Restoration, Original Color, Lancaster

[mchann]

Hello all,
Im new to this site but already Im finding it to be a great resource.

My issue is this, What was the original color that Lancaster blowers were painted? Now I know that many of you might say they were never painted, but I can't really believe that because that is the best way to protect metal...besides a heavy layer of grease. See I have the pleasure/pain of living on a property littered with antique farm equipment and I'm interested in preserving some of it by powder coating. Of course I want the colors to appear authentic. If you have any suggestions for the Lancaster or other resources, I would appreciate it.

Jason

[Dodge]

My uneducated guess is that they would have been shipped with a good coat of something like shellac and then (if desired) painted by the owner. Here's one member's interpretation: Blower Restoration

[dablacksmith]

flat black is a safe bet for the era.. was a common color for industrial equipment and probably cheapest paint available remember you could get a ford in any color as long as it was black!

[Ramsberg]

Hey Mchann,

I have a black and white picture from my Great-Grandfathers blacksmith shop and the blower in it looks very light colored, not white but bright, it also has what appears to be raised letters which say "Hands Off" on the blower. From the photo it appears that the letters are raised in the casting, they are very dark and were probably red. A lot of the old original advertisements for blacksmithing equipment in magezines were in color print so digging some of them up you may find what they looked like orignaly.

Dablacksmith,

Interestingly enough, it was not the cost of the paint that urged Ford to use black, but it was the drying time. The black(carbon and oil) paint dried quicker then any other paint and since his whole scheme was time in, product out, that is what he went with. They used large long hair horse brushes for the paint which had a valved pressurized paint line going directly to the hair part of the brush. No dipping in a bucket, just slather it on! The brushes appeared to be perpendicular to the handle, although that may have just been brush droop.

Caleb Ramsby

[mchann]

Thank you all for your assistance.

First of all, while talking about restoration with people generations older than me they often default to painting things in black rustolium as matter of practicality. I'm 26 and I have to struggle to remember that the orange grove sprayer was painted a soft yellow with red or black guard rails. And the water pumps were painted red and the enormous tractor under the garage was green. Yesterday I was chipping at the paint covering a lathe that turned sections for the Mount Wilson TV station in the 30's. I could only describe the color as a kind of creamy. Later I was looking at a large bank safe from the same era that appears to have been painted the same color but in much better condition.

I would have to agree that it was probably painted a color rather than black. As Ramsberg mentioned, advertisements were sometimes in color. It is important to remember that just because we interested in rediscovering or following in the footsteps of a tradition that is slowly rusting away, it doesn't mean that it always looked like that. I think that the manufactures of farm and industry equipment were just as mindful to aesthetics as we are today. Keep in mind that the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian structures and later European castle interiors were decorated in, what we would consider, garish colors.

Yes, advertisements are a good place to look. Also the US Trademark office has a large digitized collection of trademarks.... but I don't know how far back their database goes.

Ramsberg, could you tell me what is the approximate date of the photo of your Great-Grandfathers forge. I have a friend that specialized in antique photographic methods. He mentioned that early film was only sensitive to specific wavelengths of light, blue in particular. So a red object would appear black. Blue and green would appear white, which matches the picture with the original paint.

Thanks for all your help.

[ThomasPowers]

note too that a re-seller could often specify what colour they wanted the stuff delivered in!

[Ramsberg]

Hey Mchann,

They recently discovered that along with the interiors of the ancient buildings and homes, the exertiors were painted, often with scenes. The marble statues were also painted in full and originally most of them had armor and other objects attached to them.

I did a little bit of research on the history of machine tool painting and found that in 1942 the government(the War Department) sent out a decrea that there was to only be one color of paint used on the tools, this in an effort to keep minerals in supply. Before the 1900's some of the tools had very deep colors, pinstriping and rarely small scenes painted on them. If you were an artist back then and very good you would probably be painting small scenes on the side of the horse drawn carriadges, this is what Sir Hiram Maxim, the inventor of the Maxim machine gun and many other things, did in his early life.

The picture in question was taken in somewhere between the 1910's and 1920's by his wife who was a photographer. I am going to take it out of its frame tommorow to see if there is a date on the back of it, as well as take a high quality scan and post it in this thread. Maybe someone here will know what type of blower he had.

Caleb Ramsby

[Ramsberg]

Well, I hope that these show up.

Caleb Ramsby

[ianinsa]

wow!
I just love the look of that shop
Ian

[John McPherson]

It is a Canedy Otto blower. The ring pattern of the lettering and the fat gear disk are distinctive.

Sorry, no help on colors, other than Champions, which were what I think of as welding smock green.

[Ramsberg]

Hey Ianinsa,

They say that one should keep a horseshoe with its gap pointed up to hold in the luck. . . unless one is a blacksmith, then one is supposed to keep the gap down to dump the luck out onto the forge. That must have been the luckiest blacksmith shop in history! The caulking vise is one thing in it that I had never seen before. One would use the foot lever to hold the horseshoe to pound out the toe calks.

Hey John McPherson,

Thanks for the identification! Also thanks for the photo, it looks from your photo to have three gears inside, most that I know of only had two and are a bit more compact. Do you know if the Canedy Otto blower runs any smoother then the other ones?

Caleb Ramsby

[Marksnagel]

I have a Lancaster blower that is dated 1901. My son rescued it from the farm equipment storage facility. The area out behind the barn where old farm equip goes to die. It was half buried in the dirt. When he cleaned it up there was no evidence of any paint. Not around the bolts or the seams or anywhere. Once all the dirt was cleaned out we found that the crank turned freely and it blew a good supply of air. It is now our source of air for our coal forge and it works great.

I could paint it but had not given it any thought. I would probably paint it grey or flat silver.

Mark<><

[Luke March]

I would a agree with John that the blower in the old photo is a champion. I recently acquired one, and have discovered the remains of some paint on some parts. I don't know whether it was original or not, but it seems pretty old.

On the blower casings, and most especially on the impeller, I found a sort of dark red; not a bright red like I've seen some people do, but a dark red, kind of like barn red. Interestingly enough, there is also what appears to be gold paint on the lettering (look at the "R" and "O" on the pictures below). When I finish cleaning it up, I think I will pain it these colors again.