Samuel Knight Chapter - SIA, Newsletter Issue 8, April 1, 1999

Newsletter

Samuel Knight Chapter

Society for Industrial Archeology

Issue Number 8

April 1, 1999

This Issue
Upcoming Tours and Events
White Brothers: "Over 100 Years of Quality"
This Old Flat Car: A Documentary Film Script
Knight Foundry Progress Report: Endgame
T. A. Rickard and His California Connections
Notes and Queries
Listing of Chapter Newsletter Articles
Pledge, Donation and Legacy Response Form
Contact and Membership Information

The Newsletter is published whenever it seems appropriate. Members are encouraged to contribute articles, letters to the editor and items for the Calendar. The Newsletter, Calendar of Events and Links to IA Websites are available on the Chapter Website: http://reality.sgi.com/csp/knight_sia
(since relocated to http://www.sia-web.org/chapters/knight/knight.html)

THE SAMUEL KNIGHT CHAPTER OF THE SOCIETY FOR INDUSTRIAL ARCHEOLOGY IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY ENTERPRISE

Design services donated by Bear River Associates

This Issue

You will find herein a number of items which rise to the character of news bulletins. FLASH! City of Sutter Creek offers to underwrite funding for Knight Foundry. FLASH! Samuel Knight Chapter to host Society for Industrial Archeology 2002 Fall Annual Conference. FLASH! Grass Valley trials to be re-enacted during run of Gold Fever exhibition. FLASH! Gala reception and auction to be held to benefit Knight Foundry. FLASH! Knight Foundry to host Iron Masters Fall 2000 Conference. So who says this isn't a flashy newsletter?

We've already had three really nice tours this year, with many more to come. After-tour get-togethers over a meal have become SOP this year, and provide a good chance to get acquainted and share an in depth discussion of the day's tour. Our active members are really doing a great job of developing fascinating IA events and articles for the Newsletter. As of this writing, it looks as if there is a very good chance that Knight Foundry will resume operations in June. We will need the volunteer services of a goodly number of members for our Railfair 99 event, This Old Flat Car , during which we will build (re-build) as many as three wooden flatcars in eight days in a re-creation of historic railroad car construction practices. Read on for more details in this issue.

We don't ask for a lot in dues, just enough to cover communication expenses. Our events likewise are usually free, or charge just enough to cover tour costs. If you haven't renewed or would like to join, our Chapter gives great value for the money!

Upcoming Tours and Events

9 am, April 24, Alameda

Alameda Naval Air Station

Swords to Plowshares

Fred Quivik is arranging a day of tours for us of naval structures which have been converted to peace time use at the decommissioned Alameda Naval Air Station. This tour starts at 9am, but if you're late you will be able to catch up with us. Take the Posey Tube onto Alameda Island, stay to the right onto Webster Street, right at the first light (Atlantic), to the East Gate Alameda Point, through the gate, around the plane on the pedestal, at the "T" intersection turn Right, two blocks or so and left through the hangar complex to the NW end, then a right, the last one is marked with a "CalStart" sign. Hangar #20 is the northern-most building on the base. You're there.

"Here are the tours I have arranged so far: CalStart (an incubator housing several alternative teleology businesses); Cybertrans (one of those businesses, which is working on an ultra-light rail transit system); U.S.S. Hornet (this tour costs $9.00 per adult, although we'll get a slight break as a group tour). It also looks like we'll be able to tour Quality Products, Inc., a machine shop that makes specialty valves. They usually are working on Saturday. The P.R. guy wants to do it, but he needs to confirm it with the CEO. Another strong possibility is Green Motors, the electric car business. One of our neighbors here in officers' housing works for the movie studio, Manix, and I'll see if we can get in there on a Saturday. We will meet at our house in the evening for a BBQ. Bring a bag lunch for the day.

RSVP me at or call and leave a message on my office phone: 510-769-7855."

1:30 pm to 5:30 , May Day, San Francisco

Maritime History Boat Tour

The Southwest Labor Studies Conference, being held in San Francisco this year, has adopted our maritime heritage boat tour concept as a special event. This conference is always a great way to catch up on the progress of the labor movement. It features panel discussion and papers presented by labor scholars and union leader from around the country. The theme of this year's conference will "Labor and the Cold War: A Fifty Year Perspective."

The Conference runs from April 29 to May 1, and is being held at the historic Ramada Plaza at 8th and Market (it served as a temporary City Hall after the 1906 Big One). The Conference registration is only $35.00. Friday at 10:30 am, Chapter President Andy Fahrenwald will be participant in the panel "Creating Labor Monuments" chaired by labor folklorist Archie Green (many of you will remember Archie as the M.C. of our first boat tour two years ago). Andy will make a presentation on "Honoring the Iron Workers of Knight Foundry."

The boat tour on May 1st will feature an extended exploration of San Francisco Bay's maritime facilities and historic places, this time exploiting the East Bay waterfront as well as the City's, with a panel of labor and maritime historians acting as tour guides. The tour will cost $20 and includes admission to Saturday morning's panel discussions. A box lunch is included for $7.00. Tickets may be ordered in advance by sending a check made to the Southwest Labor Studies Association and sent to Kerry Taylor, Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, Cypress Hall-D (Stanford University), Stanford, CA 94305. You may also pick up tickets the day of the trip at the Ramada Plaza (which is located at the Civic Center BART station) and take Muni or BART to the Embarcadero and walk two blocks to Pier One to the left of the Ferry Building. Be there at 1 pm.

11 am, May 8th, Western Railway Museum

Hwy 12 between Fairfield & Rio Vista

Third Annual Membership Meeting

We will hold our Annual Meeting at the Western Railroad Museum of the Bay Area Electric Railroad Association again this year. This operating museum is evolving into a world class rail transportation museum with an emphasis on electric traction. It is located on the old route of the Sacramento Northern interurban line, and has re-established operation on an impressive amount of authentically re-created right of way. Their collection of restored street cars and interurbans is really marvelous, when you realize the amount of work that has gone into these wonderful cars. We will tour their restoration facilities and ride their cars.

