Johnson Outboard Motors
About the Johnson company:
The Johnson motor got it's name from four Terre Haute, Indiana, brothers, Lou, Harry, Julius and Clarence. They built a small inboard marine engine to power their rowboat up the Wabash River to their favorite walnut gathering spot. They also constructed a 2-cycle airplane engine which enabled them to make America's first monoplane flight.
A storm destroyed the airplane and related engine shop in 1913. Over the next four years, they pieced together the resources to being producing small 2-cycle engines to power an airplane prop and push a motorboat and even tried it on a bicycle. Things went rather well until Henry Ford started selling Model T cars and Johnson Motor needed to find another way to sell off those little engines.
In 1921, Lou enlisted the aid of a college student and began a drafting design for new engine. Actual production of this Johnson model A began in December, 1921. Good recommendations spread and 7,000 of the motors went to customers in 1923.
Johnson was the first to introduce the heavy outboard engine in 1926. It lifted light planes up on a plane at 16 plus miles per hour and some 4-5 knots faster than most thought an outboard was capable of. There were about the only company to offer a really quick motor from late 1925 to 1926 and they built the industry's finest outboard manufacturing facility on a piece of land on Lake Michigan's shoreline.
Throughout 1929 Johnson engineering research prospered. Then came the stock market crash in October of 1929 and inventories of boats and motors were stockpiled.
In 1932, Johnson declared bankruptcy and got into the refrigerator compressor business. However, in 1933-34, Johnson entered into a deal with Sears-Roebuck to provide Sears with engines, which was canceled fairly quickly.
In 1935, Steve Briggs and Ralph Evinrude purchased a major portion of the Johnson Motor Company. Within one year after acquiring Johnson, the new corporation was named the Outboard Marine and Manufacturing Corporation (OMC) , covering Elto, Evinrude and Johnson.
In March of 2001 the outboard assets of OMC, namely Johnson and Evinrude, were sold to Bombardier of Canada. Bombardier says it will bring the brands back to their former glory. Bombardier also manufacturers Sea Doo watercraft, Lear jets, locomotives, and recreational vehicles.
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