Anyone Know What This Object Might Be?

[1HappyHiker]

Does anyone know what the object is in the photos below? While bushwhacking yesterday, I came across this object in the woods on the south side of the Sawyer River, not too far from Route 302.

Whatever it is, it looks like it's been there for awhile. However, in the grand scheme of things, it might be something that isn't very old.
It might simply be a modern-day object that fell off a truck, and then perhaps dragged off the road into the woods.

 

[Little Rickie]

Looks like a top to a still that blew off? How big around and tall is it?

Any other clues nearby?

 

[ALGonquin Bob]

Looks like a roof-top ventilator

 

[1HappyHiker]

Looks like a top to a still that blew off? How big around and tall is it?
Any other clues nearby?

There were no other clues nearby that I saw.

In terms of its dimensions, I really should've taken time to get some rough approximations using my trekking pole as a measuring device. But I didn't. My best guess is that the circumference might possibly be as much as 8 feet. In terms of height, I'd guess maybe a little over 3 feet.

 

[evilhanz]

It appears to be the base of a steam donkey smoke stack - a portable winch used in logging:

 

[Little Rickie]

Looks good to me. I wonder why there are no other pieces nearby and it isn't partiually covered by woods debris?

 

[gaiagirl]

HappyHiker,

Do you know about the old logging town of Livermore? I would have to assume your possibly identified object has something to do with it.



Try going to waymarking.com, then Ghost Towns --- Livermore

A colleague at Tin Mountain, Carol Foord, does wonderful field trips out that way on the history of the place for kids and adults.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Sure looks like a sneezal valve to me ...

 

[1HappyHiker]

Evilhanz, thank you! Judging from the photos you posted, the contraption that I found in the woods does indeed seem to be an old steam donkey smokestack.

Little Rickie, perhaps there are no other pieces laying around because maybe you were not too far off in your initial response of:
"Looks like a top to a still that blew off." Possibly the old steam donkey merely "blew its stack" from a pressure build-up. So then maybe the blown stack was discarded and the operator transported the steam donkey to the nearest steam-donkey repair shop to be fitted out with a new stack. Don't know if it happened that way, but it makes a good story.

Gaiagirl, yup I'm familiar with Livermore. I've walked around the ruins on several occasions. And I agree that there is a good possibility that the piece I found in the woods was likely related to that abandoned lumber mill town.

 

[Waumbek]

Part of a logging railroad steam engine smokestack? Here's a picture of one (C. W. Saunders) crossing the Sawyer River:

http://photos.whitemountainhistory.org/FullScreenPhoto.aspx?gallery=219958&photo=7349363

It's part of a series of Livermore photos.

 

[1HappyHiker]

Waumbek, thank you for posting the link to the C. W. Saunders crossing the Sawyer River.

Hmmm! The object I photographed in the woods has characteristics that resemble both the logging railroad steam engine smokestack that you posted, as well as the steam-donkey smokestack that Evilhanz posted.

Would it be fair to generalize and say that it's likely a part from a steam-powered machine of some sort that was used in the logging industry, probably during the late 1800's to early 1900's?

 

[una_dogger]

Looks like one of those new fangled ce-ment mixers. Or something that Granny used to cook up the recipe.

 

[Rick]

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[Dave Bear]

I think Waumbek has shown it best. If you look closer at the skeletal metal frame on the one you found it looks like the structure that would have been used to support the dome on the top of the stack on the engine in Waumbek's link. Its slightly bent up but would have been there for a reason such as that. Nice piece of history and trivia.

 

[Jazzbo]

What diameter is it?

Thanks for sharing John! I have RR book about Saco River RR and it has many similar photos as Waumbek's. Judging from people in photos smokestack on CW Saunders appear to 48" diameter. Skinny part appears to 12" or less. If it is indeed stack from CW Saunders then the artifact might be of interest to the Bartlett Historical Society.

Here's a link to it. Just checked. Yikes they have re-modeled websight extensively. Full of 100'as of pictures just like Grandma's attic! Last year when I visited web site there was a button for questions and I got an answer from someone there. No time to see if they still have this button.

http://www.bartletthistory.org/bartletthistory/index.htm

 

[1HappyHiker]

I have RR book about Saco River RR and it has many similar photos as Waumbek's. Judging from people in photos smokestack on CW Saunders appear to 48" diameter.

Hmmm! Well, at the time I stopped to take a few quick snapshots of the object, I was certainly not thinking it was anything other than some sort of junk that someone had dragged into the woods. And so with that mindset, I really didn't take any time to do any measurements.

