My brother-in-law had a great uncle who died while cranking
his Model T Ford!
I have heard jokes about people kicking the bucket when
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| Times Dispatch of VA 1911 Ad |
A Model-T has only two speeds - high and low. And a Tin Lizzie has only rear wheel
brakes. And it has a spark, an
important thing for it to have.
There is a lever next to the steering wheel which advances
(lever down) or retards (lever up) the spark.
To start cranking, the Model T uses the lever up or retard
position. To not use the lever up
position is to endanger one's personal space while standing in the path of a
potential moving vehicle. Vehicle kick. Not good.
So, Great Uncle Elmer Amos Keyser would have set the car to
retard mode (lever up).
There he would have turned the Magneto or Off or Battery
switch. That switch must ultimately be in Battery
mode, unless the battery is dead; then the Magneto came in handy.
As we all likely know, the hand crank is located in the
front of the car (yep, step in front of your Model-T which is always
in gear UNLESS it is remembered that the rear brakes must be fully set first! A memory lapse means you get mowed
down. Bad start of a road trip, Elmer Amos did not get mowed down.
And that crank is right below what could be a sizzling
radiator. Elmer Amos had to pull out a
wire ring, the choke, at the lower left corner of this cold or hot radiator,
all the while facing the car.
With the Magneto switch engaged properly, he would have
pushed the crank in and given it a mighty turn! He should have only needed to crank the engine one or two turns
and a tad bit more till he had ignition.
Coils buzz. If the engine is warm it may start now. Cold starting evidently could mean cranking it with his right palm
only. His fingers and thumb all needed
to be on the same side of the crank.
He likely would have quickly pulled up the crank and the
engine should have powered up, so he could hop into the car and give the
throttle some rev. And the road trip
begins.
Did I get all that cranking stuff right? Hope so, but not sure!
However it should have occurred, Elmer Amos supposedly was
struck in the head with the crank and ultimately he died.
On April 28, 1926 in Greenville Pennsylvania, at the age of
58, Elmer Amos Keyser died while hand cranking his Model T Ford at his farm, 5
miles west of Greenville. The death
certificate said he died of acute heart dilatation which lasted for 10 minutes. It could have been solely from the exertion of
a "cranky" car and a head injury caused by the crank itself when the
Model T fought starting. Family tradition "says" the switch was in magneto mode which would definitely
indicate the car was not easy to start this time. But it is more likely that head injury was combined with a final moment of heart disease erupting into the acute heart dilatation. Sad.
He was born in West Virginia in 1867 , married his wife
Annie White on April 3, 1889 in Belmont, OH, farmed in PA, and died there, and
was returned to OH for burial. His
widow Annie died in OH three years later at age 62 of uterine and ovarian
cancer.
Info on Cranking a Model T from:
