Bob Wilhelm’s Q&A – Marshall Steam Museum (Friends of Auburn Heights)

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ERRATIC BOILER WATER GAUGE

As Tom Marshall would often advise members of the Steam Team of the late 1990s, Stanley steamers are known for displaying a myriad of conflicting symptoms, all of which need to be carefully examined in order to deduce the true cause of a steamer’s ailment. Such was the case last month when attending the Hagley Car Show. A boiler water level gauge (kidney gauge, not the 3-tube indicator style) on a condensing car displayed a near full boiler when running that dropped to less than a half-full boiler indication when the throttle was closed and the burner was not firing. To add conflicting diagnostic information to the eventual solution of the unconventional gauge indication, the pumps were definitely providing water to the boiler as the water reservoir level dropped appropriately for the distance traveled.

The pumps’ operation could be felt cycling ON and OFF under control of the boiler water automatic by the vibrations of the car’s floorboards. Steam pressure for the trip was easily being maintained in the 475 to 550 PSIG range, as it should be, and the car climbed the steeper hills of Route 82 briskly on the way to Hagley. The burner’s cycling ON and OFF was as expected. The condensing car was not leaving a water trail to indicate a leak or other issue. The vehicle’s kidney boiler water gauge, while a potential cause of the issue, seemed to perform as expected (and was ultimately ruled out as the source of the program). The error turned out to be entirely human and not mechanical. Any idea as to what was causing the erratic boiler water gauge issue?

Answer
In Tom Marshall’s teachings to the Steam Team he often talked of more rare issues that can affect a Stanley’s performance. The issue of boiler foaming and priming is rare and involves only the water on board a Stanley and not the vehicle itself. This author has experienced boiler foaming involving a Wilmington & Western Railroad locomotive that had excess boiler treatment added to the water. In that case, the problem was quickly visible in the glass boiler sight gauge as instead of the glass tube 2/3rds full of water, when the engineer opened the throttle, the glass quickly turned milky white, an indication of boiler foaming. Ignored, such a problem might quickly become dangerous for continued operation of the locomotive or steam car. In the case of a condensing Stanley, the boiler gauges are of an actual gauge construction, and unless the the steam car has been retrofitted with a glass sight gauge, a foaming issue must be recognized through other clues.Tom Marshall advocated a tablespoon of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda be added to the water tank every three or four tankfuls of water. Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda, Tom’s favorite, is pure sodium carbonate (Na2CO3). Washing soda is also known as soda ash and soda crystals and is primarily used to manufacture glass, paper, rayon, soaps, detergents, and as a water softening agent. Since the start of the 20th century, boiler operators have experimented with the addition of sodium carbonate to boiler water to provide alkalinity to the water. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a treatment of washing soda was employed by land and marine boiler operators as the best means to prevent scaling and corrosion. Use of washing soda as boiler water treatment resulted in dramatically reducing boiler maintenance and associated costs. For Stanleys it does seem to “wash” the water system of impurities and keep the pumps, check valves, and other components free of mineral buildup.

Too much washing soda, however, can create a condition known as “foaming,” which leads to “priming” occurring. Inside the boiler, the heat of the fire generates steam bubbles within the water. The steam bubbles, which originate on the boiler tubes and internal boiler surfaces, float and burst when they reach the water surface, releasing their encapsulated steam. As a boiler generates steam, any impurities that are in the boiler supply water and that do not boil away with the steam will concentrate in the remaining boiler water. Likewise, having too much washing soda in the water supply causes the concentration of washing soda in the boiler to increase over time. The supply water containing washing soda boils away and leaves the boiler as steam. Replacement water making up for the steam used contains washing soda, which effectively increases the boiler’s washing soda concentration. When Stanleys return from a day’s use, boilers are blown down (cleared of all water, leaving only pure steam behind), which clears the boiler of the higher concentration of washing soda and other impurities and thus foaming and priming should not occur.

