![]() for their Wheeler Station in Sugar Grove, Ohio. Being installed in 18, two engines were bought by the Central Ohio Natural Gas & Fuel Co., to be used in their Lancaster, Ohio, plant and the other two were purchased by Northwestern Ohio Natural Gas Co. There was a flywheel on each end of the crankshaft. The bore of the compressor was 16 inches with a 24-inch stroke. These engines had two opposed power cylinders, with a 25-inch bore and 48-inch stroke, next to two opposed compressor cylinders mounted on a common crankshaft. So the first four engine compressor units built by the Snow Steam Pump Works in Buffalo were John Klein’s design. However, it does seem odd that Klein would design a new engine for his own firm’s competition! No explanation has been found for this. Since Snow was a former National Transit employee, these two men were most likely friends. Snow realized this and hired John Klein, chief engineer for National Transit Co., as his consulting engineer. Soon they would give way to new technology: the internal combustion engine. With the dawn of the 20th century approaching, the days of the huge steam pumps were in decline. This huge pump had a 5-foot stroke and operated at 21 RPM producing 775 HP and delivering 20 million gallons of water per day. In 1896, Snow built a huge high duty vertical triple expanding steam pump for the Indianapolis, Indiana, water company. For their plant superintendent, they hired a gentleman from Worthington who brought many of those designs with him. This seemed a perfect location, with Lake Erie and the Erie Canal nearby demanding pumps for their vessels. of Oil City, Pennsylvania, formed the Snow Steam Pump Works in Buffalo, New York. ![]() Snow and Daniel O’Day, former employees of National Transit Co. Many persons entered the steam pump business. Municipal water works found these pumps very dependable and they were made in huge sizes to meet the demand. Over the ensuing years, the steam pump business flourished as they were adapted to many uses. The Disney steamboat Liberty Belle in Orlando, Florida, uses two of them to keep its boilers full! Many of these steam pumps are still manufactured and in use today. There is a restored Worthington steam pump operating in the Coolspring Power Museum’s Pump House. As the fluid discharge pressure equals the steam pressure, the pump simply stops it begins again when discharge pressure lowers. When one cylinder acts, it triggers a steam valve that then operates the other cylinder, which then acts on a valve to again operate the first cylinder. Having no rotating parts, it consists of two steam cylinders providing the power to two pumping cylinders with each power and pump piston mounted on a common piston rod. The duplex steam pump is such a wonderfully simple yet magnificently practical invention. He was very aggressive, expanded the business and soon became very wealthy. Worthington, then 27, took over the company. Henry died in 1881 and his son, Charles C. It is of note that Worthington pumps were used on the Union’s ironclad steamship Monitor in the Civil War. In 1845, he joined William Barker and formed Worthington and Barker, located in Brooklyn, New York, to manufacture these pumps. Believing that he could solve this problem, he invented a simple reciprocating steam pump that operated automatically to keep the boilers filled to the desired pressure. Already a hydraulic engineer, he noticed that while boats waited to get through the locks and the main engines were not operating, the boiler feed water pumps had to be operated by hand to keep the boilers filled. ![]() ![]() Our story unfolds in 1840, when a 23-year-old Henry Worthington became interested in steam boats on the Erie Canal in New York. Wanna see the Snow at work? Go to our Old Iron Videos blog to see the 600 HP Snow start up, run and shutdown. Below, Coolspring Power Museum founder Paul Harvey gives a thorough background on the Snow Steam Pump Works. The 20-year project ended with the dedication and successful operation of the Snow gas engine. In the August/September 2014 issue of Gas Engine Magazine, we brought you the story of the Coolspring Power Museum’s efforts to acquire, move and restore a 1917 600 HP Snow gas compressing engine.
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