Steampunk, Meet Dieselpunk: Happy Birthday Raymond Loewy

Raymond Loewy poses on the pilot cowling of his modified PRR K4s, shadowed by its true inner self on the track behind.

Disclaimer: we’re well aware this may appear to fall under the purview of Dieselpunk, rather than Steampunk, but underneath Raymond Loewy’s glorious steel shrouding ticked and hissed the polished pistons and connecting rods of a mighty steam-driven locomotive.  Just sayin’.

History is one of those things that happens when you’re not looking. We often don’t have the perspective to understand what may be unfolding – right in front of one’s eyes – until afterward (sometimes significantly so), when a context and a critical mass has been established. A pundit or two takes analytical stab at it and names the events or trends or movements, and we can say “Ah, that was in the the golden era of the Steam Age” or “straight out of the Roaring Twenties” or “it was a remnant of the last days of Colonialism.” On top of that, there’s the axiomatic observation “History repeats itself:” perhaps a result of the former myopia or, more often,  in spite of it. Add in the cyclic caprices of fashion and popular culture and you have a perfect retro-future generator. The Pennsylvania Railroad found a master practitioner in the person of legendary industrial designer Raymond Loewy: his 120th birthday (1893-1986) was yesterday, November 5th. Google featured this observation in their Doodle on the search engine’s start page.

The Pennsylvania Railroad’s K4s in street clothes at Altoona, 1937.

The K4s before and after Loewy’s Cinderella act. Nicely executed!

Loewy was hired to help the Pennsylvania Railroad recast themselves as an appealingly modern, efficient, and superior mode of transportation (the rise of the private automobile was seriously affecting revenues) and, especially, a better choice over competitors such as the New York Central, which was waging its own image-remake battle. A designer, not an engineer, Raymond Loewy gave Pennsy’s motive power an eye-catching makeover. Eager to show the traveling public their embrace of the post-Depression, forward-looking Streamline Era, the first to get the “treatment” was the Pacific K4s class, the workhorse of the roundhouse stable and generally considered one of the greatest steam locomotives of all time. Number 3768 was the lucky duckling chosen for the swan costume: it was dubbed the “Torpedo” but underneath that sleek, swept steel jacket was the same old drive train, linkages, firebox, and boiler that powered these dependable and prolific beasts. Eventually, all of the streamlined units were stripped of their glamorous sheaths and they went back to service in work-clothes, and finally to the scrapheap. There are only two examples of the once plentiful K4 Class remaining: No. 3750 is on display at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg; No. 1361 was set to be restored to operation by the Railroaders Memorial Museum in Altoona through the restoration shop at Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, PA (and not too long ago in Bellows Falls, VT –  just 25 miles up the track from Fuller Steam Division in Brattleboro, VT).  The restoration has been stalled for now and the loco lies in pieces on the shop floor.

The New York Central’s reworked No. 54 Hudson locomotive shows a powerful, muscular profile.

A heart of steam and a love for the beauty of the mechanical: one of the attributes of the Steampunk movement, of course. But to some minds, it runs a bit deeper than just shroudings upon the machine; not just an iconic industrial designer’s skin-deep take on a quotidian industrial application, not just a retro-future costume at a convention center near you. There’s something more about the attraction of this still-growing phenomenon that sparks an identification with an honesty of construction, an intrinsically explicit demonstration of purpose, and a realm of possibility, if not actuality. Steampunk has a bit of the neo-Luddite wrapped up in its DNA and this aspect would bear further scrutiny: others more qualified have done so already, and hopefully we’ll take a look at them in future views from the Observatory.

Calling All Steampunk Artists: Steampunk Springfield Submissions

The deadline for submissions to next year’s Steampunk Springfield exhibition, to be held at the Springfield Museums complex in Springfield, Massachusetts is coming right up. This will definitely be one of the highlights of Fuller Steam Division‘s  steampunk event calendar in New England, with the show’s installations running for six months at the Victorian-era George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum. Co-curated by the Mod-Vic steampunk master Bruce Rosenbaum, who will be showing have new signature artwork, the “city-wide celebration will embrace the Steampunk philosophy to re-imagine the city’s history and reinvent itself in the process, presenting thematic Steampunk programming, events, performances, major exhibition and satellite displays throughout the downtown area.”

Rifling machines, Springfield Armory, circa 1905. From Forge of Innovation.org

As part of the exhibition, the organizers are soliciting entries from steampunk artists and designers to a jury panel headed by Rosenbaum; the deadline for submissions is Friday, November 8, 2013. Complete rules and information can be found at the Springfield Museum’s website. Entrants will be notified of the jury’s decisions within two weeks after the deadline for submissions, by Friday, November 22, 2013. There are two themed categories of steampunk art under which to apply: Brassy Brides, which is a fashion-oriented (both male and female), and 50 Firsts: Springfield Inventions Reinvented. The western Massachusetts city’s  industrial heritage encompasses many pioneering achievements and innovations; there is something here for everyone to find creative inspiration! Art submissions can take any form: sculptural, two-dimensional, functional, even new media.

