Eric S.
Harold Corson owned Newcastle Engineering in the early 1980's. Corson was starting to get into working on recip steam engines and had called Skinner Enginer. Corson wanted a mechanical engineer to do some design work and look things over, so called Skinner for a referral. Richard Whiting, of Skinner Engine, referred Corson to me. Corson came to New York and we went around to see Conrad Milster at Pratt Institute, then over to Cascade laundry so he could see a vertical Skinner Unaflow in use. We spent a couple of days with Corson getting familair with steam engines. Corson then decided I ought to come out to his shop & do some engineering. Quite honestly, I thought I was going out there to do engineering related to recip steam engines. I went out to Newcastle, Indiana on two separate trips to do engineering work for Mr. Corson. Corson had only recently purchased the remains of the Nordberg steam engine division, and we spent quite a few hours just going over the old order books. There were an assortment of jigs and fixtures as well as a load of old drawings from Nordberg, but nothing was in any particular order as I recall. Corson had me do some design work on some recip-compressor jobs. One job was to design an intercooler shell for a big I-R angle-type two stage compressor. The original intercooler shell was an iron casting which had cracked and burst due to freezing. I-R wanted an arm and a leg and an extensive time wait for a new one. Corson, if nothing else, was of a mind to tangle up with anything. He was not an ASME Code pressure vessel shop right then. I designed the new intercooler shell as a weldment and we went thru the hoops getting weld procedures and weldors at Newcastle engineering qualified to build that intercooler shell. Other than that, Corson had me designing heat exchangers for some sort of process at a Koppers plant. His shop had never made a heat exchanger before, but we got things designed and built.
He also had me do some design work to replace a bunch of parts that got stolen and scrapped off a 3-cylinder Ames Unaflow at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. It was a sad tale, but Conrad Milster, of Pratt Insistute, had gotten a 3 cylinder Ames Unaflow with 150 Kw generator donated to Pratt. The Ames would have produced AC, and Conrad was planning to use it for cogeneration. The original Pratt engines produced DC power, and with no remaining demand for DC, sat there as museum pieces. In the meantime, Conrad was watching steam at 150 psig go thru reducing valves to knock it down for heating purposes. Wasted energy and the ideal place for a steam engine/generator in a cogeneration application. A steam laundry was getting rid of the three cylinder Ames with 150 Kw generator and donated it to Pratt. It was neatly dismantled, and trucked to the Pratt campus. A "dean of buildings and grounds" saw all the nice brass trim piping, lube lines, and the brass tubes that shrouded the damshaft gear drive shafts. I think this "dean" took the exciter and the electrical switchgear as well, since he saw plenty of copper there. He took a couple of his crew and made off with anything they could carry and throw into a truck. They took it to the nearest scrapyard and sold it for a few bucks, which were then spent on beer. Conrad Milster, discovering this theft, tried to get to the scrapyard to get the parts back. the scrapyard guys must've been in complicity with the "dean of buildings and grounds" as they would not let Conrad into their yard to try to find the missing parts. The Ames engine then sat, unable to be put back together.
Skinner Engine had absorbed Ames and had the Ames drawings. Conrad called richard Whiting at Skinner to try to get a price quote on replacement parts. I do not recal if Whiting gave Conrad a detailed quote, but even the estimate was astronomically high. No way would Pratt go for putting any money into that Unaflow engine. Conrad then called Harold Corson, and either Whiting or Corson called me to take a look at the job. I met Harold Corson at Pratt Institute to look over the remains of the Ames Engine. We took some dimensions and photos. When I got out to Newcastle, Indiana, we rough-designed the replacement parts. Corson worked up a price, and it was significantly lower than Skinner's. The job included cutting a couple of helical gears for the camshaft drive, so nothing was going to be easy. Still, Corson sharpened his pencil to try to make the job happen. Unfortunately, Pratt Institute's administration was having none of it.
I did hear that Corson's son had taken over the business. During the construction of the "Mississippi King" (I think that is the vessel's name), Newcastle Engineering reconditioned a pair of Nordberg engines out of an old US Army Engineer Corps dredge. These are, I think, poppet valve engines used to drive the sternwheel.
Mike Korol, in the process of retiring for the third time in his career, gave Harold Corson his portable boring bars. Mike had at least one if not two portable boring bars that he used to bore steam cylinders, tunnel crosshead guides and a smaller bar for boring Corliss valve passages. Corson had a heavier Underwood boring bar he had gotten from Nordberg which they drove with a small steam engine- run on compressed air.
As for the remains of the Ames engine down at Pratt Institute, I have no idea what happened to it. It was a shame as the major parts were all there. What was interesting about that particular Ames engine was it had originally been in Sing Sing Prison's powerplant. No telling if it powered the electric chair. After its career at Sing Sing, it was sold to a steam laundry out in Brooklyn or Queens. It ran there for a number of years, and had a major breakdown in service. One of the connecting rods came loose from the crosshead and busted out most of one side of the crank-case casting. This had been repaired years earlier by metal-stitching and new parts were furnished by Ames. Whether the crankshaft had been sprung and then striaghtened I never learned. Mike Korol, from Skinner, had done service work on that particular engine out at the laundry, and knew it's checkered past. It would be interesting to find out if the remains of the Ames engine at Pratt still reside there or were donated or scrapped. With the interest in stationary steam and several Ames vertical Unaflows being restored by various preservation groups, this engine might be useful even for parts.
Rayman:
When Mike Korol from Skinner Engine was moving our of his house in Dutchess County, NY, he called me and my wife over to visit. He proceeded to load my truck with some interesting odds and ends from his lifetime as a steam engine erector. Amongst the odds and ends was a brand-new Skinner admission valve, complete with stem. It was for one of the smaller frame horiztonal Unaflows. I brought it to Kent, Ct a few years back and handed it to one of the group there. Looking it over, I believe it would have fit the Skinner Unaflow engine setup at Connecticut Antique Machinery's museum.
The time I was there, I hooked up with Jim Mackessey and the gang from Camillus, NY. We had a great time. I wanted very much to see the Unaflow run. The last time I had started and run a Skinner unaflow had been in 1981. We got a few guys together and began starting the Skinner Unaflow, jacking it over, and warming it, & getting the lubrication started. Unfortunately, right about then, the packaged boiler supplying steam for the engines had to be shut down- problems with a fuel oil delivery pump, I think. I would hope to be able to get back to Connecticut Antique machinery association some day when the engines are in steam, as I would like very much to show my family and friends the kind of Unaflow engines I worked on.
