my great uncle and uncle were members of this honorary organization,
they were engineers on river boats plying the rivers with goods. i
have a pin which says National Organization of Stationary Engineers,
does such an organization exist today?

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Request for Question Clarification by crabcakes-ga on 11 Nov 2002 10:02 PST

jwm72,

I have found information about the  National Union of Stationary
Engineers, International Union of Operating Engineers, National Union
of Steam Engineers and National Association of Stationary Engineers,
but nothing such as the name on your pin. Can you give us some more
information, such as where your  uncle and great uncle were living
and/or working and approximately the time frame they belonged to this
organization? I’d love to finish researching this, but more
information would be helpful. Thanks very much.
crabcakes

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Clarification of Question by jwm72-ga on 11 Nov 2002 11:24 PST

i have a lapel button which belonged to my great uncle as he was an
engineer on barges that delivered coal, goods on the ohio and kanawha
rivers.  my uncle, not great uncle was supposed to be at that time the
youngest engineer on the river to be qualifed. the button also has on
it  organized Oct. 25,1882   in the middle of the button, it looks
like a red ribbon and a slash across the middle and on left side is
has   23x48    and on the right side    16x90    i'm not sure of the 9
  and over the x is ".  i have no idea what this has to do with being
an engineer on a riverboat.  my uncle lived in huntington, wv and and
great uncle lived in pt. pleasant, wv.  i believe this belonged to my
great uncle.

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Clarification of Question by jwm72-ga on 11 Nov 2002 11:30 PST

i have a lapel button which belonged to my great uncle as he was an
engineer on barges that delivered coal, goods on the ohio and kanawha
rivers.  my uncle, not great uncle was supposed to be at that time the
youngest engineer on the river to be qualifed. the button also has on
it  organized Oct. 25,1882   in the middle of the button, it looks
like a red ribbon and a slash across the middle and on left side is
has   23x48    and on the right side    16x90    i'm not sure of the 9
  and over the x is ".  i have no idea what this has to do with being
an engineer on a riverboat.  my uncle lived in huntington, wv and and
great uncle lived in pt. pleasant, wv.  i believe this belonged to my
great uncle.  national association of stationary enginers, is right

Unless there is an extraordinary coincidence, what the button
describes as the National Organization of Stationary Engineers was
really the National Association of Stationary Engineers (NASE).  I say
this because the National Association of Stationary Engineers was
organized on October 25, 1882, just as the button says.  (My
assumption is that someone mistakenly printed buttons saying
"Organization" instead of "Association"; there are so many
organizations, associations, societies, etc. that someone is bound to
get confused eventually.)

It appears that the phrase "stationary engineer" did not have anything
to do with being on a riverboat; in fact, quite the opposite:

"The term: 'Stationary Engineer' had been decided upon in order to
distinguish the members of NASE from other engineers operating boilers
and equipment upon ships and other mobile equipment such as steam
shovels."

"...And They All Fall Down!"
The Chief Engineer
http://www.chiefengineer.org/article.cfm?seqnum1=656

Instead, the members of NASE were engineers in power plants.  (Perhaps
your great uncle or some other member of the familiar was a power
plant engineer, instead of or in addition to being to a riverboat
engineer.)

NASE changed its name to the National Association of Power Engineers
(NAPE) in 1928, "to better reflect the membership".  (I suppose that
being "stationary" engineers did not sound as good as being engineers
with "power".)

"Background"
National Association of Power Engineers
http://www.powerengineers.com/page2.htm

NAPE is still in existence today, and you can find out more by
clicking the links at the bottom of the web page cited above.

For additional history, see:

"What is NAPE?  What Does It Do?  Where Is It Going?  A Little
Background and History"
Milwaukee Chapter #19, National Association of Power Engineers
http://www.wauknet.com/gwendorf/nape/page2.html

- justaskscott-ga


Search terms used on Google;

"stationary engineers" 1882

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Clarification of Answer by justaskscott-ga on 11 Nov 2002 12:14 PST

I see that you posted another clarification while I was researching
and writing my answer, noting that National Association of Stationary
Engineers is right.  So that clears up the problem of the name.

Incidentally, you can see the symbol for the NAPE on its home page. 
It seems like the symbol has not changed much since the time of your
lapel button.

National Association of Power Engineers
http://www.powerengineers.com/