By Jim Harmon

“They are known around the UM campus as Kessler, Teddy, Max and George and they are made of the stuff upon which nations are built,” declared the University of Montana newspaper, The Kaimin, on February 8, 1916.

The high praise was for the “crew of the heating plant, who dealt with a month-long cold snap.” Such folks, according to the paper’s staff, were “due medals if any are to be awarded.”

“When the coal bins are filled with slack, and snow and wind whistle around the corner of the buildings while the thermometer drops and drops, then firing the four large boilers which supply the heat for all the University buildings is work - hard steady work.”

“Kessler” was a reference to Richard Kessler, the engineer in charge of the heating plant in the early 1900s. “Teddy” was the assistant engineer and “the man behind the boiler.” “Max” was Max Kranich, the night watchman and campus gardener. “George” was the campus janitor.

Max Kranich, longtime UM employee --The Montana Kaimin August 12 1925
Max Kranich, longtime UM employee --The Montana Kaimin August 12 1925
loading...

Kranich, who came to the Montana campus in the fall of 1903, was described as having a “jolly and pleasing disposition.” He was “of average build, with grayish blue eyes, gray hair and a smooth-shaven face. He could always be distinguished by blue overalls, a dark shirt and an engineer’s cap.”

While not a mechanic by profession, Kranich, with the help of Kessler and Paul Dornblaser, designed a system to keep the grass green around the Oval. Up until then, “the Oval was kept green by the aid of fire hose.”

They figured they needed a spray that would throw water quite a distance, so “they secured some old pipes, necessary tools, and invented the large spray now used on the Oval. With average pressure, the spray throws the water about 100 feet.”

On July 1, 1916 they tried it out for the first time. It was a great success. “On July 4 of the same year, some loyal patriot placed a silk flag on the top of it.”

Clip - Watering system 1916
Clip - Watering system 1916
loading...

Kessler’s and Kranich’s names came up often in the early days of the University.

According to the University of Montana campus newspaper, “One night in April 1907, six boys crept to the University clock tower at Main Hall” and stole the clock’s hands, even though a student by the name of Winninghoff (a track athlete and featherweight boxer) was assigned to sleep in the tower to prevent such hanky panky."

The boys bound Winninghoff to a chair. They then “climbed to the clock, took off the hands and escaped. The news spread quickly. President Oscar Craig was awakened in the middle of the night. He “was much distressed and offered Kessler ten dollars if the hands could be restored by six o’clock.”

Kessler, Kranich and Winston Craig, son of the UM president, “went to the mechanical department and worked the remainder of the night making hands. By six o’clock they were in place, looking so real that no one on the campus ever suspected what had taken
place during the night.”

Now to appreciate the risk involved for both the pranksters and the University staff, you have to consider not only the height of the tower, but the size of the clock.

Nettie Hand, a Kaimin reporter, described the giant timepiece as “an immense clock, the dials of which measure eight feet across. The minute and hour hands are on three iron rods running out to the center of the dial.

“The time and striking weights which regulate the clock weigh 500 and 1,500 pounds respectively. The 1,500-pound weight falls a distance of 20 feet in a week and is wound up into position again by manual effort.

“The pendulum is eight feet long, with a 175-pound weight on the end. This is a Seth Thomas clock, made in Thomston, Conn. in 1903.

“Below the clock in another compartment of the tower is the bell, standing five and one-half feet high and measuring 49 inches in diameter. This bell weighs 1,200 pounds.

“An automatic hammer regulated from the clock strikes the full hour and once for the half hour. The bell is rung from below by a rope attached to the bell wheel.”

By the way, the boys involved in the clock hand theft eventually confessed and returned the “real” hands. “Some of the students were suspended, but they were allowed to return and take up their studies the next quarter.”

A cautionary tale for the would-be pranksters of today!

Jim Harmon is a longtime Missoula news broadcaster, now retired, who writes a weekly history column for Missoula Current. You can contact Jim at fuzzyfossil187@gmail.com. His best-selling book, “The Sneakin’est Man That Ever Was,” a collection of 46 vignettes of Western Montana history, is available at harmonshistories.com.