The Johnson Brothers

The outboard motor industry saw more than just the rise of Elto in the early 1920s. Other players had also entered the marketplace. The newly formed Johnson Motors Company burst onto the scene with a twin-cylinder motor, quickly taking leadership away from Evinrude Motors. Much like Evinrude, Johnson Motors began as a family owned and operated business. In 1908, with just the bare basics for parts, the brothers Johnson crafted their first marine engine in a barn in Terre Haute, Indiana.

The sons of a railroad blacksmith, the boys made their own patterns and castings, and the engine worked. There were four Johnson brothers whose interest turned to the internal combustion engine. They were; Julius (born in 1886), who was a machinist; Louis (1881), the designer; Harry (1884), the thinker and planner; and Clarence (1895), the mechanic.

Louis was the oldest of seven children born to Soren and Bertha Johnson. Lou was described as a natural leader and an innovator. Like Ole Evinrude, Lou Johnson conceived of the idea for a motor one hot day in 1903 when he had to row his 18-foot boat, the Arrow, ten miles upstream to harvest walnuts. Lou’s first engine was a single-cylinder, two-cycle, 3-hp monster, weighing in at 150 pounds. By 1905, the Johnson brothers, Lou, Harry and Clarence, had perfected their creation to a single-cylinder, 3-hp engine weighing only 65 pounds. With an interest in speed, the brothers expanded to both two and fourcylinder inline models and tested them in the Black Demon, a 26-foot displacement boat. The Black Demon raced down the Wabash River at speeds of up to 18 mph. Among the most famous racing boats to be powered by the Johnson ‘V’ engine was the ‘Black Demon III.’ It was never beaten in a race and set many speed records. It was powered by two 2-cycle V-12s, each having 180 hp.

While marine engines were the main focus of the Johnson brothers, they also developed an aircraft motor. The lightweight V-4, two-cycle motor produced 60-hp. Since the Johnsons had no aircraft on which to test the motor, they decided to build one. In 1910, seven years after the flight of Orville and Wilbur Wright, the Johnson brothers built the first American monoplane to actually take flight.

The plane weighed 750 pounds, had a 36-foot wingspan and measured 34 feet from propeller to tail and was flown by Lou. The monoplane quickly gave the brothers celebrity status, drawing invitations to attend county fairs and carnivals throughout the state. Visitors paid 25 cents to take a look at the machine. In addition, Lou piloted the plane in contests, once winning $1000.

The Johnson brothers continued to handcraft airplane and seaplane motors while building and selling marine motors and racing motorboats. Business was good, with the brothers selling products just as fast as they could make them. Then on Easter Sunday 1913 disaster struck as a tornado tore the Johnson factory from its foundations, destroying everything within. The Johnsons had no insurance, so rebuilding was out of the question. Recovering from that disaster, the Johnsons next designed a small engine to power bicycles. Thus, the Johnson Motor Wheel Company was founded. Because the motor wheel was very hard on magnetos, burning them out as quickly as they could be replaced, the Johnsons began to discuss possible solutions with Warren Ripple, owner of the Quick-Action Ignition Company in South Bend, Indiana. Ripple took a special interest in the manufacture of the motors and helped facilitate a move of the company to South Bend in March 1918. The motor wheel was very successful, selling more than 17,000 units during the years it was manufactured. However, the Johnson Motor Wheel Company went out of business in 1921 with the introduction of the low-cost Ford Model T and the onset of the recession.

Coming off this recent disappointment, the Johnson brothers began to look again at the marine industry. The first prototype outboard motor was tested in the spring of 1921 in a lightweight boat built by Warren Conover. The test was successful, and the Johnson Motor Company was incorporated

one month later in South Bend, Indiana. Warren Ripple was named as the company’s first president. The first Johnson outboard motor was produced on December 19, 1921. The 2-hp opposed twin engine was made largely of aluminium alloys, weighed only 35 lbs (when other motors weighed in at 60 lbs) and featured a full-pivot reverse, could be tilted for beaching and swiveled 360 degrees on its bracket. It was also reliable and easy to start. By 1923 Johnson sold 7,000 motors. An even lighter, 27 lb model was introduced for 1925.

In 1922, the Johnson brothers purchased a license from the Hult brothers of the Pentaverken company in Skovde, Sweden to use one of their patented inventions for outboard motors on the Johnson outboards. In that same year, Johnson introduced the Light Twin and the Waterbug. Both designs won recognition in the National Motor Boat Show that year and the company received orders for 3,429 units. Each unit sold for $140. The following year, orders reached 7,000 units. As the Johnson Motor Company began to win acclaim and market share, other companies such as Evinrude began to feel the pressure.

Johnson built its business on performance. Its 1926 P-30 Big Twin made 6 hp and could push a light boat to 23 mph, an astounding speed at the time. Johnson moved from South Bend to a new waterfront plant on Lake Michigan in Waukegan, Illinois. In the late 1920s an ad agency coined the name Johnson Sea Horse. The Johnson brothers held over two hundred patents and revolutionized the American outboard motor.

In 1935, Ralph Evinrude and Steve Briggs bought the company and made it the third leg, with Elto and Evinrude, of Outboard Marine and Manufacturing Company. By 1937 Johnson sales exceeded those of Evinrude and Elto, and the 1 millionth Johnson outboard was produced in 1952.

This article is compiled from a variety of sources.

Johnson 2.5 Twin