Weekend Steam

This week we are looking at a few more pictures from old Farm Album magazines. The first one is an early traction engine in the Fall, 1948 issue. This issue contains some interesting biographical information about Elmer Ritzman, the gentleman who published The Farm Album, and the Iron Men Album magazines. "Mr. Ritzman has been a Methodist minister for 34 years. He is very happy to be counted worthy of such an office. Next in his heart is the history of Agricultural Equipment, especially the steam engine.

His earliest collection dates 1903 when a youngster he stole a Frick poster hanging in a covered bridge, since that time he has made a large collection of pictures and posters. Not by stealing we are glad to say. He takes pride and joy in giving you the pictures and articles in the ALBUM. We surely hope you enjoy them." I certainly would not consider taking an advertising poster from a covered bridge to be stealing; I am quite sure that this was not counted as a sin by our dear old Elmer when he went to glory.


The Spring 1948 issue began the second year of The Farm Album. This nice collection of engines is in Illinois, and I wonder if the Jumbo is the same engine that is shown at Pinckneyville each year. I must do some research.

This reciprocating sawmill advertisement was reproduced in the Summer 1948 issue of The Farm Album. I have seen one reciprocating mill, and the vibration from this type of machine is a marvel to feel as it comes up through your feet. This machine is not too far removed from the old system of having a real man in a pit as the pit-man to pull the saw down, and a man on top to pull it back up. The circular saw was a huge improvement over this system.

This advertisement reproduced in the Spring 1950 Farm Album demonstrates just how hard it is for us to predict the future. Horses have been replaced by a little electric tractor in this 1891 catalog picture, but a nineteenth century binder is still processing wheat into sheaves for a threshing machine. Our imaginations just aren't big enough to figure out what is coming in the future.