Streetcar accident

Sept 2, 1928 Toronto. Looks like car #2132 rearended #2156.

Life with a two stroke race bike

One size leaner on the main jet ought to do it. Ooops.

Lockheed Hudson

From the cover of a lined school notebook from the Second World War.

The Suffolk Superbe

I can't find anything about this British reel-mower manufacturer which clearly enjoyed using alliteration in its model names.  I've had the Superbe machine for decades, and it still works beautifully.

Years ago I rescued the cast iron wheel from a junked Suffolk Supreme, which I hung on my barn door.

New Departure Bearings for an M3 Tank

A display at New Departure during WW2 showing the bearings they supplied for the manufacture of the M3 Lee tank.

Yetman Frames; 1966

More info on Frank Camillieri's site. http://fcamillieri.com/yetman.htm

Cat's in the cradle

This was being discarded at the end of someone's laneway, the remains of yard sale merchandise that didn't sell.  The folks there told me it came from one of their father's sheds that they had cleaned out.

It didn't quite look like this, as both one end and one side were broken in half, but from the same pile I also picked up some old wooden Australian fruit crates of the same vintage.  I'm sure that something like this was used to make the cradle originally.  So, I used them to fix it up to look like it probably did originally.

I thought it perfectly reflected an age, probably during the depression, when there was no extra money to buy frills, and when a father applied his limited carpentry tools to build this in the barn so his daughter could have a cradle for her doll.  I'm sure that she was thrilled. It stands in stark contrast to the overproduction and over-consumerism of today.  I have since donated it to the Frontenac County Schools Museum, whose staff were delighted to accept it, and where it can serve as a reminder to others that we didn't always enjoy such material abundance.

We used to make things in this country. #109: Beatty Brothers Limited, Fergus, Ontario

George and Matthew Beatty founded their firm in Fergus in 1874.  They began to manufacture agricultural implements, purchasing the Grindley farm implement factory, which made reapers, mowers, straw cutters, land rollers, single and gang plows, and even stoves and cast-iron kitchen utensils. The company grew in part through its voracious appetite for other companies, which included Cowan & Company of Ganonoque (wringers), the Washer Company of Canada, Clements Manufacturing Company of Toronto (cleaners), Gould, Shapley & Muir of Brantford (windmills, grain grinders), the Galt Machine & Screw Company (die castings), the Spencer Foundry Company of Penetanguishene (stoves, heaters, rangers), the James Stewart Manufacturing Company of Woodstock (stoves & heaters), the James Provan Company of Oshawa, the James Provan Company of Oshawa, Whitman and Barnes of St. Catharines, Cameron and Dunn of Strathroy, Tolton Brothers of Guelph, Emerson and Campbell of Tweed, Wortman and Ward of London, Ont., etc. In 1925, they were the largest producer and exporter of barn and stable equipment in the British Empire. 

By 1928 the Beatty product line spanned more than 600 items. Factories in Fergus and London, Ontario employed 600 people, and a further 800 people were employed in Great Britain. There were branches and stores across Canada; by 1939 there were also stores in Australia and New Zealand.  By 1941, their own letterhead declared them to be the "Largest Washer and Ironer Manufacturers In the British Empire".  The company is credited with building acceptance of washing machines in Canada by using door-to-door salesmen to extol the virtues of these appliances.  In 1961, the family sold their shares, and the company was amalgamated with General Steel Wares to form GSW Limited in 1969.  To old-timers, who remembered how the brothers had ruled the town, the new initials would always stand for "George Still Whirls."

1921

1933

1967

For a more detailed history, see:
Business and History--Beatty Brothers and Beatty Bros.

Gray and Woods Planer

Some history

http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/detail.aspx?id=917

MOB Affutable

Just a simple cold chisel picked up for a buck at Liberty Tool but hey! it's Affutable!

According to Google Translate, affutable is French for sharpenable.

The original Harley Earl "dream car" 1938

Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.  My Years with General Motors.  New York:  Macfadden-Bartell, 1965.

