What 80 HP looked like 90 Years ago

Spent a week in Estro Florida, at a state park called Koresan State Park. Built on the grounds of a wacky cult/commune that existed in the early 1900s. Last member died in 82. Long story short they believed they were building "New Jerusalem" and had the strange notion that we llived on the inside surface of a sphere

In 1916 they started generating their own electricity with a 40 HP steam engine and in 1925 they went all modern and installed this beast:





To place it into perspective, this thing is 10 to 12 feet high and the bores are at least 3 1/2 feet across. Generates a screaming 80 HP at a whole 300 RPMs. Granted it also produces almost 1,400 ft/lbs of torgue. Must be those headers

The original one was sold in 1947 when Florida Hydro came to town but when the State tried to resurrect the settlement for a museum, a bunch of antique engine guys donated their time and found the same engine in a swamp, that used to power a pump. Turned out the swamp engine was a year older (1924)than the original.

Fairbanks Morse helped them rebuild it and they run this thing every weekend during the tourist season (we had to leave so we never got a chance to see it run) and every day for a week during a yearly antigue engine fest held every year. Apparently it takes almost 1/2 hour just to get this thing to pop on both jugs.

Haven't confirmed this, but it is supposedly the oldest operational diesel engine in North America. Fairbanks Morse has an archive site that this engine is supposed to be on but haven't been able to find it.

General Electric helped them out when they rebuilt this thing:



50 KW generator that required an additional "hit and miss" DC generator to energize the fields. The following picture is a water pump but the energizing generator has the same engine (under a tarp when we were there):



Anyone who likes antique engines should make it a point to go down and see this rig. Truly a work of art.

Enjoy

Bill

convert2diesel wrote:

had the strange notion that we llived on the inside surface of a sphere

That is strange.

I've seen some of these antique engine websites; is it true that with these guys running these engines under no load that it's not terribly good for them? From the videos I've watched, those things are all over the map on air-fuel ratio and are barely running at all, let alone anything approaching "running good."

sherlock9c1 wrote:

I've seen some of these antique engine websites; is it true that with these guys running these engines under no load that it's not terribly good for them? From the videos I've watched, those things are all over the map on air-fuel ratio and are barely running at all, let alone anything approaching "running good."

You should see a hit-and-miss engine. The crank turns, the pistons compress, and the fuel either fires or it doesn't. If it doesn't fire, the four-foot flywheel turns the crank around again for another try. They're quite entertaining to watch.

"Bang pff pff bang bang pff bang pff pff pfff pffff pfffff bang . . .'

I've seen them at antique tractor meets. The advantage is that the engine doesn't care what you put into the tank. If it burns, the engine can handle it.

The Ice Cream vendor at the Daytona spriing show has one out front. Way cool to watch.

Nick Danger wrote:

You should see a hit-and-miss engine. The crank turns, the pistons compress, and the fuel either fires or it doesn't. If it doesn't fire, the four-foot flywheel turns the crank around again for another try. They're quite entertaining to watch.

"Bang pff pff bang bang pff bang pff pff pfff pffff pfffff bang . . .'

I've seen them at antique tractor meets. The advantage is that the engine doesn't care what you put into the tank. If it burns, the engine can handle it.

Actually if you can load them up, thereby heating them up, after a few minutes they start to fire pretty consistantly. Much more entertaining tho to just let them do their hit and miss thing. Lots of them around here still and always popular at the local farm shows.

Bill

sherlock9c1 wrote:

I've seen some of these antique engine websites; is it true that with these guys running these engines under no load that it's not terribly good for them? From the videos I've watched, those things are all over the map on air-fuel ratio and are barely running at all, let alone anything approaching "running good."

The guys that restored the engine also convinced the curator to allow them to double wire the settlement so that they could indeed load up the FM when it was running. Obviously an electrical inspector was involved as all the buildings still had "nob and tube" wiring but the bare copper wire was replaced with 12 gauge, insulated automotive wire. Shows some initiative.

They have also restored some of the electric motors to run the equipment in the machine shop. Seems the settlement was well setup to be self sustaining:





This is the original 40HP steam engine that they installed in 1916:





They have found someone in Sarasota that is willing to refurbish the boiler, still on site and they hope to refurb the engine in the next couple of years.

Bill