Bultaco Engine exploded view

Signature in the lower corner says "Fonsbert 68"

Disc brake on a drum brake fork

Bracket welded to a Metralla fork leg.

Would require a very skilled welder, distortion would be a big issue.  

Harley XR-TT 750 with Honda CB750 discs and calipers. Brackets clamped to Ceriani forks.

Repurposed fender bosses with two 1/4" or 5/16" (6 or 8mm) bolts? Don't know if I'd want to try too many panic stops.

Not sure if this has any attachment besides the clamp? Looks more than a bit flimsy.

Another job you wouldn't want to do: Packing apples back in the day

Ontario Public School Geography.  Toronto:  W.J. Gage & Co., Limited, c. 1920.

Come join the exciting world of BSA

From a series of postcards BSA produced to advertise its products, apparently to the preppy market.  If there's truth in advertising, the bike on the right has probably broken down.

Suzuki's 4 wheel three wheeler

Cycle Sept 1982

 

A little snickering about yet another weird ATC introduced in 1983...
 The joke was on everyone though. Soon the three wheelers had been banned as unsafe and everyone was building a copy of Suzuki's (patented) 4 wheeler.

Montreal Harbour Then and uh... then

 1893. Notre Dame de Bonsecours church on the right.

Canada: a regional analysis, J M Dent & Sons 1970

And in 1967. Expo 67 pavilions can be seen on the right.

Orukter Amphibolos

The World Book Encyclopedia.  Chicago:  Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, 1958.

We don't make this stuff up!

Atlas model railroad track

Model Railroader.  November 1979, Vol 46 No 11.

The Vickers Viking

J. Arthur Thomson. (Ed.).  The Outline of Science.  A Plain Story Simply Told.  Third Volume. 
New York & London:  G.P. Putnam's Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, 1922.

William Kilbourn.  The Making of the Nation.  The Canadian Centennial Publishing Co. Ltd,
1965; McClelland & Stewart Ltd., Revised Edition, 1973.

Sidecar Sunday

Universal Boat Motors 1938

Another job you wouldn't want to do: Tar spraying on British roads, 1950's

The Children's Book of Achievement.  London & Glasgow:  Collins Clear-Type Press, 1958.

We used to make things in this country. #125: Eagle Foundry, Montreal, Quebec

Canada Year Book 1988.  120th Anniversary.  Published by authority of the Minister of Supply and Services, 1987.

John Dod Ward founded the Eagle Foundry in Montreal in 1819 to build steamboat engines.  Eventually, his two brothers, Lebbeus and Samuel joined him.  In 1838, George Brush became a one-third partner.  That same year, the Royal Navy commissioned the company to build the Sydenham, which proved to be the fastest steamboat in the fleet.  Seven years later, Brush had bought out the brothers and taken sole control of the company.  Brush was joined by his son in the enterprise, and the cheap hydraulic power provided by the Lachine Canal enabled the foundry to turn out “steam engines, steam boilers, hoisting engines, steam pumps, circular saw mills, bark mills, shingle mills, ore crushers, mill gearing, shafting, hangers and pullies, hand and power hoists for warehouses,” among other products.  By the early 1880's, the company was employing 60 to 100 skilled workmen, and selling products cumulatively worth between £70,000 to £100,000 annually.  Eventually, shipbuilding was dominated by fewer firms, and the Eagle Foundry turned to making parts for the railway companies, until these companies began making such items in-house.

For more detailed information on the fascinating history of the manufacture of marine engines in Canada and the Eagle Foundry's part in it, visit the Maritime History of the Great Lakes.

One of my vices is vises: Chain vice

Hubbard Cobb (Editor).  The Complete Home Handyman's Guide.
New York:  William H. Wise & Co., 1949.

I've never actually seen one of these vises, but I'd sure like to!

Underwood typewriter

 

Seen at a local flea market. I wondered where the Canadian Underwood factory may have been located and discovered this curious ad in the Mar 5th 1926 Ottawa Citizen

 

 

From the Dominion Business Machines website:

"Dominion Business Machines originated as Dominion Typewriter Company, a business that arose from the initiative of Telegraph Operator J.J. Seitz who lived in Buffalo, New York.

 On a trip to New York City in the late 1890s Seitz noticed recently introduced Underwood Manual Typewriters and brought what were surely the first of these machines into Canada, to Toronto, about 1898. 

