The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

8 -The Canadiaen champion, Tuesday, Juty 15,1997 Steam powered plant reborn thanks to volunteers Testament toi ingenuily of craftsmenfrom bygone era By BRAD REAUME The Champion Ingenious steam powered operations of a bygone era are testimony to technological progress and the minds of those who made them. "You can't stop progress," said Tom Salisbury, a member of the Institute of Power Engineers. "However, everything that's been developed happened because some lazy guy got tired of doing things by hand and developed a machine to do it whiie he watched." Mr. Salisbury is just one of many people stili entranced by the smooth operation of steam powered equipment used 100 years ago. He and other members of the Institute of Power Engineers are helping to put a shingle factory back in operation at the Farm Museum, (formerly the Ontario Agricultural Museum). The operation wiiI be up and running during the Great Canadian Antique Tractor Field Days next weekend (July 17-20). The Massey-Ferguson iSOth Anniversary celebrations wiii be heid ai the same lime. Mr. Salisbury said cven nuclear energy is mereiy a different fuel source used to generate steam power. Many industries stili run machines on steam. ineiuding paper and steel milis. A steam powered car set a land speed record of 95 miles an hour around 1910. he said. "Steam power is ver efficient, the prob- lem is you have t0 haul the big hoiler around with you," Mr. Salisbury added. Carlisle resident Steve Bratina is behind the push to get the shingle miii working * again. The museum volunteer also has experience with the Steam Era show in Milton and the Steam and Technology Museum in Hamilton. The Hamilton museum is built around a mammoth steam engine used to pump waser for the munici- pality in the early years of this century. The engine, which drives a 22- foot fly- wheel, used tu be mun every weekend for public display, but concerns about the integrity of the equipment have kepi it inoperatîve for some time. Mr. Bratina showed off the shingle machine, speaking of the musical sound of steamn engines and the intoxicating scent of oul. "I think this is jusi the greatesi thing around," he said. Now retired, Mr. Salisbury, a navy vet- cran and operator of stcam equiprnent at Hamilton's Proctor and Gambie, said Mr. Bratina was bom 50 years too laie. The shingie machinc's boiler is able te, produce about 15 horscpower whiie using about 100 galions of water during an eight hour working day. Boilers can be touchy. According to Mr. Salisbury, an explosion ai an American shoe factory years ago brought down the entire enterprise. An explosion in the shin- gie machine's houler wouid blow metai parts several hundred yards or maybe as much as a mile, he said. "It's the pressure of the stcam," he said. "If it can it will expand violently. One cubie foot of water ai 100 pounds pressure bas the explosive force of 54 pounds of gunpowder." However, ihere arc numerous safety measures buiit into the big houler, includ- ing release values for pressure, water level gauges and shutoff equipment. The shingling device shows the ingenu- ity of man. With roughly machined toctal parts the shîtîgler could produce a high quality product even hy today's standard. "Shingles were important years ago. theN were the only thing 10 huild a root'out of other than thatch," said Mr. Salisbury. Another steam engitie aficionado, Don Elear, explained several atlachments to the main machine. One puniped oil to moving parts and another, a govemnor, hclped keep the whole engine running smoothly ai a constant specd. Mr. Bratina said he is hoping that orga- nizational probiems betwcen Steam Era program and the Farm Muscum can be worked out to allow for one huge steam power show. He addcd that the cost of boiler inspections and the quesiionable integrity of boilers after many years of use could mean the steam power shows will eventually become a thing of the pasi. The shingle factory machinery ai the Farm Museum was donated by the Thomas family of northemn Nassagaweya. They used their miii beginning in 1912 lu help diversify their farm operation. They continued to sel] shingles until 1940. 0 Vint-age Tractors **E 5 ~ » IE J E h e Gasoline Engines (FORMERLY ONTARIO AGRICULTURAL MUSEUM) * Steam Engines e Farm Implements retTHE1Il GRE~AT CANADIAN ANI lUE SSawmill IA T RFEDD f Shingle Mili [" 151rt.I A Fririfom&ni4tce~al SThe Ofica Celebration of 15MthAnniversary of Massey Ferguson July i 7m20 e 8am m 5pm 878 15 Farmn Museum interpreter Garth Dailman (above) checks out the plane on one of the shingles manufactured in the refurbished facility while {right) Steve Bratina adjusts the throttle on the milî's power- plant. Photos by Graham Paine THE MILTON CHAMBER Or- COMMERCE