That same year the 15 engines produced were all sold immediately. In units were sold and the following year the number doubled. The Evinrude became the first outboard engine produced in series, while Ole and Bess flew with a happy marriage.
This is the romantic story about the invention of the outboard engine. If it is undeniable that Evinrude was the first to undertake mass production, it is likely that the then year-old Ole, who immigrated with his family to the USA from Norway in , may have seen or heard of an engine developed about four years earlier by Cameron Waterman. According to Waterman himself and supported by documents from the U.
Patent Office , the first tests of his engine took place on the Detroit River in February The following year Waterman began selling the first gasoline engines which received U. Patent No. The Waterman engine had a chain drive, but was soon modified with a drive shaft and bevel gears. Even with this modification, the Waterman engine was still a rather unpleasant tool, both in appearance and in operation, so much so that it was called Choughing Sarah, Sara with a cough.
So we realized it would work… In we made 25 of these engines and sold In we sold and about the same number in It was immediately successful thanks to the advertising and good business sense of his wife, Bes.
The success of ELTO was immediate. They pioneered the use of diecast aluminium castings, previously unheard of in the outboard motor industry. This site was the home of OMC right up until These include a recoil starter, the removable motor cowl, a forward, neutral and reverse gear shift and a remote fuel tank. From - In the postwar industrial boom outboard motor production surged ahead and in the years that followed outboards have become more reliable, far more fuel efficient and less polluting.
Competitors such as Mercury, Mariner, Yamaha, Suzuki, Tohatsu and Honda have all played a significant role in the evolution of the outboard as we know it today. Before there were stringent import restrictions on American products. There was a proliferation of Australian manufactured outboards of low horsepower and limited reliability. British made Seagulls and Anzanis were highly prized and some Swedish Pentas made their way into the country.
In , he earned a patent 1,,; "Marine Propulsion System" and formed a business partnership with a tugboat magnate named Chris Meyer. The Evinrudes literally wore themselves out producing and promoting their engines, and in were forced to sell their business interests to Meyer in order to take a vacation. Having promised not to work in the field for five years, Evinrude toured the U.
When the five years were up, the Evinrudes returned to Milwaukee. Evinrude, who had not been idle, thought it only fair to offer Meyer his revolutionary new invention: a twin-cylinder, 3-horsepower, pound, aluminum outboard motor.
Meyer declined, which forced Evinrude's new "Elto" Company into competition with the first company he had founded. For ten years, they jockeyed for position, as a third contender, Johnson Motors est. Evinrude never stopped improving his motors, and his company's market share increased.
Later that year, on October 28th, the stock market crashed, and the Great Depression began. Evinrude's company survived only from sale to sale; but even in these hard times, Ole Evinrude never lost his optimism and generosity.
Like a real-life George Bailey, he would shyly slip friends and employees cash to help them through hard times. At the boat show, Evinrude unveiled an hp motor that could take boats to 35 mph. Bess died in ; Ole followed in Ralph, 27, became president of OMC, a position he held for almost 50 years. Over the next 15 years, sales decreased, and OMC struggled to comply with U.
Environmental Protection Agency requirements. The company filed for bankruptcy in Bombardier Inc. That is remarkable when you think of all the products on the market today that were not around in
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