Steam Power in Dalton and
Blackberry is made possible
by the Minnesota Arts and
Cultural Heritage Fund
and the citizens of Minnesota.
Agriculture has
deep roots in North Central
Minnesota.
Those industrious, hard-working
immigrants who built our nation
came to Minnesota's rolling
fields, clean waters
and grew food that fed a nation.
These people first
tended the land with animal
power, oxen,
horses, the sweat of their own
toil.
Then a miracle of their day's
modern science and engineering
was invented and developed.
Steam power
provided what seemed to be
limitless potential,
unbridled ability for work.
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indistinct chatter in
background
Due to economic pressure
steam power from local
sources of energy gave way
to petroleum, gas and diesel.
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tractor engine rumbling
tractor engine rumbling,
whistle blowing
whistle blowing But a
dedicated group of enthusiasts
continues to keep steam
power alive and running.
These hard working people
of Minnesota and elsewhere
stoke the fires and turn the
valves
that carry on the metallic
rhythm of steam power
in Minnesota.
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tractor engine clanking This
is the story of
Blackberry and Dalton,
Minnesota. Each
group dedicated to
preserving a piece of our
history.
tractor engine clanking Well
I'm Glen
Melby. My father, George Melby
along with his brother Ralph
Melby and
nephew Kenneth Bradful (sp?)
started this
our home farm in the fall of
1954 and they had
so many people turned out
without
any advertising we had people
coming and going all day long
just to watch and course the
old timers
that had grown up with
steam engines they were just
in their glory, they would
stand and listen to
that steam engine puff and they
had comments
about every engine. Their
memories of times
gone by for them and it's a
good mixer for young and old
this
is now our 60th annual show
and it has grown from
four steam engines to
we've had as high as 30 steam
traction engines
on the grounds here. We have
also
gone from just a few hundred
people to
many thousands that attend the
three day
show which is always on a
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
following Labor Day weekend.
Now got approximately 30
buildings around
here that are full different
antiques
everything is from the old time
woodworking shop, sawmill,
threshing machines.
Everything is from a period of
time back
before the fifties.
equipment running quietly,
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equipment running quietly,
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Here at Dalton, Minnesota we
have
built up a considerable size
show, we own about 50 acres of
land
and the buildings that we have
built up
store all the displays year
around.
We bring in a lot of other stuff
people bring in a lot of
tractors and engines
and old cars and things like
that to show
during this weekend the
majority of it stays
here in sheds. So that's about
a two week long process of
getting it all out of the sheds
cleaned up, ready for people to
come and see
and its, we think a very good
variety of things. We have one
building that's
completely filled with things
for home
makers, furnished like the old
time home was,
log cabins. You can see
virtually anything from time
way back for the last
75 years maybe.
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machinery rumbling in
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train releasing steam pressure
train releasing steam pressure
train releasing steam pressure
train releasing steam
pressure, clanking in
background
train releasing steam pressure
train releasing steam pressure,
clanking in background
whistle blowing
whistle blowing
train releasing steam pressure
train releasing steam pressure
train releasing steam pressure
train wheels clanking
train wheels clanking
train wheels clanking
train wheels clanking
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machinery hissing in
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machinery hissing in
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machinery hissing in
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As a family we have always been
interested
in preserving the historic side
of
farming and also threshing.
My dad, my uncle who started
this show
they were in the threshing
business
for many many years with steam
power
and then the transition to gas
power of course
and eventually combines
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fading sound of tractor
running
What we like about it it's a
family
event. You can bring your small
kids here
and it's something they enjoy
and they'll probably remember
the rest of their life. These
two came all the way from Maine
to be here. Scott: What do you
think of Minnesota?
Dad: We love Minnesota.
Lakes, and trees. Daughter: I
like
lakes more than the ocean
Dad: and friendly people If
it was their first
experience at driving a small
tractor or something
around on the grounds here and
they
learn things that you can't
really learn just
reading about them. You have to
experience
it and that's when you remember
it.
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Of course I grew up on a farm
and
this brings back memories of
virtually everything I had to do
on the farm except the livestock
I don't have any livestock here.
