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Hercules Engine Corporation was an American engine manufacturer located in
Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in Stark County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, eighth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 70,872 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Canton–Massillo ...
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History

The company was founded in 1915, known at first as Hercules Motor Manufacturing Company, to build industrial engines, especially for trucks. The company reincorporated and reorganized in 1923, emerging as Hercules Motors Corporation. Hercules expanded greatly in the interwar period, developing gas and diesel engines, serving the needs for truck, tractor and a plethora of equipment operators. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
the company produced about 750,000 gasoline and diesel engines for Allied military vehicles, ships, and various equipment. But Hercules could not respond effectively to changes in the post-WWII engine market, so WWII remained its high water mark in terms of output, earnings and profits. In 1961 Cleveland-based Hupp Corp. purchased Hercules but failed to grow it substantially. But it did turn the focus to building engines for military applications as a means to keep the doors open. White Truck Corp., also based in Cleveland, purchased Hupp in 1967. White Truck was a huge and growing firm at the time (about $1 billion in sales) and it laid out ambitious plans for Hercules expansion, beginning product development and construction of a new plant in Canton. Hercules became known as White Engine at this point. This new trajectory for Hercules was short lived, however, with a rapid decline in White's fortunes, leaving Hercules little changed. White sold Hercules to Wedtech in 1986, which held the engine maker only briefly, before selling to a group of investors the next year. Significant here with the new owners was the recovery of its old name – Hercules. Kept afloat by securing a string of contracts for military trucks at home and abroad, plus a limited number of engine sales to equipment makers (such as lift trucks), Hercules Engine limped along, posting uneven financial numbers. By the 1990s its
cash flow Cash flow, in general, refers to payments made into or out of a business, project, or financial product. It can also refer more specifically to a real or virtual movement of money. *Cash flow, in its narrow sense, is a payment (in a currency), es ...
was precarious and military contracts dried up, leading to speculation for years that the company would fold. At the time of its closure in 1999, the company occupied a 26-acre site at 101 Eleventh St. SE in Canton, with over 600,000 square feet of industrial space.


Engines


References

{{reflist Engine manufacturers of the United States Companies based in Canton, Ohio Diesel engine manufacturers Motor vehicle engine manufacturers Companies established in 1915 1915 establishments in Ohio Companies disestablished in 1999 1999 disestablishments in Ohio