We will rendezvous at the entrance at 11am and then hold our annual membership meeting, which will be a review of the years activities. We elect six of our nine Directors this year. The current directors are standing for re-election. They are Andy Fahrenwald, Randy Hees, Noel Kirshenbaum, Jay McCauley, Tony Meadow and Nate Shugars. (The three other Directors are Lora Change, Alan Langmuir and Bob Wilson.) Nominations may be sent to the Chapter Secretary or made at the Membership Meeting.

Bring a picnic lunch, and be prepared for a really enjoyable day. The Western Railway Museum is located midway between Fairfield and Rio Vista on Hwy 12. (Take the Hwy 12 South exit off Interstate 80 in Fairfield.) Admission to the Museum is $6.00.

11am, June 5, Oakland

White Brothers Lumber Mill Tour

See Nate Shugars article following for background on this tour. Take
Interstate 880 to the High Street Exit. White Brothers is located at 4801 Tidewater in Oakland [near the High St. bridge to Alameda]--look for the Green Caboose!

June 12, Fremont
Centerville Depot Re-Opening Fremont and Peralta

The Centerville Depot at Fremont and Peralta is re-opening with a transportation fair on June 12. The Depot was originally built by Southern Pacific in 1910. It has been restored by The City of Fremont with the aid of several railfan and preservation groups (including the SPCRR) It will serve the Amtrack/Caltrans Capitols and the Altamont Commuter Express trains. You can visit their great website at: http://centervilledepot.railfan.net

1PM, June 13, Sacramento

Reception and Auction

for the benefit of Knight Foundry

This event will culminate the first stage of fundraising by the Save Knight Foundry Task Force, a special project of the Samuel Knight Chapter. It will feature a reception for David Weitzman and a silent auction of the original art for David's latest book, which is set at Knight Foundry and is entitled "Pouring Iron: A Foundry Ghost Story." David's drawings have graced the pages of this journal recently. Here's your chance to collect original book illustrations, attractively framed. All money paid over the minimum auction bid will be a tax deductible contribution, with the proceeds going to the Samuel Knight Preservation Fund.

The setting of this event is an art bronze foundry and there will be a demonstration pour. There will be wine; there will be food; there will lots of nifty other items to bid on at the auction. If you know anyone with a serious interest in preserving Knight Foundry, please invite them. This is the moment we need your help and support. See the article in this issue for more background on our progress.

This afternoon celebration and fundraising part will take place from 1pm to 4pm at The Art Foundry Gallery, 1021 "R" Street, Sacramento, in the Building next to the Fox and Goose. Be sure to RSVP to Maryellen Burns, 916 456-4930.

With luck, the auction will be followed by:

June ???, Sutter Creek

Knight Foundry Opening Party

We are pressing ahead now to complete the financing and other preparations leading up to acquiring and reopening Knight Foundry, with a ten week target. It seems feasible that we can restart in June. When we have an Opening Day Party date finalized, we'll send out a special postcard announcement.

June 18 - 27, Sacramento

Railfair 99: This Old Flar Car

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

As reported in the last Newsletter, this third Railfair at the California State Railroad Musuem in Old Town Sacramento will feature a recreation of the production process of building nineteenth centure wooden flat cars. See The article in this issue for more background on what will be happening. Volunteers are need for a variety of tasks during eight days of Railfair; your rewards will be many, including a free admission. Sign up now! Call Randy Hees at 415 692-4809, or email:

July 10 - 11, Sutter Creek,

Gold Rush Days, Knight Foundry Open House

This will be a major event in the Gold Rush Sesquicentennial. We will hope to have our first pour around this time, if all goes well. The day will feature guided tours and demonstrations of historic foundry crafts.

August 1st thru October, Sacramento

"Gold Fever": Grass Valley Trials Re-enactment

When the Gold Fever exhibit opens for its three month run in Sacramento this summer, it will have a new feature created by the Samuel Knight Chapter, if all goes well. We will be mounting a re-enactment of the momentous Grass Valley Water Wheel trials of 1883.

In 1875 Samuel Knight had patented what may have been the first modern impulse water wheel. Knight & Co. (originally Campbell and Hall) had been founded in 1872 to produce Knight style wheels and a complete line of heavy mining equipment. At that time a number of manufacturers, including Donelly Foundry in Sutter Creek were making impulse water wheels. Knight's was distinguished as the only one-piece cast wheel; others bolted or riveted separate buckets to the wheel.

In 1878, water wheel designer Lester Pelton observed a Knight wheel in operation which had slipped off the key on its shaft with the result that the jet of water struck the bucket on one edge and was thrown off the other side. The speed of the wheel was increased as a result of the water not striking the wheel center or interfering with the jet. He developed and patented the twin bucket Pelton wheel design based on this principle which he began manufacturing in Nevada City at the Nevada Foundry (preserved today as the Miner's Foundry).

In 1883, a watershed event took place in nearby Grass Valley. The Idaho Mining Company conducted a trial of competing water wheels to determine their relative efficiency. The Pelton wheel won at 90.2%, compared with 76.5% for the Knight wheel, 69.6% for the Fredenburr wheel and 60.5% for the Taylor wheel. The Grass Valley trials were to make Pelton's fortune. Pelton wheels are still in use today, with improvements over time having increased power efficiencies up to 96%. The impulse water wheel has had an important role in power generation up until the present.

At the instigation of Jim Henley of the Sacramento Archive and Museum Collection Center (which was instrumental in asssembling the Gold Fever show), it is our plan to set up a Knight and Pelton wheel as a part of the Gold and re-enact the Grass Valley trial, by measuring the effect of various nozzle angles and pressures as a hands on activity. Play wright Nate Shugars is beginning work on a script. It will undoubtedly incorporate audience participation, and will no doubt also provide some wet and refreshing relief to the heat of the Central Valley summer.

This event will enrich an already stupendous show; one of the best exhibitions of its kind we have ever seen. If you missed its Oakland run, be sure to catch it this time.

[This note was prepared with reference to Ed Arata's 1995 interview in the videotape "Pouring Iron", Bob Craft, Bob Samay, Errol Christman, "The Pelton Water Wheel and its Historic Mining Role", Collectors Mining Review, Issue #5, Fall 1997 and Roger P. Lescohier, Lester Pelton and His Water Wheel, prepared as Empire Mine docent report, 1990.]

