| Industry | Engine manufacturers |
|---|---|
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Founded | Berkeley, California (1910) |
| Founder(s) | Elbert J. Hall Bert C. Scott |
| Defunct | 1960 |
Hall-Scott was a Berkeley, California-based manufacturing company. It was among the most significant builders of water-cooled aircraft engines prior to World War I.
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The company was initially founded in 1910 by Californians Elbert J. Hall and Bert C. Scott to manufacture petrol-powered rail cars. Hall was the engineer while Scott was the business executive. They produced their first rail car in 1909, and the newly named Hall-Scott Motor Car Company was launched with manufacturing in Berkeley, California in 1910 and with headquarters in San Francisco. The rail car business was slow, but some were sold as far away as China. Interurban electric railway cars were built for railroads such as the electrified Sacramento Northern which ran trains from adjacent Oakland to Sacramento and Chico.
Hall-Scott also manufactured aero engines for both commercial and military aviation. These engines possessed a remarkable for the era power-to-weight ratio using an overhead cam and hemispherical combustion chamber. Their engines also benefited from manufacturing cost efficiency by sharing parts and dimensions between types. Hall and Scott both became associated with the design and manufacture of the famous "Liberty" airplane engine which has a number of features that are discernibly Hall-Scott. Even so Hall-Scott was too small a business to participate in the manufacture of the Libertys.
Shortly after World War I, around 1921, Hall-Scott dropped its aero engine and rail car product lines. The firm produced several hundred thousand two-speed rear axles (the Ruckstell Axle) for Ford's Model T through the mid-1920s. American Car and Foundry purchased Hall-Scott in 1925 and used its engines in its buses and boats. In 1931, one of the firm's most famous and important products, the Invader marine engine entered production. The company survived the Depression and then attained its highest production rates and employment numbers in World War II by building engines for a variety of military products, including a tank retriever, the Diamond T 980 tank transporter, and the Higgins boat (LCVP).
Some post World War II ACF-Brill buses manufactured in Philadelphia purchased by Greyhound and Trailways were equipped with Hall-Scott engines. ACF divested itself of Hall-Scott in 1954. The division was purchased by the Hercules Engine Company. The final products bearing the Hall-Scott name were produced by Hercules in the late 1950s. In 1958 the Berkeley facility was closed. In 1960 Hall-Scott disappeared as a company.
Two Hall-Scott interurban coaches from the former Sacramento Northern Railroad are located at the Western Railway Museum at Rio Vista, California(S.N 1019, S.N. 1020). The 1020 is now restored to its original coach/trailer configuration.
Nevada Copper Belt 21(1910 100hp) is Stored "Seviceable" at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. The body of Nevada Copper Belt 22 (ex Salt Lake & Utah 503 1913 150hp) is at the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City