It was a dark and stormy night (could it be anything less?) just after 2 a.m. when Vince and his ol' man, Devious Dave Gingery, slipped across the border into Oklahoma. The highway patrol had been looking for them since their last visit with Jim Lewis.
Wild
man Dave had created so much trouble in Oklahoma last time that the authorities
swore they'd never let the Ozark hillbilly back into the state. But they
underestimated that slippery, banjo-playing, engine-building lathe wrecker.
When Dave heard that Jim had just completed his latest scratch-built engine,
no highway patrol (not even 'Mad Max' Mel Gibson himself) was gonna keep
Dave away from Jim Lewis's machine shop.
Well, to make a long, boring story short. They dun it. Slipped in. No one noticed. Not even the highway patrol. It was better than "Smokey and the Bandit".
By eight am the next morning the
party was underway. In Jim Lewis's shop out back, Vince fired up his digital
camera while Ben, Dave, and Bob watched Jim fire up his brand new Linford
engine. What you see on these twisted web pages are the result of Vince's
photography and a tribute to his ability to tolerate the high-jinx of
this greasy, engine-loving foursome!
Jim Lewis with his scratch-built opposed piston Linford engine.
February 1999 
Dave Gingery stole into Oklahoma to see this sweet little machine. It's a Jim Lewis adaptation of Charles Linford's opposed piston engine patented in October 1880. Jim took Linford's basic design from IC Engines Vol 2 published by Lindsay Publications and created another impressive engine to add to his collection.
Remember: this is scratch built. Not a kit. No plans. No directions. No magazine article. Jim started with pieces of steel and aluminum ingots and created an engine that probably hasn't run in over 110 years! (And it's not the first time he's done such a thing)
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