SOOT IN THE FLUES

With a Christmas card came a ‘chatty’ letter from JAMES
W. CHANDLER, 54 Taylor Street, Frankfort, Indiana 46041. ‘I
received a card from Kansas about the Russell compound engine (Jim
had a letter in 1975 Jan.-Feb. column, Page 10, bottom of page.) As
you probably know, I have quite a collection of pictures of these I
have taken over a period of years. You might add a short note in
your column that I do not verify or claim, that the Russell
compound was 25 or 30 HP, just repeated what Mr. Ray Stoner called
it.

I knew Gilbert Enders of N. Lodi and visited often, when in
Nickel Plate Railroad Service at nearby Belleview, Ohio.

By the way it is amazing what some of your readers have seen,
and what they haven’t. Especially some mail I have received
about the big Keck-Gonnerman engine on page 35 of Nov.-Dec. 1971
I.M.A. at Mt. Pleasant Show, years ago, when two of these engines
were discussed. Just Leonard Mann of Otterbein, Indiana and myself
had ever seen such engines. Yet, Keck-Gonnerman Catalogue #32, Page
III plainly shows table of both single cylinder and double cylinder
types. The boiler shell seam is near bottom and has wide butt strap
similar to Canadian type, Gaar-Scott (near pedestal). Another
radical difference from usual Keck-Gonnerman practice was the rear
wheels, which were much better designed than those of their
standard line of manufacture.

I have a picture of a 25 HP double cylinder Keck-Gonnerman taken
years ago, North of Greentown, Indiana. There is a resemblance but
they are not alike. This one was ordered by one Lon Pickott of
Greentown or Sycamore, Indiana about 1912. The later one on page 35
of Nov.-Dec. 1971 I.M.A. is more refined and much larger.

Folks from our I.M.A. FAMILY like to write to us when they send
in their subscriptions This letter came from BRUCE McCOURTNEY,
Syracuse, Nebraska 68446-‘I’m 68 and was born within 100
feet of an Aultman-Taylor steam engine. Dad had a Rumely and a
Stevens too at that time. I cut my teeth on a lug on that old
beveled gear Aultman Taylor. And believe it or not, I still have
the narrow side tank off of that old engine.

I now have a 1916 Case and a 1914 Russell and a model rear mount
Gaar Scott. It weighs two tons. We owned 23 steam engines at one
time. My Dad started we three boys and two sisters out young on
steam engines. We threshed, graded roads, crushed rock, drove
pilings, baled hay, shelled corn and moved a lot of houses, etc. so
we used steam engines almost the year around. These Nemabra hills
and Missouri River bluffs weren’t really the best places to
move buildings, etc. but we were lucky. I did ride steamers through
four bridges in my life only got hurt once to amount to anything.
Got a bad bump, broken knee cap, but wasn’t off the job long.
After a few years I happened to think all four bridge accidents
happened within fifteen minutes of 10 A.M. Bet I couldn’t do
that again. I better close the draft door and turn on the
injector-see you next year’. (O.K. Bruce, thanks for
writing.)

A. J. HETZEL, 7324 North Central Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85020,
when communicating with us recently added: ‘The writer, in 1916
to 1922, owned the Avery tractor as shown on the cover of the
Jan.-Feb. 1974 issue. We farmed thousands of acres of wheat land
with the tractor in the famous Judith Basin area. The motto then
was: (Wheat will win the war!). For your information, the Avery
Manufacturing Company only built two other tractors of this
type.’

A group of people are hoping for someone to help them out with
their problem ‘We are currently constructing a Museum. We are
searching for a steam traction donation for us to restore. We have
the willing people who also have the know-how.’ Write Jean
Pitts, Curator, 200 E. Zarragoza Street, Pensacola, Florida 32501.
The letterhead had Historical Pensacola Preservation Board-Museum
Bureau.

Then from a long time member of I.M.A. Family, FRANK J. BURRIS
(Retired IBM Minuteman Engineer), 35640 F, Yucaipa, California
92399, comes this info:

‘Anent the good comments re ‘The Baker Fan’ in the
Jan-Feb. 1975 (Goodness sakes! Can 1975 be upon us already?) by Mr.
Claude P. Albert, there is no other misconcept about this item
which appears afloat at various of the engine gatherings. This
factor is concerned in any measurement of power output of any
device, and is called optimization. In the Prony brake, the engine
output is calculated as a product of speed of rotation of the brake
and a torque measurement at that – particular speed, adding
friction and windage losses which do not appear in these figures.
It therefore makes no difference at what speed the drum may be
turning during test, as a corresponding torque is indicated
simultaneously for that speed. That is, large or small engine band
wheels are of o consequence.

However, in the case of the simple loading of the Baker fan,
where no drafting is under control, the increasing speed of the fan
meets an even greater increasing of torque or drag (as Mr. Albert
has pointed out to be roughly to be a cube power of the speed).
Consequently, it becomes unfair to compare the power output of two
engines having differing diameters of band wheels. Actually, any
particular engine might spin the fan faster if its band wheel
diameter were reduced; or, conversely, if a larger pulley should be
placed upon the fan shaft. Under this hypothesis, a smaller engine
might conceivably spin the fan faster than a more powerful engine.
In other words, there is no provision for optomizing the pulley
ratios between the engine and fan. To allow of an alternate
compensation would require a throttling vent on the enclosed fan
housing constructed for this purpose. Then the air density,
humidity, and volume delivered, at generated output pressures,
could be utilized to determine the actual power involved. To allow
of this method of power determination would properly involve use of
a computer programmed for this particular purpose, which s a bit
about the capabilities of all of us old-time-show hounds.

So, in the meantime, just belt her up and listen to her
puff!

ROY FREEL, 380 Rhodes Avenue, Mansfield, Ohio 44906 is
interested in the sketching that was in the March-April 1974 issue,
page 18. As far as I know it is just one of the many interesting
pics that the printers put in to add to the interest of the
magazine. Anyone have any idea where something like this would have
been built and make and year?? Roy would like to hear from you.

I told you before that our editor and his wife visited England
recently Gerry has an article on the steam shows in this issue.
Hope you will enjoy it.

And that’s it for this time and remember Spring was once a
forerunner of flowers and nectar, but now is a herald of the tax
collector.

Aided by warm temperatures and a beautifully bright sky, the
crowds along the 2.6 mile route were six to eight deep at some
points and estimates for the total crowd varied from 200,000 to
400,000.

‘It was the best parade I’ve ever seen,’ was the
comment of one Holyoker, who noted he had seen almost every parade
in the past twenty years.

‘Fantastic’

‘It was absolutely fantastic. The bands were great,’
were the comments of still others along the route.

Even the marching groups themselves were caught up in the
excitement of the show and most of the musical units performed
throughout the entire distance because the crowd was so evenly
distributed.

Hard Choice

As with the people viewing the parade, the judges also had a
difficult choice in selecting the best floats and bands.

The judges decision of the best float in the parade, winner of
the Chairman’s Award, was generally agreed to have gone to the
best float as the Granby Historical Float was selected as grand
prize winner.

The top float featured a corn sheller complete with steam engine
and workers as well as a small farm with two pigs and a sheep.