Superior Oilfield Engine

One of the big engines on display at Boonville in October. Engines like this one pumped the wells that produced oil and fuel for our war effort in World War II.

Whole Lotta People Don't Take Off For Veterans' Day

Doin' The Old Grind Every Day

U.S. Navy Seabees hard at it in Korea, courtesy of the webmaster at Weblube.com, a fascinating site with lots of photos from the Korean War.  This photo appears to be by Charles Godshall, who can be seen with his trusty grease gun at the top of this page (click).  Many thanks to all the veterans who keep us safe in the USA!

Not My Victrola

bsgs98 gives us a great slide show with Birmingham Breakdown, by Red Nichols and his Five Pennies.

Weekend Steam

 This set of photos is courtesy of Zeke, the Engineering Johnson, from his Labor Day Weekend visit to Old Threshers.  This Avery is a top mounted, straight flue engine, which is slightly unusual since most people think of the undermounted design when Avery is mentioned.  Bill Sater, one of the founders of Old Threshers had one of these engines at the show until the 1970's, so it was sweet to see these photos.

 My dad and I went to an auction near Wayland, Iowa about 40 years ago and thought we might buy an engine just like this, but the bidding left us in the dust, and I realized that I would probably never own an engine.  The sale was the estate auction for a Mr. Swartzendruber, and we found out last year that he was a relative of Stranded In Iowa, of the Between Two Rivers blog.  It's a small world.

 I think that the Avery firebox door is just about the neatest thing going in operating platform hardware.

Just Stomp and Stoke!

Crankin' It Up: A Double For Veterans' Day

F4U Corsair "Whistling Death"

P-51 Mustangs!

Bell P-39 Airacobra 'Brooklyn Bum'

The Bell P-39 always appealed to me as a really neat looking piece of fine flying machinery, but it had a poor record with our flyers, mainly due to it's lack of a turbo supercharger. It could not perform at high altitude when mixing it up with German fighters. The Russians, on the other hand, used it to great success on the Eastern Front, where the fighting took place at lower altitudes. Anyway, I think you will enjoy the photos.

Lighthearted Songs Helped The Effort During The Great War

Listen to a variety of songs from 1918, and you might think that World War I was no big deal.  Songs like K-K-K-Katy, How Ya Gonna Keep Them Down On The Farm, and others helped keep up spirits at home, encouraged men to enlist, and were fun to sing back when people sang to entertain themselves.  This old record is one of my favorites in spite of the poor condition.  I still haven't deciphered many of the words, but the lightheartedness comes through, and I hope that Young Johny Jones found true love.

Marines 236 Years Today

The Charlotte Observer ran a story on a Marine who earned The Medal Of Honor on Iwo Jima (Hat Tip to the Freeholder), and it's one I have to pass on.  As I read about Mr. Williams I noted that he was in the Third Marine Division, and was further surprised to learn that he was in the 21st Regiment; my father-in-law's regiment.  O.T. didn't say very much about the battles he was in, but he did tell us about using gasoline and flamethrowers on Iwo.  It was rough business.  I showed the story to a friend, and he told me that Mr. Williams had been featured on the TV show Sons Of Guns.  I did a search, and sure enough a couple of clips are available on Hulu.  Click Here, and Here to see them.  You do have to watch a brief ad at the beginning of each clip, but it's well worth it.