Sunday, August 04, 2013

Glue some gears on it and make it steampunk.

 A 1920's-vintage Rumely Oil Pull kerosene-burner, out of La Porte, Indiana. Advance-Rumely didn't survive the Depression, being bought by Allis-Chalmers in '31.

As best I can tell, Advance-Rumely was the largest employer in La Porte in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing went under, for all intents and purposes, in 1985.

It's a locavore traction engine.

7 comments:

Jim said...

Some otherwise boring day you might enjoy a few hours driving around LaPorte. Much of it is rusty, abandoned, and dreary, but I find it a pleasingly nostalgic reminder of the one-time American genius for the mechanical arts.

Besides, that big sales lot full of vintage military vehicles might still be there.

(My son married a LaPorte girl.)

Al T. said...

Needs a Quad .50 mount. :)

Robert Fowler said...

I saw the title and had to go here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFCuE5rHbPA&list=FL_LJVlulDmu7LUlgpP3XzeQ&index=21

mustanger said...

They're Fiat-Allis now.

perlhaqr said...

Wrong era. It would need to be about 40 years older to be Steampunk. 1920's is Dieselpunk, and really, kerosene is close enough. ;)

Anonymous said...

Re: Allis-Chalmers. I recall this company sponsored MLB on NBC in the 1970s. Why a tractor company would advertise on network broadcasts of baseball escaped me for a moment, but a quick trip to Wikipedia reminds me that Allis-Chalmers expanded its production in the 1970s into lawn equipment for the denizens of suburbia. I remember well the gravel-voice Joe Garagiola, Sr. ripping through ad copy as he mangled the word “Allis-Chalmers.”

The manufacturing jobs are not coming back, kids. Yes, you can go to law school, but even with your law degree be prepared to work in a call center nonetheless.

Matthew Walker said...

I was looking over some 9mm i'd loaded the other day, for QA, and suddenly it came to me that my filthy unpolished cases don't look like crap. They look steampunk! Win!

Now, to glue three pounds of scrap brass on the Glock.