My first thought as well. However, just make the fire engine a tanker...Seems like a whole lotta work for something that can only be riddin' for 4 or 5 min before it seizes from overheat.
... or hook a garden hose to it and run in circles like an old "control line" model.just make the fire engine a tanker...
I wondered if there was such a thing. Didn't see a water exhaust on the shaft housing, but wasn't aware there were air cooled outboards. Probably about as common as hen's teeth and unicorn farts...I think we're looking at a Bendix Eclipse, an air cooled outboard about that vintage. I'm guessing the drive mechanism is a belt off the prop shaft which would allow for an idler pulley tension clutch. Cute.
Thats an electric outboard motor... The battery is a dead giveaway, as is the lack of a recoil starterSeems like a whole lotta work for something that can only be riddin' for 4 or 5 min before it seizes from overheat.
Gonna buy me a Mercury and cruise it up and down the road.............
Ok Mystery solved, @hovel is correct, mostly. That is a battery/cable, it is a Bendix Eclipse. But it is a battery powered, air cooled motor.Nope, and we do not have a good picture. If that's a battery, it doesn't appear to be connected to anything. I think the cable running up to the motor is probably the throttle. The Bendix did not have a recoil starter, just a rope sheave on top, which we don't see. Look close at the down-tube coming out of the power head. Just below the power head you can barely see little cooling fins on it, it is the exhaust tube. The smaller diameter tube is the drive shaft housing. Electric outboards of that vintage did not look like that.