“I read with great interest, the Scuttlebutt from Santos column in KTB #164. It certainly brought back memories – I’d like to share them with you.

The material on diesel-electric equipment is a page out of my past. After the war I was a Field Engineer for Crocker-Wheeler Electric, an old and respected manufacturer of electrical motors and generators. They had, however, fallen sound asleep and were mercifully acquired by Elliott Company, a maker of steam and electrical equipment. One of Elliott’s product lines was large generators made at their Ridgeway plant. The name is mentioned somewhere in #164 as Ridgeway Electric.

Selling generators to go along with diesel engines for power generation at municipal and remote mining companies in the Andes etc., I came into contact with the diesel business, which looked like more fun than what I was doing. I therefore leaped at an offer of employment by Nordberg Mfg. Co. Nordberg was founded by a Finn of Swedish extraction in the early 20th century. They had a licensing arrangement with M.A.N. and specialized in two-cycle engines sized at the upper end of the diesel business.

When I joined Nordberg in 1952 they had been expanding their offerings into the smaller four-cycle units, first with the 16 x 22 and 9 x 22 and later with the more modern 13 x 16 1/2 . Their Milwaukee plant capacity shortly became insufficient for the business they were booking. Fortunately the Busch-Sulzer Brothers Diesel Company of St. Louis came up for sale.

Old Mr. Busch, head of Anheuser-Busch, who spent half the year in the States and the other half at his baronial estate in Germany, had heard of Dr. Rudolf Diesel’s invention of a remarkable engine that would run on oil, powdered coal or just about anything. He negotiated with the diesel interests an exclusive license to make and sell the new engine type in the western hemisphere. Busch first signed a cooperative manufacturing agreement with Sulzer Brothers of Switzerland, and had the western hemisphere to itself for 14 years. Then as later they were very conservative in outlook and didn’t really capitalize on their opportunity as they might have. They basically didn’t believe in advertising, believing that the quality of the product was all the advertising they needed.

After the diesel patents expired in 1912 the woods were full of companies making the new kind of engine, but Busch just rocked along at their own pace. Their engines were over-engineered four-cycle units of conservative design, with a reputation for dependability. With the death of the elder Mr. Busch, however, it was as if the heart had gone out of Busch’s engine business. What with Budweiser beer and the St. Louis Cardinals, the Busch’s had plenty on their plate without the marginally profitable engine business.

So, in ca. 1949 Busch sold out to Nordberg, who in effect closed down the independent operation of the St. Louis plant and instead used the facility as strictly a manufacturing site for the new in-line 6 and 8 cylinder 13 x 16 1/2 engines.

Something interesting here. When, as a new hiree, I went to the St. Louis plant in 1952 for orientation, I spent quite a bit of time with the Busch Chief Engineer (he retired a few months later). Mr. Jeude was a fund of information about all aspects of the Busch operation. On one occasion I commented that I was surprised to see that so many of the engineering drawings, blueprints, tech papers etc. were in German. He answered that what I saw was only part of what they had. Until WW II almost everything was in German. According to what Jeude told me and what was common knowledge among the older hands, when the war started, the FBI went through the Busch plant like a dose of salts and carried away the German engineering papers (most never returned at the end of the war) and interned many of the German speaking engineers and plant personnel. Some said Busch never recovered from the loss of information and gifted engineers.

It was a standing joke in the engine business that Nordberg, whose engines were usually the highest priced, had an unfair advantage over their competitors due to our Anheuser-Busch connection. Prospective customers, City Council Members, Power Board Trustees etc. were always taken on a full press Budweiser brewery tour as part of the tour of the engine plant a couple of blocks down the street. Part of the drill in the engine business was always to take the votes ostensibly to see the engines being made or to talk to satisfied customers, but what they really wanted was to be wined and dined in big cities a million miles from where any engines were being run. If they just had to go through the manufacturing plant there is no doubt that our Budweiser connection made our plant a lot more appealing than those of our competitors.

I’ve led a full and varied life, but my years in the engine business, along with my service in WW II, are the ones that keep coming back like a song. They were filled with rogues and rascals, heroes and villains along with comedians, triumphs savored and losses suffered. In a word, with adventures, which is after all, a description of youth.

Best wishes for your continued good health and good work on Sharkhunters. When you and I and our comrades are all gone, only your work will be left to tell the tale in a sea of television’s instant history masquerading as truth.”

WAYNE, this is great! Thanks - we invite others to send us their memories. We’ll preserve this important history forever.