Piston: Anyone have a clue what this piston did in its dayIm guessing something to do with water. Comment on the photo an treatment of it are also welcome.

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

Anyone have a clue what this piston did in its dayIm guessing something to do with water. Comment on the photo an treatment of it are also welcome.

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Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Well, it held my attention for far longer than I thought it would, Frank :) I really like the textures and colors, as well as the perspective and overall composition.

However, I'd make the object on left a little less sharp, and I'd remove color from the top left object.

btw, which one is the piston? :)

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

Linda From Maine wrote:

btw, which one is the piston? :)

What a hoot you are Linda.......not sure what top left object and I've already been in trouble for a non sharp door panel.lol

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Frank2013 wrote:

What a hoot you are Linda.......not sure what top left object and I've already been in trouble for a non sharp door panel.lol

:thumbup: (the one with yellow paint)

But I wasn't the one who criticized the door, only the missing piece of steering wheel :)

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

Frank2013 wrote:

Anyone have a clue what this piston did in its dayIm guessing something to do with water. Comment on the photo an treatment of it are also welcome.

Well, I applaud whatever treatment you employed to achieve the weathered grain of the wood as well as the rust of the piston and paint(?) texture of the piston rod...and why one would paint a piston rod???? ...or is that some sort of copper/brass/bronze sort of corrosion/patina?
No idea how a piston shaped like that would work or what it would do!
But I really like the image.

Dave

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

Uuglypher wrote:

Well, I applaud whatever treatment you employed to achieve the weathered grain of the wood as well as the rust of the piston and paint(?) texture of the piston rod...and why one would paint a piston rod???? ...or is that some sort of copper/brass/bronze sort of corrosion/patina?
No idea how a piston shaped like that would work or what it would do!
But I really like the image.

Dave

I appreciate the applause and am glad you like it. It is all corrosion Dave.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Frank2013 wrote:

Anyone have a clue what this piston did in its dayIm guessing something to do with water. Comment on the photo an treatment of it are also welcome.

My guess would be that it was part of either an internal combustion engine or an air compressor. The cylinder (the corroded part on the outside of the piston) has ridges that I interpret as air cooling, which would not be necessary for a water pump.

It's hard to tell but I get the impression that the cylinder is broken off some other part of the original machine. The edge of the hole that the piston rod goes into looks irregular to me, but it's possible that the corrosion caused that.

As far as the photo is concerned, the contrast is pretty heavy. It has an HDR tonemapped look to it. The image appears to have been separated into low-saturation color and monochrome segments.

But I'd say the textures are more important in the image than the actual history of the item or the colorization or decolorization. You have wood textures (cross grain and along the grain) and metal textures (corroded, painted, and lightly rusted).

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

DirtFarmer wrote:

My guess would be that it was part of either an in... (show quote)

I have the advantage as I was there to see it. It is a finned piston with rod attached to a shaft with a gear on the end, no cylinder in sight. I agree about the texture, and nothing tonemapped or hdr'd.thanks so much for your in-depth comments DirtFarrmer.

pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

looks very heavy - you found treasure in them hills. I like the way the lines and shapes interact. This one might be a good subject for B/W. And definitely macro shots of the rust (but that's me..)

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

pfrancke wrote:

looks very heavy - you found treasure in them hills. I like the way the lines and shapes interact. This one might be a good subject for B/W. And definitely macro shots of the rust (but that's me..)

I thought about B&W Piet but couldnt let go of that rust and green. Macro is way above my skill set at this point.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Frank2013 wrote:

I have the advantage as I was there to see it. It is a finned piston with rod attached to a shaft with a gear on the end, no cylinder in sight. I agree about the texture, and nothing tonemapped or hdr'd.thanks so much for your in-depth comments DirtFarrmer.

A finned piston doesn't make any sense to me. I believe I see both the cylinder and the piston. They are welded together by corrosion. You can see a line which represents the contact point between the cylinder and the piston. I have marked it with a red arrow pointing to a green line in the image. The second image is there because the green line obscures the contact point so I left the arrow but omitted the line.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Great fodder for the eye -- one of those wow look whats in this old shed.

I would crop off that beautiful wood too competitive with the piston/cylinder combo. Crop at the main bearing junction. Crop the top so that you only have two layers of the yellow whatsit upper left.

In so doing the piston and lesser surroundings play well together... yes, I know that wood is beautiful, but that is the subject of another photo.

Admirable shot, better to have too much on image and cut than to leave off something important (my sin too often).

spaceblue Loc: Greenfield, MA

Frank2013 wrote:

Anyone have a clue what this piston did in its day?...

Wow! What a neat piece of antique industrial engineering. First it doesn't have rings! All pistons, even very early ones from the railways had rings. Also that crankshaft it is connected to has almost no throw to it. And notice the unidirectional gear on the end of the crank. An almost cog lock safety style to it. Looks to me like this thing was designed to go only one way when it rotated. I doubt it would have performed like a regular piston as its ability to seal compression would have been very low. My guess is it may have been part of some kind of steam control system? Maybe from the railroad?
Now about the photo treatment. I believe the effect adds to the antiquity of the whole scene. I personally liked it.

spaceblue Loc: Greenfield, MA

DirtFarmer wrote:

A finned piston doesn't make any sense to me. I believe I see both the cylinder and the piston. They are welded together by corrosion.

Ah. I believe you are correct. In the time it took me to hunt and peck out my previous reply your post came up and I hadn't seen it. If you look on either side of the rod you may see the holes that fastened the cylinder down too...I'm thinking.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

spaceblue wrote:

... Also that crankshaft it is connected to has almost no throw to it. And notice the unidirectional gear on the end of the crank. An almost cog lock safety style to it. Looks to me like this thing was designed to go only one way when it rotated...

The crankshaft has more throw than is immediately apparent at first glance. The offset is in the direction of view and is foreshortened. I'd guess it's about twice the width of the piston rod.

The unidirectional gear may have been related to a starter system where you want something to drive the shaft, but once it's running on its own you want it to disengage.