Cape Vintage Engine & Machinery Society
Newsletter
No 4, October 2000
PARAFFINALIA
Hello
All!
Well, if
we're going to start the newsletter with a saying each time, how's this
one? "The velocity, violence, magnitude and horrible noise of the
engine gives universal satisfaction to all beholders, believers or not"
The author? James Watt. The date? 1777!
Denis Usher came to the Villiersdorp show with a laminated copy of that
saying, which we plan to display on our stand wherever we are.
It is with sadness that
I have to report the passing of a member of our Society. He was Rolf Bosch,
from the Hemel-en-Aarde valley, near Hermanus. He gave us the splendid Siemens
220V DC generator which I have mounted onto the chassis of the Ruston &
Hornsby 2Y HR. Our thoughts are with his wife, Berna, at this difficult
time.
We are in the middle of
a spate of shows, and while we all can't attend them all, I am now sure
that this newsletter is helping to get more people to visit them. The Piketberg
show was attended by Peter & Lindsay, and Arthur and Alfie, apart from
our 'resident' members, Peter & Dawn Gildenhuys. Robertson drew Philip
& Ryan, Arthur, and Oom Flip, apart from resident Johan Stemmet,
with sons Willem and David. Then Peter Boast and Mike & Mary Thurgood
went all the way to Nottingham Road to attend SAM Hewitt's show (see report
below), and most recently, the Villiersdorp Show saw Mike & Mary again,
as well as Philip, Ryan, Beverly and Vicky; Darryl, Sue and the Superbrat;
Denis Usher, Petrus Roux, Christie & Johan Maree (although in their capacity
as a tractor men); John Mc Gregor, Johan Stemmet & the boys, Stephen
Sokolic, Peter Boast, Juliet Pienaar (she's the organiser of the Constantia
show next year) & Leigh-Ann Ellis (and she took that magnificent photo
of Richard Moth's portable at last year's Constantia show); William Evans
(it was his grandfather who paid the £1 for the Fairbanks
Morse Z Style B which I exhibit!); Joe & Tineke Momberg; Arthur, Alfie
& Ruth; then Oom Flip and Eniel Viljoen, and myself. (Add that up: that's
30 people!)
Last Show first: Villiersdorp.
Apart from that tremendous turn out of members, so was was the number and
variety of exhibit. Special mention must go to Oom Flip, for the superhuman
effort of bringing no less than 17 engines! We all know what is involved
in getting only one engine ready to show, then to load it, unload it at
the show, then get it running, and then at the end, load it up and take
it home again.....times 17????? I took some shots of his engines leaving
the showground looking for all the world like a baggage train at an airport!
I think we must send a picture to the overseas magazines to show them how
it's done out here! Many thanks, Oom Flip! Altogether, I counted 32 engines,
and 8 pieces of driven equipment. (Oops, I forgot the little pumps which
Mike's three little hot air engines drive, make that 11!). Eniel has asked
me to thank all of you very much for coming along; however, I think it would
be nice to thank him for putting on the show, which takes a lot
of effort and expense. Without these shows, we wouldn't have the
opportunity to show off our toys!
I have said it before,
there's nothing like an impending show to concentrate one's efforts to finish
a project... This was certainly the case with me and the Electric Light
Machine. The paint was still wet when we loaded it, and the curtain was
made after it was loaded on the lorry! Anyway, it has been a very satisfying
project. Many thanks to Rolf and Berna Bosch, who donated the Siemens 4
kW 220V DC generator.
Engine breakdown was as follows: Ruston & Hornsby 5, Fairbanks Morse
5, Lister 4, (Indian Lister 1), Hot Air Engines 3, IH LB 2, Wolseley 2,
National 2, Bernard 1, Petter 1, Kohler 1, Stuart 1, John Deere 1, Deutz
1 & Massey Harris 1. The driven equipment: Generators 3, Grape
crusher 1, Pumps 6, Drill Press 1. Arthur was also there with his Aveling
& Porter steam traction engine.
Vintage
& Steam 2000 Show at Nottingham Road, Kwa-Zulu Natal, September 22-23.
Notes prepared by Mike Thurgood, CVE&MS
This show
was held on a polo field at Nottingham Road, about 120 km NW from Durban
along the N3. I was greatly indebted to Peter Boast for taking along my
three hot air engines, a Robinson, Ericsson and Heinrici, and bringing them
back to Milnerton, all very safely. (I didn't tell him until his return
that in Britain such models can fetch about £2 000 each!).
