
The Hall-Scott enterprise began in the early 20th century when two young Californians, Elbert J. Hall and Bert C. Scott, formed a business to produce gasoline powered rail cars, called motor cars. Hall was an imaginative engineering genius while Scott possessed business experience and connections. With production of their first unit in 1909, pictured here at right, the two men launched the Hall-Scott Motor Car Company in Berkeley in 1910. The company operated a business office in San Francisco's Crocker Building into the 1920s, but production stayed in Berkeley. Hall-Scott's motor cars had gas/mechanical drive, like an automobile. Hall-Scott fashioned a limited number of motor cars until 1921, with some being sold as far away as China. Hall-Scott launched their manufacturing venture in rail, but that was not where Hall-Scott made its name.
	Before the two men formed their partnership, Hall had built a number of engines for cars, planes and other uses on his own or with others. So when a rush of train orders did not materialize, Hall-Scott dusted off a couple of those engine models, introduced a handful more, and kept busy through the 1910s building engines for the fledging aircraft industry - civilian and military, domestic and foreign. Hall-Scott aviation engines had remarkable power-to-weight ratios and trailblazing technology. Pictured at left is the A-5, introduced in 1915. Visible in this photo is an overhead camshaft, an E.J. Hall "signature" feature. This engine produced 125 h.p. yet weighed only 520 pounds and had a hemi head. The A-5 spawned a host of similar models, many having evolutionary improvements and sharing parts and dimensions. Although all but forgotten today, one aviation historian described Hall-Scott as "after Curtiss, the best known early U.S. engines."
Hall-Scott's success in aviation was remarkable and quickly eclipsed its position as a maker of rail engines (which was never prominent). E.J. Hall's high point of achievement in air power came with his involvement with the WW I "Liberty Motor" program. This was really more a family of engines of 4, 6, 8 and 12 cylinders. They shared cylinder dimensions and were designed to be mass produced, use interchangeable parts, have good fuel and oil consumption, predictable reliability, and outstanding performance. Hall was picked to work with Jesse Vincent of Packard to design the Liberty. The Liberty actually looked surprisingly like Hall-Scott's most recent air engine, the 12-cylinder A-8 of 1917, with aluminum pistons, hemi head, overhead camshaft, 5-inch bore and 7-inch stroke, etc. But Hall-Scott was far too small to contribute to the mass production of the celebrated Liberty, which was done by several U.S. automakers. Testing aircraft engines at Hall-Scott around 1917 is shown at right.
	In the 1920s, surprisingly perhaps, Hall-Scott left the aviation market, in which it had been a leader, and the rail market, in which it had some small presence, and turned its attention to filling power needs for tractors, trucks, buses, boats, and industrial applications with an array of new engines. After proving their worth in WW I, gasoline engines began to power trucks and buses in increasing number. American Car and Foundry (ACF) purchased Hall-Scott in 1925 and used its engines in its buses and boats. With few exceptions, such as when International used two Hall-Scott models in its trucks in the late1920s and early1930s, most of Hall-Scott's land vehicle engines were used internally by ACF. An ACF bus is shown at left. ACF boasted of using Hall-Scotts in its ads and rejected selling Hall-Scott engines to other major bus makers, arguably to the detriment of engine maker. Before WW II, Hall-Scott marketed engines available to run either upright or horizontally, with the choice of burning either gasoline or LPG.
In 1931, Hall-Scott introduced possibly its most famous and important engine, the marine Invader. Both E.J. Hall and B.C. Scott were avid boaters, and Hall-Scott supported a race boat or two. Hall-Scott became a marine engine maker after WW I, and the Invader reflected the culmination of what company personnel had learned to that point. With an overhead camshaft, aluminum pistons, hemispherical combustion chamber, chrome nickel iron block and head, twin ignition, and 7 main bearings, most versions produced 250-275 h.p. One marine magazine from 1931 described the 997.8 cu. in. Invader as "light in weight . . . due to its extremely compact and neat design and is study and strong." In 1937, Hall-Scott began work on the 12-cylinder Defender, which was based on the Invader. In 1940, it released an Invader-based land engine, versions of which were produced into the 1960s, a testimony to Hall's successful design and engineering, as well as the end of innovation at Hall-Scott. The watermark image on this website is the Invader, shown at right.