I happen
to have one steam engine here
which my father
owned and threshed with and
sawed lumber
with for many many years. My son
and I we have a lot of fun and
interaction
with each other too and the
style
of it is called a Canadian
rear-mounted
and it's a heavy engine, half
inch thick boiler
plate on it, 25 horse power
single cylinder.
Steam turns on about three
horse power
25 horse power steam
engine, and it'll turn on
easily 80 horse power on a dyno
so it's a very very under-rated
with
water in it and so forth it
weighs approximately
16 ton, if you would want to
have a closer
look we can go walk around, we
can
show ya a few things. You can
see its a Gaarscott
made by the M. Rumely
Company in Richmond, Indiana
This engine was made in about
1914
There's one other one here
practically identical but this
only about 30 serial numbers
difference between the two
engines.
They call this a smoke box,
you'll see that there's
flues that go through the
length of the boiler
and the water surrounds them
and it brings
the heat through those flues,
there's 56 of those
flues, and my son and I
replaced them in 1980 so we know
how much work it can be, but
it was well worth it. So we
we try to, even if it isn't
painted up real fancy
we try to keep it in good
mechanical condition.
You can see the
pulley for driving threshing
machines
sawmills, whatever, by the big
drive belt
and the steering you can see
from the front wheel
that's heavy trains, everything
is
heavy. My son started
building fire in here this
morning before
nine o'clock. We get ready to
go on right around
the grounds
here at 1:30. It takes at least
two hours to get up enough
steam to move the
engine and be able to get
back here again without
putting in a lot more wood. The
main thing
is water. You gotta keep enough
water on
it because water turns to steam
and it
you get too little water, that
gets too hot
too fast, and then it can be
dangerous.
You have a steam valve up on
top there
you open to allow the steam
into cylinder
and then you have a throttle
there to open the
steam valve, the engine's
single cylinder that actually
exhausts twice on one
revolution. You go
past the port, it allows the
steam in, it goes past that
and allows the steam in behind
it and then it
goes on both sides of the
piston there
so steam can push it the
other way, and then you have
a clutch to engage the clutch
so it'll move by itself on the
wheel.
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You can see what looks
like a small barrel there,
that's called the steam dome
and ya can see there's
a whistle there which of course
is extremely
loud, but there's also two pop
valves so if you exceed the
on this one we're limited or
running at a 100 pounds per
steam
pressure right now, a 100
pounds per square inch.
And so if you exceed that
there will be one of those pop
valves up there
will let the steam escape and
if one fails there's a second
one for safety.
steam blowing
Scott: What's it like operating
a machine like this compared to
a modern
gas power or diesel powered?
Well there really isn't much
comparison. laughing
As you can see it's much more
complicated and labor intensive.
When you're pulling them
or even driving around you
generally like two men on
them. One for firing and the
other
for...you used to have to haul
water so
you'd have an engineer and a
water man and
it's more labor intensive.
That was the problem back in
the thirties
you couldn't afford to run them
any longer on a small crop
you didn't need the power.
steam releasing pressure
It's much more complicated than
a gas tractor
Of course there's nothing
electronic
on a steam engine which can be
very good
because you don't have problems
that you can't
see but you have to know how to
handle them and you have
to know something about
the mechanics of them, how
they work and why they work
and be able to see a problem
before it gets to be a real
problem.
This little box right there,
that's
filled with what you call steam
cylinder oil
and that works mechanically
to allow a little bit of oil
in with the steam and that's
what keeps it from running
dry. Steam cylinder oil will
mix with
water. Scott: Where does
one buy steam cylinder oil
these days? Well we've been
very fortunate, we have
a over the years we have gotten
from older stations
that sold it at one time
I think all together we've
maybe been given
four barrels of it over the
years and then we've
bought some. Now you have to
buy a different...it's
a number on it now it isn't
necessarily called steam
cylinder oil any longer. Up
there
that mechanism with the three
little balls on it
that's the governor, that's
what controls the speed
of the flywheel, of the engine.
As the speed increases the
spring is on those weights
go out and that'll hold it at a
set speed.
I'm getting to the point where
I...it's not so much fun
to climb them anymore
because you see to control a
lot of this
stuff you go up here to turn
your
steam valves on and
open and shut everything.
pulls whistle valve
That's a whistle. laughing
We have had a lot more
but then we didn't have
as much other stuff over the
years
and when the old timers would
die off
some of the engines got sold
and left the area
but these have pretty much all
been here
for many many years now.
