Puch split singles
With reference to The Classic MotorCycle, April 2023, the story on page 84, entitled ‘Screaming Deeks.’
I have a Puch split single sectioned engine in my workshop. Its con rod is of piggy back design as a radial aero engine inline as the photo I’ve attached, not U-shaped with the pistons side-by-side as you described in the feature. Its front piston controls the inlet and exhaust, while the rear piston controls the three transfer ports.
Mr C Steemson, Notts.
Johann Puch (1862-1914) initially sold Humber cycles plus associated machines and manufactured a safety cycle he named the Styria in his workshop in Graz, (Austria). He founded Johann Puch & Co in 1890 to manufacture the Styria range. From little more than a handful of workers, he grew the business until, by 1895, it was building 5000-plus cycles per year and ran a racing team.
Falling out with his business associates a few years later, in 1899 he left to found Erste Steiermärkische Fahrradfabrik AG, the company which would make Puch cycles, cars, motorcycles, lorries, railway engines, military vehicles and much more.
Despite the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Puch attempted to bounce back after the First World War, but the business was on its knees. It is claimed the banks installed Italian engineer Giovanni Marcellino to wind up the firm and close the large Graz factory site, which was employing over 1000 workers pre-1915.
Settling in Graz for his decommissioning work, Marcellino, drawing on
