YorksPast

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Talks Archives

I’ll share stories about the Barshinger Family of Barshinger’s Mill at a meeting of the Red Lion Area Historical Society on October 28, 2021. The presentation will take place at St. John’s UCC at 7:00 p.m.; enter into the rear of the church, off of the rear parking lot. Address

The October 13, 2021, History Night in Springettsbury Township will feature the Codorus Creek, which forms the northwest boundary of the township. Stephen H. Smith will provide the presentation, exploring the Codorus Navigation Works. Ruins from those Works were discovered and photographed by Mike Spyker. Township residents and the local

During the Yorkshire History Walk on September 18th, I had requests for copies of my talks. In the coming days, my presentations, at each stop, will be posted as a series of YorksPast articles. This post focuses on Stop 9, at the intersection of Maywood Road and 5th Avenue; highlighting

The J. David Allen photo is one of his many aerial photos shared during the initial Springettsbury Township History Night. “Aviation in Springettsbury” was the topic of that event on July 14th; where my presentation covered 40-years of aviation stories related to the township, and township resident Dave Heltzel shared

Aviation in Springettsbury is the topic for the inaugural History Night in Springettsbury Township. It is being held Wednesday July 14, 2021, at 7:00 PM in the Township Administration Building Board Room. Even though construction fences are up; the functions in the 1501 Mt. Zion Road building are continuing through the end of July; after which temporary offices will be utilized.

Within the collections of the York County History Center are a few photos and a much larger group of negatives of a previously unidentified product of the S. Morgan Smith Company. The introductory photo is one component of that unidentified product; it shows S. Morgan Smith Company machinists inspecting a large rotor core being finished on their 42-foot boring mill. This post provides the sources that identify the overall product as a massive axial-flow air compressor; a key component in a Supersonic Wind Tunnel, which was one of NASA’s earliest development facilities.

The S. Morgan Smith Company, in York, Pennsylvania, was a prime contractor for manufacturing hydraulic-pneumatic catapults for launching Navy planes from the decks of aircraft carriers during World War 2. The catapult model, they produced, was capable of reliably launching 9,500-pound airplanes in 73-feet to a speed of 61 knots. Praise for manufacturing the catapult very much dominated the presentation of the Army-Navy “E” Award this company received on August 19, 1944.