Future Engineers Tip their Caps to NYHS!

There’s something NEW in store for NYHS’s OLD cider press!

Our 1852 cider press has been in operation for years, ever since North Yarmouth Historical acquired it almost 50 years ago. (Read about its history here.) Throughout that time, it’s been sturdily grinding up bushels and bushels of apples and rewarding us with untold gallons of cider.

Cayden Smith and Ron Graham at the press.

It’s had some updates through the years. But at times it gets grumpy and uncooperative when we try screw its parts together. And after all those years of chewing up delicious but acidic apples, its once-sharp teeth have worn down to nubs. It needs significant dental work!

What to do? The supply chain has dried up for replacement parts for a 150-year-old press. And fix-it type people seem to be fewer and far between these days.

We worry that the day may come when the press goes on permanent strike and the cider will flow no more.

BUT—We’re delighted to announce a solution!

Four talented University of Maine at Orono (UMO) Mechanical Engineering Technology students have chosen to restore the cider press as their Capstone Project!

A Capstone allows students to showcase the knowledge and skills they’ve gained throughout their academic program and apply them to real-world problems and issues. And what could be a better project than getting the press, an integral part of our annual community celebration, back into operation?

So during Soup and Cider Day this year, be on the lookout for Kaylee, Zach, Brayden, and Avery. They’ll be on hand to observe the press in action—and hopefully join in the fun.

Zach Vitale from Andover Massachusetts, Brayden Gilbert from South Portland, Avery Swanson from Peabody Massachusetts, and Kaylee Mayotte from Lebanon, Maine—all UMO School of Engineering Technology students majoring in Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET), and graduating this spring in 2025.

After the event is over, the team will load the press into a pickup truck and drive it north to Orono. For their academic year, they’ll troubleshoot, research, fabricate and reassemble the press using present-day technology and know-how to bring it back to life. It’s very possible that they’ll utilize modern techniques such as 3D scanning and printing technology to solve the press’s problems—connecting the 20th century to the 21st. How’s that for going back to the future?

So if all goes well, by the time our intrepid engineering team members graduate in the spring of 2025 they’ll have given us a priceless gift that will last for years. We’ll have a “brand new” 20th/21st cider press! And at Soup & Cider Day 2025 it will be ready for action.

THANKS to Kaylee, Zach, Brayden, and Avery and the UMO Engineering department, our “local” community now includes northern Maine!