea. One of them suggested mounting the contraption to a bicycle but this proved to be too dangerous. Next they removed the propeller and mounted the engine to the back of the bike and ran a chain to the sprocket. As you might imagine this led to a new company, The Johnson Motor Wheel Co. There were early problems with the engine. Because it ran so fast (2300 RPM) it burned out magnetos. The solution came from Warren Ripple, who owned the Quick Action Magneto Co. The magneto proved to work well and the company set up shop in South Bend, Indiana in 1918. Upwards of 17,000 units were sold with distributors located in Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Unfortunately the Motor Wheel Co. doesn't have a happy ending. The Ford Motor Co. started building the Model T, which was a very affordable car. People parked their bikes in favor of the car and by 1921 the company folded. By now you're probably thinking that this was supposed to be an article about outboard motors. Hang in there because we're coming to that part. Later in 1921 Lou went to Warren Conover's home, whose son Clay Conover would later become Vice president of Johnson Motors, and unrolled drawings for the first Johnson outboard motor. This motor would be produced relatively unchanged for several thousand units. Warren built a boat and with Clay driving, the motor planed the small boat. One month later the Johnson Motor Co. was established in South Bend, Indiana. Warren Ripple, you remember him, was the first president and the first production Johnson outboard was completed. This was a revolutionary outboard for it's time. Other companies produced motors of brass and iron weighing much more than the Johnson. Many ran no more than 900 RPM. The Johnson "Waterbug or Light Twin" as it was called, developed two horsepower at 2200 RPM, had full pivot reverse and weighed only 35 pounds. Many of its parts were made of aluminum which was new to the marine industry. The motor was introduced at the New York boat show in 1922 with 3429 units sold that year for $140 each. In 1923 around 9000 units were sold. As competing companies saw the success of the Light Twin they were quick to respond. Johnson followed the Light Twin with the J-25 in 1925. It was single cylinder, 1 Yz horsepower motor weighing only 27 pounds. It had the same quality and reliable performance as the twin and was also a success. 1926 saw the addition of the 6 horsepower Big Twin, weighing 80 pounds and selling for $210. By the time it was in full production the motor had raised the speed record from 11 mph to over 32 mph. The company was doing so well that they needed to move to a larger facility so in 1927 they moved to a 138,000 square foot factory in Waukegan, Illinois. 1927 also saw the Big Twin increase to eight horsepower. Another motor was added in 1928, the Giant Twin. It was a monster for it's time developing 25 % horsepower and selling for $275. In that same year Johnson established an export division and established the Canadian Johnson Motor Co. in Peterborough, Ontario. In January of 1929 Johnson introduced their new Sea Horse logo, which has evolved over the years. This logo appeared on the tank decals of the 1929 motors and would become synonymous with the Johnson name. That year also saw the introduction of two new motors, the Sea Horse 16 and four cylinder Sea Horse 32. These motors introduced new features including rotary valve intake, compression release and underwater exhaust. Johnson motors set 26 of the 39 outboard speed records in 1929 and 1930. With all this success the executives at Johnson decided to authorize a stock issue of $1.3 million. We all know what else happened that year, the stock market crash. Johnson saw this as temporary and went ahead with a line of boats matched to their motors. The boats had a cut-out in the transom for the motor and covered it with a barrel shaped hood. These matched units were known as Johnson Aquaflyer and Sealite boats. The idea was good but the timing was bad. Like many other companies the depression took its toll on Johnson Motors. By the end of 1930 profits fell dramatically. To protect the large investment Hayden Stone & Co. took control of the outboard company. By 1932 it was put in receivership and reorganization was initiated. They tried to diversify by building refrigerators and compressors, but it was little help. By 1935 Hayden Stone decided to sell the company. Steward Warner Co. was interested and made an offer to buy. The deal was accepted but had a little snag. The deal was based on treasury stock that could not be traded. Stone said he wanted trading stock, but Stewart Warner was unable to comply. At the same time Stephen Briggs, of the Briggs & Stratton Co., and Ralph Evinrude decided that they wanted to buy Johnson as well. They were the owners of Outboard Motors Corp. and thought that Johnson would be a nice addition. When the deal with Stewart Wamer ultimately fell through they were quick to pay $10.35 per share for 80,000 out of 102,000 outstanding shares of Johnson Motor Co. stock. Upon Brigg's return to Milwaukee he told Ralph Evinrude that, "Johnson is going to be a perfect little goldmine". His prediction came true. They had acquired a company that had a great reputation, an already strong product line and $1.5 million in plant and equipment for a mere $800,000. Pretty good deal I'd say. Sales rose from 12,000 motors in 1935 to 20,872 in 1936 and over 29,000 in 1937. In September of 1936 Johnson was officially part of OMc. Of the Johnson brothers Lou and Harry retired in 1935 but the youngest, Clarence, remained in the engineering dept. until 1963. The Johnson brothers were pretty smart. In 1921 they established the Johnson Brothers Engineering Co. which held all the patents for Johnson outboards and received $5 for every Johnson ever sold. After selling over one million motors OMC bought out the company in 1956. Evinrude, Johnson and Elto competed as three separate companies. Elto was eventually absorbed into Evinrude and in the mid 1950's Evinrude and Johnson began combining resources to produce motors that were mechanically the same and differed only in the cosmetics. It's interesting to note that Johnson also developed and produced the "Tilting Stem Drive". Most of us recognize this as the modem outdrive. It had many similarities but was not a success. A big reason for this was the inconvenience of the whole process. There was only one boat company who offered it as a complete package, so if you wanted one you had to get someone to mate one to an existing boat. This, and the depression killed the product, although it was way ahead of it's time. Johnson Motor Co. was truly an innovator in the outboard motor world. I find it fascinating to research the early outboard motor companies and I hope you found this as interesting as I did. I highlighted the major points associated with Johnson Motors. There is much more and if interested I encourage you to look deeper. Next, whenever I get to it, I'll discuss Mercury Motors in Part 3 of the History of Outboard Motors. |
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