105 year old 10hp turn of the 20th century, Blackstone oil engine startup

Even with all of the technological advances in the world of engines these days, there is something about the cool factor of an old school machine that just cannot be matched.

This time, we check out an engine that is incredibly old, dating all the way back 105 years to the turn of the 20th Century where it was the lifeblood of a community.

In the year of 1909, this Blackstone oil engine was used to pump water from the source of choice to a garden in order to maintain a healthy crop. However, in the 1920s, we are told that in an attempt to sabotage the engine, explosives were used to destroy the cylinder of the 10 hp power plant

Whoever tried to do this engineering apparently didn’t do a good enough job as it had been restored and put back to work for many years until it fell into disuse again.

The current rendition was revived in the 90s and completely redone in 1997. To this day, as far as we know, the engine is still alive and kicking over a century later. When you check something out like this and see the piece is still in working order, it’s incredible to think that this machine is older than pretty much everybody on earth.