Terry Harper

It was mostly light drizzle until noon than it turned to a steady rain. Nothing too heavy. Unfortunately, after weeks of this stuff our garden is simply doing nothing - most of the seeds just rotting in the ground….. 😞

Yesterday was a rainy cold day at the Maine Forest & Logging Museum. However, that didn't limit the fun. We had all three Lombard's out and about as well as the sawmills, black smith shop etc. being demonstrated. Best of all we hosted and met a lot of great people! The machines ran great! The only downside is we have had weeks of rainy and overcast weather and a week of intense activity during Children's Days so the solar light system in Machinery Hall was down for the count.

Dave, thank you so much for taking the time to post these photos from an excellent event. I have a soft spot for old trucks. Magnificent!

Last one from the Great Northern Paper Company archive

Former Great Northern Paper archives, Millinocket, Maine

Another photo from the former Great Northern Paper Co. archive

The type of glue is important as well. Referring to old trade periodicals Around 1924 casein glue become popular for body construction. Before that hide glue or “animal” glues were popular. Interestingly The laminated frame rails on Franklins used casein glue.

It doesn't have to be scanned. That's just one tool and like any tool it isn't appropriate for all applications. We have often pulled measurements from original parts using calipers and a micrometer and created the model in a 3D CAD program such as SolidWorks. If someone is interested in getting started in creating and 3D printing components I would suggest starting out by getting and learning the software - Sketchup, Fusion 360 are examples that are affordable for home use and have a fairly easy learning curve. Once you can model a components using the software, the 3D printing is the easy part.

Actually you can. It was a major issue back in the days of early trucks and limited speed and payload. Essentially, the rubber - even though it’s solid, is displaced as the tire deforms under load and expands due to heat. The displaced rubber forms a wave (for lack of a better term)of displaced material and if that wave became too big the tire would blow out”. This lead to the development of “cushion” tires. These were still solid rubber but had holes and pockets formed in a variety of configurations to allow room for the displaced material and minimize the wave effect.

It’s like any other emerging technology in that you get what you pay for and there is at the moment a wide disparity of quality and capabilities between affordable and high end. The setup we use (illustrated in my previous post) along with the software and accessories ran far north of $100,000.00 in spite of a healthy discount. Thankfully it was covered by a generous equipment grant - otherwise it would still be a distant dream. I suspect that gap in quality and capabilities will close quickly as it has with 3D printers. For example, our first 3D printer cost $11,000.00 And was the cream of the crop back then. Now it’s been replaced by two $600.00 printers that are far more capable and generate much higher quality prints.

From the archives of the deceased Great Northern Paper Company.

2023 seems to be "The Year of the Water Pump". This is the second such project we have worked on with a third waiting in the wings. This time it's scanning and reverse engineering the lovely bronze water pump for an automobile of 1900's vintage. (More than that I cannot say) Since the original pieces needs to ship out of here ASAP, and we wont have them to refer back too, we will have a set of sketches documenting all the critical dimensions so later, when we dive into the CAD portion of the process we will have that data to refer to as opposed to just the 3D scan. Here is the setup. The white coating on the part is a spray coating that kills reflectivity. It evaporates and leaves no trace after a couple of hours. Without it, when scanning a bright surface, the laser tends to scatter points about which adds time to post processing the scans. At almost 45 bucks a can we tend to use it sparingly! Here is a screen shot of the raw scans. We used four individual scans to capture the geometry and ensure coverage. These are then aligned to match using selected points on common geometry. How well does the scanner pick up fine detail? If you look closely on the rim near the outlet you can see a faint stamp and the serial number. It also picks-up every pit and imperfection and speck of dirt.

Your welcome Walt, Thank you for posting your initial inquiry. It has lead me down a very enjoyable rabbit hole. I am fascinated with the little tidbits of information in-period advertisements can provide. not sure if you noticed (its a bit hard to read) but in the first Portland Company advertisement the Portland and Boston Automobile shows are mentioned and they specifically state: "We invite visitors to make their headquarters at the Knox exhibit and have their mail and telegrams sent to our café. We shall have a stenographer in attendance at all times. A long distance telephone, bureau of information, and everything which will add to their comfort and convenience." That gives a very strong indication of the market they were aiming at. They also declare under the sub-section titled "Car for Sensible People" That its not a "high speed car.... a speed of 20 miles per hour can be maintained for hundreds of miles..." and mentions making the 335 mile trip from New York to Portland in 17 hours and 50 minutes. I had to chuckle a bit on that one. I use to make that trip on a monthly basis with the Land Rover getting me there in time for my late morning meetings and back home in the evening. Certainly not the pleasant, relaxing experience to be had in 1907.

Congratulations Jon! Well done! I greatly appreciate your wealth of knowledge built over decades as well as your willingness to help others and provide top notch service. Fantastic!

During our high school years my cousin had two Bonneville's and a Trident. We spent quite a few summer days tearing along the back roads here in Northern Maine. I was pretty smitten with the Trident. It might not have been the fastest bike but to me at least - it handled like a dream. Fond memories.

Two excerpts from the 1907 "Chamber of Commerce Journal of Maine" I don't think many automobile agency's of the day could boast being a one stop shop for purchasing a Knox automobile and having your locomotive rebuilt or a digester fabricated for your paper mill.

Walt, I have always had a fascination with Knox though I have very limited knowledge and can add little to the conversation specific to the mode H. However, I can share a Maine connection in regards to the Knox. The Portland Company in Portland, Maine (a fascinating history in itself!) was a distributor for a number of years. The following photos are from the collection of the Maine Historical Society which contains quite a few images of Knox automobiles. Here is an assortment of Knox automobiles at the Portland Company in 1909 Here is another photo taken at the Portland Company. This fine Knox was owned by Richard Conant Payson who was the General manager. Another Knox in Portland Maine. This one is a 1907 runabout. "..sold by the Portland Company and is being driven by A.L. Dennison, a race car driver for the Knox Automobile Company in Springfield, Massachusetts. His passenger is E.H. Cushman of the Portland Company. This wintry scene is located on Eastern Promenade, Portland, Maine at the corner of Fore Street just above the Portland Company. The fine house in the background still graces the Munjoy Hill neighborhood today."

This one ticks a lot of boxes on my "like" list and it's not thousands of miles away. Being a lesser known (Hupp) holds a lot of appeal too. As for horsepower - I live in a very rural area where dirt roads are aplenty and if you can pass the farm machinery trundling too and from the fields your good to go. We have some good size hills but there always seems to be a scenic way around them if your not in a hurry. Hopefully it will find a good home.

Great Northern paper Company bus, Greenville, ME.

We just experienced this. We had a magneto that had an occasional or no spark. When it was tested by our magneto guy it tested hot. Re-installed we had no spark again. We came to the conclusion that the impulse coupling was occasionally not doing what it was supposed to do. Unfortunately being a 964 CID T-head turning it over at a "fairly high RPM" was not an option.

Great Northern Paper Company cars.