The History of Kohler 16 HP Magnum Engines
It's a long way from making a bathtub out of a hog trough to being one of America's largest privately held companies, but that's the path John Michael Kohler set out upon when he got inspired about what to do with the trough in 1883. The Kohler company would hold on to its founder's inventiveness for the next century and more as it became a leading manufacturer of not only plumbing fixtures but small engines as well.
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Company History
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Austrian immigrant John Michael Kohler bought a foundry in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in 1873, and in the process founded a company that would go on to be a global producer of plumbing fixtures, home products, furniture and, somewhat incongruously, small engines and golf resorts. Kohler entered the plumbing fixtures business after one day, on a whim, he coated a cast iron hog scalding trough with enamel and called it a bathtub. The company's foray into power systems would come much later, in 1920, when Kohler developed the Automatic Power & Light, the first internal combustion-powered electric generator. The generators were later modified for use on ships, and when Richard Byrd made an expedition to Antarctica in 1929, he took Kohler generators with him. When he returned for a second expedition in 1934 with new generators, he found that the generators he left there years before still worked.
Kohler Small Engines
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During World War II, the bulk of Kohler's production resources were dedicated to making torpedo tubes and shell fuses, but after the war, the company returned to the manufacture of plumbing fixtures and generators. Seeing the future of small engines in the post-war future, the company opened a factory dedicated to producing smaller power plants in 1948. In 1951, Kohler introduced the K90, a cast-iron air-cooled engine with a single cylinder. In 1959, the company debuted the first of its "interchangeable" engine series, models of varying horsepower with identical mountings and crank heights.
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First Magnum Engines
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Kohler's small engines were successful at home and abroad, and the company exported its products globally, most notably to southeast Asia. Kohler built a new engine factory in America in the 1960s and opened facilities in Canada and Mexico. The company unveiled new products in 1983 under the banner of "The New Shape of Kohler Power." The new engines featured contemporary styling, but internal innovations were more significant. The Series II engines were twin-cylinder units with new connecting rods, bearings and lubrication systems. The Magnum series was introduced the following year in single- and twin-cylinder models with horsepower ratings between eight and 20, including the 16-horsepower version.
Innovations
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The first Magnum engines featured electronic ignition and improved air filtration, and in 1986, Kohler introduced twin-cylinder Magnum models with vertical shafts. Sixteen-horsepower Magnums were offered with either horizontal or vertical shafts. All Magnums were built with cast iron and proved to be reliable and long lasting. Kohler was intent on continued innovation, however, and after the turn of the 21st century, the Magnum series was discontinued in favor of the more modern Command PRO, Courage and Aegis lines.
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