April19_2008

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

The donkey engine was probably the second source of power on many Surrey farms at the turn of the 20th century. Farmers were sometimes able to obtain old engines from local logging companies who had much greater financial resources and were able to have cutting edge technology available at the time. The use of these donkey machines which were used to replace the horse and donkey for such tasks as saw cutting and skidding logs was not readily available until the 1910s and 1920s. The donkey engine provided significant advantage in clearing land and could be delivered to a logging site or farm and be put to use immediately.

Photos - Frames left and center: An antique Flather and Co Electric motor made in Leeds England.

Frame right: Another variation of small donkey engine that is mounted on skids - the fat pulley drive was used to attach a belt to a work load.

The introduction of the internal combustion engine mad important labor saving advances for many farm operations. In barns and sheds, gasoline engines operated chaff cutters, grain grinder, butter churns and sawing tools. Engines were portable enough to be delivered to the hayfield to power the huge threshing machines. By the mid-twentieth century, the draught horse and donkey were becoming obsolete.

Photos - Frames left and right: A donkey engine attached to a grain grinder which eases the work load of the farmer when making flour.

Center frame: A donkey engine made by IDEAL. All of these photos are from a collection of engines stored in the Pole Barn at the Stewart Farm at 13723 Crescent Road in Surrey.

Petters Limited (known as JB Petter & Sons of Yeovil until 1910), were a maker of stationary petrol and diesel engines from 1896 onwards. James Bazeley Petter, an agricultural engineer and iron founder, had premises in the Borough, Yeovil. It was there that Ernest and Percival, his twin sons, designed and built a self propelled oil engine in 1892. Three years later they designed the first internal combustion engine motor car to be made in the United Kingdom. The car, using a converted four-wheel horse-drawn phaeton and a 3 hp (2 kW) horizontal oil engine, had a top speed of 12 miles per hour (19 km/h). The vehicle was constructed at the Park Road carriage works of Hill and Boll. It weighed 9 cwt (457 kg) including the 120 lb (55 kg) of the Petter engine with its flywheel and side bars.

The twins continued to develop vehicles, the twelfth of which they entered to a competition at Crystal Palace in 1897, without success. Failing to achieve the commercial success that they hoped, they adapted the engines for agricultural and industrial use. In 1902 they produced the first agricultural tractor, powered by a 30 horsepower (22 kW) horizontal oil engine.

The first engines made by Petter were Petter Standard oil engines which were horizontal open crank engines made to very high standards.

With commercial production under way, the family launched a private company called J. B. Petter & Co. Ltd. in 1902.

Around 1903 cheap American imports, including the "Jack of all Trades" manufactured by the Fairbanks Morse Company, threatened the English stationary engine industry, and unlike most companies at the time Petter decided to produce a cheaper engine of their own to combat the threat. This engine was called the Petter Handyman which was sold around 20% lower in price than the 'Petter Standard' and was sold in batches of 50 or more.

In 1912 the company went public and began engine production in a new factory named the Nautilus Works (after the fire grates that had made James Petter's fortune) in Reckleford. Its workforce of 500 men produced 1500 engines a year.

From 1920s onwards Petters made two-stroke and four-stroke engines. Such models as the M-type and the A-type were highly successful and were competitors for Listers D-Type.

In the 1930s the company manufactured mechanical calculators. The company obtained a patent on calculator technology in 1923 and two more in 1930. Guy Bazeley Petter then took out equivalent US patents and assigned the rights to the company. The company subsequently sold its calculator designs to the Bell Punch company.

After the second world war, Petters took over the old Lagonda works in Egham Hythe near Staines, Middlesex, employing over 1000 people at its peak.

Photos - L-R - A wide view of some donkey engines used for various grinding and sawing chores around the Stewart Farm.

A Petter Patented Oil engine.

The eastern side of the Pole Barn with the entrance to the section devoted to the Donkey Engines.

Click here for more photos of The Stewart Farm in Surrey for this day.