[AT] Oliver's decline was Nice Tractor Day

[Mark Johnson]

Allis Chalmers built a large fraction of the transformers used in residential electric distribution...the AC diamond logo used to be on almost every meter pole around. The Ag equipment was actually a very small fraction of the company's total revenue (less than 10% I think).

A cousin in Milwaukee worked his entire career for AC, mostly designing big pumps but also involved to some degree in water and steam turbines. IIRC, he retired about the time that AC was acquired - then passed away from cancer within a few weeks. Never told his co-workers just how sick he really was.

I took the Hoover Dam tour in about 1992 and remember those big generators and water turbines. [An aside: the tour guides were a hoot - ours introduced herself with "Hi! I'm Candy, and I'll be your damn guide today." When we left the tour I told her "I bet you've heard every damn joke there is about this place, including this one." She laughed out loud and nodded.

Tractor related: When I was on the farm we had a 190XT and a 210. We never pushed the 190 hard enough to have any problems with the drivetrain...didn't use it to pull a plow very much if at all. The 210 pulled a MF plow with 6 x 16" bottoms; its only flaw was that the radiator was slightly too small - in heavy southern Indiana clay, it would overheat in about 100 yards if operated at full rated RPM; we had to keep it backed down about 200-300 RPM - around 2000. The 8030 my dad bought later had the same base engine, about 30 more HP (more turbo boost?), and a much bigger radiator. It would pull that same plow at full rated speed all day long.

I kept trying to get my dad to invest in a custom built radiator with another row of tubes for the 210; he didn't want to mess with it.

Mark J
Columbia MO

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Fallon" <bfallon at whidbey.com>
To: "Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2019 1:48:55 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] Oliver's decline was Nice Tractor Day

I have a large Orange hardbound book of Allis Chalmers Some of the stuff they built at the turn of the century (20th) was mammoth  Steam, Gas, Blowers, Power Generation, Pumping,  just about anything you can imagine. 


Bruce Fallon
Langley, WA 98260

-----Original Message-----
From: AT [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of HERBERT METZ
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2019 1:57 PM
To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group
Subject: Re: [AT] Oliver's decline was Nice Tractor Day

Steve mentioned AC in many markets; in mid 1960s many manufacturers of large electrical generating equipment were hammered because of price fixing. At that time I did not realize AC was that big. 
We toured Hoover Dam in early 70's; I certainly agree with Steve. Herb(GA)


> On November 13, 2019 at 12:49 PM Steve Offiler <soffiler at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Off topic but Cecil just reminded me of a tour of Hoover Dam I did 20 yrs ago (before 9/11 they would bring you into the very bowels).  At least one of the big generators was built by Allis-Chalmers.   (Others wore GE or Westinghouse plaques).  These generators, working from fuzzy memory, are about 30’ diameter; driven by 2’ diameter shafts coming up from the turbines.  Very impressive in the modern day, and hard to even imagine the manufacturing equipment required  back then.  
> SO
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