Port Huron Engine & Thresher Co. manufactured threshers,
sawing machinery, hay press balers, corn shellers, hauling wagons
for steamers, water tanks for wagons, portable steam engines,
combination roller and hauling steam traction engines and the Port
Huron road roller. They also manufactured Port Huron
simple-cylinder, compound, double-compound, Longfellow single and
was tested to 250 pounds with cold water, followed by 185 pounds of
steam pressure.
Port Huron steam traction engine sizes included 19, 20, 22, 24,
25, 30 and 32 HP. The 19 HP was touted as “the most economical
traction engine in the world.” The 20 HP Longfellow-Port Huron
single-cylinder steam traction engine used a high-pressure boiler
and balanced piston valve. The 22 HP double-cylinder steam traction
engines had a friction clutch and lock pin “providing for traction
operation without use of the clutch,” Norbeck writes in
Encyclopedia of American Traction Engines.
The 25 HP Port Huron double-compound steam traction engine held
480 gallons of water. Front wheels were 60 inches in diameter, and
the drive wheels 90 inches with a 34-inch face, including
extensions. Port Huron claimed the 30 HP double-tandem compound
Longfellow saved threshermen more than $150 a season because of its
efficiency. “The double-tandem compound,” Norbeck says, “was
greatly superior to a cross-compound, in that it avoided the need
of a receiving chamber between the two cylinders.” The 32 HP Port
Huron steam traction engine was designed for heavy plowing and
heavy hauling on unimproved roadways. It could also be used for
threshing.
Early Port Huron steam road rollers were called New York Huron
Standards. The 32 HP Port Huron regular road roller with compound
cylinder “was suitable for all roller work in the construction and
finishing of plain macadam roads and tar macadam pavements,”
Norbeck explains, “and for rolling and compacting embankments,
fills, sub grades, earth roads, gravel roads and shale roads. It
also had sufficient power and equipment for hauling road-making
materials and graders, or for driving rock crushers.”
