Sunday, February 19, 2023

Saw Blade Sharpening, c. 1915 Mesta Machine Company, West Homestead, Pennsylvania

 


6 comments:

  1. Belt powered from a line shaft drive. Much if not most of American manufacturing was powered thusly once up on a time.

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    1. saw many converted line drives with the shaft long gone and a motor on each machine.

      mesta machine was pearl mesta's fortune, IIRC. they made rollers for steel mills.

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    2. Pearl Mesta, the "hostess with the mostess." Famous in the lore of Pittsburgh steel industry.

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    3. Lineshaft-Powered Factories originally had a Water Wheel to run them; a Steam Engine usually Replaced them, then, Huge, D.C. Motors at the End of each Shaft. Finally, a lot of these Machines had individual, A.C. Motors put on them. I have a 1921, South Bend 9-Inch Precision Lathe that was Belt-Driven, and I added a Motor and Reduction Pulleys myself.
      By "Precision", I mean it holds 1/100,000-inch Tolerances with a German-Made Chuck.

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  2. I am pretty sure that Homestead is a suburb (they call them "neighborhoods") ... of Philadelphia.

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  3. Is that static lightning on the flat belt? My old professor said those things were static magnets.

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