Newspapers, Ephraim Shay's Invention, LaSalle Parish, La. Submitted by Jack Willis Date: 11 Oct 2004 Source: Grass Roots and Cockleburrs Date: 10 Dec 2003 ************************************************ Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** *********************************************** Ephraim Shay's Invention The year was 1880. The locale was the Michigan logging woods and loggers all over the state were in dire straits and facing meteorologically induced adverse logging conditions in the early 1870's. Mill timber was transported only in winter, and little or no snowfall made for muddy, expensive transport of logs to mill site, and because the mills had to utilize this method of obtaining timber, it was estimated that as little as 17% of the total cost represented actual timber acquisition, but as much as 73% went for transportation costs. So faced with this stark realization was when his fellow loggers, having knowledge of his innovative mind, approached Ephraim Shay about inventing some sort of machine to help them out of their dilemma. Ephraim Shay was born on July 17,1839 in Sherman Township, Huron County, Ohio, and before entering into the logging profession, Ephraim worked as a schoolteacher, practiced medicine, and served in the Union Corps of Engineers during the Civil War. Shay first began to consider transporting logs on a tramway, with his first experiments involved logging cars pulled by horses traveling on wooden rails. And even though this was a major cost-cutting maneuver, the major drawback was that the cars would often catch up to the horses on a downgrade, frequently kill them which resulted in a practice that was expensive and intolerable, causing Shay to finally decide he had to design a locomotive of some sort. Setting up operations in a local repair shop, Shay designed and fabricated a prototype of a small locomotive that worked well, but was very destructive of the wooden rails it had to travel on. Then Shay made a startling observation in that he noted that even though the weight of the logging cars far excelled the weight of the locomotive, they did far less damage to the rails, so Shay concluded that if he could build a locomotive that would track like the log cars, consequently it would do far less damage to the wooden rails. For the next eight years, Shay labored and built three different prototypes of locomotives, and finally, in 1880 developed the locomotive model that would perform the tasks he had in mind, with Shay being granted rights to his patents on June 14th, 1881. He later sold the patents to the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio for just ten thousand dollars with the inherent foundry manufacturing a total of 2770 Shay engines. Most Shays were produced utilizing the three-foot narrow gauge known under the classifications of Class B's with two trucks; later models like the Class C, most popular in the southern logging woods, sported three trucks. A truck being defined as a swiveling frame with springs attached to one or more pairs of wheels, used to carry and guide a locomotive or railroad car. The Shay locomotive was driven by a geared drive shaft connected to each geared wheel along the right side of the engine. Railroad personnel doing maintenance on the engine had to be especially careful around the exposed, protruding shaft drive because it was capable of grabbing loose clothing and sucking the hapless victim into the gears. Accounts tell of a fireman who got too close one time resulting in his right leg being ground to pulp. The Shay locomotive engine had three cylinders each, were 141/2 inches in diameter, featuring a 12-inch stroke, with 12 drivers. The cab was situated immediately behind the boiler for easy access for fueling the furnace, which was a nice arrangement in winter, but hell on wheels in the summer. The engine, fitted out, weighed 125,000 lbs. with the water tank holding 1750 gallons of water, which had to be refilled at least once during a normal day of transporting timber to the mill site. During operations there was a multitude of tubes and gauges to be monitored at all times by the engineer and fireman with lubricants featuring a half-dozen different viscosity's being required for every day maintenance of operations on the engines. The engines were designed to burn coal, wood or fuel oil, but since fuel oil was not a viable commodity in the south around the turn of the century, nor coal, but since there was a readily available supply of firewood and pine knots, an alternate fuel supply was readily accessible. The view from the cab was very limited and in traveling around a curve breaking to the left, the engineer had to depend upon sightings by the firemen. One bad feature of early Shay locomotives was the sparks and embers emitted from the stacks of the wood burners. Inventors frantically attempted to solve this critical problem, because the sparks caught railcars, the right-of-ways, and even passenger's clothing on fire with alarming frequency, and over 1,000 patents were issued during the 19th century. Smokestack designs with spark arrests were inefficient because they interfered with the engines "steaming" or job performance resulting in the