Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Cap Curtis #7


Posted by Buckles at 8/05/2014 05:30:00 AM

3 comments:

Chic Silber said...


WOW never saw the likes of this

photo before That's some kinda

big muhuggah spool wagon & I

guess that's it's pony engine

on the back end (when was this)

05 August, 2014 18:01
Chic Silber said...


I would think that the amount

of torque on this spool would

have required it to be somehow

secured from turning over

05 August, 2014 18:16
Dick Flint said...

As Buckles dad wrote in the January 1959 Bandwagon magazine: "I had a very warm friendship with Capt. William H. 'Bill' Curtis, the inventor of the canvas spool. He told me he built the first spool in 1910 at the Denver winter quarters of the Floto show. It had an old quarter pole as a spindle, and was hand powered, by turning a big crank ... This wagon was a test and when they started playing for keeps with these contraptions, a steel pipe spindle was used.
Power was then provided by a gas engine located at the rear of the wagon. These units were great labor savers, but were very hard on the canvas. Sells-Floto; Hagenbeck-Wallace and John Robinson were the only shows that ever used them. As far as I know there were three spools with each of the above shows - two for the big top, and one for the menagerie top."

05 August, 2014 23:40

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