Fall 2000, Sutter Creek

Iron Master's Conference

Iron Master Edward Rutsch has proposed that we host their next year's conference. The Iron Masters are a special interest group allied with the Society for Industrial Archeology whose members conduct studies, archæological investigations and tours of the history of the iron industry. We have tendered a draft proposal which says in part:

Conference tours will have the uniting theme of "Creating an Industrial Heritage Corridor for Amador County." Sites include the Knight Foundry; Kennedy Mine, where the surface works are being restored; Lincoln Mine, an operating gold mine; the Amador County Museum; various other gold mining sites.

Ed Rutsch suggests that paper themes focus in part on issues of the interpretation of historic iron working sites. We suggested other themes as well: preserving foundry crafts; development of the impulse water wheel in the West; unique contributions of California gold mining to mining technology and engineering; use of iron in historic restoration - pros and cons.

The Iron Masters Workshop (three to four days). Knight Foundry has a complete 19th century machine shop; a fully equipped pattern shop, green sand molding supplies and tools, an 1872 cupola blast furnace, and will probably have a blacksmith shop in operation. Iron Master members are urged to consider designing a workshop in their specialty using our facilities and sharing their knowledge with us. Our iron master, Russ Johnson has ten years of experience and trained under senior Knight skilled craftsmen. The workshop will culminate in a pour, which will kick off the conference for non-workshop participants.

Fall, 2002, Bay Area

SIA Annual Conference

At the February meeting of the Samuel Knight Chapter board, members agreed that the chapter would offer to host the national SIA conference in Oakland in 2002, and they asked national board member Fred Quivik to carry that message to the SIA's February board meeting. The SIA board greeted the offer enthusiastically. The Society's board will not designate Oakland the official site for the 2002 meeting until the Knight Chapter submits a formal proposal, complete with budget and an outline of process tour venues. Planning for such tours will occupy the energies of those interested over the next twelve months or so. Your suggestions, help and input will be crucial to the success of this event. It would be good to have a formal proposal ready by early next year (2000).

IXL Lime Company

[A student of the lime industry for 25 years, Bob is also known to us as Brick Bat Bob from his spin-off interest in the firebricks found in many of the fourteen limekiln sites he has documented. He is founder of "Lime Light" an informal group whose purpose is to study, understand and teach the history of the lime industry in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is hoped that by focusing on the technical aspects of individual kiln sites, a more complete story of the evolution of this industry will result.

In June of 1996, Lime Light assisted in limited excavations of the IXL Lime Company site conducted by Sonoma State University archæologists. This investigation verified the existence of fire brick floors in all three kilns. A booklet, "Discover Fall Creek!", about the industries that operated there, may be purchased from the Mountain Parks Foundation by contacting Bob.

On Saturday, Jan 30, 1999, seven Chapter members joined member Bob Piwarzyk on an outing at the Fall Creek Unit of the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. This was an outstanding tour, and we encourage readers to visit IXL; a really nice IA site. Evidence of most of the facilities described in this article can be detected if you look carefully - spike holes in old ties on the roadbed of the gravity tramway show the gauge of the tracks, what appear to be overgrown stone walls are actually huge piles of firewood for the kilns, etc. Or better yet, go with Bob on one of his regular tours!]

Fall Creek, the northern unit of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains west of the town of Felton. Most of its 20 miles of hiking trails follow old wagon and logging roads that once led to busy industrial sites which operated for 50 years, from 1874 to 1924. The limestone deposit on South Fall Creek was first developed in the early 1870s by the IXL Lime Company.

The company built the three limestone block kilns and some of the structures and worked the quarry until 1896. In 1900, the limestone operation was purchased by Henry Cowell and incorporated into the existing Cowell Lime and Cement Co. under the IXL name. Henry Cowell died in 1903. His son, Samuel, took control of the company in 1911 and had the water-powered barrel mill built on Fall Creek in 1912 to supply barrels in which to ship the lime. The quarry mill was closed in 1925 and the property deteriorated.

The limestone deposit is located on Blue Cliff, 300 yards west and 250 feet above the kilns. Limestone was blasted from the 150 foot high quarry face, sorted, and transported to the kiln by a gravity tramway. The limestone was loaded into the kilns so as to allow a fire to be built under the limestone. The fire was kept burning twenty four hours a day for 3-4 days, through the openings in the front wall of the kilns. Five to six thousand cords of wood were used annually for the kilns. The heat generated by the fire converted the limestone to lime by driving off the carbon dioxide in the rock. After cooling, the lime was removed from the kilns, loaded into barrels, and transported to Felton by wagon. From there it went to Santa Cruz by railroad, and then on to San Francisco by ship.

The lime produced from the IXL quarry was high grade and bore the brand name IXL Diamond Lime. During its peak years, the quarry produced 50,000 barrels a year. Large quantities were used for mortar in rebuilding after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

[When we came to the place where South Fall Creek joins the main branch, Bob had us all sit down and close our eyes. As we listened to the sounds of the creek, he led us through an industrial archæological meditation, calling on us to imagine sounds from other times over the rush and splash of the creek.]

Close your eyes - imagine with me the sounds of this place from the past! Listen to the creek!

For millennium the only sounds here were the howling of the wolf, the snarl of the cougar, the growl of the bear, the splash of salmon and the bubbling creek.

First, there were distant sounds of people coming from the north. But we don't find any evidence of them in here. Perhaps it was too dark, and damp, or scary? Then sounds of people from the south. But this was never a mission site or a rancho on a land grant.

Listen closely. Hear the winds of change! 1776 - the American Revolution. 1821 - the Mexican Revolution, Yankees moving west!

Now the sounds are coming nearer; the first sounds of industry! In 1841 we hear the new sawmill over in Zayante, then two years later the sawmill right on Fall Creek where it meets the river.

More changes! The Bear Flag Revolt in '46, and gold! 49ers, more Yankees crawling over the mountains. It is found to the south of here. In 1854, limestone is discovered on Ben Lomond Mountain. Three years later we hear the rumbling of blasting just up the hill at Bull's and Bennett's quarries.

Things quiet down i the early 1860s. the Civil war has caused powder to be scarce. In 1864 a new powder mill opens in the valley on the river, and the rumbling returns. This time it is very close because IXL opened in 1974 and began quarrying the "Blue Cliffs" right above us. And sounds of logging; all around us - not for lumber but to fuel the kilns and to make barrels to ship the lime!