Anyway Ray, regarding your question about the diameter, if in fact it had a diameter of 48 inches, then that would mean the circumference would be about 12.5 feet. I know that in an earlier response I had guesstimated the circumference to be about 8 feet. However, it was only a guess. My guess on the diameter would be that it was certainly within the range of ±40 inches.

Perhaps later this week I'll be headed down in that general area, and if so, then I might tramp around a bit to see if I can locate the object again, and take some precise measurements, etc.

 

[Waumbek]

I wasn't suggesting that the mystery part is from THE C.W. Saunders but possibly from a similar engine. In any event, the best way I know to identify it, 1HH, is to take a picture of it over to Clark's in Lincoln. Ed is no longer there, of course, but his brother Murray and younger members of the Clark family are, and they are mechanical geniuses with a penchant for digging old steam locomotives and other steam machines out of the woods of Maine and elsewhere and restoring them. Someone there will be able to tell you. Just stop in the gift shop and inquire. They're used to such questions (some asked by me so I know) and gracious about helping out.

 

[Jazzbo]

My RR book is at home and I'm at lunch at work, but I seem to recall the Saco River RR book in recounting history of Sawyer River RR, the CW Saunders was dragged out somehow long after Livermore was disbanded and Saunders land sold to FS. It spent many years by side of "old?" Route 302. It was lost track of at some point. When exploring area you might look for traces of "old" Rt 302 roadway. You might recall John when I showed you old bridge crossing over Nancy Brook. That was the old rt 302.

 

[1HappyHiker]

I wasn't suggesting that the mystery part is from THE C.W. Saunders but possibly from a similar engine. In any event, the best way I know to identify it, 1HH, is to take a picture of it over to Clark's in Lincoln. Ed is no longer there, of course, but his brother Murray and younger members of the Clark family are, and they are mechanical geniuses with a penchant for digging old steam locomotives and other steam machines out of the woods of Maine and elsewhere and restoring them. Someone there will be able to tell you. Just stop in the gift shop and inquire. They're used to such questions (some asked by me so I know) and gracious about helping out.

I took Waumbek's suggestion and contacted the good folks at Clark's Trading Post about the object I found in the woods in the general vicinity of Sawyer River Road and Route 302.

It has taken awhile to post this new information since I needed to find some time to go back into the woods and relocate the object and to take some measurements & additional photos. Then, there were several days of back & forth e-mail correspondence with Elise & David Clark. Plus, I've been away from NH for over a week visiting family.

Anyway, in terms of measurements, the diameter at the top of this funnel shaped object is 60 inches, and the diameter at the terminus of the object is 18 inches.

So, considering these measurements and the photos, David Clark hazarded a guess that the funnel shaped object might have been a smoke stack from the Doc Ordway steam engine which was built in 1844.

If (and it's truly an "if") this is the stack from that particular steam engine, then it's anyone's guess as to how it came to rest in its current location. It's also anyone's guess as to how it could have survived in such relatively good condition for over 150 years. But as David Clark pointed out, just because the original locomotive was built in 1844, does not mean that the stack necessarily has to be that old. The stack could have been replaced at a much later date.

Below is a photo of that locomotive accompanied by a brief write up. This photo appears on page 24 of the book entitled "J.E. Henry's Logging Railroads" by Bill Gove.

Here is a photo of the funnel-shaped object found in the woods.

Here is a close-up of a portion of the widest part of the object (i.e. the top of the stack)

David Clark asked that I form my own conclusions, and so I suppose that would be my suggestion as well!

 

[evilhanz]

Thanks for going back and taking some additional photos and measurements. The close up of the interior of the funnel makes it pretty clear it's a spark arrestor. That was a device riveted to the smoke stack of a wood-fired steam engine. It was designed to circulate and break up the embers in order to reduce the chance of spot fires along the tracks and in the slash.The large diameter makes it unlikely that it was attached to a portable steam donkey as I originally thought, but that's not out of the question. One of the mills or the CCC camp could have used one with an arrestor that large.

There were many variations. One of the books I have on 19th century steam engine design shows no less than three dozen shapes - mostly of the balloon stack and diamond stack variety. Although the queen's crown style was not very common, I know for certain that the Baldwin engine used by the Sawyer River RR had one as late as the 1920s. I don't have the book in front of me, but Logging Railroads of the White Mountains should have a picture.

The spark arrestors were removable, so that could explain why no other objects were found nearby. As wood-fired engines switched to coal, the bulbous arrestors were often replaced with shotgun style stacks that improved draft. Maybe the engine it was attached to was converted to coal and the arrestor abandoned?