Part 2

In accordance with the arrangements, a train of cars with 500 passengers left Dayton for Hamilton at quarter past 7, on Thursday morning. The morning was exceedingly pleasant, the party in excellent spirit, a fine road to pass over, and a most important event to commemorate. A ride of two hours and a half through a beautiful country, brought the train to Hamilton. As it passed into town, thousands were assembled to greet its appearance, banners were stretched across the streets, having appropriate inscriptions, and all wore the appearance of festivity and rejoicing. Inspiring music, the thunder of artillery and the shouts of the assembled multitude, made the scene one of thrilling interest and excitement.

Our Hamilton friends had made ample preparations to refresh and entertain their guests from Dayton as well as from Cincinnati.

While awaiting the arrival of the trains from the city, invitations were freely tendered to our citizens by Hon. L. D. Campbell, Col. A. P. Miller and others, to partake of their hospitalities. Many accepted the invitations, and were entertained in the most munificent style.

The trains from Cincinnati having arrived, “the procession” was formed and amidst the booming of the cannon and the shouts of the multitude, the four locomotives, with nearly fifty cars in their trains, were soon under way for Dayton. Proceeding at a moderate speed, all arrived safely in Dayton at half past 2.

In accordance with the Programme, a procession was formed under the direction of Col. Greer, Grand Marshal, which proceeded to the front of the Court House, where the Mayor of the city, John Howard, Esq., in a brief and appropriate speech extended a cordial welcome to our guests. S. S. L’Hommedieu, Esq., the President of the Great Miami Railway, responded in happy terms to the welcome of the Mayor.

The assembly separated for dinner, and all we believe were entertained at public tables, or at the houses of our citizens.

Towards 4 o’clock, one of the trains started on the return, and by 5 two others had departed. A locomotive with several cars, remained to take such of our visitors as remained to spend the night in Dayton. All the trains which left yesterday, safely reached the city and their arrival there was telegraphed as soon as ascertained.

Serious Accidents.

A little girl fell through the railroad bridge yesterday morning, but was not much injured by the fall.

A gentleman from Cincinnati, in endeavoring to climb upon the second train while it was under way, had his foot caught by a wheel and badly mutilated.

An Irishman in the employ of the Cincinnati Railroad Company, while coming up the track last night in a hand car met with a serious accident. While turning the crank, it broke and he was precipitated forward with great force, and so much injured that his life is considered in danger.

Accident to S. S. L’Hommedieu, Esq.

Just as the last train was leaving for Cincinnati, an accident occurred which had well nigh proved fatal to S. S. L’Hommedieu, Esq., the efficient President of the road now opened. The “Red Artillery” of Cincinnati occupied the last car of the train, and were firing their small gun as the train started. The muzzle of the piece was elevated, the charge poured in, but luckily was not wadded. The piece was depressed till about within range of the heads of the spectators, and was fired in the midst of a hundred persons standing by. Mr. L’Hommedieu was passing within a few feet of and directly in front of the cannon’s mouth, as the match was applied. The principal part of the charge struck his hat, but a part entered his face. He was prostrated by the concussion, but was soon upon his feet again. He was immediately taken in a buggy to the residence of E. W. Davies, Esq., and after a night of quiet and repose was enabled to be about this morning. His eyes are much inflamed, so that they cannot hear the light, and his face is filled with powder. He left for Cincinnati in the train this morning. We hope soon to hear of his entire recovery.

PROGRAMME OF THE RAIL ROAD OPENING AT DAYTON, SEPTEMBER 18, 1851.

The Dayton Artillery Squad will meet at Phillips’ Station, 15 minutes before 6 o’clock A. M. and fire 10 rounds.

The squad will leave Dayton at 7 o’clock in company with citizens of Dayton and other guests with the Saxe Horn Band, for Hamilton. The Squad will fire five guns at each town the train passes.

On arriving in Hamilton, the Artillery Squad will fire 10 rounds, and after reaching Hamilton they will be governed by the arrangements at that place.

The order of firing after leaving Hamilton for Dayton, will be announced to the different Artillery Squads before the trains depart from Hamilton.

The Dayton Artillery Squad in the first train of cars on arriving at the west end of the Miami Bridge will halt until the arrival of the other trains, firing during the intervals and on the arrival of the other trains. The Squad will then fire 10 rounds alternately with the “Red Artillery of Cincinnati.”

The first train will then advance and halt at Main street at which place the visitors with the Saxe Horn Band in front, will form in open order, facing north.

The Second train, with S. M. L’Hommedieu, Esq., President of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railway, with the Mayors and corporate authorities of Cincinnati, Hamilton, Franklin, Middletown and Miamisburg, and Ministers of the Gospel will advance to the point above indicated.

