Diebold Agricultural Hall

CAMA Gets a Corliss Steam Engine
December, 2006

For years now CAMA has been actively looking for an example of the Corliss valve design embodied in a relatively small steam engine. A few years ago the board bid on an engine at auction but the bid soon surpassed the maximum that we were willing to pay. This website has for some time now, been soliciting the general public for such an engine in our "Seaching the World" page.

In October of 2006, we received an email from one of our New York members, Todd J. Syska. Todd was doing an environmental survey at the Lafayette Paper Mill located south of Newburgh, NY. He was being escorted by
Andy Sanchez, an employee of Cactus Resorts Properties of Scottsdale, AZ the current owner of the mill property. Andy had for some time been searching for someone who would be interested in an antique steam engine located on the site. Somehow, Todd and Andy got on the subject, and Andy showed him the engine.

Todd knew the significance of this engine and emailed CAMA at this website with the information. Within a week a survey team consisting of Ray deZara, Trevor Marshall, Jim Anderson and Todd was escorted by Andy to view the engine. The engine in question is a Nagle-Corliss built around the turn of the century in Erie, PA. The owners were generously willing to donate this engine to CAMA if we could get it out of the mill. This is the story of the retrieval of this engine.


ABOVE: Todd Syska next to the Nagle-Corliss steam engine. This engine has a 12' flywheel and a 6' drive pulley. It was built around 1910 by the Nagle Engine & Boiler Works of Erie, PA. This engine had not been used in many years and was covered with debris.	ABOVE: This is a classic Corliss valve system, with the central disc oscillating back and forth to alternately open and close the inlet and exhaust valves. The engine is double acting meaning that steam is admitted first to one side of the piston and then to the other, so there is a power stroke in both directions of piston travel.

ABOVE: The engine was located in combination boiler room/engine room. There were three boilers next to the engine, two coal-fired and one #6 bunker C-fired. This room is located in the oldest part of the mill. There is evidence that this room was active in the mid-1940s, but, eventually the room was abandoned and bricked off from the rest of the mill.	ABOVE: The 12' 6-spoked flywheel and the smaller 6' drive pulley still had the original red paint on them. Remnants of white stripes are visible on each spoke. The engine was lubricated by a gravity-fed gang lubricator made by the S.F. Bowser Co. The oil reservoir is the visible canister in the upper right of this photo. Piping carried oil from this canister to the various lubrication points on the engine.

ABOVE: This photo of the centrifugal flyball governor shows the only missing part on this engine. One of the flyball mechanisms is gone. The relative completeness of this engine is likely due to the fact that it sat in a part of the mill that was no longer in use. Behind the governor, an ~500 gallon rectangular water tank sat next to the main cylinder. This had to be moved to gain access to the engine.	ABOVE: An end view of the flywheel. The flywheel pit had been used as a dump site over the years. The bottom of the flywheel was covered with coal ash. There was 5 feet of debris in the pit consisting of ash, concrete, brick, wood timbers, and other items like shoes, cans, bottles and clothing. The flywheel had to be supported from the bottom during disassembly so the pit was dug out by hand to find a solid footing for the cribbing.

ABOVE: A view of the outside of the Lafayette Paper Mill. The engine was located in a building-within-a-building. This circa 1950s corrogated structure was built over and surrounding the original stone and masonry mill built in the early 1900s. The entire mill is scheduled for demolition.	ABOVE: One of the huge paper-making machines located in another part of the mill. These huge drums were steam heated.

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This page was created on 1/16/07 by Jim Anderson