IN

Duck Creek Aqueduct is a rare surviving example of a covered timber aqueduct. It was one of several similar structures on the Whitewater Canal, which operated between the Whitewater Valley and the Ohio River from 1839 to 1865. After being displaced by the railroad, the canal supplied hydraulic power for the industrial districts at Metamora and Brookville.

The aqueduct was strengthened in 1868 and raised 18 inches in 1901. In 1946, the State of Indiana took control of a 14-mile section of the canal and rehabilitated the aqueduct to carry horse-drawn boats for tourists. Duck Creek Aqueduct (also, Whitewater Canal Aqueduct, or Metamora Aqueduct) was recorded by HABS in 1934 and by HAER in 2005.

It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 as part of the “Whitewater Canal Historic District,” and designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1992. The aqueduct was restored in 2005. It possesses a high degree of integrity and is proposed for National Historic Landmark consideration.

Tags

Covered Bridge

Thumb

Image Credit

Anthony Dillon

Universal Soil Loss Equation

Admin — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 10:45:38 +0000

Universal Soil Loss Equation

Krishna Kanth Mon, 04/02/2018 - 06:45

Society

ASABE

Main Category

Agricultural & Biological

Era

1960-1969

Date Created

1965

Address1

National Soil Erosion Research Lab

Address2

275 South Russell Street

City

West Lafayette

State

Country

USA

Zip

47907

Website

https://www.asabe.org/awards-landmarks/asabe-historic-landmarks/universal-soil-…

The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) was developed at the USDA National Runoff and Soil Loss Data Center at Purdue University in a national effort led by Walter H. Wischmeier and Dwight D. Smith. The USLE was published in 1965 in USDA Agriculture Handbook 282.

The USLE is based on extensive erosion data from studies throughout the USA, and provides a quick approach to estimating long-term average annual soil loss (A). The equation is comprised of six factors: R - rainfall and runoff; K - soil erodibility; L - slope length; S - slope steepness; C - cover and management; and P - support practice. USLE was the first empirical erosion equation that was not tied to a specific region of the United States, thus the title "Universal" Soil Loss Equation.

The USLE has been used in more than 100 countries to guide conservation planning, assess soil erosion for conservation policy development, and estimate sediment yield. It has helped to save millions of tons of soil, thus helping to feed the world's population, and to protect the environment from sediment produced by soil erosion.

Tags

Soil

Image Caption

The Universal Soil Loss Equation for estimating average annual soil erosion.

A = average annual soil loss (in tons/acre)
R = rainfall erosivity index
K = soil erodibility factor
LS = topographic factor
C = cropping factor
P = conservation practice factor

The Oliver Chilled Cast-Iron Plow

Admin — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 10:45:35 +0000

The Oliver Chilled Cast-Iron Plow

Krishna Kanth Mon, 04/02/2018 - 06:45

Society

ASABE

Main Category

Agricultural & Biological

Sub Category

Mechanization

Era

1850-1859

Date Created

1857

Address1

Oliver Plow Works

Address2

918 Oliver Plow Court

City

South Bend

State

Country

USA

Zip

46601

Website

https://www.asabe.org/awards-landmarks/asabe-historic-landmarks/the-oliver-chil…

Creator

Oliver, James

On June 30, 1857, James Oliver filed a patent application for chilling the wear face of cast-iron moldboard plows. While pouring molten cast iron in sand molds he circulated hot water through chillers to regulate the rate of cooling. Oliver's control of raw material content and cooling produced moldboards with a very hard surface and a softer, tough inner core for strength. Their fine textured wearing faces of uniform hardness maintained a mirror polish and resisted rust. Sticky soils scoured freely on Oliver's plows, improving farmers' productivity. By 1878, more than 170,000 Oliver chilled moldboard plows were being used around the world. The Oliver Chilled Plow Works was constructed on this site in South Bend, IN, in January 1876. It became one of the world's largest plow manufacturing plants, housing foundry, forge shop, engineering, woodworking, assembly, warehousing, and shipping facilities. Plows and tillage implements were manufactured from 1876 to 1985.

Rumely OilPull Tractor

Admin — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 10:45:02 +0000

Rumely OilPull Tractor

Krishna Kanth Mon, 04/02/2018 - 06:45

Society

ASABE

Main Category

Agricultural & Biological

Era

1910-1919

Date Created

1910

Address1

La Porte Hospital

Address2

1007 Lincolnway

City

La Porte

State

Country

USA

Zip

46350

Website

https://www.asabe.org/awards-landmarks/asabe-historic-landmarks/rumley-oilpull-…

The Rumely Companies, which operated in La Porte, Indiana, from 1853 to 1931, produced a variety of equipment including threshers and steam engines, which helped to change the nature of American and world agriculture. The revolutionary OilPull Tractor, which was introduced in 1910, used a unique carburetion system developed by John Secor, the Company's Chief Engineer. The OilPull tractor efficiently converted a low cost petroleum product to mechanical power, greatly reducing the need for animal and steam power on American farms. Dr. Edward Rumely, grandson of founder Meinrad Rumely, continued the company's emphasis on agricultural mechanization and forecast its dramatic impact on farm productivity and efficiency. Many Rumely engineering accomplishments were carried forward by the Allis-Chalmers Company after it acquired the Rumely Company in 1931.