The next year new sounds are added. The flume is bringing cut lumber and split stuff to the railroad in Felton. Hear the water, and the steam, and the engine's whistle [At moments in the narrative, we could actually hear the whistle of the logging engines working on the Roaring Camp and Big Trees railroad just over the hill from where we sat! Spooky!] The lime is going to the railroad too! Fall Creek's road - one of the busiest in the county. Hear the horse's hooves, the creaks and groans of wood, leather and chains. The "gee" and "haw" of the drivers and the hames bells telling of their coming. ?

In 1912 a barrel mill is built up on Fall Creek. It screams like a banshee, and can be heard all the way to Felton. In 1919 the kilns close. The limestone didn't run out.; there is no fuel left! The rumbling stops. Six years pass and the barrel mill closes. The scream stops. The wagons stop. The salmon are gone - the coyote are gone – the bear are gone – the cougar are gone - the trees are gone - - - - - Listen to the creek.

Open your eyes, be thankful for what you see! Come, see a forest in healing!

White Brothers: "Over 100 Years of Quality"

by Nate Shugars

[Nate is a Chapter Director and has been involved for a long time in the work of the Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources (SPCRR) as a railway car restorer and researcher into the Carter Brothers Car Builders and the South Pacific Coast Railroad (SPCRR). ]

When the preservation crew of the Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources came to the problem of matching existing moldings in a passenger car built in 1882, some had to be laboriously recreated by hand. Fortunately, a number of these moldings were available off-the-shelf at White Brothers in Oakland, a company which can trace its ancestry back to 1868--and since 1872, White Brothers management has remained in the capable hands of the same family

Don F. White, Jr. knows the lumber business very well. He should, for he is the fourth generation of his family in the business - and, wonderfully, in the same company. And beside being a lumber professional bred to a line of lumber professionalism, he is a man very well aware of his heritage - the
White Brothers' offices are filled with vintage photos and memorabilia (some reproduced in this article) and the company safe still contains treasures from a bygone era. And without Don's assistance, this article could not have been written. This business has existed for nearly 130 years without major changes beginning with those brothers from way down east (New Brunswick), the original White Brothers...

1868 saw the opening of another new lumber dealer in San Francisco, on the corner of Sacramento and Davis. The firm was known as the Straut-White Co., and the 'White' in the partnership was Peter, the middle of three brothers to be involved in the business. In 1872, Peter and his oldest brother, Asa L., bought out Straut's interest, renaming the firm White Brothers.

During the mid-1871's they had moved to Market and California and by 1879 had expanded again, being known as "Importers and dealers, carriage and wagon stock and hardwood lumber, 108-110 Market and 13-14 Main" (city directory listing). By this time the firm was prosperous enough that both brothers removed their households from San Francisco, Asa settling in East Oakland, Peter in the newly burgeoning community of Alameda. Also, the youngest brother, Jacob, had joined the firm as a salesman, and he continued to live in the City.

While the White Brothers' announced specialties appear in their directory ad from 1872, a brief glimpse at their ledger books (yes, they have them!) for this period reveals sales to many names familiar to the student of early California businesses, including the Clay St. Railroad, Geary St. Railroad, Oregon and California Railroad, Pacific Rolling Mill, Samuel P. Taylor, California Bridge, Occidental Hotel (now known as the Union Hotel), and a J. C. Whipple of Decoto. We know from previous research at the California State railroad Museum Library that they also made extensive sales to the North Pacific Coast Railroad during this era.

By 1892, it was White Brothers, Inc., with Asa as President, and they moved again to the southeast corner of Spear and Howard. This move was especially fortuitous, because in 1906, being spared serious damage from the earthquake and fire, they found themselves with the only supply of hardwood lumber in the City - but they did not take unfair advantage of this fact by raising price, and their reputation remained solid.

The 1904 ledger book reveals more familiar names: Southern Pacific Shops, Pacific Coast Co., North Shore Railroad, Union Iron Works, Risdon Iron Works, Pelton Water Wheel Co., and the John Hammond Co.

By 1907, the next generation of Whites had joined the firm, William T., Asa's son, and Charles Harry, Jacob's son. Don White, Jr., who manages the firm today is directly descended form C.H., as he was usually known.

Charles Harry White was born in San Francisco, grew up in Alameda, attended the University of California at Berkeley, but did not graduate. He also had a reputation as a poet: his epic poem "Fin (sp) McCool, the Irish Giant" was published in 1920, the same year he took over management of White Brothers from the older generation of Whites.

The Company had continued to grow, having moved again in 1910 to 5th and Brannan and under the leadership of C. H. White, added a yard in Oakland in 1929. When C. H. retired in 1948, the firm relocated completely to Oakland, and was then managed by C. H.'s sons, Don F. and Charles B., and their cousin W. T., William T's son (are you keeping all this straight?). Don F. White, Jr. began working for the company in the early 1980s and manages it today.

Other relatives have been involved in the company through the years - A. L. White, Jr., and Lorenzo E. White we can place for sure - and the company has weathered different adversities (surviving fires i the 1950s and 1960s; opening, then later closing branches in Fresno and Sacramento); and the focus has changed somewhat ( the emphasis now being on moldings). Although the current mill is completely modern, White Brothers remains very aware of its heritage--which includes cutter knives from the early days of the company. Fortunately for the SPCRR and other preservation groups, this enables White Brothers to duplicate these 19th century trims with relative ease--a toast to longevity!

Sources:

San Francisco and Oakland City Directories

The Golden Book of California, 1941

Biography of California Fiction, Poetry, Drama, WPA Project, 1938

White Brother's Catalogues

Personal interviews with Don. F. White, Jr.

Memorabilia and archival material from the White Brothers safe

This Old Flat Car: A Documentary Film Script

The following film script was developed by Andy Fahrenwald, working with the Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad resources as part of the apprenticeship project described in the script. The building of the flatcar sponsored by the Samuel Knight Chapter and the SPCRR to be carried out at railfair sprang from this project. The script is presented to as an example of how documentary media can be used to interpret complex topics from an industrial archæological perspective. This script is also intended to give the flavor of the flat car rebuilding event we will be co-sponsoring at Railfair 99, in Sacramento.

The project has evolved and taken some different directions since this script was written. The final form of research and process based documentary is always shaped by this kind of change.

