Corvettes, Old Tractors, and Old Gas Engines

I went downtown to catch the Corvettes at the Downers Grove Classic Car Night. One was on its way to Curtiss street as I walked down Main.
And below is an overview of the action on Curtiss Street.

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A closer look.

And across the street.

I was out of town for my favorite Classic Car Night night---trucks and tractors. But I noticed in Michael Matalis' Photostream that he caught pictures of a Farmall, M John Deere, Super A Farmall, H Farmall, and a WD45 Allis Chalmers. (I'm assuming that photostream links are permanent. I'm not a Flick guru.) When I was a kid, I drove the tricycle version of the H Farmall a few times because my Grandfather's brother had an H and a M.
And the annual trailer full of old gas engines was also there. The person who brings this trailer must have quite a collection because the content is different than what I have seen in previous years. I know that one year an engine was driving a pump so that it had some load. The notion of a throttle had not yet been invented. So these engines regulated their speed by how often they would fire. That is why they all have a big flywheel. When they don't have a load, it can be quite a few seconds and several revolutions between firings for some engines. The Heston Steam Museum had a 12-HP antique propane engine running during its Steam Days. At first I thought the first video was firing every cycle. But then I realized it "clicks" every cycle, but goes "pow" during about half of the cycles. I'm still surprised it fired so often given that it was a rather big 12-HP engine and running with no load. Note that it has a big flywheel on both sides of the engine.



Speaking of audio character, I took a closer look at the John Deere tractor. I once heard an old John Deere tractor go down the road by my Grandfather's farm. When you hear one, it is obvious why it is nicknamed a putt-putt. They had just two big cylinders. And they were horizontal so that most of the "engine compartment" was empty.

20140906 0018, Holmer Township Festival

It is interesting how different the above Model B is from the below version. Notice the "raw" steering gear and radiator in the below version. I assume it is older than the above version. You can find more putt-putt models in the above linked festival report.

Copyleft, Dake

The M is more modern because it has vertical cylinders, but Wikipedia indicates that it still has only two cylinders: "The M was the first Deere tractor to use a vertical 2-cylinder engine, with a square bore and stroke of 4.0 × 4.0 inches (100.5cuin) with a high row crop."

Copyleft, Artiez

And speaking of old tractors and things on a trailer, this is what I caught going down Main Street August 26, 2014:

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