Topic starter
08/05/2007 1:20 pm
While looking at the shaft bearings from HEROINE last Friday at Texas A&M, we got into a discussion about what was used for for lubrication in the 1830s. Bearing lube that is, there is pretty good consensus about what the engineers were lubricated with. The lube cups on the bearing caps are nothing more than a shallow cup shaped depression with a slightly raised rim and an approximately 3/16" hole drilled to feed the bearing. They are not large- about 1-1/2 inches diameter and 1/2 inch deep. I don't think petroleum oil and greases were available yet in the mid 1830s. So, what was used? We were speculating that rendered animal fat was most likely, liquified by the heat of the bearing. Does any one have an idea?
The outboard port shaft bearing cup had never been drilled, and the lack of lubrication had predictably destroyed the top brass. The cap and shaft were heavily scored. On top of that, the bearing was cockeyed. She must have sounded like a cat with his tail caught in the door as she came up the river.
Topic starter
08/05/2007 1:48 pm
One further question. Does anyone know when steam syphons replaced the old lever operated bilge pump?
09/05/2007 3:00 pm
I think you're right on the animal fat grease. I've heard it said that the smell in an old engine room was akin to being in McDonald's what with all the hot grease sizzling away. The engineering staff must have been seriously lacking in intelligence to let a bearing go without grease. Maybe they were too busy eating burgers and fries.
Topic starter
09/05/2007 3:22 pm
[QUOTE= The engineering staff must have been seriously lacking in intelligence to let a bearing go without grease. Maybe they were too busy eating burgers and fries.
Or maybe they were just too well lubricated themselves. This boat was 7 years old, and on her last legs. You wouldn't believe the condition she was in. A passenger recorded in his diary three years earlier that she was in miserable condition. I'm not sure she would have made it back to NO even if she had not snagged.
10/05/2007 12:45 am
Hank: I am no expert by ANY means, but in other areas of mechanical contrivences, fatty acids of both animal and vegetable origin were used. I am talking light mechanical devices such as firearms and clocks. Sperm oil was a premium item and, I believe, that from the head of the whale was considered best. On early locomotives, tallow was used as a cylinder oil and the fireman was often called a "tallow pot". A pot of it sat on a shelf built into the backhead of the loco where it would stay liquid. Tallow is an animal fat rendered from the flesh of cattle, hogs (lard), sheep etc. Said "oils" were semi-solid at ambient temperatures but would tend to melt under the slight heat of a working bearing and run into the bearing from the cup you mention. Tallow "dips" were the cheap, homemade candles of the day...melting in the heat of summer. I do know that tallow was subjected to a process about 1825 wherein stearic acid was separated from the red oil (oleic acid) leaving a "high titre" (hard, with much higher melt point)substance from which dripless candles were (and still are) made. The red oil (actually yellow in high purity stages) was sold into the woolen industry as a yarn lube to aid the spinning process. The desirable feature in the latter was the ease with which it could be laundered out. Said red oil was used as a lamp oil as were most oils, including sperm. Vegetable oils from caster beans, cotten seed, etc were also used. Sperm oil was often "stretched" by the addition of some of the above as an adulterant. Linseed oil from flax was a drying oil that was the vehicle of paints and varnishes of that day and, thusly, a poor lube. A disadvantage of many of the oils mentioned was that they tended to solidify or dry over time...less so the sperm oil. Then, too, being fatty acids, in the presence of moisture they were a bit "active" with respect to iron and especially steel. I don't really know the answer to your question but I hope your query will smoke out the real answer. Tar was used on wagon and artillery wheels, melting under the friction of the bearing and I assume that most of it came from natural tar pits. Still bottom tar was likely not available until later years. To what extent the above may have been used on steamboats, I dunno. I look forward to the real answer.
10/05/2007 1:06 am
It never ceases to amaze me what we can learn on steamboats.org!!!
Topic starter
10/05/2007 2:58 pm
Thanks Tom. Some of that I knew, but some was new.
10/05/2007 9:29 pm
I seem to remember a DQ evening bow chat with Bill Kelly and Pete F. where this matter was touched on. My memory's dusty but I seem to recall talk about saturated leather being used and a "run in" time required. If I remember the heat from the run in caused the leather to react and create a usable surface for a shaft to run on. I know the leather had to have a hole and groove cut in it to allow for "oil" to drip to the bearing. As to the size and weight of the shaft being supported, I do not remember.
I do remember Pete talking about how the leather had to be changed on a regular basis but sounded like a routine pratice. He said it was a hold over from the times of wood machines but had carried over well to the "modern" times. The oil type was not mentioned.
Sure wish I had done more brain picking of those two.
10/05/2007 11:35 pm
well, well. Another old DQ crew member emerges from the shadows.