Experimental Ford Engines

We’ve always heard about Henry Ford’s interest in unusual engine configurations - X-8, I-5 and so forth - but never saw much evidence of it until SIA reader Bill Ironside mentioned an old, out of the way sugar beet mill at Greenfield Village where he’d seen a few odd engines. The SIA editors investigated for a story in SIA #19, November-December 1973, and found 56 previously unknown experimental engines dating from about 1907 through 1947. A lot of overhead-camshaft experiments, but they found some more extreme engines as well, including a 144-degree 309-cu.in. V-10 and a twin-crankshaft four (eight?)-cylinder engine.