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Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard

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  • Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard

    So we were trying to figure out what to do on a frigid Saturday (heater broke yesterday :o) and my wife finally announces, "We're going to the Charles River Museum of Industry." It turns out this place is about 4 miles from our house and about 1/4 mile from the gym we go to. It is on the site of the Boston Manufacturing Company textile mill in Waltham, MA. I won't waste too much time telling you how awesome it was and I'll let the pictures do the talking. Notice in the pictures how everything is locally manufactured.

    Brian, if you haven't yet, you NEED to visit this place. They do events. I told my wife I want to have MY birthday party here (my daughter's B-day is next week and that is all the talk these days.)

    First thing inside the door is an unbelievable fire engine pumper from 1871 (built in NH and delivered to Waltham FD.) Horse-drawn with a steam driven pump that puts out 850 gpm!!!



    This thing had patina in spades.





    Look at the detail in this gage face:









    The best thing about this place is that kids were allowed to touch and climb on everything!





    Lots more coming.


    1967 Chevelle 300 2 Door Post. No factory options. 250 ci inline six with lump-ported head, big valves, Offy intake and 500cfm Edelbrock carb.

  • #2
    Re: Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard

    They didn't have too many cars, but this one was very cool:



    It is a 1907 Orient Runabout, manufactured right here. Full leaf springs, continuously variable friction transmission (I could have spent hours poring over the drivetrain alone), and air-cooled two cylinder engine.







    Old Model T (?) in partial completion:



    The Orient company made bicycles too (1 to 6 occupants!)







    Cutaway Model A engine:





    Unidentified 4 banger flathead. Head is cast locally.



    1967 Chevelle 300 2 Door Post. No factory options. 250 ci inline six with lump-ported head, big valves, Offy intake and 500cfm Edelbrock carb.

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    • #3
      Re: Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard

      Clearly the coolest part was the fully functional machine shop all belt driven.

      Lathe from the Polaroid company:

















      Later on this (very) young man came over and demonstrated all the machines (with hunks of aluminum chocked up.) I was very impressed with how he could explain all the linkages, automatic features, and interlocks of each machine while they were operating. But he scared the crap out of me without any safety glasses and sticking his fingers close to all the moving parts to point them out to the crowd. Made me happy to have short hair and no loose clothing with all the belts whirring overhead and nearby.



      Makin' chips:











      This automatic hacksaw cut through a 1.5" steel pipe in about a minute and then promptly shut itself off when through.





      1967 Chevelle 300 2 Door Post. No factory options. 250 ci inline six with lump-ported head, big valves, Offy intake and 500cfm Edelbrock carb.

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      • #4
        Re: Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard

        This workshop is not part of the museum display, but is the actual workshop. But so unbelievably cool!















        1967 Chevelle 300 2 Door Post. No factory options. 250 ci inline six with lump-ported head, big valves, Offy intake and 500cfm Edelbrock carb.

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        • #5
          Re: Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard

          More awesome hands on stuff for the kids:









          Where else do they let your kid beat on a (loud) bell from 1858 with wooden hammers?



          Alternate method of making lots of noise:



          The girls loved the typewriters and picked it up quickly:





          Making a phone call:



          1967 Chevelle 300 2 Door Post. No factory options. 250 ci inline six with lump-ported head, big valves, Offy intake and 500cfm Edelbrock carb.

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          • #6
            Re: Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard

            I have lots more very cool stuff but out of time for now and will have to finish later.
            1967 Chevelle 300 2 Door Post. No factory options. 250 ci inline six with lump-ported head, big valves, Offy intake and 500cfm Edelbrock carb.

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            • #7
              Re: Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard

              Thanks for posting & the pics!

              America has an incredible past of people, machines, companies, inventions, ideas!!


              Just need to keep-on doing what America has done that made it the exceptional country it is...leading the way!!



              It's very true about travel & exploration...we'll drive 1000 miles, yet totally miss much the things much closer to home.

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              • #8
                Re: Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard

                Cool stuff! Post some more when you get a chance.
                I R Bob
                You can't drink all day unless you start in the morning!
                2007 LH, 2008 LH, 2009 LH, 2010 LH, 2011 LH, 2012 DNF/BLOW'D UP, 2013 LH, 2014 LH

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                • #9
                  Re: Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard

                  Those are some awesome pictures Pete! I was reading it from back to front from the most recent post list, and my first thought was "Man, that looks a lot like the museum of Science and Industry in Los Angeles". The one in LA when I last went to it (20 years ago?) was hands on everything too. Don't think it had all the cool historic stuff in your pictures, but it had lots of hands on science stuff and some industry stuff (like the telephone switchboard, etc). Thanks for sharing! I should take another tour of the Steam Train (machine) shop here in town with camera in hand.
                  Escaped on a technicality.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard

                    That does look like a great museum to visit. It is amazing how many times we go out of our way to visit interesting places when we travel elsewhere, but fial to visit those right around us. I know I am very guilty of this. By-the-way, I hope you do get to celebrate your birthday in that wonderful place. Thanks for the great pictures.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard

                      This machine makes paper bags. It cuts, folds, glues, and then dries the bags at 22,000 per hour. It was invented by a female paper bag factory worker in Massachusetts around the turn of the century. Back then I guess, if you had a problem, you fixed it.





                      Part of the operation was a watch factory. This clock appeals to my naval heritage:





                      A set of gauges like this clock would look right at home in any hot rod:



                      There was another whole overhead belt-driven machine shop in miniature for making watches:







                      Who wouldn't love to have this piece as a desk or workbench?



                      Tons of cool boxes and tool storage around every corner:







                      1967 Chevelle 300 2 Door Post. No factory options. 250 ci inline six with lump-ported head, big valves, Offy intake and 500cfm Edelbrock carb.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard

                        Thanks for posting pics ,neat stuff

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                        • #13
                          Re: Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard

                          boston has no shortage of museums

                          science museum had an eddie kuzma 70s indy car sitting in the hall way

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                          • #14
                            Re: Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard

                            It was my total blind luck that it just so happens there was a special event there today. This stuff is not part of the museum but killer stuff.



                            Lots of cool guys with all kinds of operable scale model engines of all sorts. This guy had some awesome scale gas engines.





                            1967 Chevelle 300 2 Door Post. No factory options. 250 ci inline six with lump-ported head, big valves, Offy intake and 500cfm Edelbrock carb.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Fantastic museum I found right in my backyard







                              One guy would crank up this scale radial every so often and make some noise and wind.



                              Lots of small steam powered things spinning away:



                              1967 Chevelle 300 2 Door Post. No factory options. 250 ci inline six with lump-ported head, big valves, Offy intake and 500cfm Edelbrock carb.

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