He started The Underwood Typewriter Company of Canada, selling machines that were hailed as amazing labour saving devices in much the same way as the Personal Computer was presented about eighty years later."

 

The Dominion Business Machine company is still around, having moved from Adelaide St in Toronto to Mississauga. Although they probably sell more computers these days than typewriters, they say they do have a museum of over 150 antique typewriters.

And finally, there is still a good following for these machines as evidenced by this website. http://oldforttypewriterco.com/
 

 

Sheet metal patterns: Problem #23

And you know we've all agonized over the development of a truncated octagonal pyramid.

Cars before seat belts

John D. Londerville & Margaret D. Londerville.  The Little World on Maple Street.
J.M. Dent & Sons (Canada) Ltd., 1956.

Paris & Rue Royale, 1961

Continental Holiday.  The American Travel Guide to Europe.  New York, 1961.

From the style of the cars, you'd think it was the twenties!

Spitfire downs a Heinkel

Ducati Girl Again

Seeley Frames

G50 Mark II with Mark I behind

G50 Mark IV

Cycle July1974

 Norton Twin

Bonhams

Suzuki T500

Honda CB750

The Suzuki T500 Monocoque

http://rscrambler.tumblr.com/image/47360258073

Another job you wouldn't want to do: Reefing sails

Sure, it looks kinda fun in the calm and in the sunshine, but how many men fell to their death on sailing ships in storms and rough weather?

Baby Champ radio

Don't touch that dial!

The Northwest Trade Gun

The Northwest trade gun, also called a Fuzee, fusil or fuke, was a smooth bore made from the early 1700's to the late 1800's by a variety of gunsmiths in England, Belgium, Holland and the U.S.  It was a trade staple for transactions with the native peoples in Canada, and in 1784 a four-foot gun could be obtained for the trade of 12 beaver skins.  A distinguishing feature was the emblem of a dragon or scaled serpent on the counter lock plate.  The origins of this emblem are obscure, but it may have come from the Queen Anne Light Musket, which was the standard issue for the British Army before the adoption of the Brown Bess around 1720.  Surplus muskets were traded to the Indians, who came to associate the dragon motif with quality.  All were flintlocks, and many were later converted to cap ignition.  Still, flintlocks had important advantages in the Canadian north:  the owner need not carry or keep dry the caps, without which the gun would not work.  On a flintlock, if the flint was lost, a sharp piece of country stone could always provide a stand-in until a proper flint could be obtained.  In fact, flintlocks were manufactured as late as the 1870's, and stocked by the Hudson Bay Company until 1936.

The quality of the guns was not all that it should or could have been:

For the full story, see The Northwest Trade Gun. 

The Story of the British People.  A Reader for Pupils in Form III 
of the Public Schools.  Revised Edition.  
Thomas Nelson & Sons. Ltd., Toronto, 1924.

Virago-based Flattracker

Cycle Sept 1982

Yamaha's very interesting attempt at a Virago-based flattracker. The engine was mounted in a very adjustable chassis, an aluminum plate behind the steering head allowed the front end to be moved fore and aft while extra long slots in the swingarm allowed adjustment on that end. The shock mounts were infinitely adjustable and swingarm pivot was also adjustable up and down. To no avail, it never worked very well. Some put it down to the fact that the motor turned backwards.
Below, a different frame configuration.

Cycle News

We used to make things in this country. #124: Bernard Marks & Co., Toronto

I picked up this Model S101A "Strip Clean" electric paint remover at a thrift store in Tweed, Ontario recently.  It still heats up well, although I haven't had a chance to actually test it on a piece of old painted furniture.

Actually, it's not clear that Bernard Marks & Co. actually made this tool.  Instead, they may have been a wholesaler.  They had a wide variety of trademarks registered to them, including "Colony Sportswear," "Tray-Saver," "Magi Koter" paint roller, "Ad Pix,"  "Jet Fire" and "Berma" (the latter for acetylene torces, registered in 1965).  They also offered a cheap camera under their name, which was also carried by the T. Eaton Company department store in Toronto under their "Teco" brand.  In any event, they're gone today.

Bus hostesses

Canada 1962.  The official handbook of present conditions and recent progress.
Ottawa:  Information Services Division, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, 1962.

Really?  Damn, I was too young to have experienced this brief experiment in mass transit!