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Do you hear that diesel engine
running in the
background? We have two
of those big diesel engines
We took them apart, hauled them
in here from
long distances, beside the one
you took
pictures of, that big steam
engine which came out of
Illinois, seven semi loads
to get it here. So that's ah
definitely a lot of cooperation
to get the work done.
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I'm Norm Meinert from Davis,
Illinois
and the engine here is actually
from Illinois
was originally used we think
about
1900 or 1905 time. We used that
at a zinc foundry and the
idea of the big fly wheel was
it ran a rolling mill that
rolled big blocks of
zinc and flat material, and the
flat material
they sold then.
Ya this engine runs on steam
and the reason for the place it
was located is they moved to
where there was coal
underground, they harvest their
own coal and
produce their own heat for the
boilers to run
generate the steam to run the
engine. It was very cheap to
run because of the coal
available.
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Well as vice president of the
club
in Freeport, Illinois when we
heard that four of these
engines
were being cut up for scrap and
I contacted
the lady that owned them,
arranged
for a tour down there on a
Saturday
twelve of us guys went down and
looked at the engines and we
got done
ready to leave, we knew she was
getting
sixty dollars a ton, we knew
we couldn't afford an engine
and she offered an engine
for free if we could save one.
Well then you know seen twelve
guys running around like 'how in
the world
we move something like this?'
laughing
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So we wound up
getting an engine and then we
called Milt Martinson (sp?) up
here
and he went down and made
arrangements to get this engine
but they had to guarantee this
operating within five years,
and I come up here to the
show, I think it was 1983, they
had it all
together except for the
eccentrics that open and close
the valves, and that part had
all been
cut off, scrapped out already.
So my job was
to time the opening and closing
of the valves
and that's how I became
operator of the engine.
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equipment softly hissing
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I can show you how some of
these parts work
on this engine and it'll help
explain things
to everybody. Scott: Here we
go!
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Ok these are
eccentrics that open and close
the valves
instead of a cam lobe
like your car would have in it.
These are just an offset
circle that opens and closes.
This is the throttle how we
control
starting and stopping the
engine.
HISS...CLACK...HISS
HISS...CLACK...HISS
HISS...CLACK...HISS
HISS...CLACK...HISS
And up there is a two ball
governor that controls the speed
of the engine if it was up to
operating speed which we're
only running slow right now so
that's not affecting the speed
right now. As it goes
faster, the weight of the balls
expand and they change
the linkage to control the
operation of the valves.
But that controls the RPM of
the engine.
HISS...CLACK...HISS
HISS...CLACK...HISS
HISS...CLACK...HISS
HISS...CLACK...HISS
The flywheel by itself weighs
60 ton and it's
25 feet, 4 inches in diameter,
and
at high speed the inertia of
the
flywheel being that heavy will
carry a block of zinc through
the mill without slowing down
much, and that
way you didn't have to have
brute horse power, you used a
lot of the inertia
of the flywheel to carry the
block through the mill.
On this engine, at the outer
rim of the
crank shaft was directly
coupled to a rolling mill
that was about four foot wide
two four foot wide rollers
and there was a gear between
bearing and the fly wheel
that gear ran power to the
upper roller of the mill
so both rollers were in the
power when they fed through
there.
HISS...CLACK...HISS
HISS...CLACK...HISS
Now on these eccentrics when
these
opened up you're pushing the
piston forward in the cylinder
and we get up the other end here
and this set of eccentric
control the valve to push
the piston to the rear when you
get two power strokes per
revolution of the fly wheel.
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We have a commercial boiler
over here which is oil
fired generating the steam
which comes over
to this big receiver here and
then it gets to the
valves here where we control
how we use the steam.
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clicking sound This clicking
noise we hear
is right now we're opening up
the
intake valve here to generate
steam in here
when it reaches a certain point
it snaps
and springs shut quick to
save the rest of the steam
for the next operation.
Earlier engines had slide
valves which weren't as
efficient as
these valves that snap off
like this is very similar
to a coriolis valve action.
