Bob Wilhelm’s Q&A – Marshall Steam Museum (Friends of Auburn Heights)

Have an idea for Bob Wilhelm’s Q&A or want to share your insights? Email Bob at Questions@AuburnHeights.org.

COG PLANTHOPPER

The small planthopper pictured below is found throughout Europe, Russia, China, and Northern Africa. First described in 1839, it is a winged insect with more than 1,000 relatives. The nymphs are unique to their parents in a manner not found elsewhere on planet Earth. What is that unique genetic feature or attribute for this quarter-inch-long insect? Hint: The unique genetic mechanical feature is the only known example found in nature but may be found in every mode of transportation used by humans.

Answer
Some will argue that man has often invented things having closely observed nature. For example, it might be argued that observing nearly round rocks rolling down a hill provided the idea for the wheel. The Wright brothers are said to have observed how birds twist their wings and tail feathers to control their flight when developing controls for their aeroplane.

While the human concept mechanical gearing is more than 2,300 years old, Issus Coleoptratus nymphs (pictured in the question) have incorporated biological mechanical gearing in their hind legs for perhaps millions of years. It is the only known example of biological gearing. Gearing is defined as evenly-sized teeth or cogs cut into a matching pair of straight or curved, interlocking, moving, surfaces in such a manner as to synchronize their motion as they operate.

Investigated by biologists Malcolm Burrows and Gregory Sutton from the University of Cambridge in the U.K. in 2013, the gears force the nymph’s legs to each exert equal force when the nymph hops among undergrowth leaves and branches at speeds as high as 8.7 miles per hour. The gearing action ensures the insect jumps straight ahead and not off-course or starts spiraling only to miss the targeted landing spot. The x-ray images below show the 80 micrometer wide teeth that incorporate fillets to reduce wear at the base of each cog or tooth similar to human-designed mechanical gears.

Each gear cog is also asymmetrical and curved in one direction only as the interlocking action between the teeth under power is in one direction only. Most man-made machine gears, such as those in transmissions and steering systems are symmetrical due to the need to rotate in two directions.

Interestingly, should a tooth break, when the nymph molts to a larger size, a replacement tooth is grown as each molting increases the size of the gears in proportion to the insect’s increasing mass and leg length. However, as a nymph becomes an adult in later molting events, the gearing disappears giving way to a simple friction interface between the two leg bones. This evolutionary change no doubt eliminates the need to grow back broken cogs during adulthood. The larger mated surface contact areas of adult leg bones provide the same control of landing location. Burrows and Sutton were able to observe, using high-speed video, the mechanical action of the Issus Coleoptratus’ legs by electrically stimulating one of the nymph’s leg muscles causing the pair of legs to quickly extended with synchronized force and motion.

March 9, 2020

YORK LYN & YORKLIN & YORKLYN

While the exact origin of Auburn as the name for the northern portion of Auburn Valley State Park is undocumented, history seems to point to its origin being with Thomas Lea, who took over ownership of the Garrett Paper Mill in 1813. Marshall Brothers Paper Mill started as the Garrett grist and saw mill in in the early 1700s, then became a paper mill around 1790 before becoming a textile mill after Lea’s purchase in 1813. Lea followed the practice of naming his mills, and he chose Auburn, perhaps in connection with the Leni Lenape Indians of the area, as the name for the textile mill. Lea sold the mill to a Pusey who sold it to a Clark from whom the Marshalls purchased it.

Back in 2013, we asked a question related to where the name Yorklyn originated. Since that Q&A, new research has uncovered additional information of interest. The names of many Delaware communities, towns, and cities stem from prominent individuals. Wooddale for Alan Wood, Marshallton for the Caleb and John Marshall families (Israel’s uncles), Faulkland for the Foulk family (since there was a related branch of the Foulk family in Brandywine Hundred, to avoid confusion, the “o” was changed to “a” with “land” added by the railroad when they placed a station in that area). Census records do not reveal any northern Delaware families named Yorklyn from which the name could have been derived. Some have speculated that Yorklyn is a composite of “York,” a male name of English origin, and “Lyn” of Spanish and English origin given to males or females and that these individuals might have been related to the Garrett family.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Yorklyn was spelled multiple ways in print publications, including local Delaware and Pennsylvania newspapers. Two of the more prominent spelling variations serve as the title for this Question of the Month. In the U.S., Yorklyn is hardly a popular name for a town, city, or otherwise as Delaware’s Yorklyn is one of only two such census-named areas in the U.S. The other Yorklyn is a 0.45-square-mile area in York County, Pennsylvania, east of the town of York (Yorklyn, DE is 0.14 square miles in area). Franklin is the most popular U.S. city name (31 occurrences) with Clinton and Washington tied in 2nd place (29 occurrences each). The third most popular U.S. area or city name is Arlington (28 occurrences) according to Wikipedia.

