Dayton Daily News & Radio’s ‘Joe’s
Journal’
‘OI’ Needle-Eye’, they call him. And little wonder,
one muses, as he observes the tiny, intricately-detailed and
perfectly-functioning gas engine models of stationary design which
the man who has earned that honorary nonemclature has been showing;
recently around some of the midwestern Gasoline Alley
conclaves.
You’d hardly know he was around. There is no fanfare when
James R. Maloney arrives from the capital city of Indiana,
Indianapolis, parks his ear somewhere in the melee of popping
prototype gas engines and tractors, and proceeds to methodically
unpack his beautiful polished cases with brass handles, knurled
knobs and engraved name-plates which signifies both the model and
its maker.
Your eyes fairly bug out of your head, as the quiet little man
with the cap strides across the grounds, dodging internal
combustion engines with whirling fly-wheel, his eye glancing now
and then at the prototypes he hopes someday to model. But if your
eyes haven’t already popped out of your head at the mere sight
of the beautiful cases ‘OI’ Needle-Eye’ is
non-chalantly lugging, one in each hand, they certainly will, once
he begins loosening the machined brass knobs and reveals the
treasures of his ‘Pandora’s Boxes’ to the gaping
gasoline gaffers who have already congregated to witness one of
life’s biggest, though tiniest surprises.
For out of one polished case ‘OI’ Needle-Eye’
fetches forth a beautiful polished brass and red-enameled model of
the Famous International 2-Horse-power vertical gas engine for you
to see. But wait a minute – that’s just the first surprise, in
case your jaw is already dropping. For out of the second polished
case, the craftsman’s hand carefully lifts an even more
intriguing piece of watch-like mechanism – an exact duplicate of
the first model International vertical engine, only this one is
even smaller. In fact so tiny it nestles comfortably in the palm of
his hand.
You begin asking questions of the little man whose eyes are so
sharp for details both small and intricate.
And he answers quietly, as he starts the larger model with one
spin, ‘This one has a three-quarter inch bore and a one-inch
stroke.’
Your eyes look over the little model, then glance over to the
large prototype that some gasoline alley but has dragged onto the
grounds on some truck and your ears note there is a similarity in
the speed and rythm of firing – the let-tie engine keeping right in
time with the larger one.
You detect a slight grin underneath the cap shade as ‘OP
Needle-Eye’ gives one spin on the fly-wheels of the yet tinier
model and its half-inch bore piston with but a three-quarter inch
stroke also begins firing in the same speed and rhythm of the
prototype. And you begin wondering who ‘OI’ Needle-Eye’
is, and from whence he has come.
‘OI’ Needle-Eye’ is always loaded with double
surprises in those ‘Pandora Boxes’ of his. Here James R.
Maloney shows pint-sized and pea-sized versions of the Famous
International vertical gas engine. Both models are equipped with
tiny water-cooling pumps. Both are made up from raw material, no
castings, and they run in same rhythm as original. Shown displaying
at National Threashers, Wauseon, Ohio, 1967.
But hold on a moment, for the surprises have only begun. For the
little man underneath the gray cap has arrived from his ear,
carrying two more of his Pandora Box eases. And again your eyes
bulge from their original sockets as he lifts out a horizontal-type
gas engine, with fifteen-sixteenths Lore and one-and-one-eighth
inch stroke, and from the other case an even tinier one to match
the larger, this with hut .555′ bore and fifteen-sixteenths
stroke.
With but one twirl of each fly-wheel both engines are soon
popping, your ears (drilling to the veritable symphony of the
diminutive Mutt-and Jeff, hit-and-miss, make-and-break sparks which
match the larger exhausts on the trucks across the way.
He sort of (lodges the questions, like a bashful boy unwilling
to reveal his favorite fishin’ hole. But if you are persistent,
‘OI’ Needle-Eye’ – pardon us, James R. Maloney, and
Irishman possessing the patience and craftmanship of a sauerkraut
dutchman, reluctantly explains that he never employs the easier
method of using mere castings for his models as so many others
do.
