Does anyone know what happened to Gerald Wiles (Dynajetjerry)? I had some conversations with him some time ago and also with Tufty regarding his book, which also I wonder about.
Vic Hanby
Gerald Wiles
Moderator: Mike Everman
Re: Gerald Wiles
I always thought his book would be interesting how everything came about. According to this post from 2014 he was 86 then and some previous comments mentions diabetes.
https://www.pulse-jets.com/phpbb3/viewt ... 34e#p77557
https://www.pulse-jets.com/phpbb3/viewt ... 34e#p77557
Presentation is Everything
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dyna-fogger_46074
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Re: Gerald Wiles
I, too, would like to know if Jerry is still around.
I worked at Dyna-Fog for a few years and have some info that could add into his book, or at least he'd like to hear it.
And I found some stuff that had his name on it.
But none of us are getting any younger.
I worked at Dyna-Fog for a few years and have some info that could add into his book, or at least he'd like to hear it.
And I found some stuff that had his name on it.
But none of us are getting any younger.
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orangeshirt
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Re: Gerald Wiles
-Mike
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dyna-fogger_46074
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Re: Gerald Wiles
Thanks for posting that, orangeshirt.
Sad news, but at age 95, he got more time than most folks.
I regret that I didn't try to find him sooner - I allowed life to get in the way.
I see you just joined a few days ago, presumably to post that obit (again, thank you). Did you know Jerry?
Sad news, but at age 95, he got more time than most folks.
I regret that I didn't try to find him sooner - I allowed life to get in the way.
I see you just joined a few days ago, presumably to post that obit (again, thank you). Did you know Jerry?
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Mike Everman
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Re: Gerald Wiles
Sad to hear. I talked to him a few years ago and also wish I'd made more of an effort to visit him. I'm sure it would have been a fascinating visit. Nice gentleman.
I wonder if he had disposed of his collection before moving to the home? I doubt it, and the family is wondering what to do with all that "crap". ha
I wonder if he had disposed of his collection before moving to the home? I doubt it, and the family is wondering what to do with all that "crap". ha
Mike Often wrong, never unsure.
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orangeshirt
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Re: Gerald Wiles
I actually never knew Jerry, but my pulse jet research led me to see all of his pulse jet stuff being sold at auction. (You can see how cheaply stuff sold by looking at past sales on liveauctioneers.com). Seemed like a great guy, with some tremendous abilities.
I live in Indianapolis and dynajets were manufactured literally 15 minutes away from me up in Westfield.
I googled him after reading through his posts on here (and finding out he didn't live far away in Ohio), and that's how I found his obituary.
Such a loss for the community
I live in Indianapolis and dynajets were manufactured literally 15 minutes away from me up in Westfield.
I googled him after reading through his posts on here (and finding out he didn't live far away in Ohio), and that's how I found his obituary.
Such a loss for the community
-Mike
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dyna-fogger_46074
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Re: Gerald Wiles
Excellent info, Orangeshirt.
You probably know that the facility is now gone, demolished, and a library and other things are to be built on that site. Facility closed around April 2022 and was flattened in the months after that.
For those interested, seems there were 2 auctions of Jerry's treasures, 1 in 2019 and 1 in 2022.
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/search/ ... us=archive
Here's one specifically mentioning Jerry in the title. (you must join that site to see auction results)
Here's a stack of manuals and notebooks. When we were clearing out the facility we found tons of stuff like this - including one of Jerry's own notebooks. Much of it went into the trash, but several of us saved some really nice copies for history/appreciation. I have some of these same manuals. And some of the machines still exist also.
Curtis Dyna-Fog was a truly unique company that manufactured a wide range of products for disease control and also special things for the US govt. Basically, if it required atomizing a liquid so that it would transmit thru the air - they'd make a machine to do it. But they made other unrelated things, too, like: kids swings, radio-control cattle collars, small house fumigators, a pressure washer, and other things I don't recall right now.
The company was in the midst of closing down and moving to GA when I joined, and all of the office workers were long gone (except for 1 guy who'd been there for 30+ years). The owners, many of whom worked in mgmt and engineering, had occupied the front of the building and it was a ghost town except for a small area where we all sat clustered together. An office area that at one time likely housed 50 people, now held 6-8. A strange environment for sure, most would find it creepy, with 2 long hallways with closed office doors and dark paneling, and with very few working lights. Most of the offices looked like the inhabitants had grabbed necessities and left in the middle of the night. But the history of it quickly grew on me. The company had been in that facility since 1958, and it became apparent when we started cleaning the office area out. Some of the prior owners were packrats, apparently.
