Lathrop D-90 Diesel Engine

Lathrop D-90 Diesel Engine. .

Horsepower: 90 @ 900 RPM , Cylinders: 6 , Bore: 5-1/2” , Stroke: 7” , Weight: 4,200 pounds , Displacement: 998 cubic inches

, In 1897, during the early days of gasoline-engine design, James W. Lathrop and his friend Gallup planned to improve the one-cylinder Palmer gasoline engine in , Gallup’s launch. They found work space beside the Mystic River and built an entirely new engine similar to the Palmer. Instead of installing that engine, the two men sold it, bought a lathe, built two more engines, and sold them as well. This was the start of the Lathrop Engine Company, one of several engine manufacturers that would be established along the Mystic River., By 1889, business was booming and Lathrop earned regard as one of the marine engine industry’s pioneers. Over Lathrop’s lifetime, his company produced four-cycle gasoline engines and two-and four-cycle diesel engines for all manner of vessels., After James Lathrop died in 1935, his son and grandson carried on the business into the early 950s. but with reduced sales and internal troubles, the company was sold in 1957 to Burmeister and Wain. Within a few years, B and W sold Lathrop to Grumman Allied Industries in Athens, New York, and the production of Lathrop engines ceased in Mystic., This red engine is Lathrop’s D-90 diesel, rated 90 horsepower at 900 rpm. It may seem like a large 90 compared to other engines of the late 1940s, but Lathrop engines were rated conservatively. The D-90 produces more power than a comparably size engine rated well over 100 horsepower. When it was new, this D-90 cost $8,900. Although built in the late 1940s, it had run for no more than six hours before Mystic Seaport acquired it in 1985. During the late 1990s, volunteers rebuilt this engine to operational standards, and several volunteers maintain and run it about once a week throughout the year.