Soot In The Flues

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'On Saturday, June 14th, Mr. & Mrs. Milton Bradshaw, from Hesperia, CA stopped in for information on show dates, they had left CA before receiving the July-August magazine.

Mr. Bradshaw was a Kansas boy - farmed in CA for 39 years, recently sold their ranch and this was the year for a tour of USA.

ENJOYED talking to both of them, as did my retired neighbor, Mr. Little, who when he saw the trailer and car stopped in front of our house and Mrs. Bradshaw waiting in the car thought they had troubles and offered his help. Mrs. Bradshaw was more than pleased, that someone cared. The four of us then had a nice visit (Mrs. & Mr. B., Mr. Little and myself). Mr. B. showed us an engine model that ran on air, which we never even knew existed.'

HARRY FISCHBACK, Kettlersville, Ohio 45336 says: 'In the July-August I. M. A. a Mr. Laurence Bohlmeyer asked about a two smoke stack engine picture - here is a nice one built by Minneapolis Threshing Company in 1904. They were built in five different HP sizes'.

LAURENCE GRAVES, Route 1, Box 147A, Suisun, California 94585 sends along this information: 'Feel free to print this letter in I. M. A. I'm a steam buff, nut, way-out, and points west. In late 50s, the late Ray Campbell loaned me a book listing 200? steam cars built and disappeared from the road. All gone by '25 when the last Stanleys and Dobles ceased business. Why were they unsuccessful?

They burned too much fuel. The layman forgot them. Most used 6-800 lbs. steam pressure. One car carried 1000 lbs. (psi). This should have made them very efficient. It did not! Readers of the ALBUM recognize a 20-60 steamer has 60 HP on belt (flywheel) and only 20 HP at drawbar. What happened to the 40 HP difference? It was swallowed up by friction in the plain gear bearings. The drive wheel bearings carrying the weight of a heavy boiler have lots of drag. Gas tractors are better off with expensive roller bearings. Even here a 60 HP loses ? its HP and is rated only 30 HP at drawbar.

Firing up a double pancake flash coil in August of 1974 and working feed pump by hand, little force was required up to 100 psi. At 200 psi. one feels the pressure. My pump is a brass plunger 5/8' D X 1' stroke. Packing is on end of plunger. It can easily hit 1000 psi. At 6-800 psi I put extension on handle. Carried this psi for one hour, twenty minutes. At these pressures steam cars used too much steam to run feed pump. So the car used too much fuel. Driver could not sense this. 2% is estimated steam consumption for a feed pump, allowing pump friction. I cannot see how 50 lbs. of steam can pump 3000 lbs. water into a boiler at 150 psi. Comment requested!'

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GAS ENGINE TRADEMARKS '

C.H. Wendel

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