Title sequence with music of the era and appropriate sound effects over -

The Past - Archival photography sequence -

The Centerville Branch, 1875, a draft-horse drawn narrow-gauge train with Old Bones, a tall lanky man, leading the horses.

The Past - Live action - scene comes to life, segué sepia-toned still frame to full color motion and live audio. This historically accurate docu-drama footage is shot at Ardenwood Historic Farm, site of the living history re-creation of the South Pacific Coast Railroad's Centerville Branch, a line powered historically, and presently, with draft-horses, the last remaining horse-drawn rail line in the United States. Fade out.

Fade in - Present day. An archaeological research team in the chaparral of a California canyon is clearing the brush away from the overgrown, rusted and rotting remains of an ancient railroad car - a flat car. Old maps show the route and how they located the car. We overhear them at work. "Watch out for that poison oak... and look before you reach: this is rattlesnake habitat." We learn that the car is built of wood and cast and wrought iron, is well over one hundred years old and was abandoned on a small narrow-gauge railroad when the tracks were ripped up around the turn of the century. The faded paint reveals a barely readable name; casting marks on iron parts provide clues to the maker's identity.

Narrator: This old flat car has got stories to tell...

The Past - a century or more ago -

A diminutive train threads the canyon; the whistle echoes among the hills.

...of how skilled artisans created an elegant and economical transportation system. Of how the technologies of the industrial revolution became a tool in the hands of remote California communities to break the stranglehold of the railroad barons who controlled the politics and economy of the state. Of how local entrepreneurs successfully and profitably took on the railroad monopoly know as the Octopus. It's all hidden in the remains of this old flat car rusting away in the weeds

The Present - After examining the site for all possible remains of the flat car and clues like dated nails in cross ties indicating when the railroad was put down, and after making a detailed measurement, photographic and digital video record of the flat car on-site, heavy equipment is brought in and the relic is carefully placed aboard a flat-bed truck. The flat car is seen sailing down the busy freeway to its new home at Ardenwood Historic Farm.

Narr: Archaeologists, historians and preservationists, working with an interdisciplinary team of students drawn from the History, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Sciences Departments at the California State University at Sacramento are about to begin a detailed analysis and de-construction of the old flat car. The students are beginning a year-long experiment in which they will apprentice themselves to some of the last remaining master artisans who still hold secrets passed down through generations of skilled workers. Randy Hees, the curator, starts the process.

Apprentice: Sure is a fixer-upper!

Randy Hees: First we'll measure all the remaining wooden elements, there isn't any of it sound enough to re-use. We'll store the pieces though and each piece will be numbered, measured and entered in our archive data base. It looks like most of the iron parts in this truck are okay, but one of the original couplers is missing. We'll need to cast a new one. Let's take a look at these old Carter Brother's blue prints. These are the only ones that have survived.

Historian David Weitzman: You've heard how hoboes used to "ride the rods"? Well, they'd put their bed roll up on here and lay back on it. If they fell off, though, the wheels could cut them in half! (Illustration hoboes riding)

As the car is dismantled each separate element is carefully documented with still and video photography, then labeled with an archive number and description. One group copies with tracing paper all the faint markings - insignia, numbers, railroad initials. Next they sand down through layer after layer of paint, very, very carefully, tracing the markings on each layer, until, on the bottom layer, they find "Carter Bros. Builders Newark".

The Past - Archival stills - Carter Bros. at work outside building a flat car. Segué to live action - Series of close-ups of the hands of workers putting the finishing touches on a brand new wooden flat car. A stencil is applied, painted and carefully removed: "Carter Bros. Builders Newark".

The Present - The apprentices are seen doing both measurements and drawings of the flat car frame. They take them back to the Computer Lab at Sacramento State where their mechanical engineering professor teaches them stress analysis.

Dr. Leo Dabaghian: Computer simulation can teach us the structural principals used in this surprisingly light yet strong flat car. Wooden railroad cars made extensive use of light and efficient truss structures, which derive their strength from wrought iron rods in tension, wood under compression. These same principles of truss design were applied to most bridges and buildings of the era. (Computer simulations illustrate narrative.)

The Past - a narrow gauge freight train rolling over a bridge, shot at track level. Truss after truss swings by, showing the ubiquity of trusses on both bridge and cars.

The Present - Investigators are carefully removing an extremely rusted piece of cast iron from the side of the flat car.

Randy Hees: Iron was the miracle material of the industrial revolution. See the grain in this rod? The rusting has revealed how the impurities, the carbon and slag, in the iron have been drawn into strengthening fibers creating something like a modern composite material with great tensile strength. We have both cast iron and wrought iron here. Traditional iron casting is on the verge of becoming a lost art. We're going to have to reproduce all these broken parts and you're going have to learn how to make them.

Apprentice: How, and where in the world, can we do that? Do we have to figure all this stuff out from scratch?

Hees: There are still a couple of old time iron foundries in operation and we'll start with a visit with Ernie Malatesta, one the last traditional pattern makers. Frankly though, some of these things nobody does know how to do any more and we'll just have to do our best based on what we can learn from studying the artifacts. First we'll need to make drawings of these pieces. (Continue explanation of casting process.)

The Past - over Hees' above dialogue. - Stills: a nineteen century water-powered foundry. Live action: creating a wooden pattern of the missing coupler, making a sand mold, pouring iron and breaking out our iron part from the smoking sand.

When we visit Knight foundry, 95 year old Ernie Malatesta teaches basics of pattern making. The foundry is in fact a perfectly preserved 1880s water-powered foundry and machine shop. The apprentices carefully videotape Ernie's demonstrations as well as working under his direction to create their pattern.

(Similarly we visit a historic steam-powered lumber mill, where the apprentices supervise the milling of their lumber. There are six essential historic construction crafts brought together by the flat car and which will be given clear visual definition: Millwork, Timber work, Carpentry, Casting, Forging, Machining)

Narr: While our new foundry apprentices are getting to work, a research team is visiting the county archives to see what they can learn about the builders and owners of the flat car.

Old diaries bring into sharp focus with telling anecdotes and quotations the personal history of the builders, how they acquired their skills, started building railroad cars out in the open air, successfully went into competition with the railroad monopoly and created a whole family of profitable narrow-gauge railroads. Our student researchers are poring through old newspapers, genealogical and corporation records, city business directories (precursors of the modern phone book). They find a newspaper article on the Centerville Branch (while only a humble horse-drawn line, yet the most profitable railroad in California).

