Chug Chug Goes the Tug

From the Kahlenberg web site:

Established in 1895 as Kahlenberg Brothers Company, Kahlenberg Industries, Inc. has been continuously family owned and managed since its founding over a century ago.

The original three Kahlenberg brothers, Otto, William, and John, began by constructing small steam engines for marine and stationary work. From this early beginning the company expanded, eventually manufacturing and selling gasoline and diesel marine engines across the globe. During World War II, Kahlenberg was the recipient of the Army-Navy “E” (Excellence) Award as the company worked around the clock for the war effort. Engine manufacturing was discontinued in 1960.

William and Otto Kahlenberg opened a machine shop in Two Rivers, Wisconsin in 1895. The brothers installed their first gasoline motor in a fishing boat in 1897 with great success. The Kahlenberg gasoline engines were two-stoke make-and-break designs and quickly established a reputation of dependability and economy. Manufacturing was done using jigs and standardization to create easily interchangeable parts, a practice that was relatively new at the time.

In 1914 William began development of a hot-bulb or semi-diesel engine, the first of which was put to work in 1916.  A new line of semi-diesel engines was introduced in 1922.  It was this product family, referred to as the Kahlenberg Oil Engine, which led the company to tremendous success.  These two-stroke engines came in two, three or four cylinders with horsepower ranging from 20 to 200.  The Kahlenberg oil engine is largely responsible for eliminating sail and steam power in the Great Lakes commercial fishing industry due to outstanding reliability, speed and efficiency.  For many years there were more Kahlenberg-powered fishing vessels than all other types put together.  They remained the dominate engine power until the 1970’s when more modern high-speed diesels became widely adopted.

Kahlenberg remains in business today in other commercial marine segments including air horns, commercial propellers and low volume custom manufacturing.