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Grand Rapids in 1856

Scene of early Grand Rapids viewed from the...


Installing Motors

Special attention is give to the engine bed in our boats. It consists of two long stringers in white oak, will fastened to the keelson and the whole then bolted to the keep proper, thereby distributing the weight of the engine over the entire boat. The engine bed is then bolted to these stringers and the engine to this bed, making a job that will entirely eliminate any vibration.

The catalog features three motors: The Michael, the Monarch Motors made by Grand Rapids Gas & Engine Co., and Pease Engines.

Family recollections of the motors used in Jesiek Boats.

“All those old engines had what they called primer cups on them that relieved the compression so you could bar the engine over easier. They filled each one of the little cups. They had a little cup with a shutoff valve that opened it up to let the pressure off it. They primed it, they’d pour a little bit of gas in each cup and then they’d flop the engine over with the turning bar and when the engine started up it would go pft-pft-pft-pft-pft all over, popping up, till they got the valves shut off again.I can still see Stan Easter cranking those old three and four cylinders over with a big bar in the flywheel. You had to pull up, put it back in, pull up to get the thing started. They didn’t have a starter on them.”

Excerpted from the Jesiek Boat Co. catalog ca 1908



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