We used to make things in this country. #108: JFL bicycle wrench

Bicycle wrench with integral tire lever.  All I can discover about JFL on the web  (aside from Just for Laughs websites) is a Kijiji ad for someone selling a set of car ski racks made by the company.  So, they seem to have been a metal stamping company.  Any additional information would be appreciated. 

Thunderbird for 1960

National Geographic Feb 1960

Half of a two page advertising spread. I'll spare you the full page of copywriting, you can invent your own story for this image.

The first locomotive built in Canada

National Archives of Canada PA-138688

The 4-4-0 #2, named "The Toronto" and owned by the Simcoe & Huron Union Railroad Co. This was the first locomotive built in Canada, completed by the Toronto Locomotive Works on Saturday, April 16, 1853 and scrapped in 1881.
The foundry and factory was located at Queen and Yonge Streets in Toronto and was operated by Irish immigrant James Good. The company constructed twenty three locomotives between 1853 and 1859, before going back to stoves and other iron products. The last remnants of the factory disappeared in 1909.

http://www.trha.ca/thetoronto.html

 http://www.lostrivers.ca/points/goodsfoundry.htm

 .  

We used to make things in this country. #107: Electrical Accessory Company, Toronto, Ontario

"Tophet"?  Not the greatest brand name ever conceived.

Alfred Herbert Ltd. and the Preoptive Preselective Gearbox

From Machine Tool Lubrication published by C.C. Wakefield & Co. Ltd., 1948, revised 1956.

Founded in 1888, Alfred Herbert Limited was once the largest machine tool tool manufacturing firm in the world.  It went under in 1983, forced into receivership by cheaper foreign imports.

Canadian Machinery, 1921

1926.  From Grace's Guide to British Industry

Round Chicago license plate

I wonder what the round Chicago plate were for? It seems to have been in use up till at least 1973...

Automobiles from New Departure.

With their manufacturing feet firmly under them making doorbells and bicycle components, the Rockwell brothers of New Departure Bell Company of Bristol, Connecticut  ventured into the new automotive field. In 1904, they produced an automobile (the Haupt Rockwell) and then in 1907, the Rockwell Taxi Cab. In 1911, automobile production ceased.



Houpt Rockwell 1904-1911

 

The Rockwell Cab. Originally painted black, but the story goes that Mrs. A.F. Rockwell suggested a colour change to yellow, thereby creating the "Yellow Cab".

A subsidiary of New Departure later operated these "Yellow Cabs" in NYC.

Va-Va-Vrooom!

"Martha Deaken, co-pilot of Howard Adair's Manx Norton and keen supporter of CMA airport racing, our cover girl for this month."  Canadian Motorcycle Association News, November 1951.  From the Ted Whitney collection.

Eye protectors

An old steel case for safety goggles. Even though the history of such devices goes back to a patent for "eye protectors" awarded to African-American inventor Powell Johnson in 1880, the technology to produce impact-resistant or ballistic eye protectors had to await developments in World War II, and safety glasses weren't in general use in industry until the 1940's.  

We used to make things in this country. #106. Men's Werlich Bicycle

 Nice, elegant and simple. And heavy!
 

Apparently Werlich was a wagon/ metal toy company  located in Preston Ontario (now part of Cambridge) and from 1949 to 1952 they made bicycles as well.

from an expired ebay ad.

 

Bread knife

Lovely old knife with an oak handle, and its function stamped on the blade in Old English script by the German manufacturer .  Who does that anymore?  Interesting tooth pattern as well.  Triangular teeth point in one direction for a while, followed by a rectangular cutter, then a section where the teeth point in the opposite direction.  Clearly to cut on both the push and pull strokes.

The Ontario Readers 1886

The ideas Ontario kids were raised with in the 1880's:

The rules:  see item 6 about contagious disease!

Instructions to teachers regarding "orthoepy":

Many of the stories were pretty gory by today's school standards:

The book included numerous poems extolling the virtue of dying for King and country, good indoctrination for future cannon fodder for the imperial wars of the time.

For an interesting examination of similar school readers used in Manitoba, see Daly's Days of Yore, the blog of the Daly House Museum in Brandon, Manitoba.