Apprentice: Here's Old Bones himself in an 1885 Oakland Tribune. Listen: "The road has the honor of being the smallest in the world. The entire operating force consists of one man who is superintendent, conductor, engineer, fireman, brakeman and station agent combined. The name of this railroad Pooh-bah is H. H. Burdick. It is Mr. Burdick's boast that he has never had a collision or an explosion on his line." Right! Henry has the only train on the line and I don't suppose his horse's boiler can explode! (Article is illustrated.)

Approaching the climax of the piece, we see the final casting, forging and milling of the new flat car parts and finally, exactly reproducing the archival photography of the Carter Brothers company at work, we follow the work process and teamwork required to build a new flat car from the kit of materials.

Historian Bruce MacGregor: In just two years, the Carter brothers, Thomas and Martin, built over 600 cars for seven narrow gauge railroads like the South Pacific Coast; they made as many as 10,000 cars over 27 years. We're almost ready to build a car, just as they did, in only two days. It's important to have all our component parts laid out in advance, so why don't you two stack those timbers over here and we'll un-crate the pieces we've cast at the foundry. Tomorrow, we'll break down into teams. Get the forge fired up early; the blacksmithing of the grab irons and the other forged pieces will have to start right away. When we rebuilt our first car we figured out the bed would be easier to assemble upside down. When we were done we flipped it over with the back hoe.

Apprentice: Well, look what we found in this diary of Brian O'Doul's, one of the Carter car builder's. He says here that everybody had to stop work so they could all help turn over a car bed when it was done.

Bruce: I'll be darned, so we got it right! That's historic re-construction at its best!

The Day of the Flat Car - As the apprentices assemble sub-components, we begin to appreciate the amazing sophistication of wooden railroad car design and understand its evolution. Bruce points out which elements originated in wagon design and how the builders learned from their failures the inadequacy of the older techniques and shows what was done to improve and adapt them. (See Appendix - Carter Brothers, Bruce MacGregor)

Bruce: This flat car frame represents the end of a long process of development. Tom and Martin Carter were two Irish brothers who rose from the ranks of San Francisco's cabinet makers. They were skilled; they were available to go where the work was; and most important, especially to these have-not railroads, they were inexpensive. They started in general carpentry, in the 1850's began working as wood fitters and machinists for California's very first railroad, and by the 1870s, were building their own horse-cars for San Francisco's street railroads. These first years were filled with mixed results resulting from under-engineered and unsettled designs.

A group of layabouts, hangers-on and ne'er-do-wells look on as the flat car takes shape. An old-timer (Charlie Blacklock, 88, famous musical-saw player and street musician) picks up a saw and begins to tap an old railroad song out of it. Another guy plays the bass line on his whiskey jug. A banjo appears. They're songs everybody knows, and it helps the work. In this final scene, we don't know whether we are in the past or present in the final scene until we pull back as the crowd of modern onlookers cheers the completion of the flat car. Old Bones is finally seen hauling the flat car down the Centerville Branch with his draft horse and disappears into the sunset and the past.

Knight Foundry Progress Report: Endgame

[We are sending the following letter to the hundreds of people who have supported the effort to preserve Knight Foundry. It serves to summarize our present situation. If everything clicks, we may be able to acquire the foundry within the next ten weeks.]

The Save Knight Foundry Task Force has made solid progress toward acquiring Knight Foundry. Recently, the City of Sutter Creek has stepped up to the plate to take an active role in facilitating funding from the National Trust for Historic Preservation; funding which we can wrap up by early June. This is partly contingent upon our raising matching dollars. We are confident that we can make that goal by the time the deal is complete. We now need to call upon all our friends and supporters for the final drive to put Knight Foundry back into operation and begin the workshops, tours and training programs we are planning.

The Task Force has matured as a solid work group with all the human resources on hand to resume operations. We are moving forward with program development and are mid-way through developing a formal preservation plan, which will establish us as a member in good standing of the national museum community. We have made some necessary repairs to the foundry, put a security system in place, are constructing a state-of-the-art archive facility, and will soon launch an oral work-history training program for local residents and students. This all reflects not only our commitment to the project, but also our firm belief that we will be up and running shortly.

Our efforts to gather community support and national attention are paying off. The National Trust has doubled the amount they are willing to loan us: up to $300,000 (at a point below prime). We may not take the entire amount, as we want to minimize our debt service burden, but the Trust, the City and the foundry owner have all demonstrated a great willingness to structure the best possible financial package. (We may, for instance, take the loan in small pieces over time as required.)

We have all the working capital we need right now. What we urgently need from you today is not a check, but a firm pledge for the amount you can give in matching dollars when we close the deal in 60 to 90 days. (We won't turn your check down now, of course! And if you have already pledged, can you help by putting us in contact with a friend?) Once everything is in place, we will contact you to collect your tax deductible donation. This way, you have the firmest guarantee we can reasonably make that your support will directly result in opening the foundry doors in time for the all-important Gold Rush Sesquicentennial Celebration this summer. See you on opening day!

Old Images

Covered with the grit and the dust of a hundred years, we recently uncovered in the Knight Foundry machine shop a number of advertising cuts in cherry mounted copper and zinc printing plates. Looking at the plates, some of the images were indecipherable. Walter Gray, State Archivist and long time Knight supporter, directed us to Bill Gaylord, master printer, who has resuscitated some 1800's printing equipment from the Sacramento Archive and set up a demonstration letter press shop in Sacramento's Discovery Center.

Bill and his colleagues gave the plates a first cleaning and then inked them and ran them through their old press. They are evidently catalogue images from 1900 and before. There is now no question as to where the big radial arm drill press is from: it's a Knight catalogue item. Here are some samples.

Knight Foundry Archive

With the help and surplus equipment connections of Dave Borgh and the advice and guidance of archivists Jim Henley, Manager of the Sacramento Archive and Museum Collection Center, and his colleagues Pat Johnson and Stacia Wolf, we are establishing a state of the art archive unit at Knight Foundry. We have acquired, as a temporary facility, a surplus radar van body, which will be set up as a climate controlled, clean and secure archive processing and storage unit. Some of the documents at Knight are in need of drastic conservation measures, and we will be working with the State Archive lab to take proper care of them.

