The Johnson Brothers The outboard motor industry saw more than just the rise of Elto in the early 1920s. Other players had also entered the marketplace. The newly formed Johnson Motors Company burst onto the scene with a twin-cylinder motor, quickly taking leadership away from Evinrude Motors. Much like Evinrude, Johnson Motors began as a family owned and operated business. In 1908, with just the bare basics for parts, the brothers Johnson crafted their first marine engine in a barn in Terre Haute, Indiana.
powered by the Johnson ‘V’ engine was the ‘Black Demon III.’ It was never beaten in a race and set many speed records. It was powered by two 2-cycle V-12s, each having 180 hp.
The sons of a railroad blacksmith, the boys made their own patterns and castings, and the engine worked. There were four Johnson brothers whose interest turned to the internal combustion engine. They were; Julius (born in 1886), who was a machinist; Louis (1881), the designer; Harry (1884), the thinker and planner; and Clarence (1895), the mechanic.
While marine engines were the main focus of the Johnson brothers, they also developed an aircraft motor. The lightweight V-4, two-cycle motor produced 60-hp. Since the Johnsons had no aircraft on which to test the motor, they decided to build one. In 1910, seven years after the flight of Orville and Wilbur Wright, the Johnson brothers built the first American monoplane to actually take flight.
Louis was the oldest of seven children born to Soren and Bertha Johnson. Lou was described as a natural leader and an innovator. Like Ole Evinrude, Lou Johnson conceived of the idea for a motor one hot day in 1903 when he had to row his 18-foot boat, the Arrow, ten miles upstream to harvest walnuts. Lou’s first engine was a single-cylinder, two-cycle, 3-hp monster, weighing in at 150 pounds. By 1905, the Johnson brothers, Lou, Harry and Clarence, had perfected their creation to a single-cylinder, 3-hp engine weighing only 65 pounds. With an interest in speed, the brothers expanded to both two and fourcylinder inline models and tested them in the Black Demon, a 26-foot displacement boat. The Black Demon raced down the Wabash River at speeds of up to 18 mph. Among the most famous racing boats to be 2
