How to Build a Three-Horsepower Launch Engine

by E. W. Roberts

• Published in 1901 by The Gas Engine Publishing Company
• Reprinted in 1998 by Marine Books & Machinery

Complete description and drawings for the construction, assembly, and installation of a 3HP, single cylinder,four-cycle, make-and-break marine engine. Written by one of the foremost engine designers of his day.

How to Build a Three-Horsepower Launch Engine by E.W. Roberts was first published in 1901 by The Gas Engine Publishing Co., of Cincinnati, Ohio. It is a sixty-six page book that contains complete text, drawings, and instructions for an amateur to build a single cylinder, three horsepower, make'n'break, marine engine. The process required the building of foundry patterns, casting the parts, machining, assembling, and testing the engine. Quite an extraordinary undertaking for an amateur, but apparently it was done. Weston Farmer in his book From My Old Boatshop states that when he was a child one of his neighbors built an engine from this book.

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Author Biography

E.W. Roberts, M.E. was a prominent designer and technical writer in the period from about 1895 to 1920. He also wrote The Gas Engine Handbook and On Marine Motors & Motor Launches. He designed engines for many of the early manufactures and built his own engines under the name of Roberts Motor Manufacturing Co. of Sandusky, Ohio. He wrote technical articles for publications such as Rudder, Powerboat, Motor Boating and Home Study Magazine.