4921 Lowhill Church Road New Tripoli, Pennsylvania 18066
The summer show at the Blue Mountain Antique Gas & Steam
Engine Association was held on July 16-17-18, in Bangor,
Pennsylvania.
This year’s weather was exception-ally pleasant, and the
number of spectators and demonstrators who turned out proved to be
extremely high. Everyone enjoyed the good food, entertainment, flea
market and displays.
My display included two gas engines, running various equipment
from a butter churn to a corn cracker.
Along about mid-afternoon on Saturday, an elderly gentleman
showed a good deal of interest in the hand operated Gould corn
sheller that I had on display. He obviously was city born and
raised because he thought it to be amazing how the sheller removed
the corn kernels from the cob so efficiently.
To hold his interest, I put the shelled corn in my 1886 Wilson
corn cracker that was run by my 1 HP Gray engine. He was similarly
amazed at this process. To finish the demonstration, I placed the
cracked corn in my hand cranked kitchen mill and ground the corn
down to a fine meal.
He thoroughly enjoyed the results of my demonstration and said,
‘So, that’s how you make oatmeal!’ ‘No,’ I
said, ‘That’s a whole other ball game. This is how you make
cornmeal.’ He recognized his slip of the tongue and we both had
a good natured laugh at what he had said.
Before leaving my display area, he slipped a small plastic bag
of cornmeal in his pocket. He said he wanted to show it to his
wife.
