Date
1 - 14 of 14
PM Box loading with ground corn cobs.
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Matt Smith
Nice pic of car loading with ground corn cobs. I read that corn cobs used during the war effort I believe it had something to do with plastics manufacturing??? Several articles indicated local elevators shipping corn cobs for the war effort.
http://www.idaillinois.org/digital/collection/p16614coll35/id/34348/rec/62 No location but somewhere in the central Illinois area. 5/4/44 IDA Pantagraph Collection -- Matt Smith Bloomington, IL
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Dave Parker
The photo caption is a bit ambiguous, and maybe confusing. It looks like the feedstock in the truck is corncobs; the whole ears were presumably shelled elsewhere and the grain used for feed (or seed). Here, the "waste" cobs are being ground down to a smaller size with a large hammer-mill.
A very quick Google search does support their use for plastics during WWII, although the details are murky, presumably due to military security issues. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3437753/corn_cobs_for_war_via_rail/ -- Dave Parker Swall Meadows, CA
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Jake Schaible
Perhaps Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton)?
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The photo shows a portable corn sheller mounted on the back of a truck. The farmer is shoveling corn into the sheller, which is blowing the shelled corn into the boxcar and dumping the cobs on the ground.
Corn cobs were a valuable commodity well after WWII. The CNW built a cob unloading device in Colo IA in 1956, (drawing attached) And I have people who remember the cob pile in town. I also know Belle Plaine IA had a large cob pile and shipped out cobs on the CNW well into the 60s & 70s. I understood they went to a cosmetics company.
Cobs were also used as a biodegradable sand blasting material, animal bedding, and today for ethanol production.
Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io [mailto:main@RealSTMFC.groups.io] On Behalf Of Matt Smith
Nice pic of car loading with ground corn cobs. I read that corn cobs used during the war effort I believe it had something to do with plastics manufacturing??? Several articles indicated local elevators shipping corn cobs for the war effort.
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Lloyd Keyser
The Quaker Oats plant in Cedar Rapids, IA in the 40's into the 60's consumed six to eight car loads of cobs a day and processed them obtaining a chemical named Furfural. The cob residue, a very fine powder, was blown into IC covered hoppers for delivery for use in plastics. The covered hoppers were converted in company shops in 1950 and 51, numbers 81750-81752, by modifying three bay coal hoppers. The sides were increased in height and a roof added containing a small vent at the diagonal corners of the roof. In the center of the increased height was a two piece door which opened and a large plate secured with dogs. A flexible pipe was attached to blow the fine power into each end of the car. The hopper doors were modified for unloading the powder. As farming technology improved the corn pickers shelled the corn as it was picked dropping the cobs on the ground along with the stocks and plowed under for next years planting. As the availability of cobs declined the processed was modified to using oat hulls which was the byproduct of making cereal. I am modeling the loading platform and kit bashing two hoppers for loading. I have the IC diagram sheet which gives enough detail to accomplish this. What I lack is a good side view for creating the decals. I have been unsuccessful in obtaining this picture. They are not in the IC archives. Can anyone help? Lloyd Keyser
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Matt Smith
Doug,
If you zoom in the resolution is sufficient to show that the truck is full of cobs. Corn shellers are larger and more mechanically complicated than the grinder/blower on the back of this truck. Matt Smith Bloomington, IL
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sherman4863
The flour mill in Franklin, MN was used in the 50's, after it quit making flour, to grind cobs and shipped in boxcars to Shakopee where it was bagged and sold for floor dry. Sam Sherman
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Joseph
Think of the fun we will have!!
On Mon, Nov 4, 2019 at 10:08 PM sherman4863 via Groups.Io <sherman4863=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote: The flour mill in Franklin, MN was used in the 50's, after it quit making flour, to grind cobs and shipped in boxcars to Shakopee where it was bagged and sold for floor dry. Sam Sherman
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Joseph
Sorry, meant to be off list. Time for me to get some shut eye Joe Binish
On Mon, Nov 4, 2019 at 10:10 PM Joseph via Groups.Io <Mstl852=gmail.com@groups.io> wrote:
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Corn cobs were also used for grinding and polishing things like poker chips. Fenton
On Mon, Nov 4, 2019 at 11:02 PM Matt Smith <flyn96@...> wrote: Doug, --
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james murrie
Somewhere I have a 1943 or 1944 Illinois license plate that my father told me was made from corn cobs to save steel. It's definitely some kind of "wood" that was then painted and lettered.
Jim Murrie
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Jon Miller <atsfus@...>
On 11/5/2019 7:13 AM, james murrie
via Groups.Io wrote:
Somewhere I have a 1943 or 1944 I also remember that in
the late 40s my relatives in SD used corn cobs for fuel in the
kitchen stove. Don't know if they were delivered or collected
from the farm. -- Jon Miller For me time stopped in 1941 Digitrax Chief/Zephyr systems, JMRI User SPROG User NMRA Life member #2623 Member SFRH&MS
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al.kresse <water.kresse@...>
Yep! Any luck making contact with Mac Beard lately? Al
On November 4, 2019 at 11:10 PM Joseph <Mstl852@...> wrote:
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Matt Goodman
This has been an interesting thread for me as one of the industries on my Railroad (Maizo Mills) produced patented products from ground corn cobs. Maizo ground cobs to produce a patented product used for a variety of things. My notes are at home but the uses I remember offhand were as as a de-greaser and polishing medium in machining processes, in the furrier trade (probably as a dessicant) and by jewelry makers as a polishing medium (Maizo was owned by a Columbus jeweler, so it must have been important for that industry). Other contemporary sources said ground corn cobs were a component of linoleum. Prior to the uses mentioned above, it was also used as a filler in animal feed, which apparently was made illegal in the twenties or thirties. Not a lot of nutritional value. I have one poor-quality photo showing boxcars outside of Maizo, and an advertisement showing their product in bags - so probably about any class of boxcar could be used for shipping the bagged end product. My assumption is that cobs could have been shipped to Maizo from local elevators, by box car or truck. This particular mill's output was reported to be 100% dedicated to the war effort (WWII) - especially after a sister mill in Illinois burned to the ground during the war. Maizo's fate was the same, although not until the mid-fifties. 1890's construction materials and methods and dust make good bon fires. Matt Goodman Columbus Ohio
On November 4, 2019 at 1:00 PM, "Matt Smith" <flyn96@...> wrote:
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