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Reviews
| The Antique American Steam Gauge: A Collector's Guide. By Barry Lee David. Mendham, N.J.: Astragal Press, 2003. xiv+286 pp., illus., diags., table, notes, index. $35 pb (ISBN 1-931626-13-8).
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What is it about things made of metal that so excite the imagination? Who would not pause to enjoy the soft sunset glow of polished brass? Barry Lee David will certainly cause your head to turn during your bookstore browsing when you spot the cover of his book, The Antique American Steam Gauge. The blood-red page is graced with the ghost of an American Flag in the background. Centered on the page, in its full size of 6 1/2 inches, a beautiful steam pressure gauge draws the eye. Manufactured in the mid 1880s by the American Steam Gauge Co. for Edward Kendall & Sons, the gauge is yet another example of the capable hands of the artisans employed in the industries of New England in the 1800s.
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However, a gauge is a gage, and the dictionary says that either spelling will suffice. What really pulls us to the center of this book cover is the exquisite engraving on the dial of the steam gauge. Depicted is an American type 4–4–0 steam locomotive, the engine that won the West. Above and below the locomotive, the engraver shows his skill with both block and script lettering.
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There is no help for it. As you thumb through the book, it is almost a guarantee that you will pause on those pages depicting gauges with engraved dials. The best engraving seems to have been done on locomotive gauges. Marine gauges follow close behind. Only a few steam pressure gauges depict stationary steam engines. The manufacturers of steam traction engines liked to have their name on the gauges they used but were not much for embellishment.
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There are several reasons for this. One is that the diameter of the standard traction engine gauge was about 4 1/2; inches. That does not give the engraver a very large canvas on which to perform. These gauges would be small because of the rough treatment and shocks to which they were subject. Also, the steam traction engine did not really come into its own until the late 1800s, and by then gauge manufacturing was becoming much more practical.
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This has been a fairly lengthy discourse on something not even approached in the book. If there is a second printing, perhaps David will include a chapter on the visual draw of gauges. In his chapter covering pricing, he gives only 5% of total value to "bbbbsthetics." Most collectors treat a highly engraved dial face as a piece of art and hang it on their walls.
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Why would any man or woman wish to collect gauges? In the introduction, a single sentence sums it up: "The antique gauge can be a door to the lives of all those who used it" (p. ix). If you were to hold the 5-inch Ashcroft gauge of a 65-horsepower J. I. Case steam tractor in your hands, would it summon up a vision of January threshing in the Red River Valley of North Dakota? Maybe with a little snow dusting the plain? Could you imagine the fireman, at five o'clock in the morning, holding a kerosene lamp up to the gauge to see if the needle had come off the peg (0 psi) yet?
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David is a young man. It is highly unlikely that he ever saw these antique gauges at work in their original environment. He would have had some nice opportunities to visit the steam tourist attractions of Washington state where he grew up in a coal mining area just east of Tacoma. Leaning over the engine room railing of the steamship Virginia V, the last of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet of steamboats, he could have watched the engineer or fireman keeping an eye on the boiler pressure gauge. A good possibility exists that he got a look at the many gauges gracing the backhead of one or more of the locomotives at the Mt. Rainier Railroad or the Snoqualmie Falls Railroad museums. The area is dotted with events that feature steam traction engines. Still, he had the feeling that he was pretty much alone in his gauge-collecting hobby until he started receiving replies from a letter he wrote to the editor of Live Steam Magazine.
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Like many of us, David reached a fork in the road, and the decision to go one way rather than another was influenced by outside forces. David dedicated his book to Linsley (Lin) Shepherd Chapman 1931–1999. Chapman opened up a whole new plane of antique gauge collecting, and David began communicating with other collectors and people interested in antique machinery. Nothing will increase your knowledge of a subject like having others ask you questions about it. Soon, he became a clearinghouse of information. The next step was to write a book.
