First Paris Air Show

Featuring both kinds, lighter and heavier than air...and sponsored by the Automobile Club.

Sidecar Sunday

 Hang on tight, I'm not slowing down!

Kay Metal Refining wartime ad, 1944

Located down near the harbour in a former industrial area, the company is a long gone, even the street is barely there- overwhelmed by the expressway. 

There is little information that I could find online though the calendar below indicates they were still around in 1957 although at another location- which now a housing complex... 

ebay

 

Planes in formation, B-36 Peacemaker

 Eight of three hundred eighty four built.

Baldwin Locomotive Erecting Shop 1869

Railways were big business in the 19th century. By 1869 the Baldwin locomotive plant in Philadelphia occupied about half a city block, shown are various engines and parts under constriction. The line of benches with machinery and workmen on the right shows how much of production was still hand done at this point in history.

250cc speed record

 Quite impressive! I haven't found much information on this speed record, or the streamliner build. Looking at the AMA speed records, it appears Don Vesco raised these records in the early seventies to either about 189 mph or 176 mph, depending on the class definitions...(there are so many variations.)

1962 Mercedes Benz 200

For sale at a vintage building material shop in Cobourg, this is a nice old stodgy and upright car. The two door body style is nice, the  automatic transmission is probably somewhat rare. Definitely a project car for someone, maybe a big project.  Body needs work, upholstery too.

Kronan chisel, Eskilstuna

This a fine socket chisel found locally,  It's difficult to read but the name Kronan appears on the underside, there is little information to be found on that company. Also, along with Made in Sweden, is  the steelworking city name, Eskilstuna, which seems to appear on many Swedish-made tools.

If this tool is put back into service, the edge will need attention.

 

Goodyear motorcycle tires

1965

1977

Goodyear was still innovating in the late seventies, in the early eighties they got out of the motorcycle business.
However, if you buy an Avon or a Dunlop motorcycle tire today, they're both part of the Goodyear conglomerate.

 

Collaro record changer

 The absolute limit of luxury, no need to get off the couch for hours as your records change themselves! (of course you have to pre-stack them yourself... and no replays) 

The Rockbar Corp. name is long gone, it's now the name of a bar in the village, Collaro was a British company that was absorbed by Magnavox in 1962.

Clipper Great Republic

   Canadian-born Donald Kay started shipbuilding in 1840. He built seven ships in partnership with others, then moved to Boston to start his own shipyard where he designed and built many successful and record-breaking clipper ships. The 29th ship built at the Boston yard was the Great Republic which was launched in October of 1853. At 335 feet long, it was the largest clipper ship ever made. After testing, it sailed to New York City to be laded for a trip to Liverpool. After it was loaded, a fire broke out at a nearby bakery which spread to the docks and set fire to a number of boats including the Great Republic, which burned to the waterline and was considered a total loss. It was said that Donald MacKay never really got over it.

  The sunken hulk was bought by Captain Nathaniel Palmer who had it rebuilt at the shipyard A.A. Low and Bros. The ship was built up in a different plan than the original, 3 decks instead of 4 and 42 sails instead of the original 50, on shorter masts. The ship then had a good career till in 1872 a hurricane off Bermuda damaged it badly enough that it was abandoned at sea and lost.

Richard C. MacKay, Donald MacKay and His Famous Sailing Ships, Dover Publications, 1995

 

Mickey's Air Mail

Nice little rubber airplane toy, by this point in history the propeller blades are gone and pilot Donald Duck has lost his head, but he kinda spoiled the lines anyway... 

 

Etsy

Maybach SW38 Streamline

In the 1930s there was much development in aerodynamics for highspeed automobile travel. In 1938 Fulda tires of Germany commissioned Dörr & Schreck to build a streamlined body on the conventional Maybach SW 38. With the help of aerodynamicist Baron Reinhard Koenig-Fachsenfeld this car was designed, built and introduced in 1939. Powered by the Maybach 3.8 litre six, it was capable of  over 200 kph. It was little used due to the outbreak of WW2, and the car disappeared either during the war or shortly thereafter. 

Beaulieu auction, 1967

 Just $574.

Humber Cycles, 1921

 

Sidecar Sunday

Happy Birthday, Steve McQueen...

 

Lenora #1, Mt. Sicker Railway

Located on Vancouver Island, the Lenora, Mt Sicker railway was constructed in 1900 to serve the Lenora copper mine. Only six miles long, it was a 3 foot gauge railway replacing a tramway constructed on log rails. Due to the steep and rough track, a geared locomotive was chosen. What they got was this small and beautiful 2 cylinder Shay, outshopped from Lima on October 3 1900 as Build No. 621. Cylinders were only 6 x10" and the engine could only handle two 5 ton ore cars at a time but was soon routinely moving 70 tons of ore per day.

The mine was producing well and within six months more power was needed, it was joined by another Shay, this one bought used, it was larger and much more capable.

The mine went bankrupt in 1907 and the #1 was sold to the M. H. Ellis lumber company at Lombard in the Fraser River Valley, where it was run into the ground and eventually scrapped.

During the lumber company years.

Kirchner Leipzig bandsaw

The remains of a large industrial bandsaw on display near the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam. Someone needs to find a table for it to make it useful along the promenade.

 

Wrap-around windshield!

 

For 1954 Oldsmobile introduces a new-style longer, lower body with wrap-around windshield.  Also available, an optional padded dash.

Planes in formation, Boeing F4B

They're everywhere!

 These were the fighter planes of the US Navy in the early '30s, the Army knew them as the Boeing P12.

We used to make things in this country #360 Star Brand Lamp Wick

Not much call for this product today... Nice graphics on the package, no information at all on the company.

 

Merkur XR4Ti

 Remember this car? It looked promising when it was introduced in 1985, though the styling was a little bit weird for North American tastes. It was intended to compete with the German luxury sport sedans but failed to find a big enough audience. Kind of a shame, it should have done better. In the 5 years it was available only 42,464 XR4Tis were sold.

Steam powered moped problems

Here we have a patent for what looks like the first "moped" (without pedals). The elements of a steam engine are all there condensed into a package about the size of a clip-on 50cc gas engine of about 3/4 century later. It would seem the artist had only the basic understanding of a steam engine, there is no accommodation for the supply of coal and water. To solve that issue one solution may have been to license the 1868 patent further down in this post. This steampowered carriage could follow the moped rider with the necessary supplies. 

This is silly.

 

thanks (I think) Rolf!

Cricket Cyclecar

 The Cricket was a cyclecar made in Detroit in 1914 with a side mounted V twin engine mounted in a motorcycle-like frame. The engine was a 12 hp Spacke with two speed transmission. The company didn't last the year.