No. 1 Amateur Saw 1907

Patrick Spielman.  Scroll Saw Handbook.  Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 1986.  Originally published in the 1907 W F & John Barnes Catalogue;

F-18 in final production

Milberry, Larry.  Canada's Air Force Today.  Canav Books, 1987.

Reading Atlantic

A handsome engine, or a good angle. This three cylinder camelback locomotive was designed by Edward O. Elliott of the Reading Railway shops for fast passenger service in 1909. It was built as a compound engine and converted to a simple expansion in 1917.

stabilizing fins

Described as stabilizing fins in the Autocar of April 8 1955, styling fins, more like! The 1955 1.5 litre Connaught with aluminum body. Harley Earl, you have a lot to answer for.

Harley-Davidson in 1917: Don't Be a Business Slacker!

Tin work

Before plastic molding took over, tinsmiths made a lot of items for household use.  This matchbox holder is a good example.  I found it at a thrift store for 50 cents, covered with several coats of sloppy paint. Stripped back to its original galvanized steel, it shows beautiful metal joints along with a lovely, marbled patina.

Another MG replica (or what to do with a dead VW Bug)

This make appears to have been one of the most respected replicas. http://www.caroholic.com/BCW_Information.htm

350 AJS Trials Bike

Don Smith, Ride It! The complete book of Motorcycle Trials, Haynes 1975

Cessna controls 1950's

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

National Cabinet Lock, Mauldin, South Carolina

I recently picked up a Beach Industries Model B215 "roll about" tool cabinet.  I had to replace the lock on it, and in my collection of old hardware discovered this cabinet lock (which fit perfectly) along with its original "dirty paper" instructions.

In 1903, three Swedish immigrants saw a need for mortise furniture locks. Together they invested $5,000 each and established the National Lock Company in Rockford, Illinois.  In 1939, Keystone Steel and Wire acquired National Lock. The company and the product line grew to include pin and disc tumbler locks, kitchen cabinet and furniture hardware, fasteners, appliance hardware, metal stampings, chair hardware, and door locks.  In the 1960's, it became National Lock Hardware until Keystone was acquired in 1981. The cabinet lock product line became a division of Valhi, Inc. and was relocated to Mauldin, South Carolina in 1982.  National Lock became CompX Security Products (a Valhi subsidiary) in 1993.  The company went public in 1998 and in the next two years acquired Fort Lock and Timberline Lock.   In 2000, they bought Chicago Lock (founded in 1920) and moved its operations to the Mauldin facility. 

Below, freezer locks made before 1982:

Commuting by air in NYC

According to Wikipedia this service went from Wall St up the East River. There is still a Skyport at 23rd street but that seems much too short a flight to make sense. This Skyport has a rule that requires a three blade propeller, for reasons unexplained.

The Aircruiser approaches the dock at the Wall St. Skyport.

1973 Suzuki GT380

Looking better than new!

Safety First 1920's

It looks like pedestrians made an effort to die with greater elegance in those early days of motoring.

Warner Tools

I recently found this paint scraper, likely from the 60's and clearly never used.  I hadn't heard of the company before.

Happily, they're still in business out of Plymouth, Minnesota.  Their website proclaims:

"Harry Warner who founded Warner Tool Products in 1927, used to say the only thing you have that is worth anything is your name. To keep your name, you've got to provide customers value and put every customer first. The Warner family still runs the company this way, four generations later.

If it's got our name on it, it works."

It's products are still all made in the U.S.  Well done, Warner Tool Company.

Forney Commuter Locomotive

Number 829 of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad was built in 1891 for commuter service out of New York City. Despite its handsome appearance, it was not a success and was rebuilt into a standard 2-6-0 and fitted with a seperate tender by 1899. More info on the NYC suburban tank engines.

Rickman Triumph Kit

Just add engine.

The 20th Century belongs to Canada

Sir Wilfred Laurier told us that the 20th Century belonged to Canada.  Well, that was then...

BTW, the lady in the picture above was a professional.  Don't try this at home.

Make your own cosmetics!

Louis V. Newkirk, Ph.D.,  General Shop for Everyone.  Boston:  D.C. Heath & Company, 1952, 1959.

Better looking through chemistry.

Boiler cleaning and testing

http://www.google.com/patents/US251467

 Rue Manufacturing was located about 2 miles from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, no doubt it existed as one of the support businesses for that huge steam engine manufacturer.

Migi Daytona

Hot chicks in hotpants with Tommy guns. That's what I'd use to sell a VW powered early-fifties British sports car replica.

Puma

 The Puma was an air-cooled VW-based sports car made in Brazil from 1966 to about 1995. I think they came to Canada as a kit car. This one from the 1981-85 period looks as though its in regular use here in Toronto.

Crown Cork and Seal Company

I found this wrench at a thrift store.  It's remarkably short for it's across-the-flats opening of over 3 inches.  It was pretty dirty, so I thought at first that perhaps it was an adjustment tool for a locomotive or a large industrial machine.  After I cleaned it, there was the company name:  the Crown Cork & Seal Company.

