Fuller & Johnson Mfg. Co. and The Farm Pump Engine

July/August 1999
Joe Graham 
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8316 Streng Avenue, Citrus Heights, California 95610

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Joe Graham sent us a copy of a letter he found in an antique shop in Savannah while on a trip through Oklahoma in 1998. The letter was printed on Fuller & Johnson letterhead, and had been mailed with a two cent stamp, on October 3, 1913.

10-2-13-B D. C. Cripe, Stanley, Wisconsin.

Dear Sir:

It has just occurred to the writer that you might be interested in our plant here and the manner in which the Farm Pump Engine is built. We therefore take pleasure in writing you in this connection.

In the first place, the Farm Pump Engine was designed by a man who was not only a born genius and a mechanical engineer with years of experience, but a practical farmer as well. This man knew the work that the engine should do--he knew the conditions under which it would have to operate. That is why the Farm Pump Engine is so adaptable to farm work and it is why the engine has met with unparalleled success.

You very likely are familiar with the wide range of uses of the engine after inspecting the one that Sliter & Hazen Company have, but the other side of the question, the factory side, will likely interest you now.

The foundry in which all of the castings of this engine are made, covers almost a square block. The furnace has a capacity of between 75,000 and 100,000 pounds of iron per day. A large force of skilled moulders is employed in this foundry--every man carefully picked and every man paid a wage that insures his interest in his work. This of course, is the foundation of efficiency in any foundry and the foundry, as you know, is the foundation of any engine.

It would be a most interesting sight to be in the foundry about four o'clock some afternoon when the molten iron is allowed to flow from the furnaces and is delivered to electric cranes and poured into the molds that have been made during the day.

The smaller castings, after being removed from the molds, are put into a 'rattler' where they are cleaned and entirely freed from sand. This 'rattler' is a big barrel-shaped affair, built of iron, with many projections on the inside. It revolves on an axle running through its center and throws the castings around in great shape, relieving them of any loose particles. This in itself is quite a test of the castings.

The main part of our machine shop consists of a well lighted building 350 feet in length and 200 feet wide. The equipment of lathes, drills and automatic machines is unparalleled by another manufacturer. Volume of output is what we have always been after and volume of output is what we have succeeded in getting through the excellence of the design of our engines; the thoroughness with which they are built, and the low prices that we quote.

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