What is it?

Judy,

That is a worn out leather pad from the brakes on the steam steering rig on the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE.

There are two of them and they are mounted on 2x4's under the pilothouse. They operate by pedals on either side of the wheel and by stepping on the pedal, they clamp just like modern car disc brakes on the pilotwheel. The grooves you see are the facing of the wheel (or an impression of one burned into the pad) where it has cut through the leather.

From the cut on the top of the pad...looks like the one from the front of the wheel...cause on the back it is a perfect rectangle.

Somewhere in my collectibles I have at least one if not more of these.

~Travis~

You got that one right, Travis.
When the Belle was restored by Jefferson County the pilotwheel circles were worn paper thin by those brake pads. We were obliged to replace the circle. A fine old African-American cabinet-maker did a perfect job. I took him to the pilothouse, gave him a stack of Rock Maple boards from the Tell City Chair Company (courtesy of Bert Fenn) and left him alone in the pilothouse. Two or three days later the pilotwheel was rebuilt and tightened. Those worn wheel segments are collectors' items today. There were only sixteen of them.
The brakes are designed to clamp when the tiller bars are centered. One pilot didn't like that system, preferring to tramp on the brake and ordered the rig slacked off. Since then all who steer the Belle are obliged to step on the pedals to hold the wheel, where is was automatic. I regard it as a pain in the patoot!

The omniscient Travis wins an extra large box of extra salty (Doc Hawley recipe) excursion boat popcorn!!!!!!!!!!

I was predicting Alan would be the first correct respondent - didn't figure on Flying Fingers TV to be online first!!!!

I was predicting Alan would be the first correct respondent - didn't figure on Flying Fingers TV to be online first!!!! Let's see, that took all of 14 minutes to get an answer posted, what a learned group we have!!!

Ok, let's try one more and see if it takes more than 14 minutes to identify. This is not a WHAT but a WHOSE? Who was the original owner/wearer of this cameo necklace I was gifted??? (The very astute will also see that I'm stalling about getting this place cleaned up by doing this posting!)

Judy,

I am lost on this one....however..lets examine the facts. You were gifted it...so someone gave it to you to preserve, one can surmise. Having attended your fine presentation at the Howard Museum one could surmise as well it came from one of the Strecikfi. That would be too easy, and the school teacher in you wouldn't rest tonight if any of us got it that easy.

I have looked at a few pictures of Mary Greene and have tried to see if she were wearing such an item and in a few pictures she has either a broach on or something hanging about her neck...but nothing consistant through the pictures. So I am gonna rule her out.

It could be one of the ladies from the Leyhe family who ran the Eagle Packet Company. I just don't feel their family were around and prominant enough in the river fan circles to have passed this on this way. So I will move on from them.

I am gonna take a stab in the dark and go back to the Streckfus family only because of your predeliction towards collectibles form ther reign on the rivers and say it came from one of 4 people....

Either Sharon, Elizabeth, Lilly, or Donna Streckfus.

If I get this I will NOT accept the title of Jessica Fletcher of the Board...even thoughtit in retrospect sounded like something that character from theTV show Murder She Wrote would say!

~Travis~

Good thinking, but wrong! Not a Streckfus...

Here is a direct and dead-accurate answer that will eliminate one possibility. I didn't give it to you! One down, four billion to go.

I'm thinking Jane Greene.

I'm going to hazard a guess and say Alice Tooker.

Good guesses and close - it was one of Mary Becker Greene's necklaces which Mary Greene Stewart gave to me several years ago. I've never been able to find a picture of her wearing it, seems she always had pearls on. Its funny, but now that Jazzou mentioned Alice Tooker, I can't remember what type of necklace she wore. Seems I remember a big ring though. And Jazzou, didn't Vic have a ring in the shape of a banjo?

Judy,

Well, well, well....I actually said it and then came up with another idea. I should have stuck with my second guess!

I don't remember Ma Tooker wearing anything consistantly. Speaking of Ma, here she is as Lady Liberty as part of the "Grande Finale" in a calliope duel between the DQ and MQ in 1982.

~Travis

You know, I don't recall anybody's jewelry much, but I do know that if Vic had a banjo ring, it probably would've had the ability to light up, just like his banjo did. As for Alice, the only thing you can say she wore consistently was that big, wonderful smile.

Okay, Judy, we're ready for the next item to guess.

Jazzou

Item 3

Considering who have been making the most guesses, this ought to be easy, and its origin too...

Well, it's a D, G or an A natural key along with the corresponding sharp, and could it be from the second manual of the Delta Queen's calliope - which was gone before I came along, so I don't recall seeing it. So, Travis, tell us where they're really from!

Jazzou,

Wrong, calliope breath. It's a little known, little used ancient tuning fork for a banjo.

:O)

Paul

Judy,

Jazzou is kinda right....It is a calliope key...I vote for a "D" myself based entirely on the key shank form). It was manufactured by Ernest J. Wilde (the brass key and metal key shank are the dead giveaway of the Wilde manufacture) of Cincinnati, OH.

