Leon Becker has spent the last 35 years hunting for stationary gas engines at auctions, in junk piles and on leads from friends. Today, the Yankton, S.D., man has a 50-piece collection.
Leon’s interest in hit-and-miss engines dates to the 1-3/4 hp Associated engine his father once used to provide power for a cement mixer. After the engine sat abandoned for many years, Leon asked his father for permission to tinker with it and get it running.
Later, after purchasing and restoring a few other hit-and-miss engines, Leon began collecting Delco light plants. They were less costly and, at the time, he was working in the electric power industry. “I started collecting Delco light plants 32 years ago, when I worked for the Nebraska Public Power District,” he says. “The Delco electric generators were really cheap when I started collecting them. Now it could cost as much as $400 to purchase and restore one.”
Leon has enjoyed hearing the personal remembrances of people he encounters who recall how their family used the light plants. “Some people set them up in their basement or an outside building on the farm,” he says. “It’s always fun to hear those stories.”