Big old engines are hard to pull through compression so bump starting is popular with these heavies. Watch the mag, and especially the trip for kicking the engine off.
Big old engines are hard to pull through compression so bump starting is popular with these heavies. Watch the mag, and especially the trip for kicking the engine off.
Do you ever wonder about which tools were invented first? I've thought for years that the hammer would be first, but there is also a good chance it was the shovel. Pick up a stick and you can use it to reach, to push, or to dig. Deuteronomy 23:13 tells us to carry a stick so we can clean up after ourselves. We never get done digging, until we're really done, and then somebody else gets to dig for us. Anyhow, the dogs are liking their stepping stones, and they will give us a safe path to clean the dog yard when it rains.
Back To The Old Grind!
This is a rare occurrence! This engine went from the barn to running with very little work. During the 1950's and 1960's you would hear about this type of find, but you sure don't expect it today. The Minneapolis had been idle for 60 years. Remarkable! Posted to YouTube, November 2018.
Whispering and Japanese Sandman are a couple of the best songs in the world for Fox Trotting, and we play them often. Paul Whiteman recorded both of these classics in August 1920. We featured Whispering last week, and here is Japanese Sandman, with a bonus of Nora Bayes in a second video.
We have a bunch of them! Ash pops up all over the place, especially around edges, so we will have a good supply this winter of stove sized ash that needs just one split. Remember that these edge trees are usually way off balance. Don't get your head knocked off by a barberchair.
Midwest Old Settlers And Threshers is one of the shows that is cancelled this year, but they will be back. Here is a nicely restored Reid oilfield engine that I recorded in 2009. Susan and I were fortunate to see engines operating in powerhouses when we lived in Eastern Kentucky. The Reid is pretty neat because it is a 2-stroke cycle engine. Instead of the crankcase being used for intake and transfer to the combustion chamber, Reids use a charging cylinder running parallel to the power cylinder. They have their own sound.
We're reshaping a corner of the back yard to improve water flow away from the house. The old Ariens has been busting clods for forty years!
Back To The Old Grind!
John Ross of WSIL TV 3 called yesterday and then came right out to do a brief interview and look at emerald ash borer damage to trees. We got lucky and found some really good galleries for the camera.
https://wsiltv.com/2020/08/21/the-u-s-forest-service-is-sniffing-out-emerald-ash-borers/
Paul Whiteman and his orchestra recorded Whispering on August 23, 1920. It went to Number 1 for eleven weeks, and stayed on the charts for twenty weeks, selling more than two million copies. It is one of the songs that made the Twenties roar.
Let's go to Reynold's Museum! "Lighting up Reynolds Museum's own mighty 1911 Nichols & Shepard 30-96 steam traction engine for the first time in the 2017 season. This massive behemoth is affectionately known as "Big Nick" and is one of the most powerful steam tractors operating in Canada today. With a full head of steam on this traction engine delivers a whopping 96 horsepower and roughly 1250ft/lbs of torque at the flywheel from it's two cylinder simple expansion engine, drawbar horsepower is rated at 30. The steam engine makes use of the famous Stephenson twin eccentric valve gear system to control engine direction and variable steam cutoff. This tractor is fitted with a solid drive pin to bypass the clutch under heavy load, locking the crankshaft directly to the output drive gears when heavy traction work is required such as plowing, this prevents clutch damage due to excessive slippage. A huge thanks must be extended to the Reynolds Alberta Museum for lending out their vintage machinery for our group to gain steam hours towards our heritage steam operators certificates."
Four years ago this fall, our friend Gary Bahre made this old basket case run. It was just a very poor parts kit when he got it, and it is really fixed up well now, and could go back to work if Gary had a mind to do that. History of this engine: Found on a farm in Lawrence County Kentucky in 1976, brought to Illinois in 1980, this engine held a mailbox by the side of the road from 1992 until 2014. Gary Bahre took it on as a project and has made a basket case run again. During this engine's working years it powered a sorghum press at Martha, Kentucky. It had water in it during a freeze, and the water jacket was broken. When we bought it there was a big, ugly brazing job holding the water jacket together. Gary Bahre cleaned that up so it hardly shows now. The farmer continued to use this engine until the rod broke; we guess sometime during the 1920's. It sat outside and rusted until I saw it in 1976 as I was going to a timber marking job at Martha. My wife and I went there after work, bought it from the son of the man who originally purchased and ran it, and we loaded it in the back of our AMC Rebel station wagon.
Here's a nice, barn fresh, Associated engine at Pinckneyville a few years back. Don't give up, things will get better.
Back To The Old Grind!
This is what we should be doing this weekend. I hope the October show happens.
A memory, just so we don't forget about our engine shows.
... for Godiva and Betty Boop, and it appears that they will be going out the door. They don't know that their lives will soon turn upside down again. Sisko is oblivious, too, that he may soon be moving on. It is going to hurt us more than it hurts them!
Back To The Old Foster Doggy Grind!
One of the joys of living in the country is seeing a free air show every little bit. Today it was a helicopter!