FILENAMES: MurrayEngine1.jpg MurrayEngine2.jpg MurrayEngine3.jpg MurrayEngine4.jpg MurrayEngine5.jpg MurrayEngine6.jpg DESCRIPTION: This is a picture of a model of the Murray engine. Posted by Art Volz . The following description was provided: ================================================================= Rich Carlstedt, AKA "The Green Bay Steamer" and a retired Manufacturing Engineer, constructed the utterly fantastic Matthew Murray steam engine/pump shown in the 6 photos. He showed this engine at NAMES 2002 where it should have won "Best of the Show". In the fall of last year he visited family in Houston and brought the engine with him. I was fortunate to both admire the engine close up and to watch it in operation at that time. The epicyclic gearing alone is totally inveigling. That shine you see in the photos ain't chrome: it's the result of meticulous polishing until the steel and iron surfaces were absolutely smooth. The absolute precision and perfection of Rich's model is unbelievable. How he determined the measurements from which to draft scale drawings is a story in itself. The Ford Museum in Dearborn has a larger model of such an engine. Rich visited the museum numerous times over the years and precisely noted and timed the movements of the museum guards. When the guard would dissapear around the corner making his normal rounds, Rich would immediately jump into the "forbidden space" and frantically record measurements until he knew it was time for the roving guard to return. Not unlike the raid on the jewels of Tokapi. The PIX were taken in Marty Escarcega's Phoenix (Mesa) Arizona shop when Rich also visited family there. Marty appears in the first PIC with Rich--Rich is the tall handsome guy with spectacles. :-) Rich's current passion is to recreate a model of Ericsson's (sp?) engine that powered the USS Monitor. If you have never seen a model of this engine work, with crank arms flailing about in the air, and the ingenious reversing mechanism, you'll be totally mesmerized when you do. There is one such working model that regularily is shown at NAMES, but it is not an exact model. You can be assured that when Rich's Monitor engine is completed and shown at NAMES it will be precise in all details. Art Volz(Houston)