Dayton Daily News & Radio’s ‘Joe’s
Journal’
‘Joe, come along and listen to the cutest thing I’ve
heard on the grounds,’ said ‘the Missus’ at the ’68
Tri-State Gas & Tractor Reunion, Portland, Indiana.
‘There’s only one little old gas engine running and it
sounds just like some little old man humming a tune while he
works.’
Grabbing camera and recorder I trekked along and sure enough,
there under a spreading chestnut tree (not unlike the legendary
village smithy) stood the li’l ol’ ‘Singing Man
Engine’ — chugging away and ‘humming’ his solitary
tune as he worked, while Spark Plug, Carl Rismiller, fawned proudly
at the sudden sensation his newly-discovered ‘prize’ was
creating on the sprawling Tri-State grounds.
‘Turn, turn, dee, dum, dum’ hummed the ‘li’l
ol’ Singing Engine’ as he chugged away – the only engine
popping that early in the morning – like some little old hillbilly
humming a tune through a kazoo while whittling away on a
walkin’ stick.
When he was singing ‘turn, turn it was always on the same
pitch of the scale and when he’d progress to ‘dee’ and
‘dum, dum’ he’d ascend from ‘doh’ to
‘mi’ then ‘so’ and onward up the diatonic musical
ladder, as if the li’l ol’-timer had one day learned the
notes of the scale at his Mommy’s knee. Sometimes he sings up
the scale, sometimes down the scale, depending on how happy he
be.
O1′ Man Singin’ Engine- displayed by Spark Plug Carl
Rismiller at Tri-State ’68 in Portland, Indiana. It became
quite an attraction, after my wife happened to hear some old man
humming a tune on the grounds early one morning and discovered it
to be this two-horse Fairbanks-Morse. Unusual ‘singing
effect’ was caused by pits in carb. intake diaphragm and not
especially planned by the jokester, Spark Plug Rismiller. Diaphragm
protrudes like a loud speaker at bottom front of engine base. And
it sang like a loud speaker.
For Spark Plug Carl Rismiller it was a big day – fidgeting with
his little Fairbanks-Morse carburetor to keep the ‘li’l ol
man engine’ humming for those who’d heard the unusual news
about a singing-man engine and dropped by to listen – almost to the
point that he plum forgot to even start his other Fairbanks-Morse,
the Jaegar, the Stover and various May tags he’d fetched
along.
In fact it was the ‘talk of Tri-State’ reunion grounds –
that li’l ol’ Singin’ Man Engine of Carl’s among
the menfolk as well as the women and kiddies.
‘Never heard anything like it,’ mused Iron Man, Percy
Sherman who’d come all the way from Palmyra, Michigan, to
listen to the popping engines and otherwise help cement the
brotherhood be-twixt Spark Plugs and Iron Men. ‘Never heard a
gas engine singin’ a tune before.’ But although Spark Plug
Carl Rismiller didn’t exactly plan it that way, his little
singing Fairbanks-Morse fit nicely in among the other reunion jokes
he slyly pulls on the boys around the association grounds.
Like the little red tin one-gallon gas can he filled with lead
— ninety pounds of it poured molten into the innards and allowed
to solidify, making such a ‘fooler’ that when one of his
perennial ‘gas-borrowing’ buddies came along to borrow some
fire-juice, instead of ‘h’isting”’ the can up
and running away as he usually did, ‘Mr. Can’ stayed put on
the ground, the impact of which sent ‘Mr. Gas-Borrower’
head-first right smack into the trunk of a tree.
‘That ‘learnt’ him a lesson to come borrowing’
my gasoline,’ mused Spark Plug Rismiller as he watched his
panhandling friend rubbing his sore noggin.
It all became so amusing that folks began asking just what Spark
Plug Carl did to such inanimate things as gas engines to make
’em sing tunes – and gas cans to cure ‘borrowers’of
stealing gasoline.
‘Well, I did do something about the gas can to teach lessons
about stealing my gasoline supply empty, but I didn’t do a
thing to make my gas engine sing, chuckled Carl. ‘The humming
tune that comes from my little Fairbanks-Morse engine is caused by
rust pits in the carburetor intake diaphram. At first 1 thought
I’d try to remove those rust pits but now that everyone enjoys
hearing it – I may even put some pits in my other engine intakes so
they can sing (along with Mitch?).
But then, since li’l ol Singin’ Man’s
‘voice’ came rather ‘naturally’ as gas engines and
their like go – that is by rust and the invasions of moisture and
fuel acids – it’s a fair guess that Rismiller will just leave
well enough alone by leaving all the ‘opera singing’ to the
little fellow while the others just pop along like all gas engines
should.
For to a Spark Plugger like Rismiller, the sound of gas engines
popping is the sweetest of music even though others may like the
‘vocalizing’ thrown in.
It’s like a visit to ‘gas engine heaven’ – stopping
by Carl Rismiller’s at the northern environs of the village of
Pleasant Hill.
‘Don’t try to locate us by mail,’ laughs Mrs.
Rismiller – Joyce to those who know her first name. ‘Although
we live at 1505 North State Route 48, there’s no mail route
here at P. Hill. So, though we reside here at P. Hill, and many
send our mail to P. Hill, our real mail address is Route one,
Ludlow Falls, Ohio.’