Colonel Levi K. Fuller, founder of the Fuller Light Battery, 1874.

Fuller Steam Division, drawing on the inspiring historical legacy of Gov. Levi Knight Fuller, just up the Connecticut River in Brattleboro, Vermont, can make several close connections with this place in time. Previous to his election (served 1892-1894), Levi K. Fuller, among his many extensive accomplishments, founded the Fuller Light Battery,  an artillery unit of the local militia in 1874, and equipped and funded it out of his own pocket for two years. Capt. Fuller then turned it over to the State of Vermont, and it became the first National Guard in the nation to field rifled artillery; the Fuller Light Battery was noted for its efficiency and accuracy and won many competitions. Levi K. Fuller was brevetted a Colonel in 1887 for long and meritorious service and he wore the title proudly, serving with his battery until his untimely death (from overwork and exhaustion) in 1896.

The battery was the first state unit to be equipped with the newest U.S. standard rifled field gun of the time, the 3.2 inch breechloader, and replacing the outdated brass napoleons with which they were equipped up until at least 1886, according to then Capt. Fuller’s own report. A revision of the Civil War’s muzzle-loading cannons, the breech-loading version was considered a significant improvement, with quicker loading and firing, and incorporating a simple recoil dampening mechanism as well (according to some sources). The first model came out in 1885 and it was revised in 1897. From the dates in question, we can infer that Fuller’s Battery had the earlier Model 1885 3.2 inch guns. The artillery pieces were built by several state armories – notably the Watervliet and Springfield Armories (right around the corner from the upcoming Steampunk Springfield exhibition and the oldest in the country).

3.2 inch Model 1885 breech-loading field gun, Fairmount Cemetery, Denver, CO. From Waymarking.com

Fuller Steam Division has found records indicating that the field rifle’s steel carriages, at least, were manufactured in Springfield, along with other parts. It is possible that the complete guns were assembled at the Springfield Armory; a quote from Gov. Levi K. Fuller’s inaugural address makes a clear reference to “S.B.L. rifles”, extrapolated to mean “Springfield Breech-Loading”; another reference in an 1892 report from the office of the U.S. Secretary of War inventories “4 3.2-inch S.B.L. rifle guns.” The enlisted members of the Vermont National Guard also carried, as a matter of course, small arms in the form of .45 caliber Springfield rifles. The full quote is below:

The National Guard of Vermont consists at the present time of a brigade formation with three battalions of four companies each, organized as a regiment, armed with 45 calibre (sic) Springfield rifles, and one battery of light artillery, armed with four 3.2-inch S. B. L. rifles.

Colonel (and Governor) Levi K. Fuller quite likely made many trips to nearby Springfield from his gracious home at Pine Heights in Brattleboro – the New London Northern/Central Vermont Railroad followed the Connecticut’s riverbanks straight north – both as a military commander and as a captain of industry (a senior partner at Estey Organ Company, largest manufacturer of parlor organs in the world). He was a mechanical engineer and scientist of extraordinary talent and accomplishment and was well-versed in the development and use of all manufacturing practices of the day, with over 100 patents to his own credit.

Fuller Steam Division looks forward, then, to joining in this celebration of Steampunk style and Springfield’s inventive industrial spirit,  redolent of the life and times of Levi K. Fuller. With grease-smeared fingers crossed, we hope to be a part of the juried exhibits as well! Join us there and raise a toast to fun, fancy and fantastical devices from the days of future past!

Objective Inspiration: Vermont Farm Machinery Co. Machine Oiler

A beautiful example of a nickel-plated drip-feed machine oiler, manufactured by the Vermont Farm Machinery Company of Bellows Falls, VT. Oil reservoir, angled feed arm with vacuum breaker port, and machine attachment fitting. Brass, glass, and class…

Fuller Steam Division brings you the second in a series of vintage objects that evoke the spirit of the Steampunk movement: mechanical technology, explicit functionality, a legacy of inventiveness. At the turn of the nineteenth century, Vermont was a center of industrious pursuit, harnessing the water power of its rivers and brooks, connecting small towns with larger cities by railroad, and creating the tools and products needed for the Industrial Age with steam-powered shops, mills, and factories. The gritty town of Bellows Falls on the Connecticut River epitomized this busy period of New England history: one of its most successful manufacturing concerns was the Vermont Farm Machinery Company.

End view of the VFM Co. drip-feed machine oiler, showing the point-of-attachment fitting.

