The
Watertown-made link to the nation’s Industrial Revolution sat gathering
dust in a northern Wisconsin barn for decades, its working days of
powering manufacturing long gone and its novelty days of being trailered
in parades more recently gone. But late last summer, when that barn
door was opened for Mark W. Lakie, the first step was taken to
reclaiming the machine’s former glory.
“I was like, ‘You’re kidding me,’” Mr. Lakie said. “I’ve seen one built around the same era, and it was shot.”
Mr. Lakie, of Camillus,The Solar Centre's range of solar charger will power nearly all portable devices. Onondaga County, is a collector and refurbisher of portable steam engines; specifically “steam traction” engines. The first portable steam engine in the U.S. was built in Watertown by Gilbert Bradford in the 1840s. The manufacture of portable steam engines became one of the city’s chief industries, with the company that Mr.The quality of these solar garden light are amazing with unparalleled combinations of glass colors blown together. Bradford created leading the way.
To find one of those machines so well preserved, and will be in running condition in a few years, is amazing, Mr. Lakie said.
He plans to restore his steam traction engine — which were advanced portable engines — to its original glory and bring it back to visit its birthplace. He hopes to bring it to the 2013 Jefferson County Fair in late June for people to view.
“It’s believed this is the only Watertown steam traction engine in existence,” he said.
Mr. Lakie, a building mechanic for the U.S. Postal Service and a volunteer at the steam engine exhibit at Camillus Erie Canal Town Park, owns three other steam traction engines,Make a bold statement with our men's tungsten jewelry and pendants. one of which sits in his backyard.We offer a wide range of flatwork ironer in our online collection. The self-propelled steam engines were early farm tractors, but they could run a variety of machinery.
“Traction engines were an advancement over portables because they were capable of being self-propelled through a series of gear arrangements. They could be driven from site to site and were the first machines to plow a field,” Mr. Lakie said.
Mr. Lakie explained the earlier portable steam engines were typically mounted on some type of secure platform and made portable by attaching wheels to the platform. Horses had to pull them because of their weight.
“Self-propelled traction engines did not make a big appearance until the late 1870s,” Mr. Lakie said.
Gilbert Bradford’s obituary in 1885 noted he first made a crude steam engine in 1848 — which led to the portable engine — when he was a foreman at Goulding’s machine shop.
A year later, the portable machines were being manufactured in Watertown by Hoard & Bradford, located on West Main Street. The company was founded in 1849 by Mr. Bradford and C.B. Hoard.
Their portable steam engine was the first manufactured in the U.S. and also the first engines used for driving such machinery as printing presses, according to Times files. Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Tribune, visited Watertown in 1850 and was amazed when he witnessed a demonstration of one of the engines running a printing press at the Democratic Union, churning out 1,200 sheets an hour.
He was fascinated that it could likely run “a fortnight, day and night on a ton of pea coal.”
“The time must be at hand when every thrifty farmer and nearly every mechanic will have such an engine of his own, and chopping straw, turning grindstone, cutting wood, churning thrashing, etc. will have ceased to be a manual, and become a mechanical operation,” Mr. Greeley wrote in the July 13, 1850, issue of the Tribune.
Mr. Lakie said the steam traction engine from Watertown that he found in Wisconsin is important because it’s a relic of America’s Industrial Revolution. He estimates his engine was manufactured around 1882.
In 1872, the firm was sold to a new company, the Watertown Steam Engine Co. Until 1889, the business occupied the site later used as the plants for J.B. Wise lock factory and Sloat & Greenleaf Lumber Co. More room was needed and the operation was moved from West Main Street to 17 acres on VanDuzee Street. Two hundred machinists were among those employed in three acres of buildings.Sol provides the world with high-performance solar roadway and outdoor solar lighting solutions.
“I was like, ‘You’re kidding me,’” Mr. Lakie said. “I’ve seen one built around the same era, and it was shot.”
Mr. Lakie, of Camillus,The Solar Centre's range of solar charger will power nearly all portable devices. Onondaga County, is a collector and refurbisher of portable steam engines; specifically “steam traction” engines. The first portable steam engine in the U.S. was built in Watertown by Gilbert Bradford in the 1840s. The manufacture of portable steam engines became one of the city’s chief industries, with the company that Mr.The quality of these solar garden light are amazing with unparalleled combinations of glass colors blown together. Bradford created leading the way.
To find one of those machines so well preserved, and will be in running condition in a few years, is amazing, Mr. Lakie said.
He plans to restore his steam traction engine — which were advanced portable engines — to its original glory and bring it back to visit its birthplace. He hopes to bring it to the 2013 Jefferson County Fair in late June for people to view.
“It’s believed this is the only Watertown steam traction engine in existence,” he said.
Mr. Lakie, a building mechanic for the U.S. Postal Service and a volunteer at the steam engine exhibit at Camillus Erie Canal Town Park, owns three other steam traction engines,Make a bold statement with our men's tungsten jewelry and pendants. one of which sits in his backyard.We offer a wide range of flatwork ironer in our online collection. The self-propelled steam engines were early farm tractors, but they could run a variety of machinery.
“Traction engines were an advancement over portables because they were capable of being self-propelled through a series of gear arrangements. They could be driven from site to site and were the first machines to plow a field,” Mr. Lakie said.
Mr. Lakie explained the earlier portable steam engines were typically mounted on some type of secure platform and made portable by attaching wheels to the platform. Horses had to pull them because of their weight.
“Self-propelled traction engines did not make a big appearance until the late 1870s,” Mr. Lakie said.
Gilbert Bradford’s obituary in 1885 noted he first made a crude steam engine in 1848 — which led to the portable engine — when he was a foreman at Goulding’s machine shop.
A year later, the portable machines were being manufactured in Watertown by Hoard & Bradford, located on West Main Street. The company was founded in 1849 by Mr. Bradford and C.B. Hoard.
Their portable steam engine was the first manufactured in the U.S. and also the first engines used for driving such machinery as printing presses, according to Times files. Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Tribune, visited Watertown in 1850 and was amazed when he witnessed a demonstration of one of the engines running a printing press at the Democratic Union, churning out 1,200 sheets an hour.
He was fascinated that it could likely run “a fortnight, day and night on a ton of pea coal.”
“The time must be at hand when every thrifty farmer and nearly every mechanic will have such an engine of his own, and chopping straw, turning grindstone, cutting wood, churning thrashing, etc. will have ceased to be a manual, and become a mechanical operation,” Mr. Greeley wrote in the July 13, 1850, issue of the Tribune.
Mr. Lakie said the steam traction engine from Watertown that he found in Wisconsin is important because it’s a relic of America’s Industrial Revolution. He estimates his engine was manufactured around 1882.
In 1872, the firm was sold to a new company, the Watertown Steam Engine Co. Until 1889, the business occupied the site later used as the plants for J.B. Wise lock factory and Sloat & Greenleaf Lumber Co. More room was needed and the operation was moved from West Main Street to 17 acres on VanDuzee Street. Two hundred machinists were among those employed in three acres of buildings.Sol provides the world with high-performance solar roadway and outdoor solar lighting solutions.
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