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RE:British Wallis

Some time ago in another thread on this site we touched on tractors fitted with gas producers, both M-H and other makes.

Well in this last bunch of British Wallis material it looks like Ruston Hornsby in Lincoln  around the late teens and early twenties were experimenting with the same thing, the following two photo's are again great factory shots of the British Wallis Gas Producer tractor at work, even the reverse of the photo is labelled with who was manufacturing the gas producer unit,  "Parker Gas Plant Co of London" and dated 29th April 1925.

Malcolm.

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Malcolm

RE:British Wallis

Here is the second photo of the tractor at work.

Malcolm.
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Malcolm

RE:British Wallis

Malcolm,

Some Awesome looking pictures you posted of the early Wallis tractors!! What's up with the first picture you posted of the Wallis K?

Have you ever seen a bracket like the one holding the Bennett Air Cleaner on before in your travels? I haven't seen one like it before, I like how it mounts the Air Cleaner up higher so you can leave it on while using the belt.

Joe

RE:British Wallis

Malcolm I was wondering why the British Wallis was experimented with with a gas produced on it? At that time W W One was over and I imagine petrol and paraffin were available and much more easy to handle. Was the thinking behind it that they could be used in the Colonies where probably there was plenty of timber but not much petrol or paraffin. Alan

RE:British Wallis

Hello Alan,  Here in the  States somewhere I have a piece of literature stating the Wallis Tractor would produce 2 to 3 more horsepower by using gasoline in stead of kerosene. Depending on the farmers needs, if he wanted, or needed a little more power, just changing to gasoline would work.  The Plow Works probably passed that on, or maybe that was a known fact to company engineering departments of the times.  Tim Pace

RE:British Wallis

Those two or three extra horsepower Tim would be very useful but here in UK where petrol / gas has always been far more expensive than in North America the luxury of running a tractor on petrol was not something that happened in hard times.

So lots of different vaporisers, heat retaining attachments around the manifolds were invented so the tractors would run on a lower cheaper grade of fuel.

I have always wondered what distillate is like as a fuel, it's always mentioned in the earlier M-H instruction books, but never found anyone yet who can tell me if it's like our TVO (Tractor Vaporising Oil) also known as kerosene.

Has anyone in North America any knowledge of distillate??

Malcolm.
Malcolm

RE:British Wallis

Joe,

Well spotted on the photo of the K with the high air cleaner, I too have never seen one like this anywhere, was it a prototype which never went into production? looks like it was supported by a cast bracket, it looks far more elegant than the ones we are familiar with bolted to the "U" frame.

Well here is another British Wallis in the Cheffins spring sale on Saturday, this one was imported many years ago from Australia / New Zealand and was in the same collection as the first one I started this thread with.

This one is the second oldest known survivor on David Parfiitt's www.steel-wheels.net tractor register, it is serial number 277 and one of the 22 known survivors on his list.

Being such a very low serial number my thoughts are this tractor in it's workinglife has had the smaller radiator and sloping bonnet (hood) replaced with the larger radiator and flat bonnet, especially working in a  hot climate.
This did not detract on the day, keen interest saw bidding rise quickly and the hammer fell at £39,500.00 plus commission, it has gone to a well known collector of early British tractors.

Malcolm.



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Malcolm

RE:British Wallis

Here are a few close up photo's of some of the characteristics which differ to the US built Model K.

Malcolm.
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Malcolm

RE:British Wallis

And a few more photo's.

Of the four tractors currently in UK collections only one is an original tractor which worked in England, it was rescued by Derek Hackett of Ross-On-Wye, Herefordshire, one of the pioneer veteran tractor collectors who thankfully saved a lot of rare early tractors from the fate of the scrap man in the 1950's and 60's.

Malcolm

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Malcolm

RE:British Wallis

Here are the front and rear page from a four page advertising brochure on the British Wallis.

The rear page showing the tractor won First Prize and a gold medal in the "three furrow class" at the Scottish Highland Society's Tractor Trials held at Dalkeith on October 17th to 20th 1922.
The three furrow plough it was pulling was also built by Ruston & Hornsby. 

Malcolm.
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