Has anyone reasearched the "Echos from the oil country" books ?

DDoug · Jul 9, 2019

Has anyone researched the "Echos from the oil country" books ?

I finally bought the set of books on discount, and have read thru them.

This is in my backyard (about 40 miles away) and many of the places he mentions, I have driven thru.

It seems the author worked for a time at a shop in oil city, then
struck off on his own.
Besides doing repairs, he mentions building of the "ball bearing corn Sheller" as a product. I've seen a couple hand corn shellers up close, but none
with that name on it.

Has anyone dug around in the oil city, Pa historical archives and found anything ?

thermite · Jul 9, 2019

digger doug said:
I finally bought the set of books on discount, and have read thru them.

This is in my backyard (about 40 miles away) and many of the places he mentions, I have driven thru.

It seems the author worked for a time at a shop in oil city, then
struck off on his own.
Besides doing repairs, he mentions building of the "ball bearing corn Sheller" as a product. I've seen a couple hand corn shellers up close, but none
with that name on it.

Has anyone dug around in the oil city, Pa historical archives and found anything ?

Mercer, PA - not terribly far away - was a hotbed of relevant tool-making,

Used bookstores various unlikely small towns, NW PA once yielded treasures - such as my copies of Audels and Rogers Pumps & Hydraulics, early 1920's, War One, or even earlier publication dates.

The papers were decent, but age has taken its toll. Much of that, thankfully has been scanned into online resources, though. Patents as well, "Federal" as they are.

Daresay yer keyboard will find more, sooner, than boots on the ground by this late date.

Even my G'Dad^7th? trial record, 1730, (London), is online.

DDoug · Jul 9, 2019

Well, driving thru the oil country (Franklin, oil city, Titusville, Warren and Bradford)
One sees many large brick houses "Mansions", from that time period, many if not all, the product of the oil industry.

Curious if the author "W. Osborn" made it big, and how long did he live (to see the modern age ?)

thermite · Jul 9, 2019

digger doug said:
Well, driving thru the oil country (Franklin, oil city, Titusville, Warren and Bradford)
One sees many large brick houses "Mansions", from that time period, many if not all, the product of the oil industry.

Curious if the author "W. Osborn" made it big, and how long did he live (to see the modern age ?)

Start with google:

author: <his name>

Or info from within any given book itself.

Ex: A late Great Uncle:

author: Aytoun Ellis

His late son:

artist: Gordon Ellis

Once you find even one thread, more search-terms arise, more fabric gets easier to track from each.

From old newspapers (HUNGRY for news before AP, UPI, Reuters teletype feeds) cover prominent citizens, marriages, business endeavours, County and State Court filing add to company formation and disolution, merger and de-merger.

And one finds that descendents of the prime-mover behind both Burke and US Machine Tool later made industrial floor maintenance machinery. Same town. Same state. Different Century.

Or that offspring of three different early New England makers of lathe chucks intermarried.

Etc.

DDoug · Jul 9, 2019

thermite said:
Start with google:

author: <his name>

Or info from within any given book itself.

Ex: A late Great Uncle:

author: Aytoun Ellis

His late son:

artist: Gordon Ellis

Once you find even one thread, more search-terms arise, more fabric gets easier to track from each.

From old newspapers (HUNGRY for news before AP, UPI, Reuters teletype feeds) cover prominent citizens, marriages, business endeavours, County and State Court filing add to company formation and disolution, merger and de-merger.

And one finds that descendents of the prime-mover behind both Burke and US Machine Tool later made industrial floor maintenance machinery. Same town. Same state. Different Century.

Or that offspring of three different early New England makers of lathe chucks intermarried.

Etc.

Rather thought I would just ask here....a wee bit easier if some one else has already blazed that trail eh ?

Rudd · Jul 9, 2019

One of the books has a note that there were further writings in American Machinist mag, but they dealt more with shop management and Lindsay didn't reprint them.

DDoug · Mar 1, 2021

Update:
Been reading more, and pulling out little snippets from those books.

The town the author worked in was called "Petroleum Center" and is gone.

So because it was raining, I got in the truck, and went for a ride Last Sunday.

There is a state park there with many plaques, describing the various buildings.

The state park buildings were closed down at the time.
Oil Creek State Park

Google Maps

Andy FitzGibbon · Mar 1, 2021

Not directly related to Osborn, but this abandoned pump shack sits right on the side of Route 6 near Tiona (south of Warren). I remember driving past it when I was a kid, and wondering what it was... finally stopped a couple years ago. The engines are long gone, but the eccentric and jerk lines are still in place.

I always meant to buy the Osborn books from Lindsay. Where did you find them?

Oil Creek State Park is right down the road from Franklin, where the Colburn Machine Tool Co. got their start making heavy drill presses and some other types of machinery.

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DDoug · Mar 2, 2021

Driven by that many times, so much brush growing up around it, I thought it
was a horse barn....

Andy FitzGibbon · Mar 2, 2021

The "Simpler Times Museum" on Route 62 north of Tidioute is worth a stop, if it's still open. Neat collection of local history and oil field artifacts... engines, drill rigs, tractors, sawmills, trucks ect. I think admission was $4, and we got a guided tour from the owner.

Here's a neat self propelled drilling rig I photoed outside of Clarendon a few years ago. Based in an Allis-Chalmers tractor.

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Peter S · Mar 2, 2021

I have the "Echo" books too, what sticks in the mind are the Nitroglycerin guys and their risky practices...
I can't recall why they used it, time for another read.

L Vanice · Mar 2, 2021

A few years ago, I drove to the Oil Creek area to pick up a Hardinge lathe. We stopped at the Drake Well Museum and Park and enjoyed it very much. There is a working steam engine and tons of machinery with excellent educational material and volunteers.

Dropping nitro torpedoes down the well hole has been replaced by hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Same reason, similar result.

Drake Well Museum and Park
Google Maps

Larry

DDoug · Mar 3, 2021

L Vanice said:
A few years ago, I drove to the Oil Creek area to pick up a Hardinge lathe. We stopped at the Drake Well Museum and Park and enjoyed it very much. There is a working steam engine and tons of machinery with excellent educational material and volunteers.

Dropping nitro torpedoes down the well hole has been replaced by hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Same reason, similar result.

Drake Well Museum and Park
Google Maps

Larry

yup, and the oil creek park I listed is just downriver from that one.
Wander around Titusville, and look at all the old, large brick mansions,
I think you'll find oil money behind each one.

And.....head north to Corry, and there is a museum with a climax geared loco in it:
Corry Area Historical Society, Inc.

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Has anyone reasearched the "Echos from the oil country" books ?

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