Harold Sittler of Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada, sent us this article from the 1909 issue of Farmer’s Advocate and Home Journal, a western Canadian weekly newspaper.
This picture shows the Case 32 horsepower simple traction engine under the brake test at the Winnipeg Industrial Exhibition. The brake strength of this engine is from 110 to 125 horsepower while its traction power is as rated above. Under the three tests hauling, brake and plowing the above engine was awarded first prize and gold medal by the judges of the motor contest.
Enquiries have been made as to the nature and significance of the brake test through which engines were run in the motor contest at the Winnipeg Industrial. This test is intended to show the maximum working capacity of the engine under test. At the same time the engines can be inspected for other points on the elaborate score-card, such as balancing, steadiness and general running condition.
The brake consists of a forty-inch pulley, mounted on a four-inch shaft, on which is a fifty-inch pulley with flanges on the outside and the inside of the run. Around the larger pulley are four laps of one and one-quarter- inch rope so arranged that the tension on both ends of the rope can be measured. The engine is connected with the forty-inch pulley by the drive belt. By increasing or decreasing the tension on the ropes it is possible to put any load desired on the engine.