Many of the Delaware stations built along the Wilmington & Western Rail Road in 1872 were named for the area where they were placed (Wilmington, Kiamensi, Greenbank, Mt. Cuba, Ashland, Hockessin, Southwood). The rest were named as a derivation or other associated with individuals prominent in the railroad’s founding and early financing (Marshallton, Faulkland, Wooddale). Yorklyn is the one station name that doesn’t fit the naming pattern.

William E. Garrett, owner of the snuff mill who supported the early railroad as a Director, stockholder, and land grantor, lived in the area then referred to as Auburn. While Garrett and his wife never named their offspring Lyn or York, he was asked to suggest one or more names to the railroad Directors for consideration as the name for a station to be constructed near the Garrett snuff mills. What was the thinking behind William Garrett offering Yorklyn as his only suggestion?

Answer

We recently uncovered what is probably the best documentation for how the name Yorklyn came about. As early as 1905, the phrase “first draft of history” was cited in text, but it was Phil Graham, Washington Post owner and publisher, who made the phrase “The First Rough-draft of History” famous by using it in various speeches and writings. While newspapers are not always accurate in published information, they do provide a foundation upon which history can be documented and are effectively “the first rough draft of history.” The newspaper clipping shared below, from the August 11, 1873, Wilmington Daily Commercial newspaper explains how Garrett’s daughters came to suggest Yorklyn.

The “Marshall’s paper mills” referred to above, while it was a single mill, references Thomas S. Marshall’s Homestead Mill at the joining of the east and west branches of the Red Clay Creek in Kennett Township, PA. This is the original Marshall paper mill before Israel and Elwood Marshall, Thomas S.’s sons, purchased the burned-out Clark woolen mill to convert it into a modern paper mill in 1890. William T. Moore opened the U.S. Post Office at Yorklyn Station on June 13, 1873. Thus, the article above may be considered a “first rough draft of history’ in its accuracy!

The Wilmington Daily Commercial was published from October 1, 1866, until March 31, 1877. More commonly referred to as the Wilmington Commercial, it became the first daily paper published in Delaware. It was founded by Howard Jenkins and Wilmer Atkinson, who became Wilmington residents specifically to publish a daily newspaper. Selling their paper for 2 cents a copy initially, they used steam-powered presses to quickly print and distribute the latest news and gossip. Jenkins & Atkinson were among the first to sell newspapers on Delaware trains, thus expanding their circulation well beyond Wilmington’s city limits.

On January 3, 1867, Jenkins & Atkinson published a weekly edition titled Delaware Tribune. On September 4, 1871, the first issue of Every Evening was published by the Wilmington Commercial’s former city editor William T. Croasdale, who had struck out on his own to publish a competing newspaper. The two papers eventually merged to become the Every Evening and Commercial on April 2, 1877, with only the April 1, 1877, issue being named Every Evening, Wilmington Daily Commercial. Eventually, through additional mergers of Wilmington newspapers, the Evening Journal merged with Every Evening, Wilmington Daily Commercial. Over the decades the Evening Journal absorbed other Wilmington area newspapers, thus becoming Delaware’s prominent newspaper. The Evening Journal is published by Gannett Company, Inc., which, as of November 2019, is the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S.

February 10, 2020

WORKING ON THE RAILROAD

In doing some recent research, we came across the image below from 1935. While most railroads did something similar, the photo is for the New York Central Railroad. What service is the worker providing? As a hint, the location is the entry to a passenger station located in the distance.

