The above 6-cylinder gas engine was built by Alexander Winton in 1911. This engine was successfully used to power one of his factories for the Winton Motor Carriage Company. Thanks to the success of this, and a vision, he founded the Winton Gas Engine & Manufacturing Company (later renamed Winton Engine Company) a year later in 1912. The engine company would wind up outliving his Automobile business. 

By 1913, Winton built his first Diesel (he is often credited with the first American designed Diesel engine, however this is a bit muddled as James McPherson and A. J. Frith already had one by 1900 with their American Diesel Engine Company), and the business took off. 

The rest, is history. General Motors would purchase Winton in June of 1930 (for $5,898,331.00), and sink lots of cash into R&D (under the eyes of Mr. Kettering) for the ever growing Diesel engine market. 

If it was not for the success of this lowly 6-cylinder gasoline engine powering his shop, we likely would not have had the development’s in the years to come, with that, we may not have seen the extreme success of the Winton Engine Co. and successor Cleveland Diesel Engine Division, Electro-Motive and Detroit Diesel.