From:Steve Ciccalone e-mail:hensteveamc@aol.com
Subject:RE: Mercury Wheel Discs Date:Fri Dec 11 16:08:09 2009
Response to:2713
I picked blueberries with my mother at that farm 50 years ago. Never saw any old vehicles there but Bob Carini, another berry farmer around the corner had Model A's.



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Hellow All:
Earlier in the exchange was some postings on Mercury Wheel Discs. I am writing to show you all a picture of an ACE a friend of mine, Pat Scaglia, had that had Mercury Discs on it.
Pat was a very good friend of mine. The grandfather I never knew. He had a blueberry farm here in South Glastonbury and I worked for him. He was the first to intrest me in internal combustion engines. Fordson Tractors, Henderson, ACE, and Harley motorcycles. Magneto repair and rebuild, Hit and miss engines. He was a genuine soft spoken old soul.
The ACE and his 1929 Harley 45" (I think the picture is attached)were long gone by the time I knew him. I always remember him kicking himself in the butt for selling them after he would look in Hemmingins Motor News and see how much an ACE was selling for!!
I remember him saying that the wheel discs would be troublesom at times when caught in a cross wind. I heard many stories from him like him riding on the back of the ACE with a friend driving when the throttle got jammed wide open. His friend turned white as a sheet and did not know what to do so Pat reached down and hit the cut out on the mag and coasted to a stop. Another story was when he spent all winter painting and striping the ACE and took it out for its maden voiage when another friend of his pressured him to take it for a ride. He hopped on and goosed the throttle. Well, that all to familiar gyroscope effect of the in line four caused him to eel over into the dirt, right onto his fresh paint. I guess that is why by the time I met him he was very reluctant to let anyone run his machinery.
I do not know the other one in the picture but the kid at the controls is his brother Tim.
:John