Portrait of the Save Knight Foundry Task Force

The Save Knight Foundry Task Force has evolved into a solid, hard working, self starting work group. It is preparing to leave the "incubator" of the Samuel Knight Chapter of the Society for Industrial Archeology as a new 501 (c) 3 tax exempt organization, Knight Foundry. The Task Force consists of:

Bill Braun and Tom Innes, fundraising co-chairs;
Marianne Massengale, community programs coordinator;
Bob Wilson, foundry industry liaison;
Alan Langmuir, management consultant;
Maryellen Burns, resource development coordinator;
David Weitzman, history program developer;
Georgia Fox, Amador County Museum Director
Mike Garavaglia and Sheila McElroy, preservation consultants;
Lora Change, product development research and
Andy Fahrenwald, public relations and planning coordinator.

This group will provide the core of the paid and volunteer staff of the new Knight Foundry. In addition to the core task force are a host of former participants in the previous effort who have expressed themselves ready to pitch in when we reopen, among them Frank Herzog, David Lindquist, Sam Thompson, Joe Harralson. Sutter Creek attorney Brad Sullivan has offered pro bono legal services to help us get organized. Iron Master Russ Johnson will be our first hire.

We are now turning our major focus to a state and national media campaign and launching a newly designed sponsor and capital campaign being coordinated by Maryellen Burns. We already have support from many prominent preservationists across the country, with the proactive involvement of the State Historic Preservation Office and the National Trust for Historic Preservation who are helping us identify long term funding sources. We will participate in the Anachronistic Industries workshops in West Virginia in April, which will be a superb networking opportunity. We will report on this event in the next issue.

Principal among these potential sources is the federal Save America's Treasures program. This program consists of two parts: a direct grant program (the State Preservation Officer has committed to allocate a portion for us) and a program administered by the National Trust to match up foundations with preservation projects. The National Trust has declared Knight Foundry one of its Eleven Most Endangered Historic Sites of 1996 and is a strong supporter of our present efforts. This second program has great potential for our foundation fundraising activities.

T. A. RICKARD AND HIS CALIFORNIA CONNECTIONS

T. A. Rickard, 1864 - 1953, was an internationally prominent mining engineer and historian of the mining industry. His greatest legacy was an extraordinary and lengthy career in technical writing and publishing. This very abbreviated sketch of Rickard focuses on parts of his life which pertain to California.

Most mining historians do not have technical backgrounds. T.A. Rickard was an exception. He was educated at the Royal School of Mines in London. From 1885 until 1902 he held responsible positions in mining in several countries and was a highly credentialed consultant to the industry. He was State Geologist of Colorado from 1895 to 1901. Although he had published articles at an early age, he didn't turn to writing and publishing on a full-time basis until he was almost forty. Thus began his half-century long career as a mining journalist and editor of three of the world's leading mining journals. His lengthy life (1864-1953) was permeated with mining and made him truly an expert on the subject.

Mining engineers and metallurgists dominated the male side of his large family. His great-grandfather was a Cornish mine captain whose son, Capt. James Rickard, was sent to California in 1850 by the London firm of John Taylor and Sons to appraise the Mariposa grant, sold by Thomas Larkin and under option by Gen. John C. Fremont. James Rickard brought with him a sectional stamp mill, the first stamp mill erected in California, at Coulterville, Mariposa County.

Immediately after leaving the Royal School of Mines in 1885, T.A. Rickard came to Colorado to work in the mines of an uncle. He had an opportunity to visit another uncle, Reuben, in Berkeley, over Christmas, 1886. Soon he was able to take advantage of a family acquaintance when Philip Argall asked him to manage the Union Mine, near San Andreas, California. At the age of 23, in 1887, Rickard had a $300/month salary, a house, Chinese servant, and horse and buggy. Unfortunately, this mine was a fizzle - having been sold to an English company on the basis of a report by a promoter who previously had a job painting cuspidors and coal-scuttles for the Southern Pacific railway. Management of the mine had initially been given to the promoter, himself, who was thus able to cover up his own chicanery as well as receive a handsome salary.

He next went to Australia and following that, France, before establishing a consulting office in Denver in 1893. He based himself in Colorado and was appointed State Geologist for three terms (six years) by three different governors of the state. On a working engagement in Australia, he first met Herbert Hoover, who had shortly before graduated from Stanford. A close relationship developed. In 1903, he turned his career from engineering to writing and publishing, an endeavor which lasted the remainder of his life.

Rickard commenced his publishing career in New York as editor of the Engineering & Mining Journal, but he had frustrations with its management. In 1905 he left that publication and purchased the Mining & Scientific Press, a weekly journal published since 1860 in San Francisco. He wanted to be an independent editor, and being publisher he assured himself of that independence. However, not wishing to be personally involved in the business end, he made his cousin, Edgar, business manager. Edgar was also a graduate of the Royal School of Mines and one of many cousins and uncles who were mining engineers.

One of the first things Rickard added to the M & SP was the slogan on its banner proclaiming: "Science has no enemy save the ignorant". The declaration seems appropriate to the haughty (many would say arrogant) Rickard.

Just months after he acquired the M & SP, a catastrophe occurred. On April 18, 1906, San Francisco was virtually destroyed by the great earthquake and fire. The Press lost everything except its mailing list. However, while the fire was still burning, the Rickards managed to print a single sheet for the issue of April 21st, using a shop across San Francisco Bay in Berkeley. By mid-May, the M & SP was back to 54 pages. One of my favorite publications of Rickard is a hard-cover collection of articles from issues of the M & SP in the weeks immediately following the earthquake. In my opinion, its choicest page is the frontispiece, a photograph of a burned-out ruin and the caption, Our offices at 330 Market Street, San Francisco.

The first book published in San Francisco after the earthquake was Rickard's "Journeys of Observation", an account of his voyages metallurgiques in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado and in three mining regions of Mexico. This was his most artistically designed book and featured a cover (and spine) design by the renowned western artist, Maynard Dixon.