If the boiler water is not cleared of an increasing concentration of washing soda, the dissolved solids and sodium carbonate becomes more and more concentrated, which results in the steam bubbles becoming more stable. The bubbles of steam fail to burst as they reach the water surface of the boiler, and miniature steam bubbles are created throughout the boiler water, which represent the foaming condition. The bubbles actually start to form on the impurities within the water in addition to the boiler surfaces. The water in the boiler, when foaming occurs, becomes very similar to the foam on beer or what happens when a warm liter bottle of soda is violently shaken and the cap removed quickly. There comes a point (depending on boiler pressure, size, and steam load) where a substantial part of the steam space in the boiler becomes filled with miniature bubbles. The resulting foam of bubbles is carried along with the steam exiting the boiler, which flows to the steam engine. This is the condition known as “priming.” Due to the small spaces at the end of a piston’s travel in a cylinder, it doesn’t take a lot of “primed steam” to damage the engine. The boiler water turning to foam also can quickly lead to a low water condition in the boiler, which might result in boiler failure.

The boiler water level, upon reaching the Hagley Car Show, was “full” on the gauge as the boiler was intentionally filled above nominal operating level in preparation for sitting all day at Hagley. However, within 10 minutes of parking the car and extinguishing the pilot, the boiler water level gauge indicated a boiler half-full of water. The search for a large water leak uncovered nothing that might cause the quick loss of a half boiler’s worth of water. The gauge reaction pretty much pointed to the problem — high water when boiling, low to middle water level when not boiling. In diagnosing the problem, it was soon realized that this year, unlike previous years, the car has been making quite a number of short trips, all of which only used a quarter to a half of the supply tank’s capacity. However, Tom’s recommendation of the addition of washing soda has been followed religiously, and not realizing it, the concentration of washing soda in the supply water tank has been increasing over the summer months. Our foaming problem wasn’t caused by lack of boiler blow-downs but because we’ve not been running through multiple tanks of supply water on any given use of the steamer, thus allowing the concentration of washing soda to increase in the water tank supplying the boiler.

Beginning next year, we’ll start logging water tank fillings to ensure the concentration of washing soda in the supply water remains minimal.

October 14, 2019

LOW-DIGIT LICENSE PLATES

China has taken an interesting approach to traffic congestion. In Beijing, a car buyer must first win a lottery for a license plate in order to be able to purchase a vehicle. The practice was started in 2011 as Beijing is a city of over 13 million residents, with more than half eligible to drive. They offered up 150,000 plates in 2017 but only 100,000 in 2018. Additionally, the majority of the license plates issued annually may only be applied to new electric-only vehicles. Anyone with outstanding court issues is banned from applying, as are people with other infractions on their records. In Beijing in 2018, the odds of receiving a license place in the bimonthly lottery are as low as 1 in 2,000. Beijing further restricts driving in the city, only allowing Beijing-registered vehicles during the peak driving times within the city. Beijing has set a cap of 6.3 million vehicles registered to city residents, which is expected to be met next year.

Delaware’s low digit licenses are sought after and easily command mid-6-figure prices or higher for a 2-digit number. Four-digit plates are often transferred between owners for 4-digit license plate values along with the added value of the vehicle they reside on. The State of Delaware has begun queuing up 5-digit plates and issuing them on 5-digit plate days. While some 5-digit plates may command a few dollars of added vehicle value when transferred between owners, plates that the state takes in are reissued free.

What state in the U.S. employs a lottery system for issuing their low-character-count plates?

Answer
In August and September each year, Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (MRMV) holds their annual Low Plate Lottery. Massachusetts residents with an existing insured and registered vehicle are invited to apply for a low character-count license plate. In mid-September the MRMV announces the lottery winners. Residents may enter only once, even if they have multiple vehicles registered in Massachusetts. The lottery system selects an additional 25 winners for any awarded plates that are not collected within three months of notification. Massachusetts is the only state at present using a lottery system for awarding special license plates.

Massachusetts license plates are up to seven alphanumeric characters in length. In 2019 there are 230 plates available with two, three or four characters, which are the only plates available for the lottery. The available plates will be awarded in the order the available plates are listed on the MRMV website. Winners may not request a specific plate, but if two winners choose to show up at the same time when retrieving their winning plates, they may swap them during the registration process. A winner must have no outstanding payments due the state for things such as taxes, traffic citations, E-ZPass tolls, court costs, or other legal infractions. In 2018, 201 plates were issued.

September 9, 2019

JOHN G. JACKSON

Hockessin was home to John G. Jackson, who was known in the area as a surveyor, civil engineer, astronomer, author, teacher, mill operator, mine owner, politician, and farmer. He surveyed New Castle County extensively, and his name appears in U.S. Congressional records and other scientific documents and papers for two scientific efforts he was associated with over his lifetime.

