Peter Burno, owner of the Burno Boiler and Engine Works      

Are you interested in Hydro-Power, Steam Engines, Locomotives, Engineering, Stoughton History, or just want to read an interesting story of a man who lives in Stoughton?  If so, you will be interested to read about Peter Bruno.  

Photos from the Stoughton Courier Hub, August 2, 1979
As seen in the photos above he operated the Fourth Street Dam in Stoughton 

Mr. Burno is the owner of The Burno Boiler and Engine Works, successors to Harrison Machine Works and manufacturers of Steam Traction Engines, Corliss and Slide Valve Engines, Saw Mills, Boilers and Mill Machinery of all kinds.  Burno Boiler & Engine Works was established by his great uncle in 1848 and was the oldest continually operating producer of steam-driven machinery in Wisconsin.  Peter is now 93 years old.   

The following excerpts are taken from Peter’s autobiographical "My Life, My Story”

“My mother always thought I should be a doctor.  I never would have been a good doctor.  From the time I was three, I wanted to be an engineer – I wanted to work with steam engines.  I just loved machines.  And while I never had the opportunity to go to college, I ended up learning from some masters.

My grandfather was an engineer on the Rock Island Railroad and then designed the biggest pumping engine anyone had ever built for the city of Chicago.”   “When I was four, (my father) took me to meet Samuel Insull, at Customer Hall in Chicago.  Insull had been Thomas Edison’s secretary and troubleshooter.  He was the one who put all the various Edison companies together to create GE, and at that point was president of Commonwealth Edison.”    

“I got my first job when I was 12, an apprentice at Rickeby Forge, a blacksmith and wagon maker.  It was run by a Dutchman, Peter Van Brussel.  He looked me in the eye and said, ‘I’ll feed you if you work hard for me.’  Money was never mentioned, and I never got a penny.  I got two sets of clothes a year – not new ones.  I could continue going to school, but I had to have the shop swept out and the fires built in the forges before I left.  We worked till dark every night, seven days a week, and I slept in the shop.”

“I worked at the forge for three years, till I was fifteen.  Then I went up to Michigan to work for the Mayhew Lumber Company for the summer.  I went as a cook’s helper, but when they found out I was a journeyman blacksmith, they put me in the shop.  So I learned to shoe oxen.  I’d shoed horses before but never an ox.  It’s hard.  Oxen are low and have a cloven hoof, so each animal needs eight shoes.  Mayhew had steam donkey engines for lifting logs and pulling them up slopes, so I learned about steam engines from some masters, which stood me in good stead later on.  I thought I had the world by the tail.  I thought, I’m eating regularly, and I’m learning things.  How lucky I am.  

At the end of summer, I started attending private school.  I earned my way by firing the boilers.”  “I started looking for work on the railroads when I was sixteen . . . In those days you had to fire for four years before you could take the engineer’s examination.  All the engineers and firemen were old men, so I could see it was a good opportunity.  I fired for four years, studying the whole time – I’ve been a bookworm all my life and easily passed the exam.  Everybody retired at once, and I became an engineer.  Then I went on to take some further exams.”

“In the 1970s, I started designing dams and hydro plants.  We have designed fourteen power plants from scratch to date.  In addition, we have designed and built in our own shops switchboards, hydraulic turbines, and shafting and associated machinery.  We have also designed and made our own windings for customers’ generators, furnished overhead cranes, and machined and finished shafting for several of these plants.”

“I eventually bought three hydroelectric plants of my own and formed the Wisconsin Edison Corporation, which operated from 1972 ‘til 2007.”  

“I joined the American Military Engineers in 1959 and later became a life member.  In 1955, I helped found the Rock River Thresheree.”   Above Excerpts taken from Peter’s written My Life, My Story

Peter Burno has achieved many professional credentials.  His list is long, below are a few:   
·         President and co-founder of Rock River Steam Thresheree Association, Inc., Edgerson, Wisconsin
·         Consultant for Equipment Placement and Erection, Power Plant No. 3, Grand Coulee Dam
·         Designing Engineer, Power Plants in Vermont, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, and Idaho 
·         Mechanical Appraisals and Consultation for the National Railway Museum at Green Bay, Wisconsin, including                              Locomotives, Rolling Stock, Cranes, Bridges and Right-of-Way
·         Consulting Engineer for House on the Rock, Dodgeville, Wisconsin 
·         President, Wisconsin State Association of Power Engineers, Inc. 
·         Chairman, Power Committee, United States Standards Institute 
·         Co-author, National Power Engineering Standards 
·         Chief Technical Editor, National Engineer Magazine 
·         Life Member, Society of American Military Engineers 
·         Founder, Wisconsin State Apprenticeship Program for Power Engineers 
·         Chief Engineer, Wisconsin Edison Corporation 
·         Co-founder, Incorporator, Wisconsin Historical Steam Engine Owners Association 
·         Member, Design Team, Baldwin Locomotive Works, Last Standard-Gauge Steam Locomotive Built for Service in                          United States

Photo above was provided to the Wisconsin Historical Society by Friends of Sid Boyum.  Wisconsin Historical Society WHI- 122040 

Peter Burno posing with the steam locomotive he built which is on display behind a fence at House on the Rock. The sign above the train reads: "Peter H. Burno. Mighty in Strength & Endurance." There is a large, fake tree on the left.


If you missed the WSTO interview with Peter Burno, check the WSTO schedule for a possible replay.