Baker Mfg. "Little Monitor"

Thanks to Joe Prindle & Reg Ingold for much of the Monitor info on this page

On the right is my father's Baker Manufacturing Company, Little Monitor(on the left is my No.1 F-M Eclipse). This engine came from a scrap yard in Temora, New South Wales. It is very worn, but does run well.

Monitor engines were first built in 1905 and the "Little Monitor" pump engine was introduced in 1911. The early pump engines had a round fuel tank, square hand hole in the crank-case and a solid flywheel. The spoked flywheel was introduced in 1912 as was the round hand hole in the crank-case. The square fuel tank was introduced in 1914.

The Monitor engine ranged from the 1.25hp "Little Monitor" to the 15hp horizontal. Engine production ended in 1944.

This particular example of the Baker "Little Monitor" is fitted with a rotary 'Dixie' magneto which was a factory option. Few of the surviving examples in the US seem to have been fitted with this option but most, if not all, of the Australian sold engines have the magneto option. From November 1924 a Wico EK was also available as an option. Monitor engines were also copied by an Australian manufacturer and sold under the name 'Chandler'.

Monitor Engine Numbers

Here are two views of the cast tank and magneto mount. Note the wear on the cog.

Here you can see the beautiful repair job done at some point in the engines life by a talented mechanic. Obviously the conrod had made a dash for freedom.

Here are some more views of the magneto setup on this engine.

July 2010. The Monitor out of storage.

February 2012. Some detailed pics of the engine.

Here is the monitor (front left) as found in the scrap yard. The rest of the engines were either badly damaged or incomplete. They were also not cheap!

Here is another angle of the other engines.

Here are a some of pictures of Edd Payne's Monitor showing the Magneto setup which is common on Australian Monitors.

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