Poets' Corner

JUDGED BY THE COMPANY ONE KEEPS

One night in late October,

When I was far from sober,

Returning with my load with manly pride,

My feet began to stutter,

So I lay down in the gutter,

And a pig came near and lay down by my side;

A lady passing by was heard to say:

"You can tell a man who boozes,

By the company he chooses,"

And the pig got up and slowly walked away.

Unknown

Weekend Steam

Click on the photo to enlarge.

This ad caught my eye while I was flipping through my old American Threshermans this morning. I have not seen an oil fired traction engine, so this was a surprise.

Engineers and Engines Magazine has added this blog to their Link list. Thank You, E and E! Engineers and Engines is very reasonable in price, has great photos and articles, and ads for all the steam and gas shows around the country. I heartily recommend subscribing if you enjoy old technology.

Crankin' It Up

The selection for the first weekend in April is one of Al Jolson's well known favorites. April Showers is from the Broadway show 'Bombo" and was recorded in 1921. This is the original acoustically recorded version. Occasionally you will hear on radio or TV the recording of this song made by Decca in the 1940's.

Soap Making Party

We had friends come over for a soap making party last Sunday. We had lots of activity going on in our little kitchen.

Most of the soap Dear Wife makes uses all vegetable oils. Olive oil is being measured here. We also use coconut oil and palm oil.

Adding lye to the oil mix.

Mixing the ingredients.

Stirring thoroughly with a stick blender.

Lining boxes with waxed paper.

Some of the finished product.

Cheap Insurance

Whenever we stray far from the barn we stow a small tool kit for the trip along with some basic repair items such as fuses, electrical and duct tape, and a spare fuel filter. Even if you change your fuel filter at the suggested maintenance intervals, one contamintated fillup can shut you down. A dirty fuel filter is fairly easy to diagnose from the driver's seat on today's fuel injected cars. You first will find yourself pressing the acceletator farther than normal, then losing power. The engine will probably stagger and miss. Then you will be sitting on the side of the road with a dead engine. Wait a minute or two before trying to start. Our cars today have a fuel pump in the fuel tank, and the fuel system is pressured up from behind the fuel filter. Turn the key on and off a few times to push a little fuel through the filter. The engine will probably start, run a few seconds, and die again. Wait a few minutes and repeat this test. Do not crank an excessive amount or you may burn up your starter or run down the battery. If the engine starts and dies, you should change your fuel filter before you call for a tow truck.

Jack up the car on the fuel filter side and set a jack stand under it for safety. Carefully loosen the forward connection on the filter and let the pressure bleed off while you stay back from the drips. Loosen the rear connection, then remove the filter while holding it level. After you have it out from under the car, pour the remaining fuel out of the rear end into a glass container. You will probably see cloudy fuel, possibly fine dirt, maybe water in the container. Put a hose over the fuel line and into the jar, and have an assistant turn the key on momentarily to purge dirty fuel from the line. Do not do this without the hose or you will spray fuel under your hot car! This could be disastrous! Think about safety at every step when you are working with fuel.

Hook up the fittings on the fuel line to your new filter, and tighten the back end. Leave the front connection slightly loose. Have your assistant momentarily turn the key on to purge air from the filter. Tighten the fittings. Start your engine and check for leaks. Take out the jack stand, let the car down, and you are ready to clean your hands and continue your journey. You did put hand cleaner and towels in your kit, didn't you?

One of the important steps I did not mention is coasting into a safe location to perform this surgery. Don't do this on the side of a busy road. Safety first.

If there was water in the filter, pick up another filter ASAP and put some alcohol in your tank.

UPDATE

A better, safer way to relieve the fuel pressure in the system is to pull the fuse for the fuel pump and crank the engine for a few seconds. The pressure will bleed off through the fuel injectors. This may save you from having fuel sprayed in your face.

You can prepare in advance by installing a shutoff switch in the fuel pump circuit. Place the switch in a hidden location that only you and your family know, and you have made your vehicle very difficult to steal.

"And Where You See Clouds Upon The Hills, You Soon Will See...

Progress

Monday Again!

Back To The Old Grind!

Poets' Corner

Here is a great description of a waterfall, written by the Bard, Robert Burns. This one will make you dream of far away places.

WRITTEN WITH A PENCIL

Standing by the Fall of Fyers, near Loch Ness

Among the heathy hills and ragged woods

The roaring Fyers pours his mossy floods;

Till full he dashes on the rocky mounds,

Where, thro' a shapeless breach, his stream resounds.

As high in air the bursting torrents flow,

As deep recoiling surges foam below.

Prone down the rock the whitening sheet descends,

And viewless Echo's ear, astonished, rends.

Dim-seen, thro' rising mists and ceaseless show'rs,

The hoary cavern, wide-surrounding, low'rs.

Still, thro' the gap the struggling river toils,

And still, below, the horrid cauldron boils--

Weekend Steam

The March-April 1964 issue of The Iron Men Album-Magazine has a very nice photo and letter from Roy Mitchell of Council Bluffs, Iowa. Mr. Mitchell provides some very good information in his letter. " This picture was taken in 1904 (I was 14 at the time - that is me on the engine ) in the heart of the Ozarks about 14 miles from Springfield, MO. The engine is a 16 HP Gaar Scott and was about 6 years old at that time and was always kept in the best of order....The last time I saw this engine was in 1919 and it was still going strong - they were threshing with it.... I have had the Gaar Scott in some bad places, have had to ford rivers where bridges unsafe, drove into the water with full head of steam, 125 pounds pressure and out on the other side with no fire and perhaps 50 pounds steam but the engine would never fail me."

That is a fascinating glimpse of the good old days. This engine would have produced about 50 horsepower on the belt, and would have been marginal for pulling a sawmill on large logs, but its performance would have also depended on the sawyer's skill in sharpening, and sawmill setup and maintenance. I have been debating the species of the logs being processed in the photo. The warty appearance of the bark has me thinking hackberry, but the prominent grain exposed on the log has me thinking that ash is a possibility. Comments from anyone familiar with bark patterns in the Springfield, MO area are welcome.

A Gaar Scott engine very similar to the Mr. Mitchell's can be seen at Old Threshers at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Here is a shot of the water tank, which sits in front of the smokestack.

Crankin' It Up

Joe Schenck is a name you probably have not noticed before, but he was very important in the entertainment business for several decades. You can read a brief biography at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Schenck . Now, sit back in your seat as the house lights go down and you visit the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921.

Anvil Chorus

The woodpeckers are really beating up on this little red oak. You can see a scar in the first photo; this is from a wound that occurred several years ago which opened the tree to wood boring/eating insects. The insect activity has attracted woodpeckers, who are enjoying a smorgasbord.

The homeowner could probably stop the damage by wrapping the stem, but rot and wood boring insects will continue to work on the tree, and it is standing next to a house. Compromised stems are best avoided when a high value target is within striking distance. If this was next to my house, I would cut it off a couple of inches off the ground. The stump will send up several sprouts, and after another year or two I would cut all but the strongest sprout. A straight, sound tree will be the result.