The last of the engines we saw were the biggest, and we almost missed them! The Cotton Gin Co twin 100hp and the Tuxham on the previous page were both in an area we missed while looking around the show, but we had time to walk around and make sure we had pictures of them all, initially incorrectly naming the Cottin Gin Co engine as a Fairbanks-Morse. Larry Evans was able to correct that one for me.
The next section relates to the Mount Wilson Observatory, located in the mountains overlooking Los Angeles and the surrounding area. The site is in regular use, but a lot of the older equipment has fallen into disrepair as more modern equipment has replaced it, or it is just no longer required. Fortunately there is a strong sense of preservation at the site, and because of the transportation difficulties, it has been easier to keep old equipment on site rather than dispose of it.
The site has numerous web links, and there is a webcam on one of the towers which is usually available under the 'Mount Wilson Webcam' name if you look in Google. It was having troubles while we were there, caused by a problem at UCLA which operates the server through which the signal runs. Larry Webster is in charge of the webcam and also the 150 ft solar telescope which we visited first.
Larry's day operator, Pam, was very helpful when we all walked into the control room, and was able to let various of our party have a look at her current work with solar flares and spectro-analysis. Thanks, Pam, it was much appreciated!