	In 1940, Hall-Scott made its most determined effort to be a more significant presence in the truck engine market by releasing the Model 400 engine, shown at left. The 400, and the dozen or so variants made over the years, were aimed at the original equipment manufacturer and the customer looking to "repower." Based on the Invader, the 400 shared that marine engine's dimensions and heavy-duty features. The early base 400 displaced 1,090.6 cubic inches (having a 1/4 inch longer stroke than the Invader), produced an impressive 286 h.p. @1,800 r.p.m. and an amazing 865 lb. ft. of torque @1,200 r.p.m., and weighed about 2,200 lbs. The 400 pictured at left is equipped to burn LPG, as were many Hall-Scott models. Derivative models of the 400 that appeared over the years include the 440, 441, 470, 480, 855, 935, 1091, 6156 and 6182. As can be seen here, Hall-Scott described the 400 as "The Most Powerful Truck Engine Built."
During WW II, Hall-Scott zeroed in on wartime customers, as did other American engine makers. Hall-Scott handed over its Invader production to Hudson (which made about 4,000 Invaders) and concentrated on making two models - the V-12 Defender, and the 6-cylinder 440, a descendent of the 400. Pacific Car and Foundry was the sole recipient of Hall-Scott's 440 for its gigantic M26 and M26A1 Tank Transporters. A beautifully restored M26, which resides in France, is shown at right. We are indebted to Pierre Phliponeau for this stunning photo, and his group, UNIVEM, for keeping this fantastic machine operating. Hall-Scott operated at full capacity during the war, with wartime employment hitting an all-time high of about 900. Hall-Scott made about 2,116 Model 440's and over 5,000 Defenders, which constituted virtually all of its wartime production. But Hall-Scott's parent company experienced serious leadership problems and financial challenges through WW II, and its management made decisions that left Hall-Scott vulnerable and unprepared for the postwar market.	.
	After World War II, diesel made rapid inroads into the truck, bus, industrial, and marine markets. Hall-Scott marketed two unsuccessful diesel models prior to WW II, and had two diesels on the drawing board in the mid-1950s, but it never sold a successful version, let alone very many. Not having this option in the commercial market seriously challenged Hall-Scott's ability to remain in business. Its last all-new engine, and the first all-new model since the Invader in 1931(!), the 590, is shown at left. Hall-Scott's chief engineer, J. E. "Speed" Glidewell, designed the 590. Introduced in 1954, early 590s produced from 190-250 h.p. @2,800 rpm (fast for a Hall-Scott), about 500 lb. ft. of torque, yet weighed about 1,300 lbs., over 500 lbs. less than other Hall-Scott 200-250 h.p. engines. Available to operate vertically or horizontally (about 2/3 of 590s were horizontal), with the option of burning gasoline or gasified fuels (which slightly lowered fuel costs), the 590 powered hundreds of trucks, fire engines and buses. But this new spark ignition engine could not save Hall-Scott from the evolving engine market.
The slow disappearance of the Hall-Scott name is a story unknown to many people, even those familiar with commercial engines. After years of struggling with slim profits and low engine sales (around 500-800 per year), and being "spun-off" by ACF in 1954, in 1958 Hercules Motors Corporation purchased Hall-Scott's engine division. Hall-Scott disappeared as a company name in 1960 through merger with Du Bois. Limited production of Hall-Scott engines continued at Hercules half a continent away. The number of Hall-Scott engine models shrank after 1958, however. Presumably the numbers made shrank, too, but that data is unknown. Contact with Hercules in the 1990s could not yield that information. Based on trade journal data it appears that around 1970 the last Hall-Scott made by Hercules left its Ohio factory. Today a few Hall-Scott engines can be found in old trucks, buses, and industrial units. A number of museums across America have Hall-Scott engines on display or in vehicles. Several Hall-Scott motor cars actually survive as well. Those who have owned or operated Hall-Scotts uniformly report that these engines produced tremendous and smooth power, ran for years reliably, and consumed heroic quantities of fuel. Hall-Scott leaves behind a fascinating and compelling history. Want to know more? Order a copy of our book!