Members of SACA-Northeast gathered at the home of member Craig Standbridge in Milford, New Hampshire. It was a very crisp, but sunny autumn day and by mid-day the temperature has risen nicely. The business meeting took place, as usual, promptly at 10:00 am.

It is with pleasure that I report the Richard Fraser was accepted as a new member of the chapter. Dick has long been involved with old cars and, along with his wife Nancy, wrote a book on Maine built automobiles, which is a superb piece of work.

Following the formal business meeting, there was some technical discussion. Dave Nergaard talked about two items with which he has experimented on his 1922 Stanley. Dave had a problem with severely leaking feed pump check valves as the check balls had become very worn. Dave deduced that the check valve seats were likely worn by the continuous pounding of the check balls. He designed a check valve poppet using an O-ring at the sealing point. This has proven most successful. On our trip to the Yankee Steam-up two weeks previous, it was obvious to me that the check valves were working beautifully as we ran the whole trip on one pump.

The second item that Dave discussed was the installation of 'welch' plugs he is now using in the cylinder heads of his engine. He has been running a piston valve cylinder block for several years now. It is quite clear that a piston valve block is much more sensitive to water getting into the cylinders. I was with Dave on the steam car meet in Maine a few years ago when we experienced just that problem. We had just filled the water tank and were backing away from the hose. As we were on a slight slope, we simply coasted backwards. All of a sudden the car stopped rather abruptly as if we had hit a curb, only we hadn't hit anything. The engine had sucked in a slug of water from the exhaust and the result was bent piston rods. Dave's solution to this was installing plugs in the cylinder heads that would blow out when the cylinder pressure became excessive. The plugs look like 'freeze' plugs that are used to plug casting holes in internal combustion engines and installed in a similar fashion. Dave installed the plugs on the inside of the cylinder with the intent that they would blow outwards. He tested this idea and found they blow out at 700 psi. He had a problem with premature failures of the plugs and, after careful investigation discovered that he had made them a few thousandths undersize. The plugs were actually falling inwards into the cylinder, however, there was no damage. Since Dave corrected the plug diameter, he has had no further problems. He brought the tooling he used to make the plugs.

Our host showed us his experimental wobble-plate steam engine. It is reputed to make 150 horsepower. It is indeed quite an interesting piece of machinery. Craig has had it running on steam using the boiler in his S-10 pickup as a steam supply and reports that it runs well. I would be curious to see how efficient it really is.

Rolly Evans showed us some Stanley spring shackles he had made. These were cut out of a chunk of steel using a very high-pressure water jet. The results were very impressive indeed.

After the meeting and technical discussions adjourned, we feasted on a nice lunch provided by our host and viewed the two steam cars in attendance which were Dave Nergaard's 1922 Stanley and Dick Wells' Model R Stanley. Dick was keeping his gloves warm for the trip home, by placing them next to the open smoke flap on top of the boiler. Shortly thereafter, members departed for home.

I would like to thank Craig and his wife for their hospitality and a wonderful lunch.

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