R. R. 3, Box 311 Findlay, Ohio
I believe I was about 13 years old when these two pictures were
taken. As I remember, Father had filled the boiler with water and
had put in a fire to guard against freezing, in preparation of
doing some custom fire wood buzzing. He then had gone to town to do
their Saturday afternoon shopping. I had fired and watched the
to fire farther, get up steam and run it to the woods and return
which I did. All went well, until I had gotten this far and the
right rear wheel broke through the top frozen layer of ground. I
was then very much worried as to what Father would say if it was
still there when he returned home; although I had been along with
him when he would get in similar trouble and would sometimes lay
the rail pieces or stove wood in front or behind the wheels, such
as would be required for him.
At about the age of ten, my mother had gotten me a 3 x 4 glass
plate camera and developing kit for a Christmas present. I had
become quite interested in it and away I went back to the house and
got the camera and took the first picture. I do not know how long
it was before I was able to take the second one, but I do remember
how glad I was when the engine was back at the barn when Father
returned home. When he did arrive, instead of scolding me, he
commended me for being able to get it out without any
assistance.
Later, in my 15th year, I ran this engine with the hired man
running the clover huller to hull 796 bu. of recleaned second crop
red clover seed and the following season on the grain thresher, a
36 x 60 Huber. The last engine I fired for Father was an 18 HP
Peerless which was a very nice running engine and easy to fire. A
picture of this one was in the May 1964 Engineers & Engines
Magazine.
The Mrs. and myself are now living on 80 A. of the same farm,
although in a newer set of buildings.
LETTER
Courtesy of Howard Camp, 18 West Washington Street, Newnan,
Georgia 30205
Meet Homer Carmical, age 84, started working in a boiler factory
around 1900. He used some of the first air hammers in the shop.
Then he started going out on the road to work on stand pipes, which
were 25-foot boilers stood on end 100 feet high. In 1910 he built
the first million gallon stand pipe in Charlotte, North Carolina,
and was one of the first to have air and hammers. They used
locomotive steam air compressors and upright boilers, but they had
so much trouble with the air tools that most of the rivets were
driven by hand and snapped so as to form the round head.
The inside scaffold was a floating platform and the leaks could
be tended to as they went along. It did not take Homer long to get
up new ways to build tanks after he became the boss. He soon became
known by all in the tank business for his best ways of rigging and
doing jobs quicker and safer than any of the rest. In his 50 years
of working with dozens of companies, no one was ever killed on his
job. Very few erectors can make this statement.
He once rebuilt a boiler in a coal camp and used a stump to
flange the pieces sent out by the shop. The old-timers also
depended on the old natural stop leak (horse manure). If it did not
fill up the crack, it would soon rust it tight.