This Aultman-Taylor traction engine is an unusual design that stands out in the crowd if you know your steam engines. Most traction engines have a clutch with wooden shoes which grip the inside surface of the flywheel. This century old beauty uses a sliding pinion gear on the crankshaft to drive a bevel gear which transmits motion via a drive shaft to another pinion, which turns the differential.
Click the photos to enlarge them for a better view of the system. This drive system uses fewer parts than the typical engine of its day, and I am sure that there was much less clanking going on when starting and stopping.
You can see the back side of the crankshaft drive pinion in this photo. Aultman-Taylor engines used the Woolf reverse gear that you will also see on Case steam engines.
Snappy dance number (Fox-Trot) by the Manhattan Dance Makers, recorded on March 17, 1926. This is the flip side of "When The Golden Rod Is Blooming," a song we posted last year. Our good microphone is still away, so this one was recorded with our old mike. This record is loud and boisterous, so I think we can get away with using our tinny microphone, and we hope we will have the good one back soon. Shake a leg.
Here is a tip for travelers who cringe at the thought of paying big bucks for a TSA approved locking case for airline travel. All you need to convert a Ruger pistol case into a sturdy locking case is a drill, two long-shackled padlocks, and a stack of washers to take up the slack when the locks are snapped. The washers can be epoxied together so they don't scatter when you open the case for the TSA inspector. One or two of these can easily be packed in your suitcase for trips to far-flung shooting events. This is also a suitable solution for folks who need a locking case for land travel across state lines in vans or SUV's that don't have a trunk to lock up your guns. Hat tip to EJ!
More than thirty years ago, a good friend of mine spotted this 10 HP Mogul engine, which was almost totally concealed by blackberry and trumpet-creeper vines, near Flat Gap, Kentucky. My friend was able to locate the owner, and after he made a deal, we loaded it on a borrowed truck and moved it to his home. It has been under cover ever since, but it never was restored.
Last summer at the Pinckneyville show I visited with the owner of the beautifully restored 4 HP engine shown in the video below. I mentioned the 10 HP engine in Eastern Kentucky, and he took down the contact info. I had a call a few nights ago from Jim (the 4 HP Mogul owner), of St. Peters, MO, and he is now the giddy owner of the 4000 pound, 10 HP Mogul. He made a deal over the phone with my old friend, and made the round trip from west of St. Louis to Johnson County, Kentucky to retrieve the very nice specimen of old iron. He is already well into the restoration process, and he expects to show it next summer. This old engine ran a stone buhr mill for grinding corn meal (and probably malted corn for whiskey) during its working years, and it also powered a generator to charge the batteries for a rural phone exchange.
The machinery on the 4 HP model operates the same as the 10 HP, and they have great appeal for old machinery aficianadoes. I hope these two are operating side by side next year at Pinckneyville.
We started seeing Christmas decorations in the stores before Halloween this year. At least they waited until after Labor Day. Mr. McCurdy was on the town square in Washington, Iowa last Saturday, and even if Thanksgiving isn't here yet, his old tuba sounded pretty good. While I was taking his picture, my classmate from our one room school came by. We started school together 53 years ago. Visiting home makes you wonder where the years go.
I stopped in to see my brother Chester while I was in Iowa to visit Mom. Chester is quite a craftsman, and can do all kinds of jewelry repair and construction. If I have to build or repair anything, I first look for ways to utilize a chainsaw in the process, so the skills my brother has are way out of my league. He showed me one of his torches: it has a TINY ruby tip, with a microscopic orifice, and the flame it produces is much smaller than a match flame. He does fine work.
Chester and his wife have built a thriving business, and he typically works at his bench six days per week. His motto is, "If you bought your jewelry from someone else, you paid too much!" Mom and I would have liked to stay and visit all day, but my little brother needed to get back to weighing his diamonds.
"A New Kind Of Love," sung by Maurice Chevalier has always struck me when I listen to it because Mr. Chevalier is such a happy sounding fellow. He was a Great War veteran who served in the French Army, was wounded, captured, and was a POW for two years. After the war he continued with his performing career, which was very remarkable. During WWII he made a deal to have some allied prisoners released from the same camp where he had been held, by performing there. While he worked in Hollywood for Paramount he did earn a reputation for being a penny pincher, bargaining the parking price down to a nickel from ten cents per day. According to the current philsophy being touted by the news media, Maurice should have been a murderous, misunderstood malcontent who's life was ruined by PTSD; instead, he was only slightly miserly. He was a remarkable man, and I think you will enjoy this song.
GramophoneShane posted this Rudy Vallee rendition of "As Time Goes By" on his YouTube channel. I think this is the first recording of this song I have heard with the verse. My dad's mother was Rudy's biggest fan. I can't listen to him without thinking of her.
I visited Mom (Bea, for you Gun Bloggers) this weekend to help with pruning, plumbing, and etc. Mom has been wanting to pick up a new semi-auto that would give her high quality practice getting on target and delivering lead downrange, so we made another trip to the Scheel's store in Coralville. We looked at lots of pistols, and she settled on a Ruger 4" 22/45 Hunter model that will provide many hours of shooting range enjoyment. While she was completing her paperwork I looked at the amazing selection in Scheel's, and had a hard time leaving. The highlights that stood out to me were two Ruger Flattop .44 specials, a convertible .45 Blackhawk like Mom has, and a couple of stainless, laminated stock Marlin 45-70's. There were many AR rifles, and some Springfield M1-A's.