In addition to being a Delaware State Representative and having a patent for a surveying tool, what scientific activity or discovery is J.G. Jackson noted for?

Answer
Born on September 8, 1818, in what is known today as the Dixon-Jackson House, J.G. Jackson studied at the Westtown Boarding School beginning at age 14. In his 20s, he began teaching science and astronomy at Westtown. Jackson became a surveyor’s apprentice when he was 21, mastering the profession while working for the government in Ohio. By age 30 (1848) Jackson was supervising the family’s Hockessin saw mill operation, doing surveying within New Castle County, supervising the daily operations of the limestone and marble quarries on the family’s property, and overseeing construction of a new home for his family northeast of Valley and Southwood roads.

John G. Jackson became a notary public for New Castle County in 1857 at age 39. In November 1864, Jackson successfully won the election to become a State Representative for New Castle County in the 73rd Delaware General Assembly for two years (January 3, 1865 to January 1, 1867). Jackson served as Chief Engineer for the Wilmington & Western Rail Road’s construction between 1870 and 1872, and its route remains a testament to his skills as a surveyor and engineer. In 1880, at age 62, Jackson began to embrace retirement by selling the quarry business. Jackson continued his surveying activities in later years as he applied for a patent related to surveying in June 1888. Jackson was awarded Patent 392,124 on October 30, 1888, for a ‘Spirit-Level’.

Jackson was an avid astronomer, and in 1837 he worked out the calculations for the next transit of Venus (a transit is when the orbital planes of Earth and Venus are aligned such that from the daylight side of Earth one may observe Venus as a black dot moving across the sun). When Jackson made the initial calculations, only two individuals had ever observed Venus transit the sun (in 1639). One must remember that humans did not know the precise orbits (elliptical and not circular) of Venus and the Earth or their mean distances from the sun.

Jackson used his telescope, observational skills, and math knowledge to calculate current positions and then to reliably predict the future orbits of the Earth and Venus circling the sun. Adding to the complexity is the fact that the orbital planes of the two planets are different (3.8 degrees), the frequency of Earth-Venus-Sun alignment occurrence differs (105.5 years, 8 years, 121.5 years, 8 years before repeating), and the calculations are done with only a pencil and paper by kerosene lamps!

The 1874 Venus transit was not visible in North America (it was visible in eastern China, Australia, Japan, Indonesia). Jackson was rewarded for his efforts on December 6, 1882, when he was able to document, along with other noted astronomers across North America, the transit of Venus as he and others had predicted 37 years earlier! Jackson’s work is documented in multiple astronomy periodicals of the time, and his involvement is noted in Congressional records. Jackson owned a 6-inch reflecting telescope that he most likely made himself. This would have been a large telescope for a private individual as the best observatories around the world had telescopes of the size of Mt. Cuba Observatory’s 24-inch reflector in the 1880s.

J.G. Jackson is also documented as having observed “clouds” on the moon on multiple occasions. Galileo Galilei’s improvements to the telescope in the early 1600s allowed better viewing of the moon. As far back as February 1672, a “nebulous appearance” had been reported in the Mare Crisium region of the moon by Giovanni Domenico Cassini. From Cassini’s first reporting until Jackson’s time, dozens of reported sightings had occurred, with some reporting a purple color to the cloud or fog.

As part of America’s preparations for going to the moon, in 1968 NASA released a Chronological Catalog of Reported Lunar Events documenting 580 observances over nearly 300 years of cloud-like phenomena on the moon. By the early 1900s, it was well accepted that the moon did not have an atmosphere. Continued study of the moon concludes that the “clouds,” bright flashes, and other lunar phenomena are more than likely the result of out-gassing from the moon’s crust, impacts of space debris with the surface, or similar causes. Only since the Apollo flights of the 1970s have we learned the moon does have what can be considered an atmosphere (ten trillion times thinner than Earth composed of atoms of sodium, potassium, helium, argon, ammonia, methane, and carbon dioxide).

August 12, 2019

PLEXI CAR

An alternate to silica-based glass is acrylic glass. Technically known as Poly-Methyl-MethAcrylate (PMMA), we commonly refer to the material generically as plexiglass. Developed by Rohn & Haas Company commercially in 1933, their Plexiglas product was trademarked in Germany as the world’s first clear acrylic material. Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. (ICI) registered the product in the UK at about the same time as “Perspex.” In the U.S., E.I. du Pont trademarked Lucite as their acrylic glass product offering. Other companies have trademarked names such as R-Cast, Optix, and Cyrolite.

