Early 20th Century New Holland Type P 1 1/2 HP Farm Engine


 This gasoline engine was made by the New Holland Machine Company in New Holland, Pennsylvania. It has a 1 1/2 HP engine and is rated to run at 300 to 600 RPM. This particular engine has serial #9835 as well as two patents. The patents were both issued on April 7, 1903, to Abraham M. Zimmerman, the founder of the company. One of the patents, for a vaporizer for gas engines, is Patent 724648 which you can view by clicking or touching here. The other, for a sparking mechanism for engines, is Patent 724649 which you can view by clicking or touching here.


 Abraham M. Zimmerman was born on a farm near New Holland, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1869. After a few years as an apprentice, Zimmerman moved to New Holland and started his own workshop where he repaired a variety of machines for local farmers. His initial business was called the New Holland Machine Shop, and, by 1899, Zimmerman had developed his New Holland Cob and Feed Mill which made him locally known. He added gasoline engines to his products by 1901. In 1903, the year he incorporated his company as The New Holland Machine Company, his factory employed about 21 workers. The New Holland Machine Company changed hands several times over the years since the early 1900s, and is, today, part of Case-New Holland, one of the world's largest agricultural equipment manufacturers.


 If you would like to see and hear a New Holland 1 1/2 HP farm engine in action, click or touch here for a 44 second video. To see and hear a 59 second video of another old New Holland engine, click or touch here.




Notes
For some information on Zimmerman and his company before 1903, see "Zimmerman, Abraham M." in Biographical Annals of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: Biographical and Genealogical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and Many of the Earlier Settlers. (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1903), pp. 944-945.

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