Masts by the trainload

 Douglas firs roughed out for masts, en route from the west coast to the shipyards in Maine. The route had to be carefully chosen to avoid tunnels, bridges and sharp turns.

The past and the future met for lunch...

 It was tense. 

Question: Is the green truck greener than the red car?  Is using a 8250 pound vehicle to move a 200(ish) lb. person acceