If it weren't for ice cream there'd be no outboard motors?

[rbgarr]

http://www.marinebusinessnews.com/Ole-Evinrude---Dont-row,-throw-the-oars-away...%20...%20../60079

[peter radclyffe]

they are indispensable, 2 guys in the oz outback, had no easy way to wash their clothes, so they built the ultimate washing machine, a 50 gallon oil drum full of water & detergent with a gauze net across half of it, the outboard one side, the clothes the other, bingo, i just love the aussie , can do, attitude http://www.woodenboat.com/forum/images/icons/icon7.gif

[rbgarr]

Sounds oily to me.

[Bob Adams]

I read the history of Evinrude a long time ago, a good story. Ole was a good person well as an inventor. I remember a passage from the book where Ole was loading a motor in a customer's car during the Great Depression and said, "with that one, we can make payroll." The marketing wiz actually was Bess Evinrude.

[AndreasJordahlRhude]

Gasoline outboard motors were around before Ole Evinrude jumped into it. It is a myth that Evinrude invented the first outboard motor and the Evinrude company has perpetrated that myth.

Cameron Waterman preceded Evinrude plus there were others that were earlier.

Evinrude was very successful and survived whereas the others faded away.

That article has plenty of mistakes in it. It states that in 1912 the Evinrude company changed its name to Elto. That is not true. Ole Evinrude sold and left Evinrude Motor Company in 1914. Five years later, he formed a new company to build outboards and called it Elto. It was a competitor to Evinrude. Elto very quickly surpassed Evinrude company in unit sales. In 1929 Evinrude, Elto and Lockwood merged to form Outboard Motors Corporation. In 1936 Johnson was merged into OMC and the name became Outboard Marine and Manufacturing Company (OMMC). The "Marine" was later dropped.

Andreas