Harold Dotts and the Ingersoll-Rand air compressor he would one day own both served in the military during World War II.
Dotts was in the Navy until 1948 when he went back to work as a civilian boilermaker.
The 1943 Model D-60 two-stage air compressor was owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers until the 1960s when it was sold as military surplus.
In need of a more powerful machine for his air tools, Dotts traveled to California from Grants Pass, Oregon, to buy an air compressor at a military surplus sale.
The Ingersoll-Rand compressor caught his eye. It powered his tools until he retired in the late-1970s and was later used by his eldest son, also a boilermaker.
Over time, it was lost from the family, but then it was found and restored by Dotts’ grandson Mark. He recently saved it again after it was about to be sold for scrap.
Today, thanks to Mark Dotts, the 79-year-old compressor is still running. But getting it in shape the second time was a difficult project that kept him busy for seven months. (To watch him run it, check out the video at the end of this story.)