‘All my models are completely fabricated. I make up all the
parts from raw materials. The fly-wheel is built up from heavy wall
tubing used in making the rim. the rest is made up from heavy flat
pieces of steel, and the spokes are cut out,’ explains Maloney.
‘The steel cylinders have cast-iron linings, the water jackets
and crank cases are also made of steel’
‘The horizontal engine models are, of course, hopper-cooled,
while the vertical International models have tiny water pumps in
them,’ points out Maloney, in way of keeping his diminutive
running models in the strictest tradition of the larger ones he has
meticulously copied.
‘All my nuts and bolts have special threads. There’s
lots of lathe work involved in making models like these,’
reveals the Hoosier genius, as if you didn’t already
surmise.
The model Model-Maker at the National Threshers, Wauseon, Ohio
1967 ‘OI’ Needle-Eye’ is always loaded with double
surprises when he comes to gasoline alley. Making one fine model
isn’t enough for him-he’s got to make both the pint-sized
and then the pea-sized version of each entire-just to show you he
can do it. Left is tiny horizontal engine with only .555 inch bore
and 15/16 inch stroke. Right is the larger one with 15/16 inch bore
and 1 and 1/8 inch stroke. Both run in same rhythm as the
prototypes.
Stopping one of the engine models, Maloney removed the plate
from the base, revealing the same neatness in the electrical firing
package, pointing out the tiny batteries, condenser and wiring
which feeds the spark into the make-and-break system through neat
radio jackplugs. You wonder if this is a model of some old-time
farm engine, or some sophisticated electronic brain which might
well fit into the latest space rocket, destined for the Moon.
‘And from whence cometh such patient genius?’, one finds
himself asking.
‘Well, I used to be an instrument maker for firing Naval
guns,’ he answers after you’ve pinned him down to the
subject. ‘But before that, being born on a West Virginia farm,
my Dad ran a sawmill – even set them up for other saw-millers. So
you might say I got my start with steam engines. I guess I have
been interested in engines since I was five years old. In fact I
have a one-inch scale Case Traction engine that I am in process of
building, but I never ran a large steam engine.’
In one of his weak moments, ‘OI’ Needle-Eye’ broke
down and sold one of his fine horizontal gas engine models to a
veteran collector from Hillsdale, Michigan. Rumor had it that the
deal brought only some eighty odd dollars across the
barrel-head.
‘How long would it take for you to build such a model?’
I asked.
‘Oh, about 200 to 300 hours,’ came the reply.
‘Well, that’s about 30 cents an hour for expert
craftsmanship,’ I snapped a bit horrified. ‘How many times
I’ve paid out $4.00 and hour for some flunky to cobble up my
car, only to have it run far enough to the next garage to be
cobbled again.
To ‘OI’ Needle-Eye’ – James R. Maloney, genius whose
philosophy is ‘Why-waste time picking up tools off the shop
floor when it can better be spent in turning out watch-like,
precision models?’ – we doff the Spark Plug stiff katy as an
humble gesture to your great efforts at preserving our American
heritage in what appears to us the perfect craftsman’s labor of
love. For such a distinguished line of diminutive models may take
their place among the authentic archives of historical American
agriculture where surely there must be a niche for you.
May you continue turning out more and more such fine models the
like of which match the prototypes endeared to us in a manner that
ever thrills us.
The model Model-Maker takes measurements on an engine at Darke
County Threshers Gasoline Alley-Now you know why they call him
‘OI Needle-Eye’. James R. Maloney takes measurements of
every part and angle of Stickney Engine before going back to his
‘little elfs workshop where a model of this engine will be
made. Accuracy and correct proportion are habits formed from years
of making delicate Naval instruments for the firing of guns.
He sketches prototype for next model and if sketching is any
clue, it looks ike ‘OI’ Needle-Eye’s’ next engine
model is going to be a Stickney horizontal. We’ll be looking
for it at one of the Gas Alley reunions.
Although James R. Maloney always makes pencil sketches before
making his fine models, like the question of the chicken and the
egg, which comes first, the sketch or the engine? He was sketching
this Engine (Model) but then again there must be an engine first to
sketch.
