Classic Comments

Heard at a recent engine show from one member of the public to
another.........''You know the difference between these old engines and the
modern ones ?''....No .....Well the modern engine just goes round and round
,the old ones go in and out !
Also .....very bad practice to have the petrol tank [ water hopper ]
uncovered ,should have a lid to stop fuel evaporation .
Peter and Jo Ogborne
Trigg Western Australia
jopetertrigg@optusnet.com.au

At the Perth Royal Show I was explaining to a Gent over the fence how an 8
cycle Aermoter worked.After explaining the firing cycle he asked where the
piston stopped (top or bottom ) if it only fired on the fourth cycle and
had to wait for the next firing stroke.
Ron Glassby
Perth
W.A

At a show, an attractive lady of rather voluptuous proportions in a tight
red off-the-shoulder sweater was taking an unusually keen interest in our
engines. She naturally had the undivided (i.e., sly, lecherous) attention of
quite a few of us as we SNAEG's (Sensitive New Age Engine Guys) pretended to
be busy around our engines.

She took out her programme to make a few notes but her ball-point pen was
out of ink.

About six of us reverted from SNAEGs to RBEGs (Red-Blooded Engine Guys),
tripping over each other offering pens and pencils. "Oh", she trilled,
"That's what I love about you engine men, you are all so well
equipped!".

JW˛, reflecting on the fragile nature of the veneer of civilisation.
Perth, W.A. Oz

I get my engines called pumps or steam engines, but the one that really got
me beat was a "train". I had a long hard look at em after that to see if I
was missing something. Maybe I had a sheltered childhood or something but I
could never figure that one out!!

Mike Young

Orange, NSW, Australia,
wara@ozemail.com.au
http://community.webshots.com/user/mioldengines

[Editor: Actually my ex-wife has always called them train engines - I gave up trying to explain it to her years ago. Paul]

I stopped in a shopping center on my way to a show one morning to get some
coffee at Hardees, and came back to the truck just as a woman was finishing
explaining to her children that the thing on wheels on my trailer was an "old
fire engine". I did not have the heart to tell the children that their
mother was wrong as they climbed into their car and left.

Tom Schmutz
Concord, Virginia
Germoamer@aol.com

This summer at the Buckley, Michigan show I had a guy ask me if I was
worried about my "steam engine" exploding.

(1914 Cushman X TG 1 1/2HP Hopper Cooled)

I told him "Not any longer, That's why I cut the hole in the top of the
boiler." He just nodded his head and moved on.

Alan Bowen alanb2@webtv.net
Williamsburg, Michigan
http://community.webtv.net/alan-bowen/AlanBowensWebPage
http://community.webtv.net/alanb2/TarbuckSchulgen

Chuck Balyeat kerogas@the-i.net
Customers see the engines all the tyme and ask if I am the one that
collects and refurbishes
"those old pumps " . The pat reply is "why yes I am .......why ?"
They see the wheels and get the general idea and remember the shows I havce
.
thats close enough for me . Not a whole lot else that looks like a
flywheeler . One drug me
20 dollar JD E this summer

John Culp johnculp@chartertn.net
Once I was filling up Dolly's cooling tank with water from a hose at a show. While I was talking to someone the tank got full and water started splashing out the top. An old engine man yelled, seriously "Don't let the mag get wet!"

John

You should here the "engineering" comments made by people "in the
know" concerning my Rider-Ericcson Hot-Air engine! It's amazing what
they can come up with! Almost all will include a boiler, valves, and a
single piston. It gets REAL quiet when I announce that there's no steam
or boiler, no valves anywhere, and the single cylinder contains TWO
pistons! ;-)

- Steve

-- Steve Gray Member EDGE & TA, Br. 49 Sonora, California USA e-mail: segray@mlode.com Home page: http://www.oldengineshed.com

Jim,
I got a good chuckle this weekend as a dad explained to his son how the screen cooler on my 8HP Famous was the boiler and that the pipe going from the top of the "boiler" to the midpoint of the top of the cylinder was carrying steam to push the piston. I let it roll and cut them both a piece of cedar with my "steam" engine powered buzz saw. I could just hear the son when he got home "mommy, mommy look and this piece of wood cut by the steam engine" :-)

I also have a perch inside the screen cooler and two small colorful decorative birds that were purchased from Michael's. That usually gets the women. They look a LONG time before finally figuring it out. I overheard one explanation from a husband about how these engines were used in deep mines and that the "canaries" were for monitoring air conditions!

And last. This year I set up a small table with a 3 HP Hercules water hopper on it. I put a sign on the hopper with the following:
Hercules Hopper Relief Fund
Please lend a helping hand to the Hercules Water Hopper, a small South American frog famous for its' ability to hop from the surface of the water to great heights to catch flying insects. This amazing ability to hop so high is how it got its' name the Hercules Hopper. (species-magnanamous aquacroakus)
Aggressive logging of the tropical rainforests and poor farming practices are contributing to excessive runoff of iron into the local streams and rivers (ferritic extricitous), a key element responsible for the physiological decline of this small frog. Your contributions will be used to educated the South American community in selective logging and proper farming practices to promote harmonious co-existence with yet another species on the brink of extinction.

Thank you for your support.

Curt Holland
President- Ferritic Preservation Society
on behalf of the Hercules Hopper


You wouldn't believe the people that fell for that one!!! The hopper was full of cash by the end of the day. Missy and I decided to give all the funds to our club.

Humor is life's greatest award :-)

James Yost jnyost@yahoo.com
I love it when they are explaining how those little
steam engines work. They see the steam coming from the
water hopper and assume that.
I have a nice wood tank that surrounds my water
cooling tank and my propane tank on my 25 HP Reid.
Some of you have seen it. I had a neighbor lady tell
her husband that the Yost's have a GREAT BIG trailer
mounted ice cream maker. I love it.
8-)))


Jim