Answer
The image above is of the work pit of a railroad “hot box” inspector! Passenger trains, as well as freight trains coming into the station complex, had to slow sufficiently for the switching ahead. They had been running at a much higher speed prior to coming to the location pictured, which meant wheel bearings had been operating at higher speeds, creating more friction. A bearing without sufficient lubrication would be smoking if not on fire, and it was the inspector’s job to spot the smoke/fire from a “hot box” and report it so that the train could be stopped and the problem dealt with.

Depicted in the image below is a typical railroad friction bearing such as was used for locomotive, freight, and passenger cars during the 1800s and into the mid-1900s before roller and ball bearings saw widespread use. The olive part is the rotating axle attached to the railroad wheel. The yellow is the mechanical bearing made of brass. Under the axle and contained within an iron casting box-like structure with a door at the end is the waste packing, which amounts to cotton and wool materials in contact with the underside of the olive axle and saturated with oil. The turning axle picks up a thin layer of oil on the axle’s cylindrical surface and carries the oil as the axle turns to the contact area between the yellow bearing material and the olive axle. That thin layer of oil molecules keeps the axle and bearing from direct contact by forming a thin oil sheet between the two. Without metal-to-metal contact between the bearing and axle, there is little heat generated, offering a low-friction interface between the turning axle and stationary bearing.

Should oil in the packing become depleted, the oil film on the axle is reduced, and metal -to-metal contact between the bearing and axle generates heat from increased friction. With sufficient heat, the oil begins to smoke, and in an extreme situation, the oil can catch fire. As the bearing assembly is within an enclosure resembling a rectangular box, the term hot box came into use when a bearing was found smoking.

January 13, 2020

$2.7 MILLION TIME PIECE

For decades a marble-faced clock has hung over the pedestrian entrance to the Marshall Steam Museum. While it ran in times past as noted by the numerous signatures inside the case acknowledging the mechanism was oiled, in recent years it has frequently been the object of the statement “it is right twice a day.” As part of the museum work being done this winter, the clock was removed for restoration. We are happy to report the 100-year old Seth Thomas mechanism is currently tick-tocking away while the wooden case undergoes restoration. Look for the clock to display the correct time when the museum reopens in 2020 and don’t miss reading about the clock’s link to the Marshall family!

The clock is a Seth Thomas Marble Gallery No. 1 30-day clock. They were offered in various configurations from the late 1890s into the early 1900s for use in banks, municipal offices, corporate lobbies, and other similar institutions. The Marshall Steam Museum example comes from the National Bank of Kennett Square, PA. Most likely installed during the bank’s 1908 renovations, the clock was obtained by T. Clarence Marshall, who served as president for nine yeas and an officer for several decades.

Known commonly as Kennett Bank for many years after forming on April 25, 1881, John Marshall (Israel Marshall’s uncle) was its first president. In later years T. Elwood Marshall (Israel’s brother) was a president as well. Another of the Marshall family was involved in banking in Delaware. Which of the Marshalls was a president of a Delaware bank and what was the bank’s name? As a bonus question, who in the Marshall family (hint: it may be multiple Marshalls) has their signature on hundreds of thousands of dollars of U.S. paper money?

Answer
Banking records as far back as 1860 show Caleb Marshall as president of the Real Estate Bank of Delaware, which was located in Newport, DE. Caleb is the older brother of John Marshall (Kennett Bank President), and together they established an iron rolling mill on the Red Clay Creek in what is now known as Marshallton, DE. In late 1864, Franklin Q. Flinn was elected president of the bank as Caleb and his family were moving to Philadelphia to establish the Penn Treaty Iron Works for the manufacture of terne plate (early form of galvanized iron for which Caleb was issued patents). The $1 bill shown below, issued by the Real Estate Bank of Delaware, has Caleb Marshall’s signature as president. That is William Penn pictured and not Caleb Marshall.

