I have three other engines besides this one. My old one is
nearly fifty years old and is still the best.
Haston loves to work with tools so it is only fitting he has
quite a collection of old tools of all kinds. You can’t help
but feel his love for his hobby when you are around his shop. He
has completed nine engines and is half finished with a
Case, one Woods Bros, and a single cylinder with clay valve gear
and one Nichols & Shepard single cyl.
He has some very good equipment in his shop which is well taken
care of as well as the shop itself. It is a pleasure to visit and
is located at Holden, Missouri, R. R. 1, Box 140 A-64040.
I have been a reader of the magazine for a few years and a
retired licensed engineer, marine and stationary and I would like
to commend you on a fine piece of work in the publication of the
Iron-Men.
I have worked for Westinghouse Elec. Corp. 32 years. During a
strike a few years back, I worked at Allen Tool and Gauge Co. on
machine tool rebuilding. I saw the smallest steam engine in the
world running on air.
Engine specifications are: Length overall – ‘; Width –
7/16′; Height-7/16’; Length of bed – ‘; Width of bed
3/16′; Diameter of flywheels -3/8′; Diameter of cylinder
bore -.080′; Length of piston stroke – .085′; Valve stroke
– .0165’; Total weight -19 grains; Contains 176 parts; Power
-Approximately .0002 hp.
On the ad cards the company states: ‘We invite you to visit
our plant and see the smallest complete horizontal running model
steam engine in the world, actually operating. This model was made
in 1892 by our president, Mr. Charles H. Allen, Sr. Our modern
plant is located in the biggest steel city of the world, which
offers many interesting sight seeing spots to the out-of-town
visitor.
I put in twenty-eight seasons threshing, fired most of the time
a George White 22 hp. I also fired a 22 hp. of the same make. Then
I fired a Goodison 28 hp. in a sawmill for five years. I ran all
makes of tractors but liked the Cast best.
If anyone would like to see a real big traction engine and
separator there is one on the left side as you go West out of
Sandusky, Michigan. I never saw one as big as that one. It must be
a Western outfit. It was built by Port Huron Engine and Thresher
Company. It would never work here as you couldn’t get in a
gateway with it. I worked in Michigan once and I wish I had stayed
there. Maybe I would have missed all the heart aches I had
here.