MODEL N KEROSENE

     In 1913 when the model N was introduced so too was the N Kerosene. This was a basic model N but with a very different mixer.  Heat is needed to vaporize and burn kerosene properly, so to start the engine and get it hot the engine was first run on gasoline.  F&J designed a large square mixer that incorporated a gasoline starting reservoir.  Two needle valves were used, one for gasoline and the other for kerosene.  This let the user switch the engine's fuel supply once hot.  A special muffler was used to heat the incoming air supply and a manifold was used to pipe that air to the mixer.  This manifold incorporated a pair of choke plates for both starting and to allow mixing of hot and cold air.  It was an interesting setup but despite being heavily advertised the N Kerosene engines were not a big success.  Unless fully loaded the hit miss governing system just did not allow the engine to run hot enough at all times.  This caused several problems like excessive carbon, excessive smoke and waste of fuel along with oil dilution from unburnt fuel.  Many of these engines were exported to Australia where kerosene was a very popular fuel.  F&J had introduced a successful very large throttle governed engine line in 1914 yet it was not until the end of 1916 that a smaller series of throttle governed engines replaced the N kerosene.