Thursday Engine

My Delco Light Manufacturing Co engine and some accessories and my petrol Dexta at the Meddo Show in Holland near the German border.
Delco and Dexta

Big Battery. Must take a lot voltage to start.

just like the one on the Green Acres TV show .

It is a single cylinder engine powering a DC generator (usually 32 Volts). A battery bank of any size was charged and used for lighting or any other purpose. The engine would shut off when the battery was fully charged, and re-start when the battery needed charging.

It was a happy time in about 1954 when Dad had the farm wired up for 32 volt. No more kerosene or mantle lamps, no more flashlights with dead batteries, no restraints on radio listening with the batteries running low. Each room had a light bulb and it was easy to find the bedroom up the stairs. My mother got an electric motor for her washing machine. The cow barn was also lit. Our system was somewhat similar, maybe a Kohler? We also had a windmill with a wind-charger mounted on top. I remember having someone carve the blades. We painted them in the kitchen before assembly to the hub. We watched the bravest young neighbor climb up and bolt the propellor on. The creaking sound it made when spinning. [At some point the hub came off and it speared itself into the ground right along the path to Mrs. Jones House. It gave us a big scare after the fact.
We had two sets of glass batteries, two volts each. Total of 16 batteries in each set. If the wind wasn't blowing, we had to start the engine. That was my job as a kid. Lights are going dim, why don't you go down in the cellar and start the engine, or switch battery packs? Happy to do it. Back up to the kitchen to
listen to Fibber McGee and Molly, or the Friday Night fight. Unlimited radio was great..

When the farm was decommissioned, the power plant was salvaged and moved to someone's off-grid cabin up north.

the battery pack was 32 volts. You used them to start it using the generator as a motor. It could be nearly run down, and still start and putt-putt away for hours, time after time, for years.

That is cool! I would like to hear it run! What is the RPM?

That looks like a big one. There were 2 smaller Delco plants at the farm when I bought it. Started one just to hear it run but never wired up.

Are those valves in the white bases on the wooden platform? Jim

No, they are original Edison Light 32volt bulbs that came with the engine when I bought it. It was originally used by a friends parents from around 1919, in a house on an island just off the coast of Essex, England. They imported it from the US and it was due to be scrapped when I got it. Unfortunately the glass batteries had been used as fish tanks many years ago.