imagine doing the landscaping that's been put off for a 100 years, clearing out the bushes, shrubs, and hedges, and you find this... umm, wheeled thing!

I couldn't figure out what the heck it was... except steam boiler powered... but the post went on to show what the thing had been before rust took away all the small stuff

https://www.facebook.com/groups/tractiontalk/permalink/10163601925699840

wow... a wind up 1914 American Austin pavement roller!

 

must have been been a Monday morning!

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/5610478470/in/album-72157626351588223/

the famous Leslie Jones collection of wrecks and accidents, Dorchester

Keystone Ride ‘Em steam roller

From road paver in Florida, to military service in WW1, WW2, and the Korean War, ending as CO of the Strategic Air Command. Humble beginnings indeed of Major General Clements McMullen

He flew as a military aviator during WWI in the United States, was the winner of an air race and broke aviation speed records between the wars and served during World War II and the Korean War.

He retired as a two star, one of his sons retired as a three star.

Along the way he worked with some historical people, like Billy Mitchell, Lindbergh, Doolittle, and Yeager, and while acting as the Deputy Commander of the Strategic Air Command, gave direct orders to create a cover story for the incident and therefore create what has become known as the government cover-up of the Roswell UFO incident.

Under his command and by his retirement in 1954, SAAMA and Kelly Air Force Base was the largest employer in Texas and the Southwest in order to supply the Army in the Korean War


One of his largest contributions was the mechanization of SAAMA. He became personally involved with an extensive modernization project that brought the machine-age to Kelly Air Force Base. In one such project, General McMullen himself conceived an “aircraft loader.” He sent the blue prints to the Kelly maintenance shop at which point a prototype was built. The loader was placed into use and the result was that it took one-fourth the time to load and unload cargo from aircraft.

He also initiated a "Santa's Express" for the kids of the workers at Kelly AFB

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/thmcmullen.htm
http://usafflagranks.com/Major_General_Clements_McMullen.htm

Huber steam rollers

these are so stout that they've been used as roadblocks in India,

and so visually representative of heavy that artists have used them ironically

Artist Chris Burden's 'The Flying Steamroller, 1996' in the solo exhibition '14 Magnolia Double Lamps' takes a ride at Chelsea College of Art and Design on October 2006 in London.

The twelve ton steam roller attached to a pivoting arm and counterbalance lifts off the ground with the aid of an hydraulic piston and rotates in a circle.

and when they have an engine failure that strands them due to no parts availability in India, the become just a part of the backdrop to life

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/photos/steamroller-india?mediatype=photography&phrase=steamroller%20india&sort=mostpopular

one hell of a nice collection of construction trucks, fire engines, and dozers. The Mahan collection in New Jersey

NICE ladder

looks like a Caterpillar radiator was added to a Mack

 

showing some innovation with spare parts, they constructed nice bar type tables... though they have totally wrong chairs instead of barstools

http://carzhunt.blogspot.com/2017/05/mahan-truck-collection-nj-self-driving.html

It is a tribute to the craftsmanship of the original Autoroller engineers that, over half a century on, rollers from that era are widely considered to be superior to those manufactured today.

The Lymington Sports Ground’s motor roller was recently refurbished by Wiltshire company Autoglide. The major overhaul included the welcome addition of power steering and the introduction of a key start to replace the old starting handle.

The metalwork has also been repainted in traditional British rolling green. The total bill of the refurb was approx £8,000

The roller is believed to be 56 years old and previously saw service at Hampshire’s old County Ground at Northlands Road before being acquired by the club in the late 1990s.

http://www.lymingtoncc.com/wp/2016-archive/

The Roller...  the one true hero responsible for bringing a match alive by prepping the turf that makes or breaks. The genesis lies in the pitch.

Now, apart from the factors of grass cover and soil composition, what makes a pitch playable (or unplayable, for that matter) depends primarily on the kind of roller that’s used on it.

Notably, it was in August 1938 when England thrashed Australia by 579 runs after having put up a humongous total of 903/7.

An iconic picture of the Test match shows Bosser Martin, who was the groundsman at The Oval with his heavy roller which, according to an article in The Guardian by eminent Cricket commentator and writer, Mike Selvey, had worked on the pitch “till the surface resembled concrete”.

Who gets the say in when and which type of roller is to be employed upon the pitch? Barring the first day of any Test match, it is the batting team captain who dictates the rolling conditions. According to the Law 10. (a) of the ICC Rules of Cricket written and interpreted by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which entails “Preparation and Maintenance of the Playing Area”: “During the match the pitch may be rolled at the request of the captain of the batting side, for a period of not more than 7 minutes, before the start of each innings, other than the first innings of the match, and before the start of each subsequent day’s play.” Further, Law 10. (c) elucidates on the ‘Choice of rollers’ as: “If there is more than one roller available the captain of the batting side shall choose which one is to be used.”

https://www.crictracker.com/how-heavy-and-light-rollers-impact-a-game-of-test-cricket
http://www.cricketroller.co.uk/ormskirk-cricket-club-re-power-kit/
http://www.lymingtoncc.com/wp/about-lymington-cricket-club/history-of-lymington-sports-ground/

making the Atlanta Speedway, in 1909. It wasn't long lived, and after WW1 the site became the location of a new airport for Atlanta and in 1925 it was named Candler Field.

In the later 1920’s the US Post Office was looking for an airmail stop in the South East.

 The two cities in contention were Birmingham, AL and Atlanta. A young city alderman, William B. Hartsfield, approached Mr. Candler and struck a deal where the City of Atlanta could use the land, rent-free, for a period of 5 years as long as the City paid the taxes.

It became the home of Atlanta Municipal Airport, the first passenger airport in the world with a control tower, and the first passenger airport with a passenger terminal.

It is, of course, today’s Hartsfield-Jackson International.

http://dlmracing.blogspot.com/2013/07/atlanta-speedway-atlantas-early.html
https://thevintagent.com/2017/10/04/atlantas-black-streaks/

steamroller, 1925

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10214308059244299&set=a.4705775571281.184479.1501025670&type=3&permPage=1

steam roller, 1910, Los Angeles

http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6051933&postcount=13266

Short notice, sorry... but no one told me about this, I stumbled across the news that tomorrow is the auction of a bunch of antiques from Knott's Berry Farm

the online catalog alone is worth a look.. the collected stuff from the old days when the place was family owned is incredible... if there was something that was going to fit in an Old West saloon, it's at the auction because the stuff was eventually relegated to storage... or phased out by the new corporate owners.

https://comics.ha.com/c/ecatalog.zx?saleNo=7151
hat tip to http://www.lamag.com/askchris/knotts-berry-farm-auctioning-off-historic-pieces-park/