Hi:  After reading all the pros and cons of free help, I realize I have
been remiss in not publicly thanking two gentlemen who have been of
great assistance to me, a non-musician, in designing a steam calliope.

After my June posting asking for help [990703 MMD], Richard Vance sent
me his Excel spreadsheet for the design of calliope pipes.  It took me
some time to break down and buy a cheap copy of Excel on eBay (I'm a
Corel user, myself).  I don't like to give a guy with $85 billion any
more of my money than I have to.  Anyhow, Richard's program works like
a charm and has been a great help.

The other knight in shining armor has been Dave Vincent, who has the
patience of a saint.  He puts up with my continual barrage of stupid
questions about music in general and calliopes in particular.  Thanks
to their help and that 1977 article from Live Steam magazine, I'm very
close to starting the patterns for the whistle castings.  I have to
solve a few problems with the differences between Vance's organ pipe
calculations and the values shown in the Live Steam article for the
size of the slot, pressures, etc.  But it's all coming together.

I've already found two eager commercial sellers of fire trucks which
will be the prime mover to take this screamer around Florida for
Florida Live Steamers meets.  I've got to finish up the restoration
of a 1940 Whitcomb two-foot gauge industrial locomotive before I get
to this project full time.  Will keep you posted of future progress.

Tom Keenan