It takes machines to help men

During the war the use of aluminum was restricted to military devices only, Mercury Outboards (Kiekhaefer Corp.) had just started up in 1939 and when their supplies were almost exhausted they managed to get contracts to produce small engines and the chainsaw but they stopped outboard manufacturing. The whole story is very messy with the chain man. trying to take over the whole device and the Army constantly making changes in the specifications that reduced the profit margin, profits that were used to design more engines.
Meanwhile omc was able to keep on making outboards. The same thing was repeated during the korean War.
Despite these and other backstabbing occurrences Mercury became the world leader in Marine products.

OMC used stainless shafts in 1950.-----Mercury did not start using stainless until about 1976.-----You see a lot of nice examples of OMC from the 1950's in some areas.-----Not many older Mercury motors used every day.

That's not the point I was making; omc was still making and selling outboards to the public while other companies couldn't get the aluminum.

The book "Iron Fist" is must reading for anyone interested in Mercury's history.

Jeff

That is hilarious, anybodyand everybody knows what dick karl kiekhaefer was. That guy sued anybody and everybody and there probably wasn't a bigger crybaby on the racing circuit. He had a pretty loose relationship with the truth when it came to rating his outboards. And by the way the saws made during ww2 had 20 cid powerheads what size was the hurricane again.WW2 was not the hardship it seemed on Mercury they were still making 2 strk motors. Don't make him out to be a saint he was far from it.

That's a good point about the stainless shafts. They were perhaps a bit softer than the Merc shafts, but held up to oxidation. So the Mercs seal area got rusty, then damaged the seal and let grease out and water in. Mercs, however, with those "stacked" cylinders were pretty as Brigitte Bardot. Does anybody remember HER?...... Or was it Adrienne Barbeau? Yikes.....off subject!

I remember BOTH of them!

Jeff