This year's show features Oliver along with any other brands that show up.
I never saw one of these before. I apologize for the beheadings.
Oliver's Cletrac crawler tractors came from the Cleveland Tractor Company, purchased by Oliver.
Nor did I ever see an Oliver crawler as big as this one!
Evidence of Oliver's purchase of Hart-Parr, of Charles City, Iowa, to obtain a tractor line.
Hart-Parr was a pioneer in the internal combustion tractor business. Their Model 30-60, represented here by this one built in 1913, became known as "Old Reliable" because its simplicity and solid construction made it serviceable for farmers who had little experience with internal combustion technology. The 30-60 model designation indicates 30 horsepower at the drawbar and 60 horsepower on the belt.
The tractor appears primitive by contemporary standards, but that was a positive attribute in that all critical components were simple and easily accessible without expensive or complicated tools. The engine had two cylinders and was governed by the hit-and-miss method; instead of controlling speed with a butterfly-type throttle valve, the governor cut off fuel and ignition when the engine reached the desired speed and let the engine coast until the speed dropped below the selected setting.
The big gasoline/kerosene tractors were bought mainly by very large farmers who could afford their high price and could use their power, and whose fields were large enough to maneuver them.
Technology advances, especially in metallurgy during, and partly induced by, World War I, led to the development of more compact, lighter engines which soon were adapted to farm power. Tractors became smaller, more durable and more affordable and found their way onto smaller farms where they replaced horses.
Like some other makers, even as they evolved more compact machines Hart-Parr stayed with the proven two-cylinder engines, partly because they were less expensive to make than four-cylinder engines. Their characteristic exhaust bark could be heard for miles across the quiet countryside, and Hart-Parr was long one of the esteemed brands among those willing to pay for top quality.
Leroy Perman's plowing demonstrations with his Twin City KT are a long-standing tradition at this show.
Huber, long known for road-building machinery and their return-flue steam traction engines, got into the tractor business post-WWI with running gear purchased from Foote Brothers Gear Company. They assembled with purchased engines and sold two models, a Light Four and this Super Four.
The advent of mechanized grain-threshing equipment in the 1850s brought about the increase in sizes of grain farms and the evolution of threshing machines and farms kept pace with each other. The machines grew from hand-powered versions to ones powered with horses on treadmills or walking in circles on sweeps. By the 1880s, the newest machines required more power than was practicable with horses, and steam power began to appear on farms.
The earliest steam engines in agricultural use were mounted on wheels but had to be pulled from one job site to another with horses. Ron Narhwold's beautiful 1890 Nichols & Shepard engine is an example of the early adaptation of self propulsion. These machines were built to move themselves and their threshing machine, but not suited for heavy field tillage. Nichols & Shepard was bought by Oliver to obtain parts of their line of very high quality harvesting machinery.
Again, as threshing machines grew and as other applications like local sawmills expanded and enlarged, steam engines grew to meet the demand. David Pence's 1913 Frick engine is considerably heavier and larger than the engines of the 19th century. This engine had not run for many years until this summer, when David finished a detailed mechanical restoration, including a new all-welded boiler certified for operation at 175 pounds of steam per square inch. This engine may be better than new because of more advanced metallurgy in the materials used in restoration, but Frick was a cut above many of its contemporary competitors in mechanical design and manufacturing quality.
Steam plowing was practiced mostly on the huge wheat farms of the western prairies, and even there it was often done only to break tough virgin prairie sod, by contractors hired by farmers. Subsequent plowing oftenw as done with horses, both because of the great cost and labor demands of steam poweer and because farmers were wary of the soil compaction resulting from repeated use of these machines that often weight 15 or 20 tons or more.
Needless to say, the golf cart is not historically accurate. I have no gripe with people who have a legitimate need for a vehicle to help them enjoy the shows, but many of those accursed things are used by people who are simply lazy and impatient with the pace of walking. They've become a pestilence against good photography and a hazard to pedestrians.
The era around World War I, when these engines were built, was probably the zenith of steam traction engine development. The machines were rugged and powerful, and properly maintained and operated boilers were very safe from explosion. Those glory days were short; the introduction of affordable, compact, economical gasoline and kerosene tractors came immediately upon the heels of the war, and by the 1920s most farm machinery makers had quit building steamers altogether. A handful of small foundry/machine-shop operators continued building them on a limited basis into the 1930s.