Looking at it I can't tell you the instrument it came from. Since he built 5 instruments and only 3 had brass keyboards I can narrow it down to two. It is either from his personal instrument or the CHAPERON instrument. As the third one is on the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE and that keyboard (I was last to rebuild it in 1991) is totally intact (save for a solder joint on the low "C" key which I keep meaning to address them about repairing).

The lower keyboard on the DELTA QUEEN operated the Una Fon bells. It was on the instrument until 1985 when it was removed and put into the dumpster at Robin Street. There is rumor a certain member of river illuminati has it in his collection out west and rescued it. I do not know wether this individual has the old keyboard set, too. That thing was added in 1971 and never worked as it was supposed to. The only time I ever heard it played that it workedreasonably well was in 1976. If you listen really closely on the record "Carefree Calliope" (1976 QCA Records Cincinnati, OH of the DQ cally) you will hear Dan Forman using the Una Fon bells very faintly in the background either in the first or second verse of every song he recorded.

The Una Fon was a keyboard played set of xylophone-styled bells which had selonoid mallets. They could be played with a single strike per key touch, or in reiterating form (imagine, if you will, a door bell on steroids). They were usually found mounted in circus wagons....particularly calliope wagons. This way you had something to ballyhoo with when the calliope didn't have up enough steam. They came the way of the circus in the early 1900's and were powered by a large battery. Unlike the calliope, they didn't have a very succesful run and all but disappeared in the 1930's. I have never found out where the DQ Una Fon came from....I do know it, like all of its brethren came from the Deagan Company of Cincinnati. Which brings up another point to ponder...Why Cincinnati? What about Cincinnati, OH lent itself to the manufacture of Bells (Deagan, Buckeye), Whistles (Lunkenheimer, Kirkup), and calliopes (Nichol, Wilde, and Frisbee)? it is strange the manufacture of these same items occurs in much fewer other locations (Kay and Co...bells in Louisville....kahlenberg whistles and signaling devices in Two Rivers, WI and many others).

Yes, signaling devices and other ballyhoo machines were made in other places..but, the best of the best (and the most manufacture in the world) all came from Cincinnati...wonder what the connection is?

Little known fact: On the aforementioned recording Track 10 is not Dan Forman as listed playing "Baby Face". It is infact Captain Gabe Chengery. Listen to it and you can tell the style right off...it is as plain as the nose on our faces. A little of the style of Capt. Clarke C. "Doc" Hawley mixed tiwh Capt. Gabes own unique lilt.

Everyone has their own approach and style to the calliope. If you listen enough and have a musical ear, you can usually guess us all rather easy!

~Travis~

Judy,

After looking at the pic harder and noticing the next key was black and not brass (the pitting on the key made me think brass...and the metal key shank) I am going to recind the diatribe I penned earlier and say it is infact from the NATCHEZ original keyboard.

The av gas pitting (avation fuel) on the key gave me the impression it was infact brass...I haden't noticed the "Db" key next to in in my original posting.

I know you were there when the MINNE HA HA keyboard was installed aboard the NATCHEZ...so that is what it has to be!

So, who has the builders plaque from the original NATCHEZ calliope keyboard? I know it is not on the keyboard in place today.

The other rumors, conjecture, and fact I stated in my last posting I stand behind 100%!

~Travis~

Travis Vasconcelos;12255 wrote: Judy,

Jazzou is kinda right....It is a calliope key...I vote for a "D" myself based entirely on the key shank form). It was manufactured by Ernest J. Wilde (the brass key and metal key shank are the dead giveaway of the Wilde manufacture) of Cincinnati, OH.

[snip]

Everyone has their own approach and style to the calliope. If you listen enough and have a musical ear, you can usually guess us all rather easy!

~Travis~

Good job Travis. Nice outline view. Now, can you fill in the details?

:O)

Paul

Your first guess was right on the necklace, but your second statement on the calliope keys is correct - these are off the NATCHEZ original keyboard, gotten legally from CCH. As to that plaque, hmm, don't know. Matt - did your father take it when the calliope was redone??? I can remember seeing the NY calliope in storage at what was then the storeroom - the Mandeville St. wharf. It wasn't there long, as I recall. As to the DQ unifon phon sp? Dan liked to play it when the weather was cool and he'd play Sleigh Bells with it. Unfortunately there were a few St. Paul trips when that was appropriate, even in summertime...

Number 4

Ok, one last item... that open house is fast approaching and I've still got one room to clean up. Travis, I can't imagine that you'll guess these, but who knows... they have nothing to do with music or the DQ or the NATCHEZ either....

I want to try this one, Judy: my first guess is engine room bell pulls.

Second guess is handles from old fashioned electric searchlight controls.

The Snickers bar goes to Bob on his second guess. Yes, those are from an old fashioned searchlight... now from what boat (and I got them legally, Bob)...