THE CLOSET:
The prior employees had done maybe a 75% job of emptying their offices. Most of what was left behind was of no interest, other than old product manuals and vintage photos. But there was an inconspicuous walk-inn closet in a hallway, and this is where treasure was found. Upon some curious digging, we found lots of brochures, blueprints, patent books, marketing photos, etc. There were product presentation photos showing some of the long-time employees when they were in their 30s. Material from machines that had been designed in the 1950s/60s and obsoleted in the 70s/80s. Some of the blueprints are 4-6 feet long and nearly intact. The artistry on them is truly something to behold.
THE 'MUSEUM'
In the R&D area there were a surprising amount of old machines (Curtis machines, prototypes, and also competitor machines, some mostly intact) from the 1950s thru the 1980s. It was not a museum by intention, but it resulted that way to us. There were shelves and cabinets everywhere, and they were full of whatever the company had worked on over the prior 60+ years. There was one of the early pulsejet fogging machines from when the company was located in Ohio - and we found manuals for it in the closet! Later, in another unexpected location, we discovered 2 more similar machines, 1 marked for Bedford IN (the company's 2nd location) and a 3rd machine marked as Westfield. Interestingly, the company name/city is in a casting, so it clearly demonstrates this model of machine was manufactured over at least a 10-year period (and manuals corresponding to each location were found too). Again - packrats!
Describing all of this might make one think it was all organized, that we found the manuals stored with the machine. Not so. As we were clearing out the facility, we went in stages (removing furniture, old computers, liquidating stuff in the factory area, etc) and often we found something of interest, then found a related piece in a different place, different day. Some of these fogging machines were scattered in the factory and 3 different outbuildings. And we'd either already seen the manual, or found the manual after we saw the machine.
All of this cleanout happened in our 'spare' time, too, because we were still running production and trying to capture current engineering data for the company's move to GA. And then the pandemic happened, and our production orders went crazy, in a facility were were trying to shutter. Working for Curtis during this time will undoubtedly be the most unique experience of my career. (It would've been a nice chapter to add to Jerry's book.
)
Anyway:
One of us came across Jerry's name somehow/somewhere and for curiosity he did some googling and found some RC airplane club's brief biography on Jerry. Some of the details in that story matched the various locations of the company and other parts of history that we knew, so we knew Jerry was a significant person in the company's development. Then, while we were digging thru all of the engineering info in this abandoned closet, he had a spider sense to started digging very closely into some stacks of notebooks and found something that has Jerry's name in it. It is a personal journal of development of a PJ of some sort, with his signature and dates throughout. An exciting find!
Most of what we sifted thru went into the trash, because it was of no interest, and we had a deadline looming. But a notable amount, things that were in the nicest condition, or that were were unique, were saved and are now in several people's appreciative hands. Hands that now wonder what to do with it.
So, the company is now relocated, its history is gone, and Jerry is now gone, too.
But - artifacts of Jerry and his contribution still exist and are preserved.
Perhaps this forum/community can provide some ideas for what to do with that stuff, to honor his legacy?
You probably know that the facility is now gone, demolished, and a library and other things are to be built on that site. Facility closed around April 2022 and was flattened in the months after that.
For those interested, seems there were 2 auctions of Jerry's treasures, 1 in 2019 and 1 in 2022.
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/search/ ... us=archive
Here's one specifically mentioning Jerry in the title. (you must join that site to see auction results)
- Jerry Wiles own pulsejet.JPG (21.72 KiB) Viewed 1907 times
Here's a stack of manuals and notebooks. When we were clearing out the facility we found tons of stuff like this - including one of Jerry's own notebooks. Much of it went into the trash, but several of us saved some really nice copies for history/appreciation. I have some of these same manuals. And some of the machines still exist also.
Curtis Dyna-Fog was a truly unique company that manufactured a wide range of products for disease control and also special things for the US govt. Basically, if it required atomizing a liquid so that it would transmit thru the air - they'd make a machine to do it. But they made other unrelated things, too, like: kids swings, radio-control cattle collars, small house fumigators, a pressure washer, and other things I don't recall right now.