Caleb’s brother John was president of National Bank of Kennett Square from its founding in 1881 until his death in 1885, when E.B. Darlington became president. Darlington remained president until T. Elwood Marshall (Israel’s brother) assumed the presidency in 1915 and remained until 1922. His nephew T. Clarence Marshall became president in 1923 and remained in that office for 9 years. On July 1, 1930, the bank merged with Kennett Trust Company (formed in 1889) to become National Bank & Trust Company of Kennett Square, which was acquired in 1882 by Meridian Bank. Additional banking industry consolidations saw Meridian acquired by Corestates Bank and then First Union National Bank. In 2001, Wachovia Bank acquired First Union, and today its all part of Wells Fargo Bank.Before the Civil War, many states issued their own currency. As a means to pay for the war, reduce counterfeiting, and eliminate differences in currency value, the U.S. federal government created a national currency under Abraham Lincoln. By creating a system of nationally chartered banks, the government would print denominations of $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500 and $1,000 bills to be issued by a “National Bank.” Every bank that changed their charter to that of a National Bank (and hence why there are so many First National Bank of…, Second National Bank of…, Third National Bank…, etc.) agreed to obey the rules for national currency. A bank was required to deposit a bond with the government for the value of government printed currency they received to place into public circulation. The government would print the name of the national bank on the currency and provide currency sheets to the requesting bank. Once each bill was hand-signed by the bank’s cashier and president, they could be hand-cut from the sheets (which is why you see the irregular borders in the images below) and issued to the bank’s customers. The system was in place from 1863 until the Great Depression in 1929, when a majority of the National Banks became insolvent. As a result, the U.S. government created our present Federal Reserve notes.

Above is an image of a $10 National Bank of Kennett Square bill issued April 26, 1921, with T. E. Marshall’s handwritten signature as president. Images of $10 and $20 National Currency bills (below) with T. Clarence Marshall’s lithograph-printed signatures show the bank’s name change to National Bank and Trust Company of Kennett Square. Over the 55-year life of the national currency program, National Bank of Kennett Square issued nearly $2.7 million in 15 different types and denominations of national currency. It is estimated that due to the higher-value denominations issued in later years, when TE and TC Marshall were presidents, that more than half the dollar value of $2.7 million total issued in National Currency by Kennett Bank displays a Marshall signature!!

December 9, 2019

AUTOMOTIVE BODY DESIGNS

We recently ran across an image that called our attention to 21st-century automotive body designs. If one examines 23 current brands of automobiles offered to the American driver, and we imagine equivalent models all painted in light gray, there’s not really a lot of diversity in basic appearance, as the image to the right attests. Images of individual vehicles for the composite image were digitally “painted” light gray as the color is not offered by all manufacturers.

If one examines the Marshall Steam Museum Stanley collection, you will note that starting with the 1916 Model 725 and continuing through to the 1924 Model 750, Stanley cars lost styling diversity that the earlier cars before 1915 possessed. As readers know, the materials and methods Stanley used were pretty common in the industry, and while there were distinctive car designs after the 1920s, automotive design was trending to manufacturers choosing a basic “look” and not making major changes to it year to year. In the 21st century, the consolidation of multiple makes under a single manufacturer means even more consistency in overall car appearance.

Stanley’s earliest cars, those sold under the Locomobile and Mobile names, had their metal frames constructed by the American Waltham Manufacturing Company, a bicycle maker. Stanley used the same wooden and eventually aluminum body manufacturer throughout a large portion of their production from the earliest all-wooden-bodied cars up until near the end of production’s aluminum-bodied cars. What was the name of that manufacturer? For extra credit, what year did Stanley begin the transition to offering aluminum bodied vehicles?

Answer
According to Kit Foster’s The Stanley Steamer: America’s Legendary Steam Car, in April 1898 the Stanley twins contracted Currier Cameron Company to construct the wooden bodies that were then sent to the Shields Carriage Company for lacquer application and finishing. Both businesses were located in Amesbury, Massachusetts, and shared common organizational roots. Locomobile assembled their cars in Watertown, which required the finished bodies to be shipped in boxcars by rail between the two cities.

In 1911 the Currier Cameron Company made the first aluminum body for the Stanley Model 85. Currier Cameron would continue to make Stanley bodies through Model 735 production, ending in 1922. With the introduction of the Model 740 in May 1922 and the revised body styles to come, Stanley moved to other body manufacturers, including Baker-Rauch & Lang!

November 12, 2019