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The Antique American Steam Gauge is just what its title says. It is not a history of the various ways of measuring the forces of fluids. It does not give you lessons in mathematics and fluid mechanics. Only one paragraph tells you thedifference between gauge pressure and absolute pressure. The book does note that pressure gauges existed before the start of the Civil War in 1861. Apparently, most of them were of the diaphragm type, and you will learn what they are. By the 1880s, the diaphragm gauge had given way to the Bourdon tube gauge.
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"On August 3, 1852, at the age of 44, Eugene Bourdon, a Frenchman, received a patent from the United States Patent Office for his "Pressure Gage" (p. 4). Bourdon noticed that a closed, flattened tube, when bent into a partial circle, would try to straighten out when the internal pressure increased. This became the basis for most pressure gauges until electronics entered the field.
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Following Bourdon, David then introduces us to Edward H. Ashcroft who bought the American rights to the Bourdon gauge. Ashcroft capitalized on Bourdon's invention, and his firm is producing the Bourdon-tube gauge today. Here occurs one of the few inaccuracies found in the book. The author states, "Ashcroft invented the 'Ashcroft Fusible Plug'." It was "designed to prevent boiler accidents by melting and thus releasing excessive pressure" (p. 6). The fusible plug is not a pressure device; it is actually a heat indicator. Picture a pipe plug with a hole in it. This hole is filled with an alloy, and the plug is placed in a boiler sheet or tube at some place below the normal water level. In a locomotive boiler the location is usually in the crown sheet that is the top of the firebox. Without a fusible plug, if the boiler water level falls below the crown sheet, there is no water to take the heat away; the metal becomes hot and loses its structural integrity, and the crown sheet will collapse. Properly installed, the alloy in the fusible plug will melt before the water gets low enough to expose the crown sheet. Steam will blow out through the hole in the plug, alerting the engineer and allowing a shutdown before a disaster occurs.
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Later in the book, David revisits the fusible plug and gives a proper description of its operation. It is exceedingly important that people involved with steam and steam artifacts should properly understand what a fusible plug is and what it does. A properly tested boiler can operate at higher than normal pressure. It cannot operate safely with low water.
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David goes on to detail other manufacturers: American, Ashton, Crosby, Star Brass, Schaeffer and Bundenberg, Standard Gauge, United States Gauge, and the Utica Steam Gauge Company. He includes mergers, the history of trademarks, and various patents filed to improve the gauge.
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Early pressure gauges were not cheap. A reproduction page of an 1860 Ashcroft catalog lists prices of two 6-inch dial gauges at $18 and $20. That represents quite a few days of labor for the average working man of the era.
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Many readers will immediately turn to chapter 2, "Discovery," to find out what an antique gauge is worth and how to price their junkyard/antique store finds. Some excellent charts allow the collector to determine an approximate manufacturing date of a gauge. Several examples demonstrate how to work the charts. These charts may also be used to determine manufacturing dates of other types of machinery.
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My favorite part of the book was chapter 3, "Cleaning and Restoring Antique Steam Gauges." I have been involved with steam for more than 50 years, and this chapter detailed many things I did not know. The section "Recommended Don'ts" is a must read.
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The next eight chapters cover specific gauges, including "Railroad Gauges," "Fire Engine Gauges," "Portable and Traction Engine Gauges," "Marine (Nautical) Gauges," "Press Gauges," "Common Building Gauges," "Steam Car Gauges," and "Gauge and Gauge Appliances and Recorders." Readers will have their own areas of interest, and it is not necessary to treat each of these chapters individually.
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Chapter 12 has 22 pages of gauge patents, done in seven columns: date, patent number, inventor, gauge maker, category, chapter (of the book) used, and brief description. This last column is well worth browsing. The Antique American Steam Gauge ends with an 8-page bibliography.
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As previously mentioned, more information on the who, why, and when of the engraved gauge dials would have been good, as well as information on gauge boards. Gauge boards were used in stationary and marine steam plants. Made of wood or metal, their purpose was to group multiple gauges in front of the engineer. They could be very ornate and are exceedingly rare.
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| Astragal Press has published many good books on early tools, trades, and technology. If you are a steam operator or an artifact collector, this book belongs on your shelf. If you are not a collector, the book's 8 pages of colored pictures of gauges may make you one. |
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