This 1918 Steam Macadam Roller originally belonged to the State of Rhode Island. In the mid-1940s the state auctioned the roller, and E. Searles Ball of Block Island won the auction. He used it to repair the damage to the road to one of his family’s houses from the 1938 hurricane. It was used again to repair damage from the 1954 hurricane. In 1967 the roller was donated to the New England Wireless and Steam Museum. (The Block Island Times, Volume V, Number 6, August 22, 1974)
In 1916 the Buffalo Steam Roller Company merged with the Kelly-Springfield Company to form the Buffalo-Springfield Road Roller Company, Springfield, Ohio.
The Shop Number is 11175.
Here is the Buffalo-Springfield with a 5HP Hamburg boiler on the back. It may look unusual, but it worked!
The following images are from September 1, 1974 and show E. Searles Ball working with the roller.
