2-8-4 2-8-4s, rostering 105. Lima's last steam locomotive was also the last American 2-8-4, the NKP's No. 779 of 1949. Some 700 2-8-4s were built for American service, constituting 2% of the steam fleet prior to dieselization and delivering 5% of the nation's freight ton-miles. As the first large scale user, the NKP became synonymous with the Berkshire locomotive type. One of this class, Nickel Plate no. 765, is preserved in operating condition and is operated occasionally from its New Haven, Indiana home. Nickel Plate no. 779 is preserved as a static display in Lincoln Park in Lima, Ohio. Many larger
Minim (unit) size of a drop can vary considerably depending upon the viscosity and specific gravity of the liquid. (At the time, the phenomenon of surface tension was not well understood.) The minim, on the other hand, was measured with a graduated glass tube known as a "minimometer", later known as the minim-tube. The minim-tube was a type of graduated pipette, a device invented in 1791 by François-Antoine-Henri Descroizilles. Apothecaries' measures are fully defined in the United Kingdom's Weights and Measures Act of 1878, but the UK's 1963 Weights and Measures Act provided for the abolition of the minim, fluid scruple, and