The company was in the midst of closing down and moving to GA when I joined, and all of the office workers were long gone (except for 1 guy who'd been there for 30+ years). The owners, many of whom worked in mgmt and engineering, had occupied the front of the building and it was a ghost town except for a small area where we all sat clustered together. An office area that at one time likely housed 50 people, now held 6-8. A strange environment for sure, most would find it creepy, with 2 long hallways with closed office doors and dark paneling, and with very few working lights. Most of the offices looked like the inhabitants had grabbed necessities and left in the middle of the night. But the history of it quickly grew on me. The company had been in that facility since 1958, and it became apparent when we started cleaning the office area out. Some of the prior owners were packrats, apparently.
THE CLOSET:
The prior employees had done maybe a 75% job of emptying their offices. Most of what was left behind was of no interest, other than old product manuals and vintage photos. But there was an inconspicuous walk-inn closet in a hallway, and this is where treasure was found. Upon some curious digging, we found lots of brochures, blueprints, patent books, marketing photos, etc. There were product presentation photos showing some of the long-time employees when they were in their 30s. Material from machines that had been designed in the 1950s/60s and obsoleted in the 70s/80s. Some of the blueprints are 4-6 feet long and nearly intact. The artistry on them is truly something to behold.
THE 'MUSEUM'
In the R&D area there were a surprising amount of old machines (Curtis machines, prototypes, and also competitor machines, some mostly intact) from the 1950s thru the 1980s. It was not a museum by intention, but it resulted that way to us. There were shelves and cabinets everywhere, and they were full of whatever the company had worked on over the prior 60+ years. There was one of the early pulsejet fogging machines from when the company was located in Ohio - and we found manuals for it in the closet! Later, in another unexpected location, we discovered 2 more similar machines, 1 marked for Bedford IN (the company's 2nd location) and a 3rd machine marked as Westfield. Interestingly, the company name/city is in a casting, so it clearly demonstrates this model of machine was manufactured over at least a 10-year period (and manuals corresponding to each location were found too). Again - packrats!
Describing all of this might make one think it was all organized, that we found the manuals stored with the machine. Not so. As we were clearing out the facility, we went in stages (removing furniture, old computers, liquidating stuff in the factory area, etc) and often we found something of interest, then found a related piece in a different place, different day. Some of these fogging machines were scattered in the factory and 3 different outbuildings. And we'd either already seen the manual, or found the manual after we saw the machine.
All of this cleanout happened in our 'spare' time, too, because we were still running production and trying to capture current engineering data for the company's move to GA. And then the pandemic happened, and our production orders went crazy, in a facility were were trying to shutter. Working for Curtis during this time will undoubtedly be the most unique experience of my career. (It would've been a nice chapter to add to Jerry's book.
)Anyway:
One of us came across Jerry's name somehow/somewhere and for curiosity he did some googling and found some RC airplane club's brief biography on Jerry. Some of the details in that story matched the various locations of the company and other parts of history that we knew, so we knew Jerry was a significant person in the company's development. Then, while we were digging thru all of the engineering info in this abandoned closet, he had a spider sense to started digging very closely into some stacks of notebooks and found something that has Jerry's name in it. It is a personal journal of development of a PJ of some sort, with his signature and dates throughout. An exciting find!
Most of what we sifted thru went into the trash, because it was of no interest, and we had a deadline looming. But a notable amount, things that were in the nicest condition, or that were were unique, were saved and are now in several people's appreciative hands. Hands that now wonder what to do with it.
So, the company is now relocated, its history is gone, and Jerry is now gone, too.
But - artifacts of Jerry and his contribution still exist and are preserved.
Perhaps this forum/community can provide some ideas for what to do with that stuff, to honor his legacy?
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orangeshirt
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Re: Gerald Wiles
What a great post! I love hearing that kind of history. I do believe this stuff needs to be preserved. Although it's a niche segment of modeling history, Jerry's contributions were an important part of the landscape of the period.
I assume the stamping dies for the dynajet tubes are long gone? I have a small machine shop, and over the last few weeks, I've mulled over whether or not to start making my own version of the brauner/dynajet/bailey jet, since nobody makes one any more. I also don't want to get into an intellectual property scuffle, if Dyna-fog would oppose
I assume the stamping dies for the dynajet tubes are long gone? I have a small machine shop, and over the last few weeks, I've mulled over whether or not to start making my own version of the brauner/dynajet/bailey jet, since nobody makes one any more. I also don't want to get into an intellectual property scuffle, if Dyna-fog would oppose
-Mike
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tufty
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Re: Gerald Wiles
Anything that remains needs to be preserved. If nothing else, at least get it scanned and onto archive.org, that way it's not lost.
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dyna-fogger_46074
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Re: Gerald Wiles
Considering the amount of no-longer-in-use stuff that was there, I was surprised we did not find any stamping tooling for it. Believe me, we were on the lookout!