We finished up the various chores that had to be done, and spent Saturday afternoon stuffing .45 ammo for the Blackhawk. And speaking of big bullets for defense, be sure to click over to Brigid's blog and read about the need for meaningful calibers for self defense at home. First Caleb, and now Brigid has had a close brush with bad guys. The moral that comes out of both encounters is to be well prepared. I believe, Mom believes, and you should too! Be prepared!
Peerless engines are not very plentiful in the Midwest, but this nice one was running at the American Thesherman Show at Pinckneyville last August. It has a bit of a knock; I hope the owner has it fixed before he works this beauty.
"Tea For Two",from the 1925 musical, "No No Nanette" was the first record from our collection of old 78's that we posted on YouTube. We recorded it with our old microphone in front of our faithful Brunswick phonograph, which is the reason this recording sounds a bit tinny. Our new microphone, which does a much better job of picking up these old records from the megaphone is in the shop, because I tripped over the USB cable and it fell to the floor. Hopefully, in a week or two, the True Blue Recording Studio will be back in operation.
Chainsaws have been a part of my life, well, for a long time. I have been helping to promote chainsaw safety and modern cutting methods ever since my first safety course, and recently I helped with a training course for women at the Dixon Springs Ag Center. We spent most of the first day inside doing saw rehab and sharpening, and by the time we went outside, all twelve of the students were able to sharpen a saw with a jig, and also freehand.
Our first cutting exercise taught the students how to perform a bore cut. The bore cut is considered to be an advanced technique by some, but I teach it first, because the bore cut is what separates chainsaw use from axes and crosscut saws. Once students are proficient in bore cutting, they are able to use a chainsaw to its full potential, and they can set trees up to drop safely and accurately.
This was an enthusiastic class, and during our next session everyone will learn the process of falling a tree, limbing, and bucking.
Firearms 1. All guns are always loaded. 2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. 3. Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot. 4. Be sure of your target and what lies beyond it.
Knives 1. Never cut toward yourself. 2. Always cut away from youself. 3. Never cut yourself.
AND If you drop a knife or gun, let it fall!
Chainsaws
1. Always wear your safety gear when running your saw: hard hat, eye, face, hearing protection, cut resistant protection for your legs, heavy boots, gloves (depending on work conditions).
2. Safety devices on the saw must be in working order: front hand guard,chain brake, chain catcher, throttle lockout, and right hand guard.
3. Hold the saw on the ground or lock it between your knees for starting. No 'Drop Starts.' Set the chain brake before cranking.
4. The engine must idle reliably without turning the chain.
5. The chain must be sharpened properly, including properly set depth gauges.
6. The chain must be adjusted to remove slack and still run freely.
7. The operator must understand the forces on different parts of the bar as the saw runs: push, pull, kickback and attack.
8. Both hands must always be on the saw when the chain is running. The thumbs must be wrapped around the handles. Both feet should be firmly planted on the ground.
9. The operator must always know where the end of the bar is, and what it's doing.
10. Don't let the upper (kickback) corner of the bar contact anything when the chain is running unless the tip has been buried with the lower corner.
11. Let off of the throttle before pulling out of a pinch on the top part of the bar.
12. Make a plan for every tree you cut. Assess hazards, lean, escape routes, forward cuts, and back cuts. Evaluate the forward or backward lean, and the side lean of every tree you cut. Know your limits.
13. Clear your work area and your escape path of brush, vines, and other hazards that can trip you or catch your saw.
14. Escape from the bullseye when the tree tips. 90% of accidents happen within 12 feet of the stump. Go more than 15 feet, and stay out of the bullseye until things stop falling.
15. Keep spectators away more than twice the height of the tree in the direction it will fall.
16. Don't cut alone.
17. Keep your body and the swamper's out of the line of the bar in case of a kickback.
18. Set the brake when taking over two steps or when moving through tripping hazards. Keep your trigger finger off of the throttle when you are moving.
19. DO NOT operate a chainsaw from a ladder! Operating with your feet off the ground requires special training.
20. Do not cut above your shoulders.
21. Springpoles must be shaved on the inside of the apex between the ascending and descending sides. If the apex is higher than you shoulders, stand under the springpole and cut it low on the descending side. It will release upward, away from you.Leaning and heavily loaded poles that are too small to bore cut for a hinge should be shaved on the compressed side until they fold.
22. Do not cut a tree that is holding up a lodged tree. Do not work under a lodged tree. Think about a mouse trying to steal the cheese out of a trap.
23. Instruct your swampers and helpers to NEVER approach you from behind or the sides to within the reach of your saw when you are cutting. If you pull out of a cut with the chain running, or have a severe kickback, the swamper can be killed if he is coming up behind you!
Drop Trees Like An Expert!
Wear a hard hat, eye and face protection, ear protection, chainsaw chaps, trousers, or overalls, heavy boots, and gloves when running your saw. The logger in the video above is good, but he needs to start using all of his personal protective equipment.
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