It wasn't feasible to drive over as we had only a very limited travelling
window, and taking up four days of travelling by road, there and back, was
out of the question. We flew over! I was at the show with family from Ballito.
I didn't enquire what on earth a polo field is doing at Nottingham Road,
kilometres from nowhere!
Peter Boast
and myself represented the Cape Vintage Engine & Machinery Society.
My hot
air engines were set up on a substantial table in a marquee which was used
to "house" models from the Pietermaritzburg Live Steam Society. Ian Shackleton,
MD of Highlands Supplies & Services in Ficksburg, brought along his
genuine Ky-Ko hot air fan, one of a batch which were made by the original
Pakistani manufacturer to an order which had been organised by an Australian
gentleman in 1999. The Pakistani manufacturer came out of retirement to
make the batch. To have such a variation in makes of hot air enignes
on show, even though three were scaled models, must have been unique for
the South African vintage scene!
I only
attended on Sunday, September 23rd. People around me told me how much interest
my hot air engines had attracted on Saturday. However, I certainly wasn't
disappointed at the interest that they attracted on the Sunday!
Interestingly,
I keep on hearing of people in South Africa who have original commercial
hot air engines. Are there any more left out there, I wonder?
As I had
forgotten one of the chimneys I was only able to run two of the engines
at a time. Modifications that I had carried out on the Robinson and
Ericsson engines, in particular, since the SARDA Show in February, 2000,
had made a very considerable difference to their performance.
I didn't
get much of a chance to look around the show until later in the afternoon,
by which time the grand parade of vintage and veteran cars and i/c tractors
was over. However, I took photos of a steam roller, steam traction engine
and a huge portable steam engine, plus photos of the vintage i/c engines.
Also of one extraordinary looking i/c tractor, which was obviously a very
early one. I didn't see Peter Boast's i/c engine working, unfortunately,
as I was fully engaged with keeping the hot air engines running and answering
the many questions about them from visitors to the show.
The show
had intended to include agricultural exhibits and some form of cattle show/
competition, but the nearby foot and mouth outbreak, with its restrictions
on the movement of cattle, prevented any of that part of the proceedings
from going ahead.
During
the late morning a large contingent of spectators arrived by special steam
train from Durban.
There were
quite a number of stalls with a wide variety of goods for sale. One aspect
which could be criticised was the price of the food - R15 for a hot dawg
did seem a bit steep, as did R15 for a small pot of cole slaw!
I don't believe that this sort of unique show should be exploited by food
sellers out for a quick profit. M L-T.
Philip Gray-Taylor sent in this report on the Robertson Show:
Some of the highlights of the Robertson show for me were the large display
of classic lorries, the Deutz powered stamp boor that operated the whole
day continuously apart from a short time when the operators took a lunch
break. They demonstrated how to re-sharpen the drilling bit, using a small
forge (really just a few bricks surrounding a pile of coals), a belt-driven
fan running off the engine fed the forge. The100mm diameter bit was heated
until cherry red, they then proceeded to knock the hell out of it with a
pair of sledgehammers until it was a nice sharp chisel shape. We were supplied
with a magnificent lunch by the organisers. Tony treated us to spit-braai
crocodile (krok op `n stok) which was being cooked opposite our display.
Thanks to Johan Stemmet and Tony for looking after us and making us feel
so welcome.P.G-T. He points out, in connection with Mike's
comments above, about food prices, that the price of a generous serving
of 'slap' chips at this show was R5.00.
A point to note comes
from the leading article of the latest Stationary Engine magazine
from England. The essence of it is about the information which is supplied
with the engine/exhibit. The editor encourages us to give a story about
the engine, whether it be the history of that particular one, or of the
type. An example he gave was to point out that the common old Lister D was
the most prolific British stationary engine ever made. A bit of research about
your exhibit might be interesting to yourself. There are plenty of places
where one can have an informatoin sheet laminated to make it weatherproof
(and oil-splash proof!). We do have some stands which a logsheet can be
attached to, and Derick has made six more, but that's not enough, and
they are difficult to store when not in use. Any good ideas? Mike's carved
"Just a lot of Hot Air" sign takes the cake for smartness!