Vintage work crew photos

[the harmonious blacksmith]

Not really, if you understood older large engines. It was a single rod on one side of crank with inline double acting cylinders (inline - tandem) . Some tandem steam engines were compound, meaning a smaller primary high pressure cylinder and secondary larger diameter cylinder in line which used the lower pressure exhaust steam from the primary cylinder.

At the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, MI, they have one of Ford's 9 "gasteam" engines which he had built to power all the machinery on 250 volts DC at the Highland Park Model T factory. Ford moved it there and more or less built the museum around it. I'd love to have seen the boiler room that fed those engines.

Ford and Thomas Edison were both big promoter of DC in the early years, but fortunately George Armstrong and Nicola Tesla's alternating current won out.

Those huge engines had steam cylinders on one side of the flywheel (which was a huge generator) one 36 inch diameter (primary high pressure) cylinder then, tandem on the same rod a secondary low pressure cylinder of 72 inches diameter both, of course the same stroke of 72 inches. On the other side they had two double acting 42 inch cylinders in tandem running on coal gas. Once again, 72 inch stroke. The main inline rods were about a foot in diameter past the cross head. They ran on huge sliding shoes between cylinders and at the far end of the cylinders to support the huge weight of the pistons.
Good videos of it are at:

.

They claimed the coal gas cylinders were harder to govern so they used the steam side for control. Each engine/generator station was rated 250 volts at, if I remember correctly, 4 megawatts a total power rating of about 6000 horsepower each. My mind might be incorrect on some of the numbers. The Henry Ford is worth a visit just for the steam engines on display. Plan on spending a week there if you're interested in machinery, etc.

I don't understand everything I know about things, grin.

[skibo]

What can I say, cool!! There again everyone was wearing some kind of hat!

[Beserkleyboy]

Hello, you've been down the rabbit hole today! Good work, mate. I dismissed at first viewing, thinking, 'nah, this is something for the metal guys...', but your digging has brought to the interest of this wood guy...good work...cheers
Jim in South Coast NSW, AUS

[old_toolmaker]

That must be Company Brass in the photo. Most if not all wearing suits & ties.

[Unkle Fuzzy]

Single cylinder engine with the compressor mounted in tandem on the same piston rod.

[the harmonious blacksmith]

I didn't mean to send the photo of the video. I meant to just put the URLs/

Good videos of it are at:

.

[Toolmaker51]

In response to post 2211 of hemmjo and roadway tests. There are rather distinct highway signs a little west of Ottawa, IL mentioning same tests, at least in one locale. Our highway system was influenced upon General Eisenhower first hand, seeing concept in post war Germany. His state of Kansas commemorates him too, certain highways, interchanges and so on.
Our current administration is so uninformed; no clue what infrastructure really means.
I'm no kind of truck driver, yet clock untold miles over eastern Midwest retrieving equipment far away as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee with little apprehension and lots of appreciation. One habit of every trip includes a little Johnny Cash; [of course; it's me after all] "I've Been Everywhere".
Who cares, 'Everywhere' is subjective, taking it to be 'everywhere worth going'. This month alone, ~3200 miles, some looking for a spot hidden west of Dallas/ Fort Worth. Not the one south of, lol.......

[marksbug]

hmm I west of those places...oops east...well west if you keep going across the pond through okinawa back across the pond and keep going till you hit daytonaor possiably at augstine.. then go west a bit more..then south to the emerald coast...just like the gps will take you, the long way around. I too have lots of miles on the interstates. since the early 60's. now days if im not in a hurry or a good reason to take them I take the back roads so I dont miss america as it once was....of coarse I may be flying to dallas in a few weeks...or austin.not sure yet if when or where...I would drive but not a lot of time to do so....if I take my wife.

[Toolmaker51]

I'm widowed now, but she loved those drives too. Always marveling at sheer expanse, her being Austrian born.
Not much has changed, continuing to not miss America.
If I keep on, might catch Miss America too! Even little towns have contenders!

[hemmjo]

..., continuing to not miss ...

The first time I read this message, I was confused by it. I had to read it a couple of times to get it right.

I find language fascinating. The way we learn to string words together to express our thoughts is very much the same as we string tools and operations together to bring an idea into reality. As listeners, we often receive the message incorrectly.

This is an example of how often words can easily send a message the speaker did not intend. Taken in context, it is clear that you love traveling and seeing all that America has to offer.

This exact string of words can also express the opposite sentiment. For example, "Since I have retired, I am continuing to not miss some of the idiots I worked with"