Piston

One pair of bookends made from an engine piston from the self-unloader, MV Belle River (now the MV Walter J. McCarthy), of the American Steamship Company. The 6.25-inch diameter piston is made of precision cast and machined aluminum. The top is slightly concave and has a small hole bored near the center. The exterior surface is smooth and has two shallow, narrow cuts along the exterior surface near the top for compression rings. A third, slightly wider cut for an oil control ring is located below the two compression rings. The lower portion of the piston is hollow on the inside to provide space for a connecting rod and a 2.5-inch diameter wrist pin. Raised text near the interior lower edges reads "CAT, 7N4514, -8-" and "A2, Y, 158L3, E11, T131." The piston has been sliced in half vertically in order to create the two bookends.