SOOT IN THE FLUES

RAYNARD SCHMIDT, Vail, Iowa 51465 is looking for aid
‘Recently I purchased a tractor for a hobby. Now I am trying to
find out as much information as I can about its origin, actual
color and real name.

This tractor bears a plate with Jumbo Cons. & Farm
Machinery, Jumbo Steel Products Co., Azusa, Cal. name of
Manufacturer on it. The Serial No. is 7708.

From the book Development of Agricultural Tractors in the United
States by R. B. Gray I did find some information. As follows

‘The Jumbo Steel Products Co., of Azusa, Calif. announced
its Simpson Jumbo 3-plow tractor said to be designed especially for
the extra rugged soil and climatic conditions of the west. The
machine was available as a standard 4-wheel job (Model C) and
4-wheel tricycle (Model B) and was powered with a 6-cylinder 35
drawbar hp. Chrysler engine. Five forward speed up to 22.4 mph and
hydraulic brakes were provided.’

This still leaves me with the question of the year of
manufacture and the actual color. According to the above
information, mine is a Model B.

I would appreciate any information you could provide for the
questions I still have about this machine. Thank you!

BILL HACHTEL, 8901 Smith Road, R.F.D. #3, Willoughby, Ohio 44094
sends us a note from his hospital bed, where he is recovering from
a back operation. ‘Since I’ll be out of commission for
several months, I would like to get some information from the
fellow collectors. I want to know about the Ideal engine made in
Portland, Ohio, and history and relationship to Ideal Engine
Company of Lansing, Michigan. Would appreciate this help.’
(I’m sure you’ll get some letters, Bill, and much success
to you on your recovery).

STAN VORGIAS, 6850 W. Mexico Drive, Lakewood, Colorado 80226 is
looking for stationary engine lovers in Colorado. Get in touch with
Stan and share your hobby.

I received a long letter from HELEN WARD RENNIE, Montezuma,
Kansas 67867. She wrote an article entitled ‘Antique Show
Tempos’ it’s interesting and I’ve retyped it as best I
could her writing is a bit hard to decipher hope I got it about the
way she wanted it.

‘Although I have never been privileged to attend many
different antique engine shows, I never cease to be intrigued by
the different attitudes. In some, the people who display and own
the equipment, as well as the audience, have a reverence and
respect for the engine marvels of another day. One show that we
attend regularly, one almost feels as though he has worked among
the giant redwoods or the sanctuary of a church. While there are
lots of children, they participate in the tugs of war but their
enjoyment is not boisterous or rowdy. The people who attend have an
air of respect and high regard for these antiques.

Displays are lovingly restored to gleaming perfection and
painstakingly maintained that way throughout the season. It is not
that they idolize the steam equipment but they love their hobby and
spend much time all year preparing to present this equipment so
that others, hopefully young people, will respect and enjoy their
hobby on which they spend so much time and so little money.

And then there is another show where a raucous carnival
atmosphere prevails. Children come in droves without their parents
and sneak in and pull the steam whistles, exposing themselves
dangerously close to the boilers and no one to supervise them. They
eat and drink as though at a picnic. The older people pay little
attention and busy themselves with visiting, mostly about other
topics than steam and antiques. It sounds as though I resent them
having other interests and so I do; for two days when a dedicated
few put so much into preserving a way of life, I hope their
neighbors can act interested for such a short while.

Then there is a happy one at a country home where all the
neighbors work together to bind wheat and have displays. There is
an air of the old threshing days here. When the engine blows the
signal, the whole group would troop into a kitchen, where they ate
the hearty meal over a table laden with many goodies. Some one
would stand with a leafy branch at the table to shoo flies.

And then there was the delightful show we attended where young
people were so enthused with the romance of steam that grade school
youngsters rode small models their young fathers had built. These
young families were eager to know that an era of their grandfathers
would have the good parts preserved for their youngsters.

This year we attended the big one at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. This is
the greatest a town of a few thousand, who are able to share their
love of antiques for five days with thousands.’

TOM KILLMON, Route 1, Council Bluffs, Iowa 51501 sends this
little note ‘My Great Grandfather Case and J. I. Case were
brothers. Can anyone give me any information about the family in
the early days? Anything appreciated.’ Please help him if
possible, for we are all interested in ‘family trees’ as
well as ‘Steam engines’.

From CAREY R. ALEXANDER, 94 Grange Hall Road, Dayton, Ohio 45430
a plea for letters ‘My wife’s great-grandfather was part
owner and Captain of the Ohio River Boat, Hattie Brown, which was
destroyed in a wind storm on the Kentucky River. The machinery was
taken off and used on another boat named the Vim, which was
destroyed in an ice break-up. I’d appreciate any letters from
readers who knew about these boats.’

