Evinrude Outboard Motor

This outboard motor, designed and built by Ole Evinrude (1877-1934) at the Evinrude Motor Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was quickly accepted by the boating public of the United States. Bess Evinrude called the prototype a "coffee grinder," but it moved a boat through water better than the huge steam- or foot-driven motors available in 1907. She encouraged him to build and sell ten, then twenty, soon resulting in the redirection of their automotive equipment business to outboard motors. Its immediate success stimulated the formation of competing companies and created a new industry. Evinrude built a 62-pound two-cycle internal combustion motor that ran at 1 1/2 horsepower at 1,000 revolutions per minute. The cylinder was horizontal, the crankshaft vertical, and the direction gears housed in a submerged unit. The design has remained standard for outboard motors.