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1911 Film of Newyork City

Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2017 12:28 am
by cyberbadger
New York City 1911

Fantastic quality for the time.

Many large paddle wheelers and other steamers visible.

I did not realize that very large beam engines sticking out of the center top of paddlewheelers was a thing. Now Fred's paddlewheeler makes more sense to me.

Modern Museum of Art
https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/3858

-CB

Re: 1911 Film of Newyork City

Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2017 12:46 pm
by fredrosse
Great film, thanks for posting.

The walking beam sidewheel engines were popular from the 1840s into the early 20th century, although this type of engine was obsolete decades before that. For river steamers the passengers wanted to see the walking beam working, and that is why they stayed in use for so long after more efficient engines were the norm. The walking beam engines were also more forgiving of machinery allignmet issues .

In the USA the fuel was cheap, but in Europe the sidewheelers virtually all had compound diagonal engines by the late 19th century, with about half the fuel consumption of the typical walking beam steamer in th USA.

Re: 1911 Film of Newyork City

Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2017 4:32 pm
by cyberbadger
fredrosse wrote: For river steamers the passengers wanted to see the walking beam working, and that is why they stayed in use for so long after more efficient engines were the norm. The walking beam engines were also more forgiving of machinery allignmet issues .
Thanks for the info fred.

I was thinking it was probably a big pain when it was raining right into engineering! :shock:

Beautiful though, machinery that large moving that fast is definitely surreal to me.

-CB