J. D. Putnam, Esq., will receive President L’Hommedieu in an open carriage. J. Howard, Esq., Mayor of Dayton, will receive the Mayors of the places above named in an open carriage.

The carriages will form at the head of the procession.

The Ministers of the Gospel, and the Councils of the different cities and towns, followed by the U.S. Brass Band from Newport, Ky.,—the corporate authorities eight abreast.

The remainder of the visitors will then form in regular order.

The Cincinnati Band will take the centre of the line.

The Saxe Horn Band will bring up the rear.

While the line is formed the Bands will play, and the procession will move to the Court House, where the reception address will be delivered by James Howard, Esq., Mayor.

After the address and response, the Bands will play a national air; the procession will again form and proceed to the Depot Ground, where a collation will be provided.

By Order of the Committee of Arrangements, JAMES GREER, Grand Marshal.

Assistant Marshals. J. McDANIEL, C. L. VALLANDIGHAM CAPT. M. B. WALKER E. N. COMLY

The Corliss Engine

The Corliss steam engine improvements, at the time of their invention and for many years thereafter, represented the most effective device ever designed for economizing in the use of steam and regulating the steadiness of a steam engine’s power and speed. These were essential steps if man was to harness the power of steam and turn it to practical use.

Before the advent of the Corliss engine, those engines which were available were very wasteful in their use of fuel to produce steam and its resultant power. They were also unable to maintain even speeds in driving factory machinery and other units. This uneven flow of power was a serious handicap to those who wanted to use steam to turn the wheels of industry.

The secret of the efficiency of the Corliss engine lay in its most distinctive feature ... the Corliss cut-off valve gear. The cut-off was automatically controlled by the governor regardless of power variations and without any slowing in speed. This was fundamentally responsible for the Corliss’ efficiency and savings in fuel. So efficient was the engine that the inventor often agreed to sell his product under an agreement that the saving in fuel cost by the end of a certain period would be its price. In one case, after the engine had run through the stated period of two years, the purchaser was glad to pay twice the list price rather than the much higher amount represented by actual savings.

The Corliss engine has played no small part in the development of Dayton industry. Two such engines were used by The National Cash Register Company for almost fifty years. One of these has been placed in Carillon Park. In the next few pages this faithful worker for industrial progress tells some of its experiences.

The Story of My Life

Personal reminiscences of the Corliss engine in Carillon Park, covering nearly fifty years of continuous service.

For quite awhile now, I have been sitting over here in Carillon Park and I expect to go on doing that for some years to come. When you weigh a couple of hundred tons you don’t move around any more than you have to and once you find a good spot you are likely to “stay put.” Through the windows of my comfortable little power house I look out at my neighbors across the way. One of them is a Grasshopper locomotive which I can just see through the windows of his “station.”

I haven’t actually met “Grasshopper” but I did learn not long ago that he has written the story of his life. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that he was “blowing off steam” but it does seem to me that if he has a story to tell I should have one too. Of course, I know that size doesn’t mean everything, but if you should weigh old “Grasshopper”—wheels, cab and all—he wouldn’t weigh nearly as much as my flywheel. But I feel that we do have several things in common ... we both know what it means to get all steamed up and we have both done a lot of work in our day.

My friend “Grasshopper” has traveled quite a bit but I think he has settled down now, just like me. They say that a rolling stone gathers no moss and certainly “Grasshopper” is bright and shiny but I don’t believe you will find much moss on me either.

My ancestry doesn’t go back quite as far as “Grasshopper’s” but the difference is only about thirteen years, at that. He was born in 1835 and was the second generation of his family. True enough, I came along a good many years later but my forefathers reach back to 1848, for in that year the Corliss line was begun. In the following year, on March 10, 1849, Mr. George H. Corliss, a remarkable man whose name I bear, was granted his first patent for steam engine improvements embodying his famous “drop cut-off valve gear.” He had developed some new ideas about steam engines, mostly about making them run steadier and on less coal. Those ideas meant a lot to industry all over this country. Outside of the teammate who worked next to me in the NCR power house for years, I never met any of my brothers but I am sure they were all hard workers who gave a good account of themselves.

Like anybody else, I don’t remember much about my birth. I was built in Mount Vernon, Ohio, by the C. & G. Cooper Company, which manufactured Corliss engines. My various pieces never really met until they all came together in the NCR power house back there in 1902. As I remember, it was a rather bumpy ride from the freight yards to the NCR factory but I felt quite important. Who wouldn’t, with five teams of horses pulling you along and people stopping to look at you all along the way. I gather that I was considered quite a fellow in engine circles in those days and I guess folks figured if the people at NCR went out and hired a big engine like me to work for them business must be good and expected to get better.

