KENT, Conn.—The Connecticut Antique Machinery Association (CAMA) will go steaming into spring this weekend when it holds its annual Spring Power Up at its headquarters at 31B Kent Cornwall Road (Route 7).
The event will be held Saturday, April 26, and Sunday, April 27, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.
The association, a nonprofit museum, is dedicated to the preservation, restoration, and demonstration of antique machinery from the nation’s industrial and agricultural past. The all-volunteer organization is located on an eight-acre campus a mile north of Kent village.
“This weekend, we will have our Spring Power Up, which is a slightly smaller version of the Fall Festival,” said Jack Hayward, association president.
The Power Up event features a little flea market where aficionados of old machinery can swap or sell items and all buildings will be open to display gas and steam engines, working farm equipment, a blacksmith shop, railroad and mining equipment, and a sawmill.
“We fire up the steam engines and will try to run the locomotive, but no train rides will be offered for this first event. The group is building a better passenger car,” Hayward said.
CAMA volunteers spend the winter months working on restoration and maintenance of different kinds of machinery. Over the past four months, members have collaborated on the restoration of a York Shipley boiler, originally used by a dry-cleaning business in the mid-1980s.
“Our machines date from the mid-1800s to around 1950,” Hayward said. “We have roughly a century of steam, gas-powered and diesel engines.”
He explained that development of the technologies was sequential, starting with steam power, which, during the Industrial Revolution, began to replace animal power. It eventually became the dominant source of power in the 19th century, remaining so until the internal combustion engine was developed around 1890. Four decades later diesel engines were on the rise.
“That is part of our timeline of power generation,” he said. “Visitors will notice that as time goes by, the size of engines goes down significantly, and the power generation increases through engineering and materials. We try to illustrate the history of industrial and agricultural machinery starting with steam in the Industrial Hall. Next, we will showcase gas-powered energy generation in another building.”
Education is a primary mission of the organization.
“Our main focus is to educate the general public as to early industrial and agricultural methods,” he continued. “Our museum currently has nine areas of focus and 11 buildings with exhibits relating to each area.”
Those areas are the mining and geology; a working sawmill with a turn-of-the-last-century mill; a building housing the largest collection of traction engines in the Northeast; four steam locomotives and engines; the Industrial Hall with its growing showcase of machinery and technology; the 1800s Cream Hill Agricultural School; a blacksmith’s forge, and a display of early gas and oil engines.
Modern machinery is often too technical and too computerized for the average—even the above average—backyard mechanic, but Hayward said interest in how machines work seems to be growing among younger people.
“When I was a kid, before all the electronic distractions, my father would take us out looking for antiques,” he related. “He was tool and die maker and his interests included antique machinery. We would stop at old farms, knock on doors and ask if they had any old machines.”
Of course, those old machines then had to be restored. “That was the way people got together then,” he said. “That seems to be coming back with the next generation of school children being interested in how things work. We use our exhibits as teaching tools. We have hosted groups from elementary schools, high schools and universities. We love to do that, to get younger kids to see how things work and get their hands on it.”
CAMA is open to the public from April until October. The group has launched a new website, www.ctmachinery.org, that lists “a whole bunch of things that are going on this summer.”
“From Wednesday through Sunday, there is always someone here,” Hayward continued. “There is admission on the weekends, but on weekdays it is by donation.”
CAMA has about 600 members and is always looking for more volunteers to help with exhibits, ground maintenance, to participate at events, and the like.
The best way to join in is simply to show up, Hayward said. “That’s the way it usually happens. People stop by and see what we are doing and then ask if they can help. We’ve grown organically that way. It’s a real friendly place.”
CAMA is also growing its presence in the Kent community.
“We’ve reached out to the Chamber of Commerce and it’s a lot of fun to work with,” he said. “The Kent Farmers Market had trouble opening last year because of all the rain. This year, they will use our pavilion in case of rain. We really want to get involved in the town more.”
CAMA can be reached at 860-927-0050 or admin@ctamachinery.org.
