Early American roads

1903-1993 Harley Davidson Historical Overview

Try that on your direct drive pedal start machine!

Railway Passenger Car development, up till the 1920s

T.W. van Metre; Trains, Tracks and Travel, Simmons Boardman 1927

Georgia woodmen use a power saw to cut pulpwood, 1950's

Collier's World Atlas and Gazetteer.  P.F. Collier & Son Corporation, 1955, 1957, 1958.

That doesn't look dangerous at all!

Globelite Batteries, 1954

Ashdowne's Catalogue, 1954

While the U.S. parent was out of Milwaukee, Globelite also made batteries in Winnipeg, Manitoba beginning in the first decade of the last century.  In fact, their old factory is now the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.

Douglas DC-8 (updated)

Len Martin, Airliners of the World, Arco Publishing 1966
The competition; Boeing 707

The DC-8 first flew on May 30 1958, nearly four years after Boeing introduced the 707, yet Douglas had firm orders for 118 of the untried aircraft in its books on that date. Such was the confidence of the air travel industry in Douglas-built product. Douglas was basically the only game in town from the introduction of the DC-2 in 1933 and 1946, when Lockheed introduced the Constellation. At the start of WW-2 the air transport roster read like this; Boeing 8%, Lockheed 9%, Douglas 83%. Small wonder airlines were willing to wait for aircraft from the Douglas company.
 556 examples were built before production ended in 1972, superseded by the new wide body jets.

Jet scrap

Found north of Toronto...

Beginning of the end of the age of sail

Old Port Talbot & District in Photographs.  Vol. 3.  The Port Talbot Historical Society, 1985.

Remington Electric Shavers, 1954

Ashdowns Catalogue.  Winnipeg:   The J.H. Ashdown Hardware Company Ltd., 1954.

Clifford Makins (Editor).  The Eleventh Eagle Annual.  London:  Longacre Press Ltd., 1962.

Inspection Car, Long Island Railroad

Ron Zeil, The Long Island Railroad in Early Photographs, Dover Publications,1990

This gasoline-powered inspection car of 1905 was a new development for the railway, it was the first internal combustion vehicle but was a primitive as it could be. It had no clutch or transmission and the crankshaft was incorporated into the rear axle, the same layout as the steam locomotives the railway was used to. Must have been a rough ride.

Toronto skyline, 1914 through 1960

1914.  Fredrick H. Armstrong, Toronto, the Place of Meeting. Windsor Publications, 1983.

1921.  Mike Filey, Look at Us Now, Toronto Sun, 1971.

Canada Today.  Bank of Montreal, 1948, Revised 1949.

Invitation to Canada.  Ottawa:  Canadian Government Travel Bureau.  c. 1960

Kilby Manufacturing Company, Cleveland, Ohio

Herbert Myrick.  Sugar.  A New and Profitable Industry in the United States for Capital, Agriculture and Labor.  New York & Chicago:  Orange Judd Company, 1897

My perception of sailing ships is no doubt overly-romanticized--I picture them clipping along under the clean ocean winds. It's easy to forget that their purpose was to to serve such enormous smoke-belching factories.

Sidecar Sunday

Parilla pictures

Interesting engine, OHV with high camshaft and short pushrods. One camshaft lobe controls both valves. I need one of these motors to disassemble.

Child labour in textile factories

Machines, Power & Transportation.  Science Universe Series.  Arco Publishing, Inc., 1984

J.F. Fales, E.G. Sheets, G.J. Mervich, J.F. Dinan.  Manufacturing.  A Basic Text, 2nd Edition.  Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 1980, 1986.

Below, an interesting petition reprinted in Stanley Pigott, Hollins. A Study of Industry 1784-1949.  (Nottingham:  William Hollins & Co., Ltd., 1949).  

Master Lock Company bike lock

J.H. Ashdown Hardware Company Limited.  Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Henry Soref traveled around the U.S., Canada and Mexico as a locksmith, and founded the "Master Key" company for making master skeleton keys.  Padlocks at the time were cast and easily broken with a hammer, so he invented an improved padlock made of laminated steel layers.  Unable to get financial backing, he turned to two friends and the three men founded the Master Lock Company in 1921.  By the time he died in 1957, the company was one of the major lock manufacturer's in the U.S.  Soref himself enjoyed fame, and was visited by Harry Houdini in search of tips on how to defeat locks in his magic shows.  In 1931, Soref was honoured with a gold medal from the American Association of Master Locksmiths, the only time such an award was ever presented. In 1970 the company was purchased from Serf's heirs by American Brands. In 1986, the company acquired the Dexter Lock Company.  Company fortunes were at their peak in the early 1990's, when 1300 people were employeed in Milwaukee. However, competition from offshore led to manufacturing being moved to China and Mexico.  Dexter was sold off in 1998. However, the company has recently been moving jobs back to the U.S., and was even visited by President Obama in 2012 in recognition of their efforts to return jobs to America.

The company website has an interesting history page.

Light Lanchester Mark II armoured car

Lt Col. Robert J. Icks, Tanks and Armoured Vehicles.  Phillip Andrews Pub. 1945

Built in 1928, this vehicle was built for use by the British Cavalry. It was armed with three machine guns; two .303 and one .50 caliber and carried a crew of four. Powered by a 45 hp engine, the 7 ton vehicle had a range of 200 miles. It was obsolete before WW2.

Soft Landing

Robert Reed; Train Wrecks; Bonanza Books. 1968

This Chicago and Alton locomotive had a soft landing in a gondola full of coal after it slammed into the rear of a stopped train.

Another job you wouldn't want to do: churning cream into butter

C.L. Paddock.  Golden Stories for Boys and Girls.  Canadian Watchman Press, 1930.

She sure don't look happy.  Him neither..

Allan Anderson.  Remembering the Farm.  Memories of Farming, Ranching, and Rural Life in Canada Past and Present.  Toronto:  Macmillan of Canada, 1977.

The price of free trade

Phyllis A. Arnold, Penney Clark & Ken Westerlund.  Canada Revisited 8.  Arnold Publishing Ltd., 2000.

1959 Thunderbird

Evolution of travel up to 1850

T.W. Van Metre, Trains, Tracks and Travel, Simmons Boardman 1926

The age of the stagecoach

Above, from the Wells Fargo Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina.  It's a gem!  Below, images from the experiences in North America and Great Britain.

Roger Watson.  Focus on History.  The Transport Revolution.  London:  Longman Group Ltd., 1971.

J. Herbert Cranston.  Huronia.  Cradle of Ontario's History.  Huronia Historic Sites Association, 1972.  Illustrated by C.W. Jefferys

Roger Watson.  Focus on History.  The Transport Revolution.  London:  Longman Group Ltd., 1971.

Charles A. Beard, Mary R. Beard and their son William Beard.  The Beards' New Basic History of the United States.  Garden City, NY:  Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1944, 1960.

Roger Watson.  Focus on History.  The Transport Revolution.  London:  Longman Group Ltd., 1971.

W.G. Hardy (Editor-in-Chief).  Alberta.  A Natural History.  Edmonton:  M.G. Hurtig, Publishers, 1967.

Below, the final fate of the stagecoach:

Roger Watson.  Focus on History.  The Transport Revolution.  London:  Longman Group Ltd., 1971.