The Messerschmitt BF109E belonging to the Russell Aviation Group, Niagara Falls. It is the only flying example in the world today with a Daimler Benz DB601 inverted V12.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Tinkering with Tools
What a great title for a book!
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The author begins in his forward to the 1942 edition:
"This is not a book telling how to transform some object that is no longer wanted into some other object that has even less excuse for existence. What it does attempt is to bring back something of the self-reliant craftsmanship of early America, when a man's chief pride and satisfaction lay in his ability to practice any of the common crafts. To be ignorant of the use of tools, to be unable to work out for himself the varied problems about his own homestead, was an uncommon, even a shameful thing in those pioneer days.
"To know the joy of edged tools, to be able confidently to set one's hand to a mechanical task and leave it well done, to experience the quiet triumph of skilled craftsmanship--these things offer a rock of refuge in our present whirlpool of manual incapacity."
Below, other titles in the series, when America needed skilled workers.
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Copyright 1924 and 1942 by the Popular Science Publishing Co., Inc.
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The author begins in his forward to the 1942 edition:
"This is not a book telling how to transform some object that is no longer wanted into some other object that has even less excuse for existence. What it does attempt is to bring back something of the self-reliant craftsmanship of early America, when a man's chief pride and satisfaction lay in his ability to practice any of the common crafts. To be ignorant of the use of tools, to be unable to work out for himself the varied problems about his own homestead, was an uncommon, even a shameful thing in those pioneer days.
"To know the joy of edged tools, to be able confidently to set one's hand to a mechanical task and leave it well done, to experience the quiet triumph of skilled craftsmanship--these things offer a rock of refuge in our present whirlpool of manual incapacity."
Below, other titles in the series, when America needed skilled workers.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
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Lame motorcycle records 1956
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| The Guinness Book of Records. London: Guinness Superlatives Ltd., 1956. |
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One supposes it must have been a slow year for record breaking.
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The last entry is interesting. In 1935, Gnome-Rhone produced a 750cc OHV engine called the "X". In October 1937, they used this engine to establish a 24-hour world record with an average speed of 136.563 km/hour. Yacco oils were a sponsor. In July 1939, 12 French officers drove the X motorcycle 19 days and nights without stopping for an average speed of 109.38 km/hour. While the French officers busied themselves with this endeavour, German officers were occupied rather differently. As a result, two months later France declared war on Germany.
Monday, October 29, 2012
6 cylinder conversion, Ford 9N tractor
We used to make things in this country. #59: Renfrew Electric & Refrigerator Co. Ltd., Renfrew Ontario
This iron was made by the Renfrew Electric &
Refrigerator Company, apparently founded early in the previous century by
Thomas Andrew Low who was born in Quebec City, educated in Pembroke, and who
became president of Renfrew Flour Mills, Renfrew Electric Products, the Renfrew
Refrigerator Company, the Renfrew Manufacturing Company and the British
Canadian Export Company. He was first
elected to the House of Commons in the Ontario riding of Renfrew South in 1908. One busy guy!
It would seem that the Renfrew Electric Products and Renfrew Refrigerator must have merged at some point. The Renfrew Electric & Refrigerator Company
manufactured Barnett refrigerators and
“Canadian Beauty” household appliances but converted to the production of naval signalling lanterns in World War I. The company
was sold in 1952 eventually becoming the Renfrew Electric Company Ltd., which continues today to supply parts to the electrical
industry although no longer out of Renfrew but out of Scarborough, Ontario.
Other products made by the firm in the past:
Other products made by the firm in the past:
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| From 1935. HVACR Heritage Canada Virtual Museum |
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WWII ADMIRALTY SIGNAL LAMP, 1944 The Museum of Technology. |
Sunday, October 28, 2012
White Motorcycles
Part of the motorcycle boom of the sixties, White motorcycles were built for export to the USA at the Csepel Motor Works in Hungary. The magazine tests weren't flattering, they never caught on and by 1967 it was all over and the bikes were being parted out.
Perfect Squelch from the Scots Engineer
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| The Perfect Squelch. Last Laughs and Caustic Comments from The Saturday Evening Post. Indianopolis: The Curtis Publishing Co., 1980. |
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Saturday, October 27, 2012
Lake Huron Fish Tugs
The adverse conditions encountered in commercial fishing on the Great Lakes has caused fishing boats to evolve into a form unlike anywhere else.
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| John Emil at Blind River |
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| Channel Clipper at Blind River |
Fill 'er up. Part 5. Wayne naked!
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In 1891, the Wayne Oil Tank Company designed its first kerosene pump, which only two years later won the award of "Best Self Measuring Oil Pump" at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. They introduced their first gas pump in 1907, opening a plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1910. In 1918, they produced the first "visible pump" to allow motorists to actually see the amount of gas that they were pumping. A year later, they opened an office in Canada. They introduced the first mechanical computing dispenser in 1933, followed by the blending pump, the electronic dispenser, and pioneered self-service and pay-at-the-pump technology. In 1958, Wayne was bought by Symington-Gould, becoming Symington-Wayne. In 1968, they merged with Dresser Industries, becoming the Dresser-Wayne Company. (In 1880, Solomon Dresser had patented a rubber cap "packer" for sealing pipes in the oil fields. Five years later he patented the Dresser Joint, a flexible coupling that permitted the long-range transmission of natural gas to urban consumers.) In 2008, Dresser merged with Halliburton, its main rival, becoming the Halliburton Company. Dick Cheney negotiated the US $7.7 billion deal, supposedly during a weekend of quail hunting. Halliburton paid an even higher price, since it then had to settle the asbestos law suits that Dresser brought with it. As a result, the new company's stock value fell 80 percent in just over a year. In 2010, Dresser was acquired by General Electric.
Click here to see a brief animated video on the history of the Wayne fuel pump.
For more information on gas pumps, visit Bob's Antique Gas Pumps.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Monarch Silver King
.jpg "Health-Mor Vibrator Patent No. 3,052,234")
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