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To get into valve works a
little bit, the governor
controls this rod coming down
here
and that determines how much
steam is going in to the
cylinder by much
valve travel we get when it
snaps
shut it's used for maximum
strokes of steam
that it needs. Now up to
speed that wouldn't travel
very far because up to speed
it didn't need anymore power,
it'd just be a very short stroke
and snap right back shut, and
that's how
they control the RPM of the
engine.
Right now we're running about
six RPM
and the ratio RPM would've been
around 35
or 36 RPM. Now the fly wheel in
this engine
is 25 feet, 4 inches in diameter
and the fly wheel itself weighs
60 ton, and
with the crank shaft and the rod
and everything the total weight
moving right now is around
80-85 ton of material.
Scott: Turning at its full RPM
how fast is it
going? Well
35 RPM the outer rim of the fly
wheel is
probably traveling about 40
mile an hour.
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shallow rumbling
shallow rumbling
OK now the steam is coming into
this
receiver, this receiver
separates the steam
if there's any water condenses
in it we can bleed the water off
here
because we don't want water
going in the engine.
The steam's coming in here
going into the cylinder
or valve mechanism on the other
side
and it's exhausting out going
up this
pipe up through the roof
equipment hissing Now when
you start
a steam engine up you
need to bleed off any possible
possibility of water, so there's
two extra little pipes and
valves
there to bleed it off when you
start up.
Up here, that big rod
is hooked to the piston inside
the cylinder
that big mass there that's
moving back and forth we call
that a
cross-head. That takes any up
and down force
that the connecting rod would
have
that transmits it to the main
housing of the
base of the machine so that
there's no force going to the
piston. As far being up and down
the pistons always centered in
the boar without wearing the
boar out.
Of course the connecting rod
goes back to the crankshaft
to give you power to the
fly wheel. If you want
to go back into early history,
zinc was
actually a bi-product of lead
in southern Wisconson and
northern Illinois
and there was two young
Germans right out of school
come over here and decided
to process the zinc into
basically a rust preventer
for your roofing material
but they thought the situation
out further
and decided if they went to
down in Illinois a little
further they found coal
so that they harvest their own
coal
to produce their steam to run
their equipment
it was cheaper to ship the
ore down on railroad cars
and rather than process
the zinc where it was at
they went to where they
had their coal for their power
source to make it
more feasible, more profitable
to do the process.
Well just this morning we had
school kids here from different
classes
it explained to them that the
fire was heating
the water in the boiler to
create the steam, the steam went
over
to push the piston back and
forth, and they took a lot of
interest in that.
it's nice to see somebody's
learning from what we're doing.
We encourage people to come
and take in a show because it's
entertaining
for the whole family.
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It's very good clean
entertainment
we try to provide nice grounds,
everything neat
and cleaned up, we pride
ourself in taking care
of our grounds all summer long.
I think we have
a very good show here, medium
sized
people can see
in one day and its very very
nicely laid out.
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Well it's just three miles off
interstate 94
about 13 miles east of
Fergus Falls, Minnesota and
this is Dalton
Minnesota where we are at, so
it's
easy to get to and ya we'd like
to see a lot
people here. tractor rumbling
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From Dalton's festival
in central Minnesota, we move
on to Blackberry
located near Grand Rapids in
northern
Minnesota. tractor rumbling
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fading sound of tractor
I'm Jim Rodenberg, I'm part of
the North Central
Minnesota Farm and Antiques
Association. We're located in
Blackberry township, seven
miles east of Grand Rapids,
Minnesota, right on Highway 2.
We're having our
annual fundraiser, we're
having our show which lasts
Saturday and Sunday, two
day show. Today's Friday
our tune-up day. We invite
area seniors over to
look around and give us a little
insight on what it was really
like
back then and hear some of
their stories, maybe we can
add to our show.
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Our organization, the North
Central Minnesota Farm and
Antique Association
what we do is try to re-enact
what farm life was
like back in the mid forties.
There was a time when tractors
becoming really prominent on the
farm
and still a lot of draft horses
so we're
trying to depict that way of
life from the mid-forties.
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We have a lot of people here who
enjoy restoring and maintaining
old equipment, and most of
us do that for a hobby
because we enjoy doing it.
It's no different than somebody
restoring a car that you drove
back when you're a teenager.