Image Credit

Courtesy Wikipedia/BulldozerD11 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Purdue University Airport

Stuart Grosvenor — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 21:12:43 +0000

Purdue University Airport

Mon, 03/12/2018 - 17:12

Society

Main Category

Sub Category

Era

Date Created

Coordinates

40.412222, -86.936944

Address1

Purdue University Airport

Address2

1501 Aviation Drive

City

West Lafayetta

State

Country

USA

Website

https://engineering.purdue.edu/AAE/aboutus/history/gallery/Z-AIAAHistoryofAAE.p…

https://engineering.purdue.edu/aiaa/

https://www.aiaa.org/HistoricAerospaceSites/

The Purdue University Airport was the first collegiate owned airport in the United States. It hosted Amelia Earhart for her final adventure, was the training ground for test pilots such a Jimmy Johnson and Ivan Kincheloe, balloonist Malcolm Ross, and astronaut Neil Armstrong. Purdue University Airport and its people and programs pushed aviation’s evolution to new heights and helped expand the frontiers of flight. During WWII, hundreds of U.S. Army and Navy members were trained at the airport.

This was the first university-owned airport in the United States, and because of it, Purdue was the first American university to offer college credit for flight training. Purdue is the site of many other firsts, such as the first university flight test course, the first Reserve Officer Training Course (ROTC) flight, and the first bachelor’s degree in aviation with an emphasis on professional pilot skills.

Today it is one of the busiest airports in Indiana, second to Indianapolis International Airport.

Tags

Airport

Image Credit

Courtesy Wikicommons/SkyHigh757 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Image Caption

Part of the Purdue Cirrus training fleet on the ramp

West Baden Springs Hotel

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 07:40:19 +0000

West Baden Springs Hotel

(not verified) Wed, 07/25/2012 - 03:40

Society

Main Category

Sub Category

Era

Date Created

Location Country

Coordinates

38.567222, -86.618056

Address1

West Baden Springs

Address2

8538 West Baden Ave

City

Orange County

State

Country

USA

Zip

47469

Website

http://www.asce.org/Project/West-Baden-Springs-Hotel/

Creator

Albright, Harrison

Westcott, Oliver

The steel dome stretches 200 feet in diameter and rises 100 feet at its top. To accommodate thermal expansion, the inverted bowl-shaped structure originally rested on rollers that sat on the flat tops of six-story columns

There was a time when Americans from the Eastern seaboard braved long rail trips to southern Indiana in hopes that the water at the French Lick natural mineral springs could bring relief from alcoholism, pimples, gallstones and a host of other ailments and illnesses.

To accommodate these guests in style, Harrison Albright constructed a luxurious hotel and spa in just 277 days, whose site covered 684 acres. The building's primary feature was its central dome, considered the largest clear-span dome in the world when built. Many of the hotel's 510 rooms surround the dome and the murals, mosaic and marble of its magnificent atrium.

In the 1930s, when natural spring spas lost their appeal as potential cure-alls, the hotel's business began to wane. Once the Great Depression hit, it closed.

Tags

At the time of its completion, the West Baden Springs Hotel was the largest domed structure in the world. The dome diameter of 200 feet was not surpassed for more than 60 years.

Image Credit

Courtesy Flickr/Bulldog23 (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Image Caption

West Baden Springs Hotel

Rumely Companies' Agricultural Products

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 07:40:01 +0000

Rumely Companies' Agricultural Products

(not verified) Wed, 07/25/2012 - 03:40

Society

Main Category

Sub Category

Era

Date Created

Address1

1007 Lincolnway

City

La Porte

State

Country

USA

Website

http://www.asme.org/about-asme/history/landmarks/topics-a-l/agriculture/-225-ru…

https://www.asme.org/getmedia/d44ed4fd-8920-4082-9a6a-b0a7a4f0c99a/225-Rumely-C…

Creator

Rumely, Meinrad

Beginning with the blacksmith shop of German immigrant Meinrad Rumely (1823-1904), this successive family of firms invented and produced a line of agricultural equipment that played a vital role in the evolution of farming based on the muscle of humans and animals to one based on the power of the steam and ultimately the internal-combustion engine. The M. & J. Rumely Co. became the M. Rumely Co., and then the Advance Rumely Co. The Allis-Chalmers Company acquired the business in 1931. Although Allis-Chalmers is known for other products, such as gas engines and turbines, the company today is one of the country's largest producer of plows, discs, harrows, planters, self-propelled cotton strippers and cultivators. The 112-acre plant, which includes some of the original Rumely buildings, is located on Pine Lake Ave. A memorial stone, which includes ASME's landmark plaque, marks the original site of the blacksmith shop at La Porte Hospital (since 1972) on Lincolnway.

