FROM VASSAR (Michigan that is) –
Please accept my renewal as I don’t want to miss a single
issue. This is the first letter I have written you people so let me
express my appreciation for the ALBUM as both my brother and I
really enjoy it.
We are not old timers but we still enjoy the ALBUM as we read
about the old days, being farm boys may be why we like it so much.
We like it on the farm as there is plenty of space to roam about.
Of course one needs room when they have much machinery. We have a
19 hp. Port Huron engine and operate it on a saw mill. Sure have
lots of fun with it- of course it’s more Hobby than business,
but that old engine sure does haul a saw nicely. Still have our
28-50 Keck Goner man separator and 32-42 bean sheller, a Huber with
a wood frame and fittings of solid brass. All bearings are babbited
and push arms and pitmans have wood boxes of hard maple. I have
threshed many bushels of white navy beans with this old machine but
always used gas as it was easier to get around and the machine was
rebelted for tractor. We have used this machine regularly as until
late years the combines had not been fitted to properly handle this
particular threshing job. I still do a couple jobs each fall. I do
it more for fun and to help the neighbors than profit. Times have
changed and will change again. I say, ‘Blow that whistle
brother, Blow that whistle.’ Aint it pretty.
LAWRENCE A. KENNARD, R. D. 3, Vassar, Michigan
AGAIN AND AGAIN-
I am enclosing a couple bundles to keep the thresher running so
keep the good work going. I knew my sub., was near being out so
here it comes for a good magazine again and again.
INNER ?. LINQUIST, R. D. 2, Kahoka, Missouri
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP
As required by Act of Congress, personally appeared Elmer L.
Ritzman, who being duly sworn, states that Elmer L. Ritzman is the
editor and B. Earlene Ritzman is the co-editor of The Iron-Men
Album Magazine, published bi-monthly with the mail address of Port
Royal, Pa. The publication is entered as Second Class Matter at the
Post Office at Port Royal, Pa.
That the Managing Editor is Karl A. Kepner, Port Royal, Pa.
That the owners are Elmer L. Ritzman and B. Earlene Ritzman, of
Enola, Pa., and that the known bondholders, mortgagees and other
security holders owning or holding one per cent or more of the
total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities are
(None).
(s) Elmer L. Ritzman
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 16th day of September,
1957. Helen M. Felmlee, Millerstown, Pa.
Notary Public My commission expires June 18, 1959.
GAVE MY COPY AWAY-
I was recently at the home of Mr. Campbell who publishes Western
Steam Fiends magazine. I showed him the July-August issue of the
ALBUM and he was anxious to have one so I gave him mine. Please let
me have another copy if possible as I do not like to have a copy
missing when I have all the others. I think you are doing a
wonderful thing for us old engineers who are on the shady side of
the hill.
We lived in a by-gone era which will never be again and of
necessity must live in the past in our thoughts of days so dear to
us. My best wishes to you and Karl and your wives.
I particularly enjoy letters from the old timers. I have not run
a steamer as many years as many of your readers-only 11 years- then
5 years on the railroad and on to the oil fields where I put in
many years on large stationary Diesel engines from 250 to 400 hp. I
was chief engineer for many years for the Shell Oil Company on
their pipe line from Texas to St. Louis, Missouri and really know a
Diesel locomotive as well as a steamer.
Possibly you do not know the pipe line like I do. The main line
was 10′ with a power house every 60 to 75 miles. Here the big
engines were used to drive the pumps to pump the crude oil through
the pipe line. All power houses kept in step with each other and
carried line pressures up to 1,000 pounds per square inch. The main
line had five 400 hp. Allis Chalmers in each power house, four
running 24 hours a day and one for immediate use in an
emergency.
I. L. LONDON, 5650 Sacramento Blvd., Sacramento,
California
FROM CLARKSON, NEBRASKA-
First, thank you for my first copy of the IRON-MEN ALBUM. I am
very much interested in all kinds of threshing machinery.
We have on our place a J. I. Case thresher which was built in
1873. All wooden and hand fed, and was used until 1915 and it’s
in good running order yet. It was run by five teams or ten horses.
Some day I will send you a picture of that old outfit. I have
threshed forty-five years.
RUDOLPH NOVOTNY, Clarkson, Nebraska
JOHN D. OTIS WRITES-
I spent the best years of my life in the threshing business,
starting back in the horse-power days and going to steam in 1899.
Kept with steam until 1919 then went over to gas tractors for a few
years or until the combines took over. The combines took out the
hard work and did away with the pleasure of threshing but left the
love for the old steamer in my mind. I have operated many makes of
engines, starting out with Nichols & Shepard which was a very
good engine. I sure like the experiences of the old threshermen you
print in your ALBUM.
JOHN D. OTIS, Phillipsburg, Kansas