first practical design being the "bonnet" stack (funnel shaped), but it was even abandoned in 1890 for a more efficient model. The distinctive huffing and puffing of the slow, low-geared Shay engines caused one old timer to describe it's action as actually going six miles per hour, but sounding like it was making sixty miles per hour. The slow-moving engines would pull from three to six loaded log cars at speeds of three to nine miles per hour dependent upon the grade of the tramway, and in the logging woods where they were primarily used, the Shays ran on wooden rails with these rails being spiked to cross ties that had been laid directly on the ground. No ballast or fill was added to hold the ties in place because the weight of the evenly distributed tonnage of the engine and rail cars accomplished this. William Buchanan on his march southward into what would become LaSalle Parish, and taking time to absorb Grant Timber and Manufacturing Co. located at Selma, LA, inherited four Shay engines known by their manufacturer's designated numbers as #1520, #1749, # 1871, and # 3097. At his beginning point at Stamps, Arkansas, when he bought the Bodcaw mill from the Crowell interests, he had inherited Engine #724. At his Trout, Good Pine and Tall Timber mills he had two Shays that interchanged and worked at all three mills at one time or the other, and they were known as #2819, referred to by the company number of #7, and #2974 and known by every resident of the mill towns as Ol' # 3. The engineer on this particular locomotive was a Master self-taught musician of the highest caliber when it came to performing with the engine's steam whistle. His name was Chris Francis, known to young and old alike as "Mr. Chris", and much loved and respected. He had devised special codes known to mill town residents as the train got into hearing, with which he could inform them of an accident, or death because life and limb were cheap at the end of track, and in the logging woods. Using the engine whistle, Mr. Chris would inform various families when there had been an mishap, and reveal the house number of who had been injured, or worse, so the relatives would know to be at the yard to meet the train to see that the injured employee got fast medical help from the company doctor. Of course, the injured party had to first sign a release form absolving the company of all blame for the injuries, or his family's commissary privileges would be immediately terminated. Many people who lived in earshot of the train's lonely wails maintained there was no more melancholy sound to be heard in the dark of night, with one man relating that he had already gone to bed one particular night. He later found out that there had been a terrible accident near Rosefield, La., where a loaded log car had gotten loose when its brakes failed, resulting in the loaded car smashing into a boxcar beginning to load "flatheads" after a days labors. A number of employees were badly hurt and crippled, and after seeing to the men's injuries as best the train crew could, the delay caused the train to be after nine o'clock setting out for the Tall Timber mill. Instinctively the person who had been awakened, in looking at his bedside clock knew something was wrong because the train was heading in about two hours late. He recanted that the mournful squall of Mr. Chris' whistle bespoke tragedy, because when it had first waked him up he could not control his emotions and began to cry uncontrollably without really knowing why at the time. There is no record of what ever happened to Shay #2974, Old # 3. It probably ended up in a scrap heap like a lot of the mill machinery, or it might have been sold when the Buchanan interests cut out the last of their holdings, and sold all of the components of the Tall Timber mill in 1942. At any rate, Donald Powell of Jena has managed to acquire this mournful creator of sadness, this marvelous means of communication, this Stradivarius of Steam Engine Whistles from off its original lofty perch atop Ol'# 3. When Mr. Chris retired, he apparently took the whistle with him upon leaving the Buchanan's employ. After his death, his widow sold a consignment of scrap metal containing the brass whistle to a local junk dealer who happened to be Donald's uncle, and his uncle gave the whistle to him. Some gentleman, identity unknown, residing in Baton Rouge, managed to track the whistle to Donald, relating to him that when he was a youngster living in Tall Timber, he would gather pine knots, taking them early every morning to the locomotive, feeding the boiler, and getting up a head of steam for the days run, with Mr. Chris giving him a nickel or a dime for his labors, which in turn bought his school supplies. The visitor ended his tale by offering Donald $100 for what he more or less considered a little insignificant piece of brass, but Donald's quick reply was, "No way would I part with this whistle, at any price!" One day we're going to hook the whistle up to a supply of steam, and sound this marvelous relic that's been silent for over 60 years. But it won't be the same; you see the Master won't be the pulling the whistle lanyard this time on Ol' # 3, his Shay locomotive. GR&C(12-10-03) JMW