A lot of us grew up on farms
and we enjoy driving that old
tractor like our grandpa had.
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So we do it as a hobby. In
order to support that hobby
there's big toys that we can't
afford to do
individually so together we
can go out and buy an old
antique
steam engine and be able to
restore that and operate it.
Where you couldn't that on your
own solely so
the big group kind of came
together to do stuff you can't
do individually.
Well we try to keep this family
oriented, we try to be a
family-type show where you can
come in with your
children and come bring grandpa
along and grandpa can tell
ya about some of the things that
somebody else don't tell ya
about.
tractor rumbling
So we try to make it a family
thing, we try to attract people
to come out for the whole day.
We cook sweet corn with our
steam engine. The ladies serve
a super nice lunch. So
we like people to come
out and spend the whole day,
get Sunday dinner and
walk around look at our
displays and take a look back
down the road where we came
from.
We have grain crops
we grow potatoes.
Today you look
around you'd see us picking up
grain bundles.
See thresh machine running in
the field.
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Going back to the mid-forties
when there was still
a lot of horses on the farm.
We have a lot of draft horse
displays going on, giving rides.
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They'll be cutting grain
with a horse-drawn binder.
They'll be doing plowing.
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grinding
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Well we're constantly on
the hunt for new members. We're
always
looking for new members.
The only thing you really need
to join
is the interest in what we do.
equipment grinding We charge
ten dollars a year for a family
membership. That's everyone
in the family under 18 is
included in that,
we're trying to make this a
family organization.
We're always looking for new
people solely because us old
guys
starting to wear out, so we
need some young blood
to help with some of that more
vigorous
work. equipment running
equipment grinding
So all you have to do to join
is just contact us.
We have a meeting the first
Monday of every month at seven
o'clock
in the evening right here in
our hall,
and if you have an interest
please
drop by and talk to us we're
always looking for people.
equipement grinding OK if
someone
would like to make a donation to
our organization you can do so
in several ways. You can come to
a meeting, you could talk to one
of our
members. If you have some
old piece of equipment
in your backyard that would fit
our display we really love
to come out and look at it and
see if it's something we can use
to make our
show for more complete.
You might have an item we don't
have that could be repaired and
maybe restored, made to run
again so.
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Well we're
out here today threshing with
steam
and like they did years ago,
but the first step in that
process of course was
planting the crop and
harvesting the crop.
Hi I'm Mark Lofgren and
we're going to be threshing
with steam in a little bit
but this crop that we're going
to be threshing was planted
last fall and this is rye and
it's grown
all summer until it's ready,
it's ripe
and we harvested it, we cut it
and with the binder
and put it into bundles about a
week ago.
Those bundles are then
stood up into what's called
a 'shock'. I'm going to take
one of these bundles out
of there, there's a little piece
of twine that holds that bundle
together, but that's a bundle
of grain, bundle of rye
and then after they're stood
into shocks,
they're left to dry for about
another week
and then they're ready now we
can go over and
do a little threshing.
equipment quietly rumbling
This threshing machine dates
from about
1930 so that would make it
about
80 years old, maybe a little
more.
The threshing machine such as
this
represents a major advancement
in technology. Before threshing
machines
mechanical ones like these came
along
the threshing was done either
by treading it out by humans or
animals sometimes even walked
on the grain to separate
the grain from the straw. So
this was
a major step forward in
mechanical harvesting.
This machine happens to be a
Case 22-36.
The number 22 represents the
width of the threshing cylinder
and the 36
represents the width of the
separating area.
Threshing was
done for a period of 40-50
years
beginning in the late 1880's
and into and up to
in some areas as late as 1950
but more into the early 1900's
they were big time
in the prairie country and a
machine of this
size could've been owned by a
larger farmer.
There were many of these around.
