Columbus-based Cummins Inc. is a global power company that netted $23.8 billion in sales last year, and is known for producing diesel engines capable of producing horsepower for semis, pickup trucks, trains, boats and mining equipment.
But a century ago, the company’s founder, Clessie Cummins, was an entrepreneur offering single-cylinder, kerosene engines of 1½, 3, 6 and 8 horsepower used for buzz saws, grinding feed, pumping water and crushing rock.
A handful of those rare early engines that helped lay the foundation for the company’s growth and success will be on display, and serve as a history lesson, when Cummins celebrates its 100th anniversary locally with a June 15 event in downtown Columbus, for current and former employees.
“These are the engines that started us down the path of being an engine company. Without these engines Cummins wouldn’t be here,” said Randy Watts, a Cummins performance engineering team lead and technical adviser. A historian of the company’s early oil engines, he also owns one of the 1 1/2 horsepower engines.
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The collection of the earliest Cummins engines displayed together in one setting for the June celebration is possible because a few engine enthusiasts, who are current or former Cummins employees, agreed to have the engines displayed.
Such a historical display is important, they said.
“I’ll bet a really low percentage of people in town know how Cummins started, so the historical thing for the company will be good. It knits the whole thing together,” said Bill Stahl, a retired original equipment manufacturer service director for Cummins who owns one of the 3 horsepower engines.
How it started
Clessie Cummins served as the chauffeur and mechanic for Columbus banker William G. Irwin, starting on Oct. 8, 1908. Over the next several decades, Cummins’ entrepreneurial drive and Irwin’s support led to a company that has grown over a century into a global powerhouse.
According to Watts, Cummins biographies and company historical documents:
Cummins opened Cummins Machine Works in the summer of 1913. He operated a machine shop out of half of Irwin’s garage, with the agreement that Irwin’s car would be kept in the other half — for performing his chauffeur duties when called upon.
His shop did work for the Stenotype Company of Indianapolis, completing tool and jig contracts, but it also did work for the government during World War I, helping with war supply efforts. When a foundry in Columbus received a big order for cast-iron hubs to be fitted to artillery wagon wheels, the machining work for the hubs came to Cummins’ shop.
Upon the Miller family’s return from a summer vacation in September 1917, the Millers found their car moved to public storage, castings piled all over the area surrounding the garage and the Machine Works operating 24 hours a day. The family arranged to move the machine shop to a larger building on Jackson Street, the Cerealine Building.
By mid-1917, Cummins Machine Works was machining ordnance parts for the U.S. Army and Navy.
Despite the steady work, two things were tugging Cummins in a different direction. He felt the urge to find an engine that would run well on kerosene because of his experiences in 1912 during a trip down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, with his brother-in-law Brainard McCoy. During the trip, Cummins realized that gasoline was not a common fuel, but kerosene was readily available.
And, by the summer of 1918, it was clear that the war in Europe was drawing to a close. Cummins didn’t know what additional orders he might receive, so he returned to his interest on the internal combustion engine.
In October 1918, Cummins learned of a new development called the Hvid engine, which helped to reduce the size of the oil-burning engine to moderate proportions. The Hvid was a compression ignition engine that used an injector patented and made by the R.M. Hvid Co., and burned oil-based fuels. Cummins knew of the Hvid engine because of a St. Mary’s (Ohio) Oil Engine, another Hvid licensee, that was used at a Columbus flour mill in 1915.
Through work his machine shop had done for the Hercules Gas Engine Co. in Evansville, Cummins knew that Hercules was also making 6 and 8 horsepower Hvid engines. Cummins had helped Hercules with extra machining needed to maintain its production requirement for Sears, Roebuck & Co. The relationship with Hercules made Cummins aware of a license possibility, so he visited Hvid’s engineering and sales office in Chicago during November 1918.
“Clessie jumped at the chance,” said Watts, who also has the unofficial title of Cummins Hvid chief engineer.
After returning to Columbus, Cummins finalized the incorporation of Cummins Engine Company on Feb. 3, 1919. After that, a license was purchased from the Hvid company with a check for $2,500, sent Feb. 21, 1919.
Cummins’ original plans were to offer 1-1/2, 3, 6 and 8 horsepower Hvid engines. However, by the late fall of 1919, only the 6 horsepower had been produced.
Sears wanted to offer 1 1/2 and 3 horsepower Hvid engines in their sales catalog, in addition to the larger 6 and 8 horsepower Hvid engines manufactured by Hercules and sold as Thermoil engines. Hercules was either unable to meet capacity or uninterested in making the smaller Hvid engines, so it suggested to Sears that they talk to Cummins about making the smaller engines.
Cummins entered into a contract with Sears in October 1919 to deliver 4,500 engines of 1 1/2 and 3 horsepower — despite never having built one of the smaller size Hvid engines.
“These are labor-saving devices,” Watts said.
The engines Cummins made for Sears were sold as Thermoil engines in the Sears catalog.
The first 1 1/2 horsepower Thermoil engine was ready by April 1920. It sold for $69.95, or $75.20 if purchased through monthly payments.
Customers seemed to like the engines that Cummins made, but a problem that Cummins encountered had to do with Sears’ 30-day money back guarantee.
“Farmers would buy the engine, share it among the community and after about 30 days contact the rail agent and have it shipped back to Columbus to get their money back,” Watts said. “A lot of returns happened.”
Cummins and Sears wanted to terminate the contract because neither party was making money due to the number of returned engines. By early 1922, the agreement was terminated.
The company was struggling financially, and had no new products yet. It continued to sell 1 1/2, 3, 6 and 8 horsepower engines under the private Cummins Oil Engine label, to generate sales, through January 1925.