Rickard seemed to delight in exposing fraud and mining promotions of questionable merit. In San Francisco, he even targeted the two newspaper magnates, William Randolph Hearst and Michael de Young, stating that their papers "were of the vilest type, owned by men without character and edited by men without principle". Nevertheless, Rickard spoke on the same occasion as did young Hearst at the 1907 dedication of the Hearst Memorial Mining Building, still a prominent structure on the Berkeley campus of the University of California. His outspoken comments, even in print, extended to statements about ethnic groups that today would certainly be politically incorrect.

By gathering great writing and reporting talent, the M & SP became increasingly an important international journal, and T.A.'s reputation grew. Thus, it was fitting that in 1909 Herbert Hoover invited T.A. and cousin Edgar to come to London to start a new publication, Mining Magazine, which continues to this day.

One of mining history's greatest achievements was the translation into English, by Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover, of Georgius Agricola's De Re Metallica, written in Latin in 1556. It was the Rickards and Mining Magazine that published this monumental work in 1912.

Soon the First World War started in Europe, but back in San Francisco the M & SP suffered from the absence of the Rickards. T.A. wanted Edgar to return to San Francisco while he remained in England until the war was over. But Edgar became involved in Hoover's humanitarian work in Europe, so T.A. exchanged his Mining Magazine stock for that of the M & SP and returned to the U.S. in March, 1915.

A month or two after Rickard's return to the M & SP and San Francisco, John A. Hill of the E & MJ offered to purchase the M & SP for $25,000. The offer was refused, and Rickard was able to double circulation within two years. However, by 1922 Rickard may have tired of publishing, for that year he sold the M & SP to McGraw-Hill for ten times Hill's previous offer. The two journals then merged. Also, in 1922, Rickard published an important work, "Interviews with Mining Engineers", a fore-runner of modern oral histories.

Rickard subsequently concentrated on writing less technical works related to mining. This was nothing new, as he had written books on his travels, such as "Journeys of Observation" and "Through the Yukon and Alaska" (1909). His historical writing increased and included "History of American Mining" and a two-volume work, "Man and Metals", both published in 1932. That same year, Rickard moved from Berkeley to Victoria, British Columbia. He continued lecturing and writing for many more years until his death in 1953.

The Rickards had many connections to the San Francisco area besides those mentioned above. Berkeley, in particular had close associations: an early mayor in its township days was a Rickard, and T.A.'s cousin, Tom, was mayor. T.A. and cousin Edgar both lived in Berkeley. At one point, T.A. lived in Phoebe Hearst's former home in Berkeley. Rickard's only son, Dr. John F. Rickard, psychiatrist on the staff of Children's Hospital of the East Bay, also lived in Berkeley. I have an extensive collection of and about Rickard and am always interested in hearing from people who have known him or his family.

Notes and Queries

Seeking information on the pottery/ tableware industry in CA post 1930. Specifically seeking info on Gladding, McBean & Co. and their Franciscan tableware production from the Glendale/LA factory. Images, Anything! General statewide data on the scope and impact of production, employment numbers, other related to general CA pottery tableware industry sought and welcomed. Dean Six, 106 North Court Street, Harrisville, WV 26362. Email: deansix@juno.com

Listing of Chapter Newsletter Articles

The Chapter Newsletter has evolved into a multifaceted journal of Industrial Archeology and so we provide this list of articles for your reference. The first eight issues are available bound for $20.

[Index of all Newsletter Web Pages]

Issue number 1: May 9, 1997
Welcome to the newly inaugurated Samuel Knight Chapter	1
Minutes of the First Annual Meeting	2
Chapter Structure and Activities	5
How the Samuel Knight Chapter Came to Be	9
Samuel Knight Chapter Website	12
Cataloguing the Changing Artifact	13
Bricking the Pacific Coast	15
IA on the Internet	16
Issue number 2: July 16, 1997
Minutes of our second meeting	4
"The Artisan at Work"	7
IA events	7
IA on paper	8
Issue number 3: October 7, 1997
Lunch at the Alameda Point Ferry Terminal of the South Pacific Coast Railroad	3
A Short History of the Alameda Moles	7
The View From the Bay: San Francisco Maritime Heritage Boat Tour	13
Issue number 4: November 30, 1997
Save Knight Foundry	4
Tour of the New Almaden Quicksilver Mines	9
Joshua Hendy Iron Works Iron Man Museum Tour	12
Alameda Point Ferry Terminal Site Update	13
Events Industrial Archæological	15
Issue number 5: April 1, 1998
Report on January Gold Country Tour	6
A Sad Day in Mudville	6
The Kennedy Mine & Milling Co.	8
A Brief History Of The Ancient Art Of Anvil Firing	9
Save Knight Foundry: Chapter 2	11
Alameda Point Ferry Terminal Saga Continues	19
Issue number 6: July 21, 1998
Second Annual Business Meeting and Tour of the Western Railway Museum	4
Macauley Foundry Tour	5
Maritime Tour Series	5
Logs, Lumber and Longshoring	8
Knight Foundry Plans Completed, Funding Effort	10
Niles Canyon Railroad Relics	13
Issue number 7: December 10, 1998
This Old Flat Car: Railfair 99	4
Recent Tours	6
Knight Foundry Progress Report	8
The Preservation of Historic Skills	9
The Artisan At Work Web Site	12
Bricking the Pacific Coast: New Almaden Re-Visited	16
The SIA and Its Local Chapters	19
Issue number 8: April 1, 1999
IXL Lime Company	8
White Brothers: "Over 100 Years of Quality"	10
This Old Flat Car: A Documentary Film Script	13
Knight Foundry Progress Report: Endgame	18
T.A. Rickard and his California Connections	20

Pledge, Donation and Legacy Response Form

Please send your pledge, donation or legacy to: Samuel Knight Preservation Fund, P.O.Box 1198, Sutter Creek CA 95685. .All donations are tax deductible. For information call 916 442-1636.

Yes! I will Pledge $______________ to Save Knight Foundry for Future Generations

Name:

Address:

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Telephone: Home: Work:

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Donations and Legacies

Amount you are giving now. Checks should be made to The Samuel Knight Preservation Fund which is administered by the City of Sutter Creek and is a tax deductible donation.

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The amount you would consider bequeathing as a legacy to Knight Foundry, when we have established a foundry endowment program:

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Contacts

Who are individuals, companies, groups or organizations, foundations or government grants you think we should approach for funding now? Please include detailed contact information:

Can you help us make the contact or provide an introduction?

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