Okay guys, this is really different. Have any of you heard of or seen in person a Gas-Blowing Engine? Used in steel making, these enormous engines are all but defunct now, but for decades served as the backbone of the steel industry. Note the size, weight and specs of these units.

Check out this link - it's mostly about the Tod engine in Youngstown, Ohio. But the page linked to it shows the Bethlehem Steel engines - which will soon be removed to make way for...a casino...

http://www.todengine.org/bethlehem_gas_blowing_engines

 

that is a very cool site. I love old history like that. you don't see any manufacturing like that anymore (not in the US anyways)

 

When you mentioned a Gas-Blowing Engine, I was expecting a different picture............

 

Shovelhead...

Awesome! Never even considered it...

 

Found a little more information out on them, this is from Flickr and I cited the page at the bottom. Pretty intense stuff...

the coal-powered gas-blowing engines at bethlehem steel generated electricity for the plant as well as high-pressure air for the blast furnaces. they were built in the 1890s and ran reliably, 24-hours a day 7 days a week, for 100 years.

they don't build stuff like this anymore (check it out large).

From a commentor (who must have worked there):

Nice Shot!

The engines actually ran on blast gas, (that's why they were called GAS blowing engines) we could also adjust the mix with coke and natural gas as well. The blowing engines were connected to LARGE air pumps (that's why they were called blowing engines) which pumped air for the blast furnaces.

The AC engines had a 25 cycle AC generator connected to the flywheel. The AC engines always ran at full throttle and were really something to see in action. The blowing engines worked hard when on line and ran way slower.

I spent some time as an assistant engineer in Lehigh Power House. Spend most of my time running the AC engines.

As far as documenting goes, when the power house was in operation the imported tile floors were spotless (mopped every day). The engines were wiped down every shift. So while you have captured the lifeless rotting carcass of the beast, no one has any idea what it was like or did when it was ALIVE. Just a few of us old goats left who were there and can document what it was like.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8128678...7603396499186/


Here they are:

 

Those aren't worth saving.

 

LOL, looks a lot like the huge old Detroit the glass plant had here, 16 cylinder, something like 250 RPM at full song, it was way over 20 feet long, I tried to get the local old engine association to get it, but they broke it up for scrap iron before I got that accomplished.

It was a sad day.........

 

I always thought a degree in Industrial Archaeology would be cool!

I love to seek out the old and classic stuff in any working industrial site..

Old working refineries seem to have this kind of stuff surrounded by modern working equipment.. They wreck-out JUST enough room for the new stuff and abandon the old stuff in-place if they absolutely don't have to spend a dime to remove it.

 

Try tedtea.org. These are some old timers that are into restoring and preserving old engines and tractors. They have several old working engines. I've see them run many times. Their prize is a giant 2 stroke 4 cylinder Fairbanks Morse diesel that originally ran for like 50 years nonstop.

 

My dad owned a machine shop he started in 1964. He originally started off with old surplus machinary. He never sold anything.

He passed away about 5 years ago, I opened up the back of the shop where he stored junk just for people to see. Our shop was 12,000 sq/ft and it was full of relics. A lot of it I scrapped though 'no one wanted that junk' but some people bought a good bit of it. I just scrapped out a gear set for an old machine that was huge that required you to change gears manually, like you had to pull the gear set by hand. Probably early 1900's vintage.

He'd go to auctions up in the midwest like Chicago and Milwakee and buy stuff back when he started.

I think it was cool actually touching stuff that was used to ramp up for the war efforts of WWI and WWII plus the industrial revolution.

 

And they don't work

 

I have a 1916 Fairbanks-Morse 3HP engine that was originally used to power farm equipment. It can run on gasoline or on kerosene once it warms up.
It weighs about 400 pounds and runs at 450 RPM.

I get it out and fire it up every few years just to marvel at the ingenious and yet simple design.

Dan

 

? Is That A Hit & Miss Engine

 

I too have an old F-M gas engine.. Its a 3 Hp at 800 rpm, throttle governed ZC.. It is not in running shape yet.
This one is special to me as it was one of two small 3hp engines that used to be in the engine room of my Great Uncle's cotton gin in Jacobia Tx.
The main engine was a big 2cyl, 2stroke F-M hot bulb engine. The two little engines drove a water pump and an air compressor. (not sure which one I've got)
My dad grew up around those engines and worked in the gin before he went into WW-II service. There are many family stories about starting that old F-M.

The big F-M was scrapped-out shortly before I was born and replaced with a BEAUTY of an engine that I did grow up around.. A LeRoy 4000cubic inch V12 LPG powered work of art. (2000+gallons of LPG a day during peak ginning season.)

Unfortunately, it's all gone now..
But I've still got one 3hp cast iron relic from those days..