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| Steam Engine Display Slated for Middfest |
| Monday, September 15, 2003 1:09:56 PM - Middletown Ohio |
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Visitors to the October 3-5 Middfest International celebration in downtown Middletown may wonder what a large display of steam engines has to do with the featured country, Scotland. As with many other modern conveniences, the steam engine was developed by a Scotsman.
When Jerry Kern, industrial technical writer and chairman of the Middfest Science Committee, began to gather ideas for the 2003 display depicting Scotland’s contribution to the world of science he found many Scottish inventors and developers who took inventions and made them useful to the modern world.
Scotsman James Watt applied to the steam engine the idea of separate condensation, allowing it to generate a constant motion which, in 1781, Watt turned into a rotary motion. He created the work engine of the Industrial Revolution.
To bring the steam engine to Middfest, two mid-western steam engine collectors have shared their personal expertise and collections for the three-day event.
James Conrad who lives in Jacksonburg has a collection of 150 toy steam engines, all of which are working engines. As a young boy, living on a farm, he was fascinated by the steam engines used to thrash grain and often helped with the thrashing service that moved from farm to farm separating the grain seeds from the straw.
He remembers his father buying his very first toy steam engine for 98 cents as a gift for James when he was just five years old. While his first engine came as a new toy purchased at Dohn’s Hardware Store in downtown Middletown, his other engines came from various sources including many antique sales.
Edgewood school students may remember Mr. Conrad from the many times he would bring his small engines to classrooms to demonstrate the steam engine for their science classes. The former school bus driver and bus mechanic has been a popular speaker for many years at schools, service clubs and retirement homes
Many other scientists, authors, inventors, performers and craftspeople will also be on hand to share Scotland’s contributions to the world.
Middfest International is a year-long international friendship educational program culminating in a three-day festive event in downtown Middletown, Ohio. For more information, please call 513-425-7707, email middfest@siscom.net, or visit the website at www.middfestinternational.org.
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Ann Mort
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