In the United States, the mechanization of farming took place mid-19th century, alongside the rapid developments of the Industrial Revolution. Profound changes have taken place since then. (From 1776 to 1908, the labor required to produce a bushel of wheat decreased from 2-3 hours to 10 minutes, according Dr. Edward Rumely in his autobiography. In the last 100 years, according to US Dept. of Agriculture's farm labor statistics, the farm population dropped from some 40 percent of the U.S. population to less than 3 percent.) Such equipment, from tractors and cultivators to a wide variety of harvesting machinery, has enabled an explosion in agricultural productivity for both food and fibers. In the process, agricultural mechanization also contributed to a massive shift from rural to urban, along with similarly massive changes in the nature of work, the consumer economy, and even the size and nature of families.

Like many similar stories during this time, the flow of technology followed the immigrants. In 1853, the two Rumely brothers, Meinrad and John, started their small shop in La Porte for the manufacture of corn shelters and horse-powered machines and the casting of irons for the railroad shops. By 1869, they were the town's largest employer. Meinrad Rumely had learned the millwright trade in France before he immigrated to the United States in 1848. He and his brother settled in La Porte after several years because there was a new railroad shop and yard being built to support the main line between New York and Chicago. (This shop moved to Elkhart in 1870.)

Meinrad had the ability to visualize complex machines and their mechanisms. He could organize and manage people, materials, and processes. The company quickly grew to 15-20 employees and was pouring 1 tone of castings a day. It produced the separator (threshing machine) in 1857, and two years later, won first prize for threshing at the Illinois State Fair in Chicago. The brothers soon began to produce stationary steam engines. In 1869, employees totaled 35 and sales were $50,000 a year.

In 1872, the Rumely Company developed a portable steam engine that could be horse-drawn from one farmyard to another and linked to a thresher with a driving belt. A decade later, it introduced a steam traction engine that pulled the threshing machine and water wagon. (The brothers had won eight first prizes in threshing by then.) In 1886 a new straw-burning engine was introduced. A new foundry opened in 1890. A year later a self-feeder was added to the line. By 1892, new boiler and blacksmith shops were added. A clover hulling machine was added in 1901.

At Meinrad Rumely's death in 1904, the company had 300 employees and had been granted at least five U.S. patents related to agricultural equipment. Four others would go on to provide key leadership in engineering and product development:

William Nicholas Rumely (1858-1936), who was a member of ASME (1885) and an honorary member of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, led the design and development activity of steam traction engines (tractors) and separators. He also produced oil-burning tractors. He was granted at least eight U.S. patents related to agricultural equipment, including one anti-friction alloy (June 5, 1900, #650,911). Having attended Notre Dame University's preparatory school 1868-73, he studied mechanical drawing at Stevens Institute, Hoboken, N.J., in 1878-79.

Edward A. Rumely, M.D., joined the company in 1907 and became the driving force behind rapid growth prior to 1912.

John Alstyne Secor joined the company in 1908, having worked with his father (who built steam engines) and previously operated Secor Marine Propeller Company and manufactured engines and generators for General Power Company. He began his design work on the Kerosene Annie took eight months, with field trials beginning in 1909. He was granted nearly 20 U.S. patents, related mostly to engines.

William H. C. Higgins Jr. collaborated on patents with his uncle, John Secor, and held at least 13 patents of his own for internal combustion engines and carburetion equipment.

Tags

Image Credit

Courtesy Wikipedia/BulldozerD11 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Image Caption

Rumely Companies' Agricultural Products

Duck Creek Aqueduct

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 07:39:11 +0000

Duck Creek Aqueduct

(not verified) Wed, 07/25/2012 - 03:39

Society

Main Category

Sub Category

Era

Date Created

Location Country

Coordinates

39.451944, -85.112778

Address1

Whitewater Canal

Address2

17199-18207 U.S. 52

City

Metamora

State

Country

USA

Zip

47030

Website

http://www.asce.org/Project/Duck-Creek-Aqueduct/

Creator

Hutchens, Charles

The significance of the 15-mile Whitewater Canal was not in its ability to create a profit, but rather its effect on the economic growth of the Whitewater River Valley, considered the gateway to the interior of Indiana. Before the canal, travel was challenging. Most waterways in Indiana were only navigable by canoe, and the alternative - horse and wagon - was difficult, slow and expensive.