It’s rather a perennial mix-up – the juggling of our Spark
Plug’s official address. The deed to the Rismiller property
reads, ‘Route one, Pleasant Hill’. But there being no
(rural) route one there, (Carl living just the next house beyond
the village mail carrier route), and having to have his official
mail delivered from another village several miles up the pike,
well, one can see how folks can get mixed up by searching out the
lair of ye Spark Plug at the Wrong town.
‘We just tell everyone we live at both Pleasant Hill and
Ludlow Falls,’ is the way Joyce Rismiller puts it, letting
others figure out the goof-up.
With such a mailing-address SNAFU, one soon realizes that
it’s not only spark plugs that get fouled up at Spark Plug Carl
Rismillers’!
Not only that, but unlike most Spark Plugs who have but one
engine shop, Spark Plug Rismiller has four shops, located in sheds,
lean-to’s and extensions dotted here and there over his little
plot of around at the edge of P. Hill.
Spark Plug ‘C’ – Carl Rismiller Jr., the eldest of the
alphabetical foursome, vents his fertile imagination on an old
one-horse furrowing-out plow in Dad’s stockpile beside the
engine shop.
‘Carl is real proud of his newest shop, which he built by
extending the north end of the barn,’ says Mrs. Rismiller.
Thus if Spark Plug Carl happens to be hunting a certain part to
a certain carburetor for a certain gas engine — well he must often
times rummage through the four shops before finding the needed
part. You know it’s always the ‘last place’ you paw
through where you find the long-lost and much-sought item (if
you’re like me, Carl.)
And as if mailing addresses and work shops can’t get Carl
Rismiller all mixed up, then his four growing lads can.
‘We have four boys,’ says Mrs. Rismiller. ‘So as not
to get them mixed up, we called them ‘A’, ‘B’,
‘C’, and ‘D’ (Al, Barry, Carl Jr., and Darrin).
Although all four seem to be taking a growing interest in their
father’s engines, Carl Jr., the oldest, of course take the
most.’
Looks like Spark Plug ‘C’ (Carl Rismiller, Jr.)
suspicions that Spark Plug Sr. might be thinking of dirtying his
hands on coal smoke and cylinder oil (awful thought for a Spark
plug). Old upright half-size steam boiler sits beside family
rennovated bus used to take family of Spark Plugs to Gas Engine
reunions
For Carl Jr. (Spark Plug ‘C’, to be exact), whenever
school bells aren’t beckoning, there’s always the nice old
gas engines sitting in Dad’s four shops, as well as outside the
shops, for a young lad to look at and dream about the future when
he can have some engines of his own. And of course there’s
Dad’s big junk heap stockpile outside the shops which is a good
focal point for a growing lad’s fertile imagination to build
things of his own. Like that old one-horse furrowing-out plow with
wooden handles that some day he dreams about hitching to a homemade
tractor powered by that big 8 Hp Stover Engine sitting just outside
the barn.
And the large converted family bus sitting just in front of the
barn. Doesn’t it have the memories for young lads who went
along with Daddy to the many Darke County Threshing reunions, and
later to Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor gatherings? Too,
there’s that half-sized upright steam boiler sitting alongside,
that looks mighty like Spark Plug Carl Rismiller Sr. is dreaming
himself of someday dirtying his hands with coal smoke and cylinder
oil (awful thought for a Spark Plug.)
Thanks Spark Plug, Carl Rismiller of Ludlow Falls — er I mean
Pleasant Hill, for giving us four growing Spark Plugs (A, B, C, and
D) and for the little garden tractor you always parade in the
threshing circles, powered by your nine-horse one-lung Wisconsin
verticle. Thanks, too, for your ever-loving’ jokes, the
lead-filled gas can that clobbers gas-stealers’ heads into tree
trunks teaching them a lesson and especially for that musical
wonder, ‘Li’l ol’ Singing-Man Engine’ that has
turned the antique gas engine society upside down.
And thank you, Missus Spark Plug, Joyce Rismiller, for
straightening out (or trying to) your mixed-up mailing addresses,
and keeping ‘hep’ with the names of your budding
alphabetical Spark Plugs. We know Carl made a good choice, coming
home from the army and discovering you before he did his engines –
that the both of you, along with ‘A’, ‘B’,
‘C’ and ‘D’, may be Spark Plugs together. Now jump
up in your niche in the Spark Plug Hall O’ Fame.
Spark Plug ‘C’, Carl Rismiller, Jr. steals a look at
Dad’s big 8 Hp. Stover Engine that’s sitting out (or
leaning out) from the Senior Spark Plug’s main engine shop.
Spark Plug ‘C’ is all decked out in his Brownie Scout
uniform for the occasion of having his ‘pitcher took’.
As you can see in this one, the Grey is running and Peanut is
happy.
NOTICE: In one of your issues an old ‘sparker’ suggested
making valves over for various engines. Now, I don’t know how
dangerous they are, but some valves are filled with sodium and
could hurt someone. When these sodium cooled valves first came out,
the companies suggested we bury them to dispose of them. Mr. Andrew
L. Michels, Plentywood, Montana 59254. – (This is the second letter
of warning we have had and thought we should make it prominent – as
an aid to safety. – Anna Mae)