MRS. EARNEST BRESSLER, Bird City, Kansas 67731 dropped us a note
saying the Antique Steam Engine and Thresher Show was a fine one,
with big crowds every day. People from New Zealand, Australia,
Germany, Japan and Norway were in attendance. Star attraction
seemed to be a pair of white mules hitched to a wagon. The driver
gave rides to kiddies (2 to 80). No doubt we’ll be getting a
show report on this later.

CLARENCE J. RULE, R.R. 1, Rossville, Indiana 46065 would like to
know if the Reeves miniature steam engines are being manufactured
any place if any of you know of any companies please send us the
addresses. He says the engines are about 6 inches long, 150 HP
type, non-operating except wheels turning.

PAUL PICKARD, 36428 Char-don Road, Willoughby Hills, Ohio 44094
is one of our new subscribers from the younger generation. Paul is
14 and his ambitions include building a 2′ scale Peerless
traction engine. Says he recently got the dimensions from a real
Peerless that had been built in 1891 and which is owned by Chan
Bliel. He also stated that Mr. Bliel gave him the opportunity to
fire up and run the Peerless. Paul expressed it was his
‘greatest thrill’. (Good Luck, Paul, we hope you get your
model built and send us a picture when finished and perhaps a
story?)

Several letters came in referring to the ‘Lost In The
Files’ picture that appeared on page 39 of Sept.-Oct. issue.
They are as follows: From STANLEY J. MOUSER, R.F.D.1, Wellman, Iowa
52356 says, ‘It is a compound Russell and looks as if it would
be about a 20-25 HP engine. Russell built their compound engines
with the low pressure cylinder ahead of the high pressure cylinder,
with a bracket between the two cylinders instead of butting the two
cylinders up end to end, as the Port Huron and Gaar-Scott compound
engines were.’

FRANK SCHWANKE, Route 1, Box 217, Mazomanie, Wisconsin 53560
says: ‘I would say it is a Russell steam engine.’

ANDERSON LONG, 700 So. Douglas Street, Lee’s Summit,
Missouri 64063 writes: The engine is a Russell tandem compound. I
remember seeing it or one like it in I.M.A. a few years back. There
were only very few made.’

M. L. SWETLAND, Belle Center, Ohio 43310 claims: ‘The engine
is a tandem compound Russell made by the Russell Mfg. Co. of
Massilion, Ohio.’

Thanks Fellows, I guess we ought to put some more of our
‘Lost In The Files’ pics in seems you like to identify
them.

HAROLD SMITH, Ralston, Iowa 51459 sent in his renewal for
another year and along with it this poem – RENEWAL TIME! Yes, the
steam is going down, We will wear a frown But there is no doubt,
The fire is not out. So we shovel coal, That the smoke will roll.
High in the blue sky, From the old smoke stack, Which no one dare
deny, Is very black. And now for another year, We go into high
gear. As we will read much more, About men and machinery of yore.
(How about that?? He really put some effort into sending in his
renewal.)

DOUG LANUM, 1080 Wood-mere Road, Columbus, Ohio 43220 writes:
‘I get the Iron-men Album magazine and I enjoy reading it very
much. I am 13 years old and I was wondering if you could tell me
the companies that made steam engines and steam traction engines
that still make farm machinery, like Case or a company that has
switched?

I like to draw and I was wondering if you want this drawing?
(Thank you Doug, I too like to draw and therefore appreciate your
sending me the drawing   and I think our fellow readers would
like to see it. And please send Doug the information he is seeking
   we surely want to encourage these young steam
enthusiasts).

A letter from ERNEST F. EGGERTH, Renwick, Iowa 50577 regarding
some inquiries from an earlier issue this year – hope you all find
it interesting.

‘It has been a long time since I wrote to you but when I
read the article ‘Threshing in France’ by George Pohl, St.
Johns, Michigan, in Mar.-June 1974 issue, I thought I would tell
you about the threshing I saw in France. Like Mr. Pohl, I too was a
World War I veteran. I was in the 349th Company D, 88th Division.
We were kept busy but I saw a small thresher that was powered by
one horse in a tread power. The machine was hand fed. The bundles
were tied with a willow branch, the straw was not broken and came
from the straw rack and a man put the straw into a press, then with
the same willow it was tied. The grain was good quality. They raise
oats, barley, wheat, and rye. I also saw a blind man threshing
oats. A branch was driven full of nails, then fastened so it would
not move, then a hand full of grain would be pounded or stripped
though the nails, it would do a good job, but slow hard work. I saw
another thresher, but not when it was running. It was mounted on a
wagon with a gas engine for power. I started threshing when I was
young. I also had a large corn sheller. In fact I had it 45 years.
I always loved steam engines, gas engines, and tractors. I still
have a 28-46 Nichols Shepard Separator.