Established in the booming river town in 1868, the company was originally called the Hartford Sorghum Machine Company and made sap evaporators. This equipment was used to boil maple sap in the production of maple syrup, an agricultural endeavor in which Vermont still leads the nation, nearly 150 years later. The firm’s name was changed to the Vermont Farm Machinery Company in 1873 and the product line diversified rapidly, evolving toward the dairy industry, which had begun to surpass sheep farming in the 1850’s. For decades after, farming in the state was dominated by the production of milk for New England’s metropolitan markets – Boston was a short refrigerated train trip away – and the company grew rapidly. They produced the Cooley Creamer, invented by William Cooley of Waterbury in 1877, and it became their flagship device, used on the majority of New England Farms by the late 1880’s. In addition, they developed and manufactured a myriad of other lines, including machine butter churns, separators, presses, bottle washers, coolers, and steam engines and boilers. At one time the largest manufacturer of farm machinery in the world, and one of Bellows Falls most significant employers with hundreds of workers, the company fell on hard times and shuttered the doors of its great three-story brick plant in 1925.

Top view, showing the maker’s stamp, the knurled drip valve nut with spring clip keeper in the foreground, and the pivoting cover for the fill port behind the nut.

Machines need lubrication for their constantly moving parts such as bearings, bushings, gearboxes, and pump housings, and manufacturers invented a number of devices for this never-ending maintenance task. An attachment known as a drip machine oiler was a common solution: a sealed vessel on an arm attached to the part in need of lubrication held an amount of oil (replenished periodically by hand) and this was fed steadily, drop by drop, into the area of friction, by gravity. Typically the vessel is a glass cylinder (for visual inspection), a bottom feed outlet leading to the mounting arm, and a cap with provision for replenishment (a fill port) and control of the dispensing rate of the lubricating oil. Constructed of brass, plated steel, glass, and other durable materials, these simple yet effective  parts can last for many years of service; they are still used today, albeit with more modern material components. They might not last as long as their vintage counterparts, but the operating principal still works just fine. Part of the allure of steampunk, however, is all about technology which has withstood the test of time, and sparks the imagination of a world where things that whir, click, and hiss can be understood and depended upon, whatever may come along.

I came upon this beautiful little find in a local antique shop and was delighted to learn that it originated from nearby, just 20 miles up the Connecticut River. Bellows Falls, like Brattleboro, was a beehive of activity in the days of steam, and its past lives on in many forms, from small machined parts to hulking historic structures. Well-made objects, and the stories they can tell, or fuel, in the case of Fuller Steam Division, create a perfect imagination engine, generating a fascinating take on history, whether real, speculative, or alternate. Holding something solid in one’s hand, the past becomes palpable and the fictional is substantiated. How much fun is that?

Quotidian Steampunk: A Clockwork Roomscape

 

Second in the series of “Quotidian Steampunk” discoveries: scenes captured with an iphone in the course of a regular day-in-the-life of a modern Vermonter (no comments there, please)…  New England is a treasure trove of recombinant imagery: our steam- and water-powered past seasons our 21st-Century lives at home, in town, and in our attitudes and mindset. The echoing industry of past enterprising Yankee generations reverberates through the physical evidence still amongst us – workaday and ornate brickwork, rusted steel rails and bridges, glass and gilt furnishings, brass and turned wooden mechanisms…

Steampunk Springfield: Re-Imagining an Industrial City

Fuller Steam Division notes with some pleasure (actually we discovered, to our great amazement) that a significant Steampunk exhibition will be mounted next year – for a six month run! – in nearby Springfield, Massachusetts. That’s only 55 miles as the airship flies from Brattleboro, Vermont, folks! Brought to us by the Springfield Museums and curated by the estimable Bruce Rosenbaum of ModVic, the show opens March 22nd, 2014 and lasts until September 28th, and will be hosted in the Victorian-built George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum in the complex’s lovely quad. Note: the grounds encompass four museums AND a sculpture garden dedicated to native son Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel)… there’s a lot of eye-candy here for your ocular appetite. Next door is the nation’s oldest armory, the Springfield Armory, founded in 1777  by none other than George Washington himself but that is a whole ‘nother story for a whole ‘nother day.

A quote from the announcement sets the stage cleanly:

“The fantastical large-scale exhibition Steampunk Springfield: Re-Imagining an Industrial City is being organized by the Springfield Museums and Bruce Rosenbaum as the central unifying experience in the city… The exhibition will incorporate new signature artwork designed by Bruce Rosenbaum, works created by Steampunk artists and members of the community as part of a juried art contest, costumes and accessories created as part of a fashion design competition, and Victorian clothing, art and artifacts from the collections of the Springfield Museums.”

A call for artists and designers has been issued, soliciting entries grouped around two wide-ranging categories. One has been dubbed Brassy Brides, which re-imagines wedding attire (both male and female) in a steampunk-inspired retrofuture couture (retrofutour?). The other category is based on a list entitled 50 Firsts: Springfield’s Inventions Re-Invented; it’s a long list with a myriad of possibilities. This western Massachusetts city has had a long, glorious, grease-bespattered industrial past well worth celebrating and modders, artisans, and makers of all sorts will be sure to find something here to tickle their vacuum tubes. The deadline for entries is Friday, November 8, 2013 and the complete rules for submissions can be found on the events announcement page. Mark your personal social calendars and synchronize your chronometers, good people.