Levi K. Fuller’s Early Adventures in Steam

An 1855 lithograph shows the town of Bellows Falls looking westward from Table Rock on Fall Mountain, a popular vantage point on the New Hampshire side of the Connecticut River. The Island is in the foreground, with the Vermont Valley Railroad approaching from the south (left), the Cheshire Railroad from the east (double track covered bridge in lower right), and the Rutland and Burlington Railroad from the north (right).

Levi Knight Fuller had his tenth birthday in the year 1851; it was the same year the Vermont Valley Railroad Company drove its landmark 278-foot-long tunnel underneath the town center of Bellows Falls, Vermont. Levi’s family had moved from Westmoreland, New Hampshire, where he was born in 1841, to Vermont’s Windham County when the lad was 4 years old. Some accounts mention the family as relocating to Bellows Falls, but others, which seem more definitive – one source cites Fuller as a co-author, which is ample witness – put the family in Westminster, a smaller town just 5 miles down the road. Another source phrases it as an eventuality: the family ended up in Bellows Falls after their initial venture into the area in 1845.

The northern portal of the Vermont Valley Railroad Company’s 1851 tunnel beneath the center of Bellow Falls, the tracks turning toward Brattleboro, 24 miles south on the west bank of the Connecticut River.  Above this tunnel, out of sight, are the roads and brick and wood-frame buildings of the downtown business district.

The Vermont Valley Railroad Co. (chartered Nov. 8, 1848; amended Oct. 6, 1849) was the third to reach Bellows Falls, fast becoming a booming industrial and transportation hub on the Connecticut River. The company had built its 24-mile-long right-of-way on the west bank of the Connecticut River starting north from Brattleboro in 1850; it connected the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad there with the two roads already stationed at the Falls: the Cheshire (connecting with Boston) and the Rutland and Burlington. The unusual tunnel under the downtown was necessitated by the Vermont Valley’s approach from the west side of the river to what was known as “The Island”, a section of land created when the Bellows Falls Canal was opened in 1802, bypassing the Great Falls on the Connecticut. The island was the site of the railroads’ junctions, the switching yards, engine houses, and the accompanying passenger and freight stations and maintenance buildings. Levi Fuller would eventually spend the rest of his mature days residing in Brattleboro near the southern terminus of the VVRR, but as a young farm boy growing up near the iron rails approaching the interchange through the fertile bottomlands of Westminster, it must have been a wondrous time.

The Bellows Falls railroad tunnel  seen from the south portal, diving under the center of Bellows Falls and heading toward the bridge over the canal and the junction on the Island.

Young Levi showed a proclivity for mechanical tinkering and a thirst for knowledge at a very early age. In his own words, taken from a speech he delivered late in life (1893) entitled “Vermont In a Century of Invention”, he recalled “a small steam engine which he made when a boy of 10, using for its cylinder the brass tube of a small spy-glass. Work upon this, he said, determined the course of his future life.” The type of steam engine model he built is unknown – he describes the brass tube’s function as the cylinder, whether vertical or horizontal, and of the boiler and valving we know nothing, but he had plenty of inspiration nearby in the form of mills, locomotives, and other industrial and agricultural equipment. This set him on the path he would avidly pursue for the rest of his days.

A modern-day solid brass oscillating steam engine miniature; basic yet elegant. Levi Fuller’s first model would have been  simpler and built of  found materials, but showed his early bent for mechanical engineering.

At the tender age of 13, Levi Fuller left home and headed south to Brattleboro, where he found employment at a printing establishment, learned telegraphy, attended the Brattleboro High School, and continued his self-studies and mechanical pursuits. At sixteen years old he built another steam engine with a new and novel valve arrangement of his own contrivance; he exhibited the machine at the Windham County Agricultural Society’s Annual Fair. His invention attracted much attention and the Society’s judges awarded him a premium for his accomplishment; this fueled his desire for greater scientific understanding and technical proficiency and he left Brattleboro for Boston to apprentice with a mechanical engineering firm. It seems the year would have been 1857; one source indicates the year as 1856, but this remains to be pinpointed. Levi Knight Fuller was well on his way to finding his calling and following his muse.

Extension Announced: Steampunk Springfield Submissions

A teaser for Bruce Rosenbaum’s personal contribution – dubbed Humachines – to next year’s Steampunk Springfield exhibition?

It has just come to our attention this morning (while stumbling through the aetherwebs) that the deadline for artist submissions for the upcoming grand exposition “Steampunk Springfield: ReImagining an Industrial City” has been extended at the last minute to November 22, 2013. We can throttle back on the power feed to the Time Machine and fall back on real time. Whew ! *puff of steam* Notice was discerned on the Fuller Steam Division’s Facebook feed from ModVic and Steampuffin, curator Bruce Rosenbaum’s inestimable steampunk enterprise in Sharon, Massachusetts. A quick jaunt to the fine print on the host’s site, Springfield Museums, confirmed the news. A toast (never too early, we say – what? it was just green Juicy Juice…) was raised to our imminent good fortune and we returned to the workshop bench here in Brattleboro, Vermont somewhat strengthened in our resolve.

Anyone else joining in? Tell all your New England compatriots and co-conspirators. It’s going to be a sight sure to fog your goggles. Mark your chronometers and set your airship auto-pilot to the proper coordinates:  North 42° 6′ 17.16″, West 72° 35′ 9.55″. Arrivals tethered from March 22nd til September 28, 2014.

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?