The Shed on its travels came across this wonderful old generator on Great Barrier Island over the summer. It’s a lighting plant called a “Lister Start-O-Matic”. The generator gets that name because it can be remote-started by turning on a light of at least 40 watts and that will then automatically crank the diesel engine and start up the system. It turns off automatically when the last light is turned off. The specs: Lister type 6/1 single cylinder, water cooled diesel engine, developing 6 HP at 650 R.P.M.
A lot of the properties on the island are now moving to solar power so these generators will soon be a thing of the past.
Enjoy
A summer 2019, sheddie’s tale
26 March 2019
Back in the early ‘70s, an Auckland bloke gets hold of a 25 hp Sea Horse Johnson outboard motor – it’s knackered but it has potential.
He takes it all to pieces, orders all the bits to get it up and running again then wraps it up, bits and all, in a New Zealand Herald newspaper and packs it in a box, presumably as a rainy day project. For reference, the outboard is from 1970 and the Herald is from December 1975.
