The directors of Portersville Steam Show, in front of their newly acquired gas engine, are from left, Clyde Smith, Bob Lewis, Don Fuechslin and Jesse Brandon.

The Wise Machine Company donated a gas engine pumping and pulling jack oil well unit that's more than 100 years old to the Portersville Steam Show on Friday.

According to Bob Lewis, the Steam Show's director of the gas engine category, the machine was originally used to pump oil out of an oil well and performed maintenance. He said their hope is to put it back together and get it running again.

“It was given back to Wise Machines in 1988, 1989, or so — they had the intention of restoring it,” Lewis said. “The machine was built and used in Butler. They were the center of the oil industry. It's the last of the old-school oil era machine shops.”

The newly-acquired gas engine was lifted by forklift onto a truck and transported from the Wise property to the Steam Show's grounds.

Lewis said it could take one to two years to get the engine up and running again, and that it's hard to put value on engines this old.Steam Show president Don Fuechslin said they will need to add a new wooden beam to the top of the engine, which would be twice as long as the one already attached. He said they currently have some engines similar to this on their showgrounds, and they will acquire new machines whenever they are found.“We have 20 to 30 engines total,” Fuechslin said. “People bring smaller ones to shows as well.”Fuechslin said they have a variety of shops on the grounds that will contribute to the restoration, including woodwork, print, craft and steam and gas machine shops.The Portersville Steam Show sees an average of 8,000 people on show days, which take place in May, August and October.“The amount of people we get is unbelievable,” Fuechslin said.

The pumping and pulling jack oil well unit is lifted by forklift onto a truck to be transported.Submitted photos