This firm dates back to 1892 when it was founded in Baltimore by William Painter.  Of Irish descent, he was born in Maryland and ultimately became involved in the development of a universal neck for glass bottles.  Painter invented the bottle cap in 1891, patenting it a year later, followed by a patent for the bottle opener in 1894.  

In 1898, he produced the first foot-powered bottle crowner with which an operator could fill and cap 24 bottles a minute.  Over the course of his life, he was granted 85 patents, including a paper-folding machine, a safety injection seat for passenger trains, and a machine for detecting counterfeit currency.  He was honoured in 2006 by induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Painter passed away in 1906, by which time his company had spread to Europe, South America and the Orient. In 1927, the company merged with the New Process Cork Company, establishing the Crown Holdings International Corporation. Prohibition put a serious kink into bottle cap sales, but soft drinks kept the company afloat. By the 1930's, the firm was supplying half the world's bottle caps. In 1936, the Acme Can Company of Philadelphia was acquired, which moved the company into this area of manufacturing. In 1937, the company perfected electrolytic tin-plating and introduced the "Crowntainer", a quart beer can. World War II saw the company developing and producing a gas mask canister.  Over the following decades, they continued to introduce improvements to beverage and food containers.  By the 1990's, the company claimed to be manufacturing one out of every five beverage cans in the world, and one out of every three food cans in North America and Europe. In 2011, they developed Holocrown, a technology that permitted holographic images to be stamped onto speciality packaging.  Quite a progression from the simple bottle cap!  Crown Holdings today is a Fortune 500 company which makes about 60 billion beverage cans a year, along with food cans, aerosol cans and metal closures, along with machinery for manufacturing cans.

As for the tool, I took a chance and sent an inquiry along with a photo to Thomas Fischer, Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs at Crown Holdings.  He generously agreed to help, made some inquiries within the company, and got back to me with information supplied by Bill Valeriano:

"On the Crown Capper, Vintage 1892 there is an adjustment nut on the main column and another adjustment on the column Rack. This wrench could potentially be used for those adjustments as it appears the size is correct.  However, the overall length of the wrench appears to be quite small to provide any mechanical advantage unless it was struck with a hammer. Evidence at the lower left side of the photograph shows distortion as if it were stuck with a hammer. Interesting tool thanks for asking. However, not sure  of its actual use."

So, if anyone out there needs their 1892 Crown Capper adjusted, I've got the tool.

Spokeshaving aircraft propellers, World War I, Ipswitch, England

H.P. Willmott.  World War I.  DK, 2009.

Achtung! German Jets!

Canadian Pacific #29

Canadian Pacific #29 was built in Sept 1887 by the CPR shops as #390. In 1912 it was modernized, rebuilt, renumbered and put back into service. The locomotive lasted till the end of the steam era, spending its last years in New Brunswick running on branchlines where bridge restrictions gave it a new lease on life. Its last run under steam was in 1960, giving it a working life of 73 years. Number 29 was preserved first at Expo Rail at Delson, Quebec and later moved to Calgary where it is on display looking thoroughly out of place in front of the CP headquarters.

 More info

Google Streetview

And as of 2017 its been moved again. 

Tool porn: Bench micrometer

A.J. Lissaman, Metrology For the Technician (London:  The English Universities Press Ltd., 1967.

I'd love to find one of these!  What a beautiful tool!

Alfred Herbert Ltd., once a major British manufacturer of machine tools, closed its doors in 1983 after almost a century in business.

The Game of Lost Heir with Canadian Cities

I stumbled across this game whilst searching in my loft for something else:

The following information is from an unknown website.  My apologies to the authors for being unable to give them credit.

"The game Lost Heir was apparently developed by the game firm McLoughlin Brothers in the late 19th century. Lost Heir was named for a novel published in 1872, "The Lost Heir of Linlithgow." The book was written by Emma D.E.N. Southworth, called the most widely read author of the late 19th century. Lost Heir is a bidding and trick-taking game, somewhat like the game Pinochle. The game was successful and McLoughlin made several versions over several years. It sold steadily and Milton Bradley, successors to McLoughlin, continued to produce it. The game became popular in Canada--the French version is "L'heritier Perdu"--and was still being manufactured there in 1996. This version of Lost Heir by McLoughlin Brothers dates from the late 19th century or around 1900. "

Sidecar Sunday

Photographed at the Wheels Through Time Museum

Good Clean Motorcycle Racing

Lusitania reincarnated

Barrie Pitt (Editor).  Great Battles of the 20th Century.  Grosset & Dunlap
in association with Phoebus, 1977.

"Hello, Germans.  I'm back!"

I would assume that this tank was named in memory of (and in vengeance for) the RMS Lusitania, sunk by German torpedos in May 1915.  The battle of Monchy-le-Preux took place in April 1917.

Hugh W. Peart & John Schaffter.  The Winds of Change.  A History of Canada and Canadians in the Twentieth Century.  Toronto:  The Ryerson Press, 1961.

Morris Minor engine

Exploded engines were quite common in British cars.

Black Widows on patrol

US Air Force pic

CCM Flyer bicycle crank and bits

From Craigslist Toronto

Likely from the 1930s