The bigger machines of course
they were owned probably by
custom operators. A machine this
size would've taken a crew of
probably ten or twelve people
to keep this machine busy.
equipment rumbling One or two
people
to keep the steam engine fired
and with water
equipment rumbling
and several bundle wagons
depending on
the distance that they had to
travel from the field into
the machines, a couple of
what was called 'spike pitchers'
that would pitch the bundles
into the machine.
equipment rumbling
Sometimes they even bagged
the grain as it came up
off the machine. We're going to
put it in to the wagon that's
what we do here, into this green
cart. It was quite a process
took many people to work as
a team to get the job done.
equipment grinding Well many
have gone on before us who are
now gone
that this was...livelihood
depended on this
and they fed a nation with
this type of process
and this is how the product
got on its way to the store and
this is part of what made our
country. The great prairies
west of here, these
machines were all over. In fact
if you travel into the Dakotas
you still see them sitting along
side
the road here and there just
kind of a remembrance of times
gone by.
equipment rumbling
equipment rumbling
equipment rumbling For me
personally
being involved in running a
threshing machine, it's actually
learning experience for me.
There are many things about
this particular machine that I
don't know. And
every year I learn something
more. When I got
involved with North Central
Minnesota Farm and Antique
Association
if you were to ask me what a
'shock' of
grain was I would not be able
to tell you
so it's a learning experience
it's fun
working with other people you
can call it a hobby or whatever
but it's, I just enjoy coming
out here and doing this
once a year and it's a good
time.
tractor clanking
tractor clanking
equipment rumbling
equipment rumbling
equipment rumbling
tractor clanking and rumbling
tractor clanking and rumbling
tractor clanking and rumbling
tractor clanking and rumbling
tractor clanking and rumbling
chains clanking
chains clanking
chains clanking
equipment rumbling
equipment sputtering
equipment sputtering,
indistinct talking
Hi I'm Garrick Drawz here at
the Blackberry
Tractor Show. This here's a
1911 Case steam engine
used a lot in farming. Mostly
with these
threshing machines a lot of
plowing fields, you even see
the over powering different
equipment such as a sawmill
threshing machine, plainer
mills anything like that
These are basically the
predecessor to the
gas engines.
These are the ones that did all
the work.
So these are actually the ones
that replaced the horse power.
Ya it's pretty simple but big
machines
heavy stuff and water
temperature. Fun stuff.
equipment rumbling
equipment rumbling
Ya this engine's actually made
from two separate different
tractors.
The boiler was found up in
a logging camp up in the
mountains and it was actually
just a stationary boiler
then the guy who owns the
tractor actually found a
running gear for it, has
the wheels and all the bull
gears
and everything. Umm and actually
ended up mating the two together
to make a running, moving
tractor for it. cell phone ring
laughing, Scott: What I like
is I like the mix of technology,
you got the cell phone going off
in your pocket then a steam
engine in the background
Garrick: Here take that
laughing
That's what we always joke about
we got the pocket watch in one
hand and the
cell phone in the other.
laughing
You know I've been doing this
since I was really young, I've
been on these
engines since I was probably
eight, nine years old. A lot of
it's kinda second nature to me
but it's pretty cool seeing a
lot people
walk up and ask where the key
goes or
how do you start it or how do
jump a battery or where the
battery is,
where does the gas go? It's
pretty cool
to be able to run a piece of
machinery this old and
hardly anybody know about
them anymore and so
still try to get the word out
about what it is and how
operates, and what it was used
for.
steam releasing pressure
steam pressure Like I said
I've actually been at this show
all of my life. It's been 22
years now
and actually my mom was pregnant
with mePPwhen she was down here
andppdad's the
other licensed operator on the
other steam engine there, and
we've ran
these engines for years just
us two and you know it
besides the point of being kind
of a family deal for me it's
you have a great group of
people around here it's
a lot of fun you learn a lot of
new stuff from a lot of these
old timers
that they've got tons of
knowledge that you don't hear
about unless
you ask and like they say once
these
people are gone a lot of the
knowledgeppis gonna go with them
and
if you don't get it from them
right now it'll go down to the
grave
with them, so.
equipment rumbling in
background
equipment rumbling in
background
equipment rumbling in
background
equipment rumbling in
background
equipment rumbling in
background
equipment rumbling in
background
A lot of it's just taking in
consideration
the enginuity and what
they're able to do with what
they
had back then. If you were to
take for today's standards
tell someone to build that
engine as it sits
that's a pretty big feat. Well
these guys were doing in it a
hundred years ago
without electronics, without
electricity. Some of the
tolerances
and things that are held on
these engines to make the seals
actually work and make sure the
steam goes where you want it to.
They basically made them on big
crude manual machines and
it's just unbelievable how they
even put these things together.
