Antique Engines

Introducing Antique Engines, Evocative Sound and Visuals’ latest sound effects library. In it, hear expressive examples of restored late 19th and early 20th-century stationary and moving engines. Some appear to hiss, spit and cough. Others puff and snort. Some just wheeze, gasping for air like their mechanical lives depend upon it. My favorite pant like tired old dogs. The kind you’d see stretched out atop a Louisiana levee at the end of August. 

Read more: Antique Engines

For this library, I recorded a two cylinder 18-horsepower Wisconsin TJD air-cooled cast iron engine made from the 1950s-1980s under different throttling positions. I had the pleasure of recording 13 different open crank hit-and-miss flywheel engines. These were popular on farms and in factories from the late 19th century through the 1940s. Their erratic, heartbeat-like rhythms are simply fantastic to listen to.

I lifted my boom pole to the smokestack of a beautifully restored early 20th-century 15-horsepower propane-powered Reid oil field engine. It was taken from western Pennsylvania oil fields and no doubt played a major role in the production of crude oil in its day.  I recorded a six cylinder Ingersol Rand radial air compressor engine through various throttle positions. I stood beside and walked with two steam engines, a 1897 10-horsepower Peerless Model Q and a 1903 Huber used to operate a shingle mill. And, I captured three throttle governed engines and two single-cycle gasoline engines. The latter used to operate washing machines, a 1910 Eden Kleenzal and 1927 Maytag. 

Antique Engines was recorded at several county fairs and tractor shows in Ohio and Idaho. Amiable owners were kind enough to operate their antiques for my microphones repeatedly when I asked, “Would you please do that one more time?” I was able to record some engines from start up to shut down. Others were caught during the middle of their displays. Files with too much competing noise were discarded. 

To the untrained ear, these huffing and puffing engines sound quite ill. Rest assured, they’re healthy, and can help bring a unique rhythmic signature to your next project.

Library Specifics

• 60 sounds
• 31 loops
• 84 minutes
• 2.89 GB
• Each sound is captured at 96kHz/24bit with either a Sony PCM D100 recorder (and its built in microphones in XY) or Line Audio CM3 mics in ORTF using a Sound Devices 702 recorder or Sound Devices Mixpre-D/Sony PCM M10 combination
• Embedded Metadata via BWF and Soundly
• UCS compliant

Listen to a Preview

Engines Recorded for This Library

• Advance-Rumely Company steam engine (1/3 scale)
• Associated Manufacturers Co. 6 horsepower hit-and-miss engine (circa 1920)
• Associated Manufacturers Co. Chore Boy 1 ¾ horsepower hit-and-miss engine (circa 1919)
• Banner red 1 3/4 hp hit-and-miss engine made by Waterloo Boy (circa 1917) 
• Economy hit-and-miss engine built by Hercules and sold by Sears & Roebuck (circa 1916)
• Fairbanks Morse 15 horsepower two-cycle water-cooled engine, weighing 4,500 pounds (circa 1917). The engine originally ran on heating oil, but can run on diesel, which is cheaper. It originally featured a cast-iron muffler but was replaced with a vertical muffler that produces a nice warm low tone.
• Fairbanks Morse 6 horsepower hit-and-miss engine (circa 1917)
• Fairbanks Morse Model H 4 horsepower throttling governor engine (circa 1915). At full power, the 5-inch bore, 8-inch stroke engine, weighing 1,300 pounds with cart, runs at 350 r.p.m.
• Geiser Peerless Model Q 10 horsepower side-crank piston-valve steam traction engine (circa 1897). Made by the Geiser Manufacturing Company of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. The engine converts stored energy from wood to heat two 90-gallon water tanks in the rear of the engine, plus a 210-gallon boiler up front, to make steam, which in turn powers a belt running a buzz saw. Two petcocks located on the right side of the engine release steam and sound as they drain the cylinder of water that has condensed.
• Huber Manufacturing Co. of Marion, Ohio steam engine (circa 1903) 
• Ingersoll Rand vertical shaft six cylinder radial air compressor engine (1940s -1950s)
• International Harvester Model LB throttle-governed stationary engine (circa 1948)
• Jaeger/Hercules 3 horsepower hit-and-miss engine (circa 1925). At full throttle, the 650-pound engine, with cart, produces 475 rpm. The company also produced engines for Arco, Economy (Sears), Jaeger and Thermoil. 
• Lauson hit-and-miss engine (circa 1930) running a Summit washing machine with a bell on top
• McCormick-Deering International Harvester model M 1.5 horsepower gasoline-powered throttle-governed engine (circa 1926). Used for anything we use an electric motor for today: grind corn, buz wood, pump water. 
• McCormick-Deering International Harvester model M gasoline-powered 1.5 horsepower, throttle governor engine (circa 1926). Used for anything we use an electric motor for today: grind corn, buz wood, pump water. 
• Monarch model N 1 ¾ horsepower 500 r.p.m. hit-and-miss engine (circa 1916 to 1920)
• Reid oil field engine, used primarily in the oil fields of eastern United States from the mid to late 1800s to early 1900s.
• Stover Manufacturing and Engine Company 2 horsepower hit-and-miss engine (circa 1924) The engine, made in Freeport, Illinois, would have been used to power saws, drill presses and conveyer belts into the 1950s.
• Wisconsin TJD two cylinder air-cooled 1,800 rpm cast iron engine (circa 1976)

What is a Hit-and-Miss Engine?

What exactly is a hit-and-miss engine you ask? First understand that I’m no engine mechanic. I can change the oil on my car and replace an air filter from time to time. That’s about it. I had to look this question up, and ask around.

When mechanics talk about how the typical 4-stroke internal combustion engine works, they’ll often use the phrase, “suck, squeeze, bang and blow.” They are describing, in order, the intake stroke, compression stroke, power stroke and exhaust stroke. Hit-and-miss stationary engines received their name from the way they operate. They ‘hit’ or fire only when running at or below the set speed, and ‘miss,’ or don’t fire, when they’re running above the set speed. Their speed control mechanism differentiates them from throttle-governed engines. A throttle governor on a lawn mower is much like cruise control on a car. It’ll bring the right amount of speed to the engine regardless of its load. Think tall grass you haven’t mowed for a few weeks.