—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 16. 1977
24
It’s nearly unchanged
(Continued from Page 1]
work around the clock,
moving onto new customers
in the middle of the night, (at
two mph.) blowing their ear
splitting whistles to waken
the farmer and warn the
neighbors that “the steamer
is in the neighborhood.”
Steamers also worked
in the Fall. However,
autumn work only lasted for
about two weeks.
Little has changed since
then. A few things have been
altered to account for the
“progress” of the past 50
years. In the place of coal, oil
is now burned to heat the
water in the indomitable iron
boilers which have been
mounted on the beds of
trucks for easier transport.
And, instead of doing two
pans together for 20 minutes,
today’s steamer does one
pan at a time for seven-and
a-half minutes. But.
basically, that is where the
differences stop.
Paul G. Nolt, Mount Joy
Rl, is a present day steamer
who concentrates mainly in
the Manheim, Mount Joy,
Lititz, and East Petersburg
areas. This week was his last
for Spring steaming, having
run a little later than
planned due to rainy
weather.
Nolt has owned and
operated his rig for 11 years,
having bought it from his
brother, John, who ran it for
three years after purchasing
it from his grandfather.
“Grand dad had it tor
about 10 years, so all
together we’ve * been
steaming for 24 years,” Nolt
recounted. Of those 24 years,
Nolt has been Involved with
it since he was a 16-year-old,
when he helped his grand
father.
Originally, the steamer
had been a traction engine
which was later pulled by a
tractor when gasoline
engines were invented, and
then, in 1958, the Nolt’s
mounted it on a truck. About
20 years ago they changed
over from coal to oil.
Nolt’s schedule is about
the same as the early
The day this picture was taken, Nolt Petersburg. T. Hershey Rohrer, Jr.,
was steaming at the farm of T. helps Nolt change the pans.
Hershey Rohrer, State Road, East
steamers. In the Fall, he
works for about two weeks
during the day. He usually
begins about November.
Then, in Spring, he begins
in the middle of March and
runs through to the second
week of April, depending on
the weather.
“My wife, Arlene, sets up
the route,” he explains.
He also notes that there is
one prime week during the
Spring in which he runs 24
hours a day, excluding
Sunday. To do this, he has a
relief man, Mervin Rutt, Mt.
Joy, -to help.
“We don’t always run a
week straight,” Nolt ex
plains. “Usually, there will
be some rain in there
somethere, and then you
can’t steam.” Steaming
requires loose, worked
ground, and rain packs it too
solidly for the steam to
penetrate.
Usually, Nolt calls his
customers a few days in
advance of his arrival so that
the beds can be prepared.
For steaming, the beds are
either disc harrowed or roto
tilled a few days prior to
sterilization, depending on
the ground condition and the
weather.
The beds are worked about
six-and-a-half inches down
and are left to dry.
V >
Paul Nolt changes the steaming the other remains in place holding
hose from one pan to another. Each the heat for an extra seven-and-a-half
pan steams for seven-and-a-half minutes,
minutes, and while one is steaming,
Nolt’s apparatus has two
pans six by eight-and-one
half feet in size. He places
one pan on one bed and a
second on an adjacent bed.
Then, he steams one pan at a
time for seven-and-a-half
minutes, heating the ground
to 180 - 190 degrees F. While
the second pan is steaming,
the remaining pan stays in
place, holding the heat in for
an extra seven-and-a-half
minutes.
To do this, the steamer has
about 115 - 120 pounds of
pressure in the boiler, takes
[Continued on Page 36]
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