In 1939, for the World’s Fair, the car below was featured having its exterior body panels fabricated from Rohm & Haas Plexiglas. It was advertised as the first “transparent car” in America. Who was the manufacturer of the automobile pictured, and which major automotive manufacturer showcased the vehicle during the fair?

Answer

Often called the PlexiPontiac, or the Pontiac Ghost Car, it is a 1939 Pontiac Deluxe Six. It was built as a collaboration between General Motors, Pontiac, and Rohm & Haas for the GM “Futurama” exhibit and was part of the “Highways & Horizons” display. Built on a 120-inch wheelbase, Pontiac four-door Touring Sedan framework and chassis, the metal structural components were copper plated while the car’s accent hardware was chrome plated. Black rubber moldings were changed to white rubber as were the tires, for contrast. The engine used was a 222.7-cubic-inch L-head six-cylinder that generated 85 brake horsepower for the three-speed manual transmission.

Costing $25,000 to build, the odometer displays only about 100 miles of driving! After being one of the must-see highlights at the World’s Fair, the car toured the U.S. before becoming a feature attraction at the Smithsonian Institute for a number of years. Upon leaving the Smithsonian in 1947, it was displayed in several Pennsylvania dealerships. It was purchased in the early 1970s by a private owner, who had it restored. Sold to another private owner in the late 1970s, it was again sold to a private owner in the 1980s. In July 2011, it was auctioned by RM Auctions for $308,000.

A second car was built after the Ghost Pontiac on the Pontiac Torpedo Eight chassis for the Golden Gate Exposition. It too toured the country, but its status is unknown.

July 15, 2019

RARE ITEM

The rare item pictured has been awarded a National Register of Historic Places listing. It is located on the border between Delaware and Maryland in Delmar but originally found use in northern Delaware as well as 25 miles away in Hurlock, Maryland. After serving some of its life in Cape Charles, Virginia, it has been returned to Delaware. What is the pictured item called, and how was it used?

Answer
The item pictured is a railroad Highball Signal dating from the earliest railroads that operated on the DelMarVa Peninsula. From the Delmar Highball Signal’s National Register Listing;

The term highball, meaning a fast train, or permission for a train to proceed at full speed, derives from this type of signal. A highball signal was a white sphere mounted on a pole next to the railroad tracks. If the track was clear ahead, the signal attendant would raise the ball to the top of the pole by means of a pulley. If the track was not clear, he would lower the ball so that it would not be visible to the engineer of an oncoming train; hence, the term highball came to be synonymous with a clear right-of-way. Positioned as shown in the image, at the midpoint of the pole, the signal indicated the engineer was to proceed ahead slowly with caution.

Highball signals were frequently mounted near stations or at section boundaries. The design of highball signals varied among the railroads; some were equipped with a black ball that would replace the white one when the track was not clear. Some signals, like the one at Delmar, were provided with a box into which the ball was lowered when the track was not clear. Some railroads constructed the ball with glass windows such that it included a kerosene font and burner and could be lit at night for better visibility. Other types of signal, notably the semaphore and the three-light electrical signal, eventually replaced the highball. The highball at Delmar is a steel sphere mounted on a wooden post, which is raised and lowered by of a chain hoist. It is no longer used to direct railroad traffic, but is maintained as a public exhibition in a park near the railroad.

The highball signal at Delmar is one of the last survivors of a type of traffic control that was in use before the advent of modern semaphore signals. The origin of the highball is unknown, but it probably was invented during the railroad expansion period of the 1840’s. As a signal, it is quite primitive, since it can convey only one piece of information: whether the track is clear or not. Modern signaling devices can transmit a variety of data to the engineer of an oncoming train. The last highball signal on a class 1 railroad in America was in operation at the interchange point between the Pennsylvania and Reading railroads near Wilmington Delaware, a few years ago; the highball was used at that point because the electronic control systems of the two railroads ended short of the interchange track and manual signaling was necessary.

The Delmar highball signal was originally in service at New Castle, Delaware, and then at Hurlock, Maryland. It was displayed for a time at Cape Charles, Virginia, and then was moved to Delmar, Delaware for display during the town’s centennial in 1959. It is maintained as a permanent exhibit by the town of Delmar, Delaware.

May 31, 2019