A little history help

[Doubleeagle]

My uncle is trying to fill me in on what he can remember from the 1940 to the 50's.
My Grandpa built his first boat about 1944 or 1945 my uncle remembers a 15/20 horse power outboard my grandpa bought used
It didn't have a recoil nor did it have a pully to rope start it
It had a pull up knob so you could spin the flywheel to start it
Anyone have a clue what it was
He thought it might be a elgin or a westbend

[Mark75H]

Probably 100 possible brands from that time frame with "knuckle buster knob" for starting ... then like now, Evinrude was a big brand name, but could also be ELTO, Johnson or one of many, many others

Elgin and West Bend didn't come out until later. Without a picture, I doubt there is any way to know

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Bernie Van Osdale has a book with tons of pictures that might have the information you are looking for if you could show it to your uncle. There are posts somewhere in this forum about Bernie's book. If you can't find it, PM me.