It Followed Him To School One Day…

By Staff
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Engine/burr mill setup.
Engine/burr mill setup.
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Dan Whetzel, social studies instructor, and 10th grade social studies and technology/industrial arts students.
Dan Whetzel, social studies instructor, and 10th grade social studies and technology/industrial arts students.

804 Ashbrook Avenue, Cumberland, Maryland 21502

I thought that GEM readers might enjoy reading about one of the
uses that I have for my engine.

You might remember the article I submitted to GEM that appeared
in the December 1996 issue, titled ‘My First Restoration.’
That article contained the restoration process.

I teach industrial arts/technology education at a senior high
school. One of the subjects we teach about is our country’s
Industrial Revolution. A big part of the Industrial Revolution was
the use of steam, and internal combustion, as a means of creating
power to do a variety of jobs. Our social studies teacher, Dan
Whetzel, is a steam engine enthusiast, and I am a gas engine
enthusiast, so naturally, we wanted to come up with a way to
incorporate our two interests into a lesson for our students.

We decided to team teach the Industrial Revolution to both of
our classes, with Dan specializing on the steam power part of the
lesson, and me specializing on the gas engine part of the lesson.
We decided that for the last day of the team teaching I would bring
my 3 HP Hercules engine that I wrote about in the previously
mentioned article to school. When I started restoring my Hercules I
knew I wanted to see it do some type of work like it would have
been first intended to do, when it was new way back in 1922. So
this winter I started asking friends, people at church, neighbors,
and almost any acquaintances about some sort of antique equipment
that my engine could operate. I got a lead on an old burr mill and
went to see the owner. He was nice enough to sell it to me along
with some belting.

The last day of our team teaching I brought my engine to school,
and the burr mill, to run for our classes. Another teacher, Alan
Hammond, donated the corn and we were ready to demonstrate how an
internal combustion gas engine could turn rotary motion into a job,
grinding corn for feeding livestock.

The accompanying picture shows the setup we had that day.
Everything worked out perfectly. The engine ran, and the burr mill
ground corn, cobs and all. From the looks of astonishment to the
comments we received, the team teaching activity was a huge
success. I would like to thank Alan Hammond for the couple of
bushels of corn, and Jim Cogan for his help in lining up, the
engine and burr mill so the belt could work properly. I just wish
the seniors who helped me unload the engine two years ago could
have been here to see the engine run and power the bun- mill.
I’ll bet their comments would be a lot different now than they
were then. And lastly, if anyone has any information on the burr
mill (it is a Quaker City No. 8 with casting numbers C3 ), I sure
would like to hear from you.

  • Published on Sep 1, 1997
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