Makes a guy really think about
how the heck they did it and
the ingenuity that it took to
put into it just to even come up
with the idea.
indistinct chatter in
background
indistinct chatter in
background
whistle blowing
whistle blowing
equipment humming in
background
And now I'll show ya
kinda how this piece of
machinery runs, a rough idea.
You can think of it almost as a
modern day
pressure cooker. Basically heat
and ah water
to create steam. And ah as you
can see back
here I have a fire box.
This tractor we run off of just
wood.
They...a lot of them also ran
off of ah coal. There's
even straw burners. Basically
anything you could burn
to create heat they used it.
Whatever they had the most of.
If you look at that fire box
there all the way around
the fire box its all water
that's surrounding that.
There's these tubes up front,
they're called 'flues' and what
they
do they actually take the heat
and the gas and the smoke from
the
fire run it all the way through
the boiler which gives ya
more heat transfer for better
pressure and a lot more
heat to boil the water.
Alright, real basic controls
you have your throttle here
which is basically your gas
pedal on your
car. Forward is all the way shut
which actually ends up turning
the steam off to the cylinder
basically cutting your
gas off to your automobile.
Umm, you pull it back, it puts
steam in the cylinder and
pushes it.
equipment clicking
Then you got this lever right
here it's actually called the
Reversing
Lever. On this engine
specifically
you actually...forward is
backwards and
backgwards is forward for your
drive gear.
This actually moves this
mechanism right up here
which actually changes the
valving in the valve box
and basically makes the
steam go different places
to make the engine rotate
in different directions.
Well then, right
here you got your clutch
lever, if you're to pull that
back
it'll tighten these big shoe...
shoes up against that fly
wheel and actually in turn
drives the bull gears and moves
the tractor but when
you're powering a piece of
equipment you leave the clutch
disengaged so you can just
spin the fly wheel so you can
act
as a power plant for a piece of
equipment.
Actually uh the biggest thing
you gotta watch is that big gage
right there. That actually
reads the PSI or pounds
per square inch of steam
pressure you have inside the
boiler.
So basically the only have to
watch for other than your
water level which is actually
located on the side of the
boiler on this engine
and that'll tell you where
the water level in the boiler
is to make sure that you have
water on your crown sheet
so things don't
get a little bit too overheated.
We got the two whistles
up here, different tractors
ran single whistles, more than
two, umm
mainly used for signaling.
Right now we've got two
different tones, a little one
big one. whistles blowing
Mainly those are used for
signaling
back when they would be
farming and using these
pieces of machinery for
basically
wood and water. You had a
certain set of tones
where if you pulled the whistle
three short
times that you needed water,
umm if you
pulled say two times, that means
you needed wood. If there's an
emergency it'd be a series
of real short blasts
over and over. Basically the
warning signs
for what was going on
to everybody else around
the engine. two short whistle
blows in background
Alright this is actually the
cylinder
you know a lot of people say
four cylinder, six cylinder,
eight cylinders
in their vehicles, this one
actually only has one cylinder.
It's got about an eight inch
bore on it .PPOne thing that's
actually kindppof
special about these engines
usually on a regular internal
combustion
engine you only have a power
stroke from one side, you have
the
explosion on one side of the
piston which pushes it down and
makes
it power. This one actually as
the piston
moves backwards and forwards,
there's steam injected
on both sides of
the piston, so it actually has
a power stroke on every stroke
that it makes.
You know like we see here,
behind there it's called
the 'steam dome' that's actually
where a lot of the steam is
stored.
Your water level right about
here
steam goes up in to there
actually goes through a throttle
mechanism and then into
something called the governor.
What that does is actually
regulates the engine RPM
and there's two weighted balls
up there that go in and out as
the engine slows or speeds up,
and that'll
actually automatically adjust
the throttle for the load that's
being
put on the engine. After it goes
through the governor
that's when it goes in to the
valve box
The valve box is what controls
the steam for which side of the
piston its going in and the
exhaust steam that's actually
coming out, and as everything
moves there's a
rod back there that slides and
actually opens up
passage ways and closes them
off for depending on where the
position of the piston is.
Scott: It's just amazing that
it's
102 years old and still
running. Yep. laughing
Ya hardly do anything to them
get them tested every couple
years and they're off to the
races.