We did find this, but it seems to maybe be a welding jig. I don't see how the black items are related, but they were found together, so...
I doubt there would be any IP issues, the Red Head is not a product the company had shown any interest in resurrecting, and I would guess any patents have run out. Go for it! I'd be glad to help somehow if you need it.
We did find this, but it seems to maybe be a welding jig. I don't see how the black items are related, but they were found together, so...
I doubt there would be any IP issues, the Red Head is not a product the company had shown any interest in resurrecting, and I would guess any patents have run out. Go for it! I'd be glad to help somehow if you need it.
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dyna-fogger_46074
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Re: Gerald Wiles
I researched that some time ago and I'm not sold on it yet.
From what I understand, if you send them somethign to scan, you never get it back, and they give no timeframe for when it is available on their website, because it depends on their funding. Could take from a few months to a year.
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orangeshirt
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Re: Gerald Wiles
I'm not sure if they TiG'd the tubes or used gas welding, but that does look like a jig, with the black parts capping the inlet and tail so that oxygen could be purged from the tube..allowing for a clean weld. High quality stainless welding always requires a purge...not sure if they would have invested that much effort back then.dyna-fogger_46074 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2023 8:44 pmConsidering the amount of no-longer-in-use stuff that was there, I was surprised we did not find any stamping tooling for it. Believe me, we were on the lookout!
We did find this, but it seems to maybe be a welding jig. I don't see how the black items are related, but they were found together, so...
I doubt there would be any IP issues, the Red Head is not a product the company had shown any interest in resurrecting, and I would guess any patents have run out. Go for it! I'd be glad to help somehow if you need it.
Curtis Dyna-Fog RedHead - shell and weld-jig.JPG
I drove up to Kokomo today for a day trip...drove right by the old site. It's all bulldozed and they've already got some steel framing for a new building being built there.
I'm definitely interested in bringing the dynajet back. I'm sure there's little to no market, but it would be fun to see what I can make
-Mike
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dyna-fogger_46074
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Re: Gerald Wiles
All the SS that was welded while I was there was done by Tig.
I don't know when the RedHead went OOP, but there were some old Tig machines we scrapped, and the Tigs they were using were 15+ years old, and we didn't scrap any gas welding stuff. So I suspect the RH was tigged also.
How quickly did those overseas reproduction RedHeads sell out? Do they pop up on ebay or have people held onto them? (I personally don't know)
That might give a clue to the market. Plus, sometimes anything that's new will sell. (that's something I have seen in the hobby realm)
Send me a private message and we can discuss getting this jig to you somehow?
You'll still have the hurdle of machining the aluminum inlet and other stuff, too.
I don't know when the RedHead went OOP, but there were some old Tig machines we scrapped, and the Tigs they were using were 15+ years old, and we didn't scrap any gas welding stuff. So I suspect the RH was tigged also.
How quickly did those overseas reproduction RedHeads sell out? Do they pop up on ebay or have people held onto them? (I personally don't know)
That might give a clue to the market. Plus, sometimes anything that's new will sell. (that's something I have seen in the hobby realm)
Send me a private message and we can discuss getting this jig to you somehow?
You'll still have the hurdle of machining the aluminum inlet and other stuff, too.
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tufty
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Re: Gerald Wiles
You can, I believe, do the scanning and then upload directly to archive.org yourself. And it seems they have walk-in centres where you can get stuff scanned and uploaded directly, but, unsurprisingly, that costs money.dyna-fogger_46074 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2023 8:53 pmI researched that some time ago and I'm not sold on it yet.
From what I understand, if you send them somethign to scan, you never get it back, and they give no timeframe for when it is available on their website, because it depends on their funding. Could take from a few months to a year.
https://archive.org/scanning
Self scanning is OK for most people up to about A3 size, most offices have scanners that will deal with at least that dimension ad at least in places I've worked, employers have been fine with staff using the scanner themselves in their own time. Bigger stuff, like plans, might be problematic or costly, though.
Archive.org has its downsides, the indexing system is pretty lousy, but the site itself isn't going away; it's a government funded entity designed exactly for this job. As for availability dates - is there a hurry? After all, the material isn't available now, hasn't been available for the last 30 to 40 years, is a few months more an issue?
Another option would be to put up a site with the material on it, and ten get it indexed by, again, archive.org. But that generally doesn't work well for anything other than HTML.
For the actual paper documents, maybe donate them to the AMA?