FROM A 20-YEAR-OLD
I am pleased to hear that you are now offering Jumbo Post Cards
of Steam Engines – and in color! Being a full-pledged admirer of
the grand ole steam engine, I couldn’t miss out on this deal. I
do believe they will sell. The real era of steam power has passed
but the reunions will keep their memory alive for years to
come.
I’ve just passed into a new ‘era’ myself, as I am
now 20 years old. Those teen-age years sure went fast!
M. L. MATTHEWS, 126 N. Main Street, Hampstead, Maryland
LOVE THAT STEAM!
I read and thoroughly digest all of the interesting items in
your magazine. My only regret is that it does not come more often.
I realize how much work it must take to publish each issue. I love
to look at the pictures, and see all the articles. I didn’t
know there were so many different makes of engines!
I first heard of your magazine when I went to the Richland
County Steam Threshers Reunion in August. There I met Mr. Melvin M.
Ludy, R. D. 2, Dover, Ohio. He owns a N & S steamer and was
very kind to me and my friends. He answered all my many questions
and got me my first magazine subscription.
I am 17 years old and will graduate from Lucas High School this
spring. I joined the Navy Reserve and will be going for two years
active duty and also to school to learn a technical trade (some
sort of mechanical engineering). I was surprised to learn that many
Navy ships are run on steam power although they are turbines,
instead of the reciprocating type.
I plan to own an engine of my own some day and am looking
forward to it.
ROGER FRANKLIN CULLER, JR., Rt. 1, Lucas, Ohio
I REMEMBER . . .
I recently recived the book, Wood Taber and Morse and it brought
back memories of such an engine that ran our old-time flour and
sawmill. It was a 35 hp and had a large band wheel on the shaft.
The mill was a modern 3 stand roller-mill of the Hungarian pattern
that began to come out about 1870. It ran until 1907, then shut
down for the last time.
I was a small boy then, but a bunch of us played in that old
mill and sawyard. I took a great interest in the machinery of that
3-story building. One large belt ran from the basement to the top
of the third story and was made of leather 14 inches wide. The
engine was installed in 1869, so it was a rare engine even at that
time. No one remembered how it was hauled from Kansas City,
Missouri, a hundred miles away. One old-timer believed that he
heard it was pulled all the way by ox-team on large skidtimbers by
ten yoke of ox.
No railroads were in existence then. A man was sent from the
factory to oversee the setting-up. The stack was 12 feet square at
the base and 60 feet high, built of limestone rocks, set in
lime-sand mortar. Cordwood was the fuel used and many a farmer, and
town man made their winter wages cutting and hauling cordwood for
the hungry boiler. The mill was a stone burr mill from its
beginning until the change was made to roller mill. How that 35 hp
engine could run that mill and the saw at the same time was a
mystery to me, but it was done. ‘Hats off to the old-time steam
engine.’
More about the old one-lung tractor on the back page of your
Jan.-Feb. issue. It is a Fairbanks-Morse tractor, 25 hp, about
1910. I looked at the front of the picture with a flashlight and a
reading glass which brings out the letters that are not visible
otherwise. I learned this trick years ago. Although I don’t
think that was what you wanted to know in the first place, I think
you wanted to know who owned this particular tractor.
AUBREY L. BOBBITT, Uniontown, Kansas
OUT OF THE JUNKMAN’S REACH
When the old Somersworth Foundry in Salmon Falls, New Hampshire,
was razed, the steam whistle was 65 feet from the ground and
mounted on the chimney and out of the junkman’s reach
fortunately!
The 2′ pipe, which went up half the height of the chimney on
the inside and came through for whistle mounting on the outside,
was cut along with two braces and its 200 pound weight lowered to
the ground with effort and success.
It is a chime whistle and valve made by Crosby, 8′ in
diameter by 24′, 2′ pipe, whistle size. The valve is
electric solenoid or lever operated.
PAUL RIDEOUT, South Berwick, Maine
