Ole Evinrude - Inventor, machinist, outboard motor manufacturer; born Ole Andreassen Aaslundeie on April 19, 1877 in the Vardal municipality (now Gjøvik) of Oppland, Norway; but grew
up on a Lake Ripley farm near Cambridge, Wisconsin. Evinrude is known for the invention of the first outboard boat motor with practical commercial application.
Envinrude's father emigrated to America in 1881 and Envinrude followed in 1982 with his mother and two siblings. Three additional siblings were born in America.
The family settled on a farm in Ripley Lake near Cambridge, Wisconsin.
At age sixteen, Evinrude went to Madison, where he worked in machinery stores and studied engineering on his own. He became a machinist while working at various machine
tool firms in Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and Chicago; including, jointly owning a pattern making (casting patterns) business with Authur Davidson, who he befriended when Davidson spent his summers at his grandmother's farm in Cambridge.
It is told that Ole helped Harley-Davidson perfect its first carburetor.
In 1900, Evinrude co-founded the custom engine firm Clemick & Evinrude. Then, in 1907, he invented the first practical and reliable outboard motor and the Evinrude Motor Company was founded in Milwaukee that same year.
The motor was built of steel and brass, and had a crank on the flywheel to start the two-cycle engine. Evinrude reported that his invention was inspired by rowing a boat on Okauchee Lake, a small lake outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin on a hot day to get ice cream for his girlfriend, Bess (later his wife).
For more information on Ole Evinrude, visit Wikipedia.
Above: Evinrude Patent #1,001,260 awarded on August 22, 1911.
Ole Evinrude
Inventor.
Above: 1909 outboard motor made by the Evinrude Motor Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Above: Ole Evinrude Story - Part 1.
Above: Ole Evinrude Story - Part 2.
Above: Ole Evinrude Story - Part 3.
Above: Ole Evinrude Story - Part 4.
Above: Vintage Evinrude magazine ad.
Above: Vintage Evinrude magazine ad.