I really don’t know who figured out all the intricate variations in my anatomy but I have heard that E. A. Deeds, who was an engineer at NCR in those days, asked them to put in some special features which he thought would make me better. Those ideas must have been all right, for I have never known a sick day in my life. And for the record, let me say that I was running full speed right up to the moment I was shut off, in 1948. That had happened before when they made me stop to be looked over but they always let me start up again. Glad I didn’t know what was happening that day for I certainly had no idea of quitting, and I wouldn’t have liked the idea a bit. Of course, I came out all right, but for a while things looked pretty dark, I can tell you.

As a matter of fact, according to the story I have pieced together from chance bits of conversation, I missed the scrap heap by just a hair. It seems there was some idea of putting only my fly wheel in Carillon Park, because they didn’t quite want to see me pass out altogether. Then one day, Colonel Deeds got the idea of putting all of me over here. He said there were not too many Corliss engines around and that we were getting fewer every year. He figured that future generations ought to know what we looked like, because we had done a good job. So, in the nick of time, he saved me. Nick of time is right! It was a matter of hours. The scrap man had already been out to look me over and I could almost feel the hot breath of the acetylene torch eating right into me.

Now maybe before I go any further, I should tell you what I did for almost fifty years at NCR. I really had two jobs: one to turn out electric power and the other to heat the factory with my exhaust steam, which you might say I did with my left hand. That’s one reason they always liked me. I used a lot of coal—guess I’ve burned up about 175,000 tons in my day—but I never wasted it. I got just about as much out of a ton of coal as I possibly could and then I did that extra job of heating the factory with my exhaust steam for practically nothing.

I could tell you a lot about some of the things that happened during my almost half century on the job. Of course I saw NCR grow up. When I went to work in the power house there were just 5 buildings in the whole plant. When they took me out I was amazed at how the place had changed. I had seen some of the new buildings out the window but by no means all of them. There are over 30 now. And what a lot more people there are! I think there were about 2,000 in 1902 and now there are 15,000. Well, I like to think I did my share in helping things along.

About eleven years after I started to work, a terrible thing happened to Dayton. I am talking about the flood of 1913, and while I didn’t get wet, I knew the situation was bad. You see, the water knocked out the power houses downtown and my friends and I in the NCR power house had to step in and take over. Of course we were glad to do it and those days remain one of the great experiences of my life, but I wouldn’t want to go through that again. Or see the fine people of Dayton go through it either. Fortunately nobody needs to worry any more, for I understand they have fixed up that flood business for good.

I know people don’t like too many figures, but I’d like to give you just a few about myself. As you see me today, I weigh 210 tons. My flywheel is twenty feet in diameter and weighs 38 tons. When I was working full speed I turned out 800 kilowatts. According to people who should know and who looked me over just before I moved over here, I was in just about as good shape when I went out as when I went in. Give me a little steam and my two old friends, Tom Monks and Ross Morgan, to look after me and I’d be right back in business.

You know, there is an interesting point of difference between Grasshopper’s experience and mine. He went onto the side track because bigger and more powerful engines took his job away from him. Well up to a point my experience was the same; the fellow who’s doing my job now is certainly more powerful—about six times as strong—much as I hate to admit it. But the funny part of it is, he’s a midget compared to me. Naturally, I haven’t been back to the power house since I left, but they tell me this fellow, whose name is Turbine, something or other, is hardly more than a good-sized bump on the power house floor. He weighs only one-fifth of what I do. Doesn’t seem possible that he can get more done than I did, but I know times change, and I guess engines, like everything else, change with them. Don’t think I’m critical; more power to him. If things keep on growing around there, he’s going to need it. But I just have a little hope way down deep, that once in a while someone is going to look over that way and think back to the days when they could see my old flywheel whirling around day and night, trying to keep things going.

You know, when you have spent your life trying to do the right thing, you like to feel that you have done a good job. Do you know the last thing they said about me, just before I moved? This is part of the Company’s records so it’s official and it’s something I’ll always remember. Here it is: “This engine has given excellent service and no power interruptions were ever experienced due to failure of this unit.” That makes a fellow feel pretty good and being over here in Carillon Park, looking shinier even than when I was on the job, makes me feel good, too. I know I am going to meet a lot of fine people and I hope they’ll enjoy coming in and looking me over. You know, I think that even for a Corliss ... I’m a very lucky fellow.

CARILLON PARK DAYTON, OHIO

One of a series of Carillon Park booklets. Price ten cents.

PRINTED IN U.S.A.

Transcriber’s Notes

—Silently corrected a few typos.

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.