Briggs and Stratton
Briggs & Stratton is the world's largest manufacturer of air-cooled gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment.
The company was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1908 and is still based there. Briggs and Stratton engines are very commonly used on lawnmowers, as well as karts, power washers, wood chippers, etc. Their engines are known for their durability and low maintenance requirements.
Their engines are usually fitted with a dead man's switch to halt power immediately in the case of the operator getting injured by the tool. On Briggs and Stratton engines, this works by the principle of engine braking, with the engines default state as braked. The operator must hold a handle to remove the engine brake, with any release of this handle causing the engine to brake again.
Briggs & Stratton Innovations
- The Aluminum Engine - This was introduced in 1953 as a means of having a lighter-weight engine for applications such as lawn mowers or string trimmers. It was improved five years later in 1958 with the introduction of the Kool-Bore (all aluminum) and Sleeve-Bore (aluminum, with a cast iron cylinder liner).
- Easy-Spin Starting - This was introduced in 1961 as a means of cutting in half the effort of manually starting an engine. This had replaced all means of starting on all B&S engines except for electric start systems.
But in 1982, as new federal safety regulations required every small engine manufacturer to add emergency shut-off switches to lawn mower applications, company engineers discovered that engines with the Easy-Spin intake were unacceptably difficult to restart. The Easy-Spin was moved to the exhaust valve, but this move presented mediocre horsepower ratings. Where that was an issue, a mechanical compression release was used. The intake valve Easy-Spin had continued to be used on B&S's larger engines, but was shelved in 1997 due to new emission regulations.
- The Sno/Gard Engine - Introduced in 1966, this innovation was exclusively designed for engines powering snow blowers. Prior to 1966, customers of the snowblower had complaints about protection of the engine from the elements of winter. B&S met the needs of these customers by designing special features for this engine such as an air-intake shield, a starter clutch shield and a specially-designed housing to cover the spark plug and carburetor, as well as providing heat for the latter.
- The Synchro-Balanced Engine - Also introduced in 1966, this innovation was designed as a means to curb vibrations caused by the high RPM and torque of lawn mower engines, especially in riding lawn mowers. The design was a series of counterweights placed along the engine's crankshaft.
- The Twin Cylinder Engine - This engine was introduced in 1977 as a means of competing with B&S's rivals, particularly Japanese firms like Honda who were cutting into traditional B&S fare by producing lawn mower engines (and later, complete lawn mowers). These first models were rated 16 HP and displaced 40 cubic inches, but were joined in 1979 by 42 cubic inch models rated at 18 HP.
- MAGNETRON Electronic Ignition - This solid state ignition system, introduced by B&S in 1981, eliminated the age-old points and condenser setup that had plagued many customers who had used a gasoline engine for years. This setup is also available in retrofit kits, but these are only compatible with B&S's external ignition engines produced since January, 1963. However, its rival Tecumseh had made a capacitor discharge ignition setup since 1968, for their cast iron engine models, expanding it to vertical shaft engines powering lawn mowers in late 1976 before the setup came full circle in August, 1984 for all of their engine lines.
Briggs & Stratton Logo History
The Briggs & Stratton logo was always a masthead, but it had been changed several times over the course of the company's 80+ years.
- Gold Logo (1948-1964) - This logo had the name BRIGGS & STRATTON and its home city of MILWAUKEE, WIS., U.S.A. below it; in the middle, it had the words 4 CYCLE on the top mast and the words GASOLINE ENGINE and phrase MADE IN U.S.A. on the bottom mast.
- Gold Logo (II) (1964-1976) - Although similar to the last logo, this had differently arranged wording: The name BRIGGS & STRATTON was written in a new logotype, however, its city of location were in the middle as before, only this time the patent numbers were eliminated (if you look at a decal on a production engine) from the bottom portion of the mast. There were some engines produced until 1977 that used the prior logo from 1948.
- The Red, White and Black Logo (1976-present) - This is the company's current logo. The logo has the name BRIGGS & STRATTON in black letters on the white midsection of the masthead. The words 4 CYCLE ENGINE are on the red top portion of the mast and the city line MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, U.S.A. is written on the black bottom portion of the mast. Although the logo hadn't been changed much since then, the wording on the top and bottom sections of the mast were removed in 1985, although the company continued to use these two sections with the respective wordings ORIGINAL (red section) and SERVICE PARTS (black section) until 1989.