1893 Marine Steam Engineers Manual and Directory

For the non-technical side of living with Steamboats, videos and general pictures.
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Rick A
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1893 Marine Steam Engineers Manual and Directory

Post by Rick A » Thu Jan 28, 2021 4:17 pm

1893 Marine Steam Engineers Buffalo NY
by Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association Number 1 in Buffalo New York USA

https://archive.org/details/1893marines ... 1/mode/2up
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Re: 1893 Marine Steam Engineers Manual and Directory

Post by fredrosse » Fri Jan 29, 2021 3:56 am

Thanks so much for posting this wonderful publication. I have been an engineer in the power business since the 1960s, but relate much more to the technology presented in this book. Maybe in a previous life.
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Re: 1893 Marine Steam Engineers Manual and Directory

Post by DetroiTug » Sat Jan 30, 2021 3:35 am

Another good one I just got through reading is ''Old Times on the Upper Mississippi: Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863 (1909) Kindle Edition''

It was written by a steamboat pilot about 60 years after the fact. It's a very entertaining detailed description of the life aboard, the duties, the business and the people involved.

Many remarkable tidbits, from the pay these guys received to details about the running gear, dealing with snags etc.

The book sort of explains where the term "Hooking up" came from involving forward and reverse. As I understood it, there were two valve rods off the crank for forward and reverse, but there was no linkage like a stevenson link to smoothly shift between the two, one rod was unhooked from the valve chest and the other hooked up for the opposite direction. Hence, Hooking up. If I understood it correctly.

It's 99 cents and comes with a free PC Kindle reader. Lots of great info about handling the boats, the people and the area. Even a recount of the night that turned in to daylight on the river at 12:30 am, the author had no explanation, but it was a solar flare on record, I researched it. "Cannington event"?? Something like that

https://www.amazon.com/Old-Times-Upper- ... merReviews

Edit It was the Carrington event

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event
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Re: 1893 Marine Steam Engineers Manual and Directory

Post by Lopez Mike » Sat Jan 30, 2021 8:18 am

I'm an amateur astronomer and a disaster preparedness worker. We use the Carrington Event and a few others like it to plan for disruptions in the infrastructure during and after such a solar flare. The growth of fiber optic has worked in a good way to moderate the communications damage. It is mostly unaffected. The power grid though . . .
If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.
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Re: 1893 Marine Steam Engineers Manual and Directory

Post by DetroiTug » Sat Jan 30, 2021 6:34 pm

Quote plan for disruptions in the infrastructure during and after such a solar flare.

Yes if that were to happen today with all of the electronics it would likely be devastating. Great time to start an electronics repair business. Lots of blown caps, thermistors and onboard fuses. :D

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Re: 1893 Marine Steam Engineers Manual and Directory

Post by RNoe » Sun Jan 31, 2021 3:22 am

And good reasons to have steam powered machines with no electronics.
And old motorcycles.
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Re: 1893 Marine Steam Engineers Manual and Directory

Post by Lopez Mike » Tue Feb 02, 2021 3:08 pm

Perhaps an old steam powered motorcycle?

Having sat for way too long in presentations about EMP threats, my impression is that the practical threat is to longer wires and low powered electronics. An old dial phone will stand a lot when hooked to a land line. A cell phone would be largely unaffected but the cell tower, if connected to a copper phone line would get zorched.

This winter we had a wide area and long power outage due to a wind storm but the cell system stayed up due to good design and planning. Generators with large fuel reserves, fiber optic links and the like.

I did give some thought to what it would take to keep the stuff in my household freezer from rotting. A generator hooked to my launch engine or some such thing. But then I remembered my small RV (caravan) parked in the yard with it's gas powered refrigerator. If were to take disaster preparedness more seriously I would invest in a gas powered freezer.

But then again, I have survived for 77 years on a diet of preserved foods. Who knows what the half life of a packaged mac and cheese dinner might be?
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Re: 1893 Marine Steam Engineers Manual and Directory

Post by Oilking » Wed Feb 03, 2021 1:14 am

Ron
September 2019 we drove along the Mississippi from Minneapolis to New Madrid. I bought a paper back of the same book you are talking about before leaving Minneapolis. Though it doesn't quit read as a travel guide it really helped to picture what the river and its' navigation was like before the dams and locks as we ambled through the old river towns. I liked the section where he gave a clear example of how the mud drum gets its' name, and as a junior in the engineering department having to stay on board to muck out the mud drums of accumulated silt, while still quiet hot, in order to get underway in the morning. As a navy BT my thoughts are that some things don't change all that much.

A good easy read well worth the 99 cents.
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Re: 1893 Marine Steam Engineers Manual and Directory

Post by DetroiTug » Wed Feb 03, 2021 3:31 am

Dave,

Glad you enjoyed it too. The author did a great job retelling his experiences, and a good thing they were preserved. When I was a teenager I ran into old timers that worked on steamboats around Detroit and the Great lakes, I wasn't interested then, but I am now. I wish they had recorded their experiences.

-Ron
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