Actually different states have
different states have different
regulations and stuff.
Some states don't require
a certification at all but
in Minnesota you actually have
to log a certain amount of
hands-on hours on a machine
signed by a licensed
operator, and then you actually
have to take a Minnesota state
standard test for a hobby
boiler's
license. You hear a lot about
Class A boiler
Class B boiler licenses. These
aren't anywhere
near that a it's a completely
separate different
test that they do. But after
that
it's like I said, basically you
have a certain amount of
hands on, you don't actually
have to go to school
for it. There are different
places around the state
that set up almost like a
college
for running these engines. Umm
ya you just take the test, you
have your
so many hours of hands-on and
you apply with the state
of Minnesota and get your
card and you're ready to go.
laughter
And with these steam engines
a lot of them had this
uh steering system not unlike
you'd see today on a car.
You have your steering wheeling,
connected to your steering
shaft and actually connects
to gears that are down
lower that actually run a worm
screw
that are hooked up to these
chains, and as you turn
the wheel, it'll turn that worm
screw a certain direction.
it'll actually tighten and
loosen each
chain at the same time, turning
the front end.
They weren't very precise on
their
steering but it turned the
front of the tractor and
did it pretty well.
This boiler came off the factory
a lot of these engines
actually ran at 200-250 PSI.
These ones now being that the
engines over 100 years old we
are only running at 100-110
at most of the engines.
We actually have pop off valve
that
as soon as it hits the set
pressure will actually
open and bleed off the pressure
from the boiler
fire roaring
Like I said with steam the
power is virtually
unstoppable. You need something
with more power you just
basically put more steam to it,
higher
pressure. They are using a lot
with power generation.
They actually have tried to make
modern day cars run off of steam
it's very efficient but it's
not
very convenient. That's the
only problem with it.
You know I think, like the
saying goes,
you can't forget history and
your past or some bad
stuff can happen and you know,
and a lot of people don't
understand
where their food comes
from and all that well this is
the
origin of where all that started
from. Like I said right after
the horses these were the
machines that were out there
plowing the fields
and the planting the crops these
people were surviving off of.
whistle blowing
Well it's a way to remember the
past
it's a historical piece of
equipment
it represents technology
before the computer age
where they just had to engineer
things out, trial and error
till they got it to work. It's
good to demonstrate
equipment like this nowadays.
The younger generation coming
along really doesn't realize
where the rye
comes from that's in the rye
bread. Everybody
has to eat, and of course this
country
has always been noted
for being very progressive
and raising a lot of food
for export and always have
plenty of food
and at reasonable price that was
the corn program in this
country and it worked out
very well. Well i think it's
important for us
to preserve history and
important to them to know how
all this industry
came to exist and how it's all
changed
nowadays but I think
everybody needs to know part
of the history of our country.
The reason we do this
because everyone likes to have
some idea of where they came
from
or what life was like so we have
some comparison between what
our ancestors did and we do
today
and there's been a tremendous
amount of change in the last
50 years, and we're
trying to show the youngsters
today what it was like to be
young back in the forties
for example, and all this old
equipment stuff that's
around is slowly dissappearing
from the picture.
It's not going to be around
anymore so we're trying to
preserve that
so it'll be here for future
generations.
Quite a challenge sometimes to
get somethingPPtotally restored
to operateppagain but
it's a real nice feeling when
you get it all done, to see it
work.
Well I think our children need
to
have an idea of what their
parents
experienced, uh what they went
through
and to learn first hand some of
the hard work
and really appreciate what
their parents
and before them their
grandparents more so yet
had to do to just to make a
living and
get food...produce the food
that they had to have. Well
I think there could be
a time when a lot of these
skills could again be useful.
So it's things that worked in
the past, we moved away from
them
but sometimes they come back,
history has a way of repeating
itself
Sometimes when you're looking
ahead to where you're going you
have
to take a look back see where
you came from.
steam releasing pressure
short whistle blow, tractor
rumbling
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tractor rumbling
tractor rumbling
tractor rumbling
tractor rumbling
tractor rumbling
tractor rumbling
Steam Power
was made possible by
the Minnesota Arts and
Cultural Heritage Fund