In the meantime, Cummins had started working on new engine designs. The first was a new Hvid design, a vertical engine for the marine market which was explored in mid-1921. Then in 1924, Cummins introduced its first non-licensee engine, the Model F, which was initially marketed to fishing boats in the Pacific Northwest. However, it later gained acceptance as a powerplant for small electric generators, and among other uses found a market for powering lighthouses.
Cummins continued to develop new engine models, but it wasn’t until 1937 that the company turned its first profit.
That groundwork started with the small horsepower oil engines it manufactured.
Cummins made about 900 to 1,000 each of the 1 1/2 and 3 horsepower engines, about 104 of the 6 horsepower engines and about 25 of the 8 horsepower engines, Watts said, citing company accounting documents.
Only five of the 6 horsepower engines are known to survive — three of which are owned by Cummins — and only two of the 8 horsepower engines are known to still exist, Watts said. About 18 of both the 1 1/2 and 3 horsepower engines are known to survive, he added.
Eager to showcase
A gathering March 15 at the Cummins History and Restoration Center on the east side of Columbus drew together several of the early engine owners. It also marked a rare gathering of at least one of each of the earliest Cummins engines, Watts said.
About a dozen of the earliest engines will be on display for the June 15 celebration in Columbus, Watts said. One, however, a 3 horsepower, is traveling internationally for the company’s anniversary celebrations. It was displayed at a trade show in Germany and is next bound for the United Kingdom, he said.
Watts said he hopes that those who view the early engines gain an appreciation for the engineering and challenges involved, considering the time they were created, despite their crude and simple look.
“When giving tours to newer (Cummins) employees or customers, I enjoy showing the product that launched the engine company onto the path that has led us to today, 100 years later. It was a combination of the Hvid engine, Clessie’s passion, drive and entrepreneurial spirit, as well as the Irwin/Miller family’s financial backing, that started us on the path towards the future, which today sees Cummins developing future products for 2020 and beyond,” Watts said.
Some of the early engine owners also said they hope viewers gain an appreciation for the engines.
Stahl bought his 3 horsepower Cummins-made, Hvid-type engine in 1980, fulfilling a desire to own an early engine made by his employer. The flywheel was cracked when he purchased it, and eventually he had a new one made.
Since restoring it to running condition, he likes to use it for teaching purposes, taking it to shows where steam, gas and diesel engines are displayed. People know they have an engine in their car, but probably haven’t see in run. Stahl’s 3 horsepower engine is basically the simplest form of engine found, he said.
“People will see it run and it will mesmerize them. The openness of the crankshaft, the flywheel and gears turning and the sound. People like to stand there and watch it run,” Stahl said.
Don Welliver, who worked at Cummins for 36 years, owns the 6 horsepower engine that his father Kenneth Welliver, a former Cummins machinist, bought and restored in 1979.
Kenneth Welliver used to take it to engine shows around the state, and even displayed it at the Henry Breeding Farm locally, his son said.
After his father’s death in 1988, the engine sat idle until three or four years ago, when Watts helped Don Welliver get it running again.
Don Welliver said displaying the 6 horspower engine in June will be meaningful because it will help show his father’s workmanship.
Eric Thompson, who works in aftermarket global support for Cummins, bought one of the 1 1/2 horsepower engines about three years ago, from an owner in Texas. He said he wanted one of the earliest engines after reading Clessie Cummins’ memoir, “My Days with the Diesel.”
Thompson said he likes to take his engine to farm and antique tractor shows. For the June Cummins celebration, he’s hopeful the early engines can demonstrate what they were used for a century ago, such as pumping water or grinding corn.
Gordon Jones, a Columbus native and former Cummins employee who now lives in Williamsport, Ohio, owns one of the 8 horsepower engines.
He said he likes to take it to antique engine and tractor shows, and several times has had it at the Coolspring Power Museum, in Coolspring Pennsylvania, which highlights the history of the internal combustion engine with more than 275 stationary engines.
Jones, a museum board member, said he was eager to let his 8 horsepower engine be displayed in the Cummins celebration after learning about it from Alex Cook.
Cook, a former Cummins application engineer who lives in Columbus, helped bring the early engines together for the June celebration.
Cook’s personal 20-year search for an early Cummins engine ended about a month ago with the purchase of a 1 1/2 horsepower engine.
“I was ecstatic. It was like Christmas. I couldn’t wait to get it started. It fired right up and ran like a champ,” said Cook,
Finding the earliest Cummins engines for sale is challenging, and they aren’t cheap. The owners said the 1 1/2 and 3 horsepower engines cost between $4,000 and $8,000, depending on condition. The 6 and 8 horsepower engines sell for about $8,000, they said.
Hanging on to these antique engines is important, Cook said.
“The company was built by a lot of sweat and tears by a lot of people. To think that a $20 billion company can trace its roots to a little engine because of the vision of one man is humbling,” Cook said.
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The earliest engines that Cummins made were single-cylinder kerosene engines, of 1 1/2, 3, 6 and 8 horsepower. They were popular for popular for farm-related needs, such as grinding feed and pumping water.
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Some examples of the earliest Cummins engines will be on display June 15 in downtown Columbus when Cummins Inc. has its local celebration of its 100th anniversary for current and former employees and their families.
From, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Jackson Street, from Fifth to Seventh streets; Fifth Street, from Washington to Lindsey streets; and Sixth Street, from Jackson to Washington streets, will be closed.
The event is expected to draw about 13,000 people, and will include food vendors, events for children and two or three stages for speakers and bands, and the remodeled museum in the Corporate Office Building will be open for attendees to see.
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