Curtis Air Compressor

This is a Curtis Air Compressor made in St. Louis, Missouri.

It has patent dates of 1915 and 1916 on the brass tag.

It has a 3 inch bore and a 3 1/2 inch stroke.

We found this at a salvage yard.

The piston wasn't stuck. We hooked

it up to our Stover and it didn't pump any air.

We took off the head and both valves were stuck.

We freed them up and it works fine now.

Maybe some day I'll hook it up to a tank

with some whistles or use it to blow up balloons.

A guy named John Ambler

from Sussex, UK told me, "The commpressor could

have been used to press air to start a BIG engine. There are

Ruston Hornsby compressors of very similar design hooked

up to engines of 25+ HP. A large storage cylinder inside the

engine house would store air (up to 250 psi) for the next start."