One of the notable features along the canal is the 71-foot Duck Creek Aqueduct, the oldest covered wooden aqueduct in the U.S. The original aqueduct was an open trough that washed away in the flood of 1847. Instead of rebuilding all of the destroyed portions, the builder ingeniously acquired a covered bridge in its early stages of construction and adapted it to replace the open trough.

While both the canal and aqueduct were eventually abandoned, the State of Indiana restored them for recreational use in 1948. The area subsequently became the Whitewater Canal State Park.

CLAIM TO FAME

The Duck Creek Aqueduct, a 71-foot span, is the oldest wooden covered aqueduct in the country.

Tags

"The Whitewater Canal ... gave new life to the towns, extended commerce, and improved social conditions. It educated the people and fitted them for greater achievements when the era of railways came...[it] contributed largely to the welfare and happiness of the people."
- Lee Ault, Educator The Whitewater Canal, 1900

Image Credit

Public Domain (Author's Choice)

Image Caption

Duck Creek Aqueduct

Development of Diagnostic Test Strips

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 07:32:45 +0000

Development of Diagnostic Test Strips

(not verified) Wed, 07/25/2012 - 03:32

Society

Main Category

Sub Category

Era

Date Created

Address1

ETHOS Science Center

Address2

1025 N Michigan St

City

Elkhart

State

Country

USA

Website

https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/diagnost…

https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/diag…

Creator

Free, Al

Free, Helen

It is difficult to recall a time when doctors and patients had trouble tracking the presence of glucose and other substances in urine and blood. Lack of sufficient measurement tools made it difficult to manage a host of diseases, including diabetes as well as other metabolic diseases and kidney and liver conditions. Today, self-management of these diseases is an easier process because of the development of diagnostic test strips by Alfred and Helen Free and their research team at Miles Laboratories.

The text of the plaque commemorating the development reads:

A Miles Laboratories research team led by Alfred and Helen Free developed the first diagnostic test strip, Clinistix®, for detecting glucose in urine. Reagent-impregnated strips changed color based on the concentration of glucose. This breakthrough led to additional dip-and-read tests for proteins and other substances. Subsequently, researchers devised a method to combine several tests on one strip to provide healthcare professionals with simple, immediate tools to aid in the detection of disease. These innovations, along with instrument-based measurement of glucose in fingertip blood, provided patients with inexpensive means to aid in the management of diabetes and kidney disease, significantly improving their quality of life.

Image Caption

Advert for Ames home urine testing kit

Curtis 500-kW Vertical Turbine

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 07:32:37 +0000

Curtis 500-kW Vertical Turbine

(not verified) Wed, 07/25/2012 - 03:32

Society

Main Category

Sub Category

Era

Date Created

City

Indianapolis

State

Country

USA

Website

https://www.asme.org/getmedia/a96bc2c9-0067-4463-8a61-dff227124ce8/144-Curtis-5…

https://www.asme.org/about-asme/who-we-are/engineering-history/landmarks/144-cu…

Creator

Curtis, Charles G.

This, the first Curtis vertical turbine built, was constructed by the General Electric Co. for the Newport & Fall River Street Railway Co. It operated in the Newport, R.I., generating station until June 1927. It was transferred to the Harding Street Station of the Indianapolis Power & Light Co. for display and later moved to the company's E.W. Stout Station.

In 1896 Charles G. Curtis (1860-1953) patented two turbine concepts that led to the commercial production of low-cost, single-cylinder turbines to provide the electricity so much in demand in the United States during the early 1900s. The Curtis vertical steam turbine enabled the electric power supply system to grow at an unprecedented rate during the first two decades of the century.

From 1897 to 1901, GE tested horizontal versions. In 1901 a 5000-kW production turbine was built for the GE Schenectady plant (see NL 06). Under designer and developer W.L.R. Emmet (1859-1941), the vertical configuration soon replaced the horizontal and production began in February 1903. Because there is no record of a prototype machine being built for shop testing, this may have been the first vertical turbine completed, in addition to being the first machine shipped for commercial use.

Early designs of the Curtis turbine used velocity compounding and pressure compounding in the same machine. The 500-kW Newport engine has two stages of pressure compounding, each consisting of three velocity compounded stages. Six rows of blades rotate on the periphery of turbine wheels when operating. In its final form, the Curtis turbine used up to six stages of pressure compounding with two stages of velocity compounding in each pressure stage. To reduce friction between the rotating wheel and the seam, the two rows of rotating blades forming a single velocity-compounded stage were attached to the periphery of a single wheel.

The vertical configuration was abandoned between 1908 and 1913 as turbine speeds increased from the 500 rpm to 1800 rpm.

The first steam turbine electric-generation station

Image Caption

5,000-kilowatt Curtis Steam Turbine-Generator