I was raised on a farm and lived on it for 65 years, then I
moved to Renwick and we rented the farm to our daughter and her
husband.

I went into the Army in September of 1917, and in August of 1918
I was overseas. I also crossed the English Channel from South
Hampton to Le Hause, France, then to a training area. Then up to
Hekkan, Alsace Lorraine, where we came to some action. We slept in
dug-outs that were fifty feet deep. We did not stay there long.

I can talk German so I bought some ape (apples) from a man. He
asked if I lived near Wisconsin. Next we went to the Argonne front
where it got real hot. I was chosen as a runner or messenger, so
the job was dangerous, but God was with me. It was a real sensation
on Armistice Day, as the fighting increased but at eleven
o’clock there was silence, such a happy feeling!

Then we moved again to another area about 70 miles away and on
May 7, 1919, the division began moving to the western front of
France, then to the USA. I got discharged June 11, 1919.

I enjoy reading both the Albums and the Gas Engine Magazine. I
always loved to go to the threshers conventions, but last year I
could not as I had serious surgery in February of 1972. I’ll
have to go this fall. You know that God has been good to me and my
family.’

Another missal giving us some more information on the 150 HP
Case comes from FRANK MILLER, R.R. 3, Kewanna, Indiana 46939
‘After reading the May-June 1974 I.M.A. in Soot In The Flues,
there was an article of inquiry from Aldis C. Lee of Rushford,
Minnesota and also from Douglas Dann, Ithaca, New York about the
150 HP Case.

I have the 1905-1908 J. I. Case Catalogues. I will try to give
you some information about the 150 H.P. Case.

In the 1905 catalog it said the Drive Wheels of the Big Case are
eight feet in diameter, with 30 inch rims reinforced by channel
irons to make them exceptionally strong.

The Two Speeds run the engine 2.6 miles per hour (slow) and 5.69
miles per hour (fast). The Friction Steam Steering Device will turn
the engine in a comparatively small circle.

The Front Axle is fitted with a saddle which supports the weight
of the boiler below center of the axle.

The Spring Bar is well braced and sufficiently strong for heavy
hauling strains.

Capacity of the Water Tank is about 520 gallons enough to run
the engine three hours. The Coal Bunker will hold 1,200 pounds
coal, sufficient for a five hour run.

The 1906 and 1907 Case catalog have about the same information
about the 150 H.P. Case.

These engines have been designed for use in localities without
steam railway facilities or where the tonnage or freight is
insufficient to justify the building of a railway. In hauling
supplies to and from mines, lumber from sawmills, grain in large
quantities to railway stations, or for plowing on a very large
scale, it can be used at a saving of at least 50% over ox, mule, or
horse teams.

The general construction follows that of our smaller traction
engines, which are in use in all parts of the world for threshing,
hauling, plowing, grading, sawing, stump-pulling, pumping, in fact
all kinds of work requiring heavy power.

The 1907 Case catalog is the last one the 150 H.P. Case was
pictured in, but the 1908 has it priced at $4,000, also 1906 and
1907 at the same price, 1905 $3,600.

Something that would look different on the 150 Case, in the 1905
catalog, was that you get onto the platform on the left side just
behind the rear wheel.

Finally, I will give you the specifications of the 150 H.P. Case
traction engine; Boiler Waist – 42 inches in diameter, Firebox –
length 58-1/4 inches, width 39-1/4 inch, height 45 inches,
Tubes-number 93-2 inches in diameter, 108-1/2 inches long, Heating
Surface of boiler -508.5 square feet, Grate area   15.8 square
feet, Steam Pressure 60 pounds per square inch, Front Wheels – 54
inches, Traction Wheels-height 8 feet, 36 inches wide, Fly Wheel –
50 inches diameter; face 16 inches, speed 200 rpm, Two speed –
miles per hour: fast, 5.69, slow, 2.64, Extreme width of engine is
11-1/3 feet, length – 24-3/4 feet, Distance between axles is 14
feet, 2 inches, Weight with boiler empty is 18 tons.

Before signing off I would like to mention that I saw a 150 H.P.
Case boiler mounted on cement at the Justin Hingtgen Show at
LaMotte, Iowa.

And with this issue, we end another year – may we serve you
better in the forthcoming year?

And in closing I’d like to use one of Helen Steiner
Rice’s writings entitled ‘God Grant Us Hope and Faith and
Love HOPE for a world grown cynically cold, Hungry for power and
greedy for gold FAITH to believe when within and without,
There’s a nameless fear in a world of doubt LOVE that is bigger
than race or creed, To cover the world and fulfill each need GOD,
grant these gifts, To all troubled hearts, As the old year ends And
a new year starts. (That’s a good poem for anytime). Bye bye
and God Bless!