The 1940 Mercury outboard boat motor was a very good looking streamlined motor compared to other brands at the time. The drive shaft was put inside a casing that also served to cover the water pickup line and a leak proof under water exhaust system. The water pump was also a huge leap forward in design using a Rotex rubber pump that did not need any...
Read MoreThe History of Outboard Motors – Part Seven
Mercury Outboard Motors was founded in 1939 by Carl Kiekhaefer who at the time was a chief engineer working at a successful company not related to boating. Wanting to own his own business he bought a failed outboard motor company in his hometown of Cedarburg Wisconsin that produced Thor brand outboard motors, with the plan to produce magnetic separators for...
Read MoreThe History of Outboard Boat Motors – Part Six
In the early years of the outboard boat motors development, many people started companies and made their own boat motors in the hopes of selling them and making a lot money. For various reasons most of them did not last long. Here a few of the ones that are known and a little bit of information about them. I’m sure that many guys made outboard motors...
Read MoreThe History of Outboard Motors – Part Five
The Johnson brothers from Terre Haute Indiana first offered for sale the Johnson outboard motors in 1922 with their 2 horsepower twin cylinder, water cooled outboard motor that only weighed 35 pounds thanks to the use of many aluminum parts. The cost of the first Johnson ” Light Twin ” was $140.00 which was a lot of money in 1922. They sold over...
Read MoreThe History of Outboard Boat Motors – Part Four
Ole and Bess Evinrude worked so hard on making and marketing the outboard engines that in order to take time off and vacation they were forced to sell their interest in the company in 1914 to their partner Chris Meyer. One of the conditions of the sale stated the Evinrudes would not work in the industry or start another outboard motor company for five...
Read MoreThe History of Outboard Boat Motors – Part Three
About the same time Mr. Waterman was developing his first boat motors, a young man named Ole Evinrude, born in Norway in 1877 and came to America in 1882, started out his adult life at the age of sixteen by getting a job in a machine shop in Madison Wisconsin. He soon became very skilled in machinery and pattern making and studied mathematics in his spare...
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