The Foos Gas Engine Company is a former American manufacturer of gasoline engines.

Origins

Clark Sintz had been undertaking pioneering engine work both on his own and with Charles F Endter. In 1885 the Sintz Gas Engine Company demonstrated a small 2-cycle engine in a small boat. The engine was based on a

Dugald Clerk Sir Dugald Clerk (sometimes written as Dugald Clark) KBE, LLD FRS (1854, Glasgow – 1932, Ewhurst, Surrey) was a Scottish engineer who designed the world's first successful two-stroke engine in 1878 and patented it in England in 1881. He wa ...

design. Clerk was a Scottish engineer who had patented the engine in the 1870s. John Foos held the patent for this engine. Foos developed his own improved version of Sintz's engine and established the Foos Gas Engine Company in 1887 in

Springfield, Ohio Springfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Clark County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Mad River, Buck Creek, and Beaver Creek, approximately west of Columbus and northe ...

. The Board consisted of Scipio E. Baker (President), Charles E. Patric (Vice President), Randolph Coleman (secretary) and Harry E. Snyder (CFO)

Products

By 1900, the Foos Gas Engine Company claimed to be the largest engine manufacturer in the world. The company made stationary gas and oil engines in the late 1800s and early 1900s, gasoline powered traction engines up until at least 1905, and in the 1920s they made wood-sawing machines. Foos engines were sold globally. In the mid-1920's the company developed a diesel engine suitable for automobiles and other vehicles.

Fulton Iron Works

The company continued to make engines until 1927, when it was sold to Fulton Iron Works of

St Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. George Foos, John's son, was the company president at the time. John had died in 1908. Fulton continued making Foos engines in Springfield until 1942. They then transferred the engine-making to St Louis.http://www.ohiomemory.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p267401coll36/id/11701 Fulton's are now a subsidiary of South Side Machine Works.

References

{{Reflist Springfield, Ohio Marine engine manufacturers Engine manufacturers of the United States