June 2014

Gettin' Ready

By Paul Harvey

Yep!  Coolspring Power Museum is gettin' ready for its big Summer Expo and Flea Market this month.  Featuring FOREIGN ENGINES, we are planning a great event.  Every year an engine or group of engines is featured, and this year we plan to see the machines that were manufactured across the borders and across the oceans.  Many engines were imported for use in the USA, and many collectors have also imported engines.  They come from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Poland, India and other countries abroad, and we hope to have models from these areas displayed here for our show.  Also many fine machines were made in Canada, and our friends north of the border promise to bring their finest.  It will be a great display for all to enjoy!

But it was a long hard winter with frigid temperatures and all too much snow!  We were not able to get to many of the buildings for over two and a half months and many projects were halted for that time.  Our volunteers are usually able to continue outside projects for much of the winter, but not this year.  However, it was rewarding to have a warm shop to do several small engine restorations, as many others continued working in their own home shops.  This article is an update of what has been done both during the severe cold as well as during the warmer weather later.

Back in December, I decided to complete a small project that had been waiting a long time for attention.  Photo 1 shows the result.  This is a diminutive Goulds triplex pump that I powered with a 1/4 horsepower Century electric motor.  It will be very handy to provide cooling water for a larger gas engine.

Photo 2 shows my 15 hp Pattin Brothers engine that we restored during the winter.  Made in Marietta, Ohio, it is the four-cycle, hit & miss governed model, and went from a pile of parts to an operating machine.  This engine came from an oil lease in Ohio in the early 1970s and has waited a long time to run again!!   It features a unique pendulum governor and hot tube ignition.  Pattin Brothers made a variety of engines for oil field use and several others are displayed at the museum.  This engine will be displayed during the show this year.

Last fall, the museum received an 1895 Keystone Drilling Machine, donated to us by the Ken Miller Museum in Wooster, Ohio.  Keystone, located in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, pioneered steam operated, portable well drillers.  We placed the steam engine inside and accomplished a mechanical restoration of it during the winter.  As seen in Photo 3, it is nearly seven feet tall and now operates well on compressed air.  It will be seen in operation near the Windy City building during our events.

Pondering overall improvements to the museum, I focused upon the Machine Works building;  the one, located to the right upon entering the grounds, that is always closed.  Built in 1974 to be used as a machine shop, it needed a facelift and internal re-arrangement.  I found it in complete confusion as seen in Photo 4.  It will be a year-long project to transform into a well organized display building featuring many smaller engines and related items.  So far, much "junk" has been removed and a workable plan established.

Photo 5 is another project from the past that is now completed.  I obtained this 4 horsepower Jacobson engine, made in Warren, Pennsylvania, in 1967,  painted it, and got it running on makeshift parts.  Over the ensuing years I was able to find the correct parts, but they remained in one dusty pile.  Being a great cold weather project, it now operates as it should with the parts installed.   It originally pumped an oil well just north of Marienville, Pennsylvania.  I have retained the bright paint job that I did so many years ago, as it tells a part of the engine's history.

The Half Breed Engine Pavilion needed a new roof, see Photo 6, and this was installed.  The original shingles were over 35 years old and many leaks had developed. A gray steel roof was chosen, installed and looks absolutely great.  New gutters and down spout will complete the project.  Building maintenance is one of the big expenses for the museum's operation.

The Pat's Place building received a major clean up to welcome visitors for our events.  The large Model 4 Klein engine, saved from the scrappers by John Wilcox so many years ago, was slid into its final display area.  Note Photo 7.  This massive engine, weighing nearly ten tons, was built by National Transit of Oil City, Pennsylvania, about 1902 and pumped crude oil at a Buckeye Pipe Line station in Ohio for many years.  Its current owner will have it in operation for all to see in June.

Beside the Model 4 Klein will be its earlier brother, a Model 3 of the same dimensions.  It has been displayed in the Lillibridge Station for many years and Photo 8 shows it being loaded onto the museum truck to take the short jaunt to Pat's Place.  This engine was built about 1899.  The two big Kleins, sitting side by side, will certainly be an impressive sight.  Both will be in operation.  It is interesting to note that this engine pumped an oil lease in Pico Canyon, near Los Angeles, California.  Very few of the early Kleins ever left the eastern oil fields.

With the Model 3 Klein removed from the Lillibridge Station, there will be room to install the 150 horsepower old style Miller Gas Engine obtained from the Wilcox collection.  Photo 9 shows Reid and Frank taking down an interior wall for the Miller installation.  The Miller, built in Springfield, Ohio, was originally used in the Spring Creek Station to drive a huge air compressor to operate oil wells.  It is twin-cylinder, with a 21 inch bore and 21 inch stroke, being built about 1900.  It is the only one of the "old style" design extant and will become a magnificent display.

Our Windy City display has had further developments, including an appropriate lubricator placed on the compressed air line to the steam engine as noted in Photo 10.  These cast iron lubricators dripped a small amount of oil into the steam line to lubricate the piston of the engine. Also, the foundation for the upright "samson post" that will support the walking beam of the crude oil pumping replica has been formed.   It is planned to appear as an original pumping unit that worked on the Windy  City lease.  Finally, the exhaust pit for the Blaisdell gas engine was rebuilt and tried.  Photo 11 shows the first puffs of exhaust as the engine came to life after a long winter's nap.  Close inspection shows leaves and debris that had accumulated in the exhaust pipe being blown skyward!

The Parks Wood Shop building will shine brightly this year with its new electric lights.  Photo 12 shows Adam and Mark smiling as they complete the installation of knob and tube wiring and vintage light bulbs.  This is a 32 volt, direct current system obtaining electricity from a vintage dynamo powered by a two horsepower, Fairbanks-Morse Type T electric lighting engine.  The engine and dynamo can be seen in the lower left hand corner of the photo.  Nice job!!

The water tank for cooling the Snow engine and other buildings on the "hill" was placed on the new tower last fall for display.  Now, as seen in Photo 13, it has been removed, using the museum's Lorain Crane, for completion and painting before final installation.  The tower, built by museum volunteers, is thirty feet tall and is quite impressive with the tank in place.  All the structures near the Snow Building will have cooling water supplied by this massive system.

Everyone loves a mystery and Photo 14 certainly depicts one.  These two small engines, supposedly built in the Butler, Pennsylvania, area, are eluding all attempts of identification.  They have no markings whatsoever.  Their frames are flat beds, with bolt on main bearings and cylinders reminiscent of the 1890s, yet the "farm engine type" timing gears and governors appear 1915.  Workmanship hints that they were individually made. They will be displayed in the Friends Exhibition Hall and we certainly will appreciate your ideas!

Last is a new donation to the museum, a Davis gas engine made in Bruin, Pennsylvania.  Being aware of the Davis name for forty years or so, I never imagined one would ever appear.  It is a two-cycle "half breed" cylinder placed on a Farrar &Trefts frame and shown in Photo 15.  The Bruin Fire Department has displayed the engine for several years, but due to increased vandalism they are donating it to CPM.  It will be proudly displayed as a tribute to small town ingenuity and enterprise.

Our Summer Expo featuring Foreign Engines, as well as all the museum displays, will be held on June 19, 20, and 21, 2014.  The gate opens at 7 am each morning.  There will be plenty of good food, a big flea market, a great gift shop, and a field full of exhibitors.  Plan to come early and stay late as there is so much to see!  Please consult our website at coolspringpowermuseum.org for all details and information, or call 814-849-6883.  You will have a great time!