Trent Smith feeds water into the boiler of his Advance-Rumely engine.
Steam power held on in sawmills longer than in many other applications, because of the abundance of free fuel in the form of slabwood scrap. Most shows still feature sawmill demonstrations, and because the engines are sitting in one place while doing their work, the sawmills provide good opportunities to get up close and see the machinery at work and see what operators have to do to keep providing steady, reliable, safe power.
Here, a 65-horspower Case engine built in 1917 is up to full operating pressure and standing by until the sawyer is ready to start.
These machines and events will be sustained by the young folks who take part and learn, and by the even younger ones they encourage and teach.
The four-cylinder tractors were built by bolting two two-cylinder blocks to a four-cylinder crankcase. According to Roger Schuller, only 500 22-40 models were built and only the first 100 of this series had separate caburetors for the two cylinder blocks.
Mutual curiosity, I think.
Beautifully crafted working scale models of antique gas engines.
The most-often asked question of engine exhibitors is, "What does it do?" This is a good demonstration of one of the farm tasks sometimes done by gas engines, pumping water. Other jobs were shelling corn, grinding livestock feed, and powering a washing machine.
1917 double-cylinder 20-75 horsepower Nichols & Shepard steam traction engine. A steam engine applies pressure to the piston in both directions on every stroke, so a single-cylinder double-acting steam engine produces as many power strokes per revolution as a four-cylinder, four-cycle internal combustion engine. This double-cylinder engine produces as many power strokes per revolution as an eight-cylinder automobile engine.
Machines and wagonloads of wheat lined up for threshing demonstrations.
Corn-shelling setup.
Nice Minneapolis-Moline Model R - just the right size for a utility tractor.
Threshing wheat - the bundles go into the feeder with the grain heads facing the machine. The whirling knives cut the strings, and a spinning toothed cylinder knocks the kernels out of the hulls, and shaking screens and controlled air from fans separate the grain from everything else.
Theshing power provided by a 12-24 two-cylinder Hart-Parr tractor.
Everything that isn't wheat comes out here -- straw, chaff, ticks ...
Mark Schuller, atop the threshing machine, uses his eyes and ears to detect malfunctions or clogs. It's a lot easier to unclog a machine if you stop feeding it right away than if you let it get packed full of straw from end to end.
This line is for fish or tenderloin dinners catered by Country Chef.
Steamed sweet corn attracts a line, too.
A nice lineup of fine vintage cars.
Simplex
1928 Ford Model A Coupe
1931 Ford Phaeton with right-hand drive.
Ford Model T - this one had a Frontenac head, a cylinder-head conversion that provided overhead valves and boosted performance substantially.
Non-feature tractors - manufacturers other than Oliver, Hart-Parr, Nichols & Shepard and other associated makes.
Ford Motor Company's Fordson was one of the small, affordable tractors that brought internal combustion to small farms and began to displace animal-powered agriculture.
It's a rare antique tractor show, county fair or small-town festival that doesn't feature a tractor pull.
Friday night's entertainment was by Spike & the Bulldogs, playing songs of the fifties and sixties. This very popular group brought in a lot of people and provided a good time.
Back at Jefferson Township Park, it's lunchtime and there's a line for the steamed sweet corn.
Belting up the Hart-Parr 30-60 to thresh.
In my experience, if more than two people help belt up a traction engine or tractor, the amount of time required and confusion involved increases as the square of the increase in the number of helpers. As soon as the numer of helpers got down to two, the task went forward expeditiously.
A very nice exhibit of vintage and classic trucks.
The only Diamond-T pickup I've ever seen. It looks like quite a rugged machine.
Hendrickson
Auburn Speedster
1940 Dodge
I once had a pickup similar to this one, but I believe this is a half-ton; its gearshift is on the column. Mine was a three-quarter-ton, with a four-speed lever on the floor. Mine was a tough, rugged truck with a hard ride and no power steering, pretty brutal by contemporary standards.
'59 Edsel Station Wagon, a rarity. I was around when these were still being built, and attended the grand opening of the Edsel dealer in Fort Wayne, but I remember seeing only one of these before this one.
Ron Nahrwold's 1890 Nichols & Shepard portable steam engine again, this time looking its best in sunlight.
Baling straw from threshing
Blacksmiths demonstrate their craft and offer products of their art for sale.
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