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| Walter D. Ferguson video |
Line shafts and belts became obsolete when electric motors were developed.
It is hard enough to find pictures of a plant like this, let alone see it running. It appears someone has outfitted a goose-neck trailer with demo equipment to take to antique machine shows. Note that the line shaft is operated by an engine at the front of the trailer since a steam engine or water wheel would be rather cumbersome to make mobile.
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| Video at -0:121 |
Another video by Walter shows a Massey-Harris hit-miss gas engine.
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| Pullman National Monument, National Park Service posted Machines of Pullman While the town of Pullman was known for its architectural sophistication and high standards of sanitation its factory was equally impressive. Helping power the equipment in the factory was the Corliss Engine. Named after the inventor George Henry Corliss. Its effectiveness was on display at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 providing power for running the machinery at the exposition. Seeing its effectiveness Pullman purchased the engine to power car shop operations. As technological advancements progressed by the early 1900s the engine was scrapped after electricity replaced steam as the power source for the factory Photo left to right: Corliss Engine at International Exhibition, Philadelphia1876 and Corliss Engine building at Pullman Factory. Photo courtesy of Library of Congress and Pullman State Historic Site  Michael Milner: The Chicago Fire Department Apparatus Shop still had some line shafts in their machine shop in the late 1990's.  Michael Milner I see the Fire Department shares this southwest corner complex with other city services. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Daniel's comment This one? I was expecting a building down by the river. I know that Batavia used to have a lot of water powered industry back in the 1800s. If they built a modern building with a line shaft as a homage to the history of the town, that is even more impressive. As you can see in this 1950 topo, Wilson used to cross an island. And the C&NW used to go up the west side of the river. (The CB&Q tracks are still used by BNSF. This CB&Q route was the Aurora Branch Railroad, and it became the first 13 miles of CB&Q. It connected Aurora, Batavia, etc. to the ancestor of the C&NW, Galena & Chicago Union, at Turner Junction, which is now West Chicago. CB&Q opened their own line to Chicago on Dec 26, 1865.) Because of the dam at the northeast corner of the island, the river level on the west side of the island was higher than that on the east side. I presume that this allowed buildings on the island to build east/west raceways and use water power. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Daniel's comment We can still see the tailrace in the building next to the dam. |
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| Jackson-Township historical preservation posted via Dennis DeBruler |
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| Owen Stayner/ThisWorkplace360, Aug 2018 via Dennis DeBruler |
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| Foker Baba posted A machine shop in Massachusetts, early 1900s. Note that there are children working in the factory.. |
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| Fokir Baba posted A maintenance nightmare in the making.Endless belts endless repairs. Operational chaos overhead.The ultimate upkeep headache A mechanical maze of maintenance... Jimmy Williamson: Belt maintenance is easier than a lot of other types of maintenance. I rather deal with that mess then waiting for some idiot to tell me that he's going to charge me $500 per hour to plug his laptop into my system. Michael Fortier: Line shaft systems were very reliable. They were also very deadly |
Fluxcraze posted two images with the comment:
this machine built for the centennial exhibition in the US powered 8,000+ machinesTIL how they used to run multiple machines back in the day (using line shafts), with one core engine powering almost the entire building’s mechanical power needssecond image: a metal fab shop powered by line shafts
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| Showbiz Sparkle posted [Warning: AI click bait. But the photo and comments are interesting.] America Had No Spark Plugs in 1917 — So Champion Built Ceramic Cores That Survived 2,000°F April 6, 1917, Washington DC. When President Woodro Wilson stood before a joint session of Congress and declared war on Germany, the United States Army Air Service possessed exactly 55 operational aircraft. Germany, by contrast, fielded over 2500 warplanes. But the numerical disadvantage was only the beginning of America's aviation crisis. Within days of the declaration, procurement officers at the War Department discovered a problem that threatened to ground America's entire air campaign before it could begin. Every aircraft engine required spark plugs to function. High-performance spark plugs capable of surviving the extreme temperatures and pressures inside aircraft engines. America couldn't manufacture a single one. Every spark plug in the United States came from one source. Robert Bosch GmbH in Stoutgar, Germany, now an enemy nation. Bosch had dominated global spark plug production since engineer Gotatlo Honold invented the first commercially viable high voltage spark plug in 1902. His design using porcelain insulators and precision machined electrodes had become the worldwide standard. The patents were German. The manufacturing expertise was German. The supply chain was German. And as of April 6th, 1917, that supply had vanished. This is the documented story of how a French bicycle champion turned inventor working in a Toledo, Ohio workshop solved a problem that German engineers thought they owned. creating ceramic spark plug cores that could withstand temperatures exceeding 2,000° F and producing them by the millions in less than 18 months. Albert Champion, born in Paris in 1878, never intended to revolutionize automotive ignition systems. His first love was bicycles. As a teenage courier for a French bicycle manufacturer, Champion's natural speed caught his employer's attention. They began sponsoring him in races. By his early 20s, Champion had become exactly what his name suggested, a champion cyclist, winning races across France, including the prestigious Paris Rube in 1899. But bicycle racing in the 1890s was evolving. Motor pacing became popular. cyclists racing behind motorcycles that created aerodynamic slipstreams, allowing speeds exceeding 60 mph. Champion excelled at this dangerous sport until 1903 when disaster struck during a race at Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, New York. His motorcycle pacer crashed. Champion, unable to avoid the wreck at high speed, sustained the compound fracture of his femur. The injury was catastrophic. One leg ended up two inches shorter than the other. His racing career was over at age 25. While recovering in France, Champion decided to enter the automobile industry. He had noticed during his racing years that the motorcycles pacing him used primitive ignition systems, spark plugs that failed frequently, overheated constantly, and required replacement after every few races. Read the full story 👇 https://trendingdailyz.com/.../america-had-no-spark.../ Bobby Misenheimer: He sold the Champion spark plugs company, name and all. He didn't like what the new owners were doing with his old company and opened a competing spark plug company. AC spark plug company. AC is short for Albert Champion. Surprise. Richard Mauney: Champion plugs were made prior to 1908. Albert Champion left his company and joined with Billy Durant to form AC plug co. It became a part of GM and was making spark plugs way before WW1. Christopher Stückmacher Reinhardt: Sparkplugs was the least of it, the Wright brothers owned all the patents for aircraft... The 1917 Resolution: To break the, in some opinions, "patent troll" scenario, the industry formed a pool, which reduced royalties and ended the restrictive legal battles. Andrew M. Phillips: This opens thoughts about patents and what happens when national security requires violating them. As an attorney, it’s very interesting. Can a US company (pick a country) violate a patent held by a foreign adversary country if it is necessary to feed its war industry? Lots of conflicts in communications. Mike Trees: Andrew M. Phillips there is a steel called D-2 that Germany discovered and used for their war machine. America used that patent and also used it for their war machine. after the war, America had to pay Germany royalties for using their steel. Roy Calitz: And like Lincoln and Cadillac, Oldsmobile and Reo, Audi and Horsch both AC plugs and Champion plugs were started by the same person. Terry Fountain: Author champion made champion plugs he also made AC plugs for General Motors where he worked before. He left General Motors and started champion. I’m not saying one is than the other. I believe this is right. [This is the opposite of the above, so what was the order and dates?] Greg Brock: Someone on here should look up the founder of Mueller Foundry in Decatur IL I lived in Decatur and was told the founder H. Mueller was instrumental in the design of spark plugs As to whether or not he was the first I’m not sure I was told he had the first auto in the US and it was called a Mueller Benz He redesigned a Benz after having problems with it He was a gunsmith from Germany originally and if you look at fireplugs on streets today they have the Mueller name on them. David Kingston: Sir Oliver Lodge from The Ceramics capital Stoke on Trent was the first. John P. Wesson: The article is AI Rubbish. Albert Champion (a Frenchman) started importing spark plugs sometime around 1905 and manufacturing them in a plant outside Boston around 1907. Robert Bosch did patent the first reliable spark plug in 1902. There were other US manufacturers from about 1907 and later. Around 1910 Champion started another company in the midwest and by1911 Ford was using Champion spark plugs in the Model A. ...all long before the US entered WW1 in 1917. |
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| Tom Meek commented on the above post Growing up in Toledo I passed by the Champion factory countless times, and had family that worked there. |
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| 20:40 video |
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| Facebook Reel |
Note how one drive belt is straight whereas the other one has a twist. That is so that when the belts are shifted, one belt drives the planer whereas the other belt turns an idle pulley. Each time the table changes direction, the tool is moved another notch.
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| Facebook Reel, Jan 2026 |
Pierce-Arrow Car Company
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| @ 8:13 via Dennis DeBruler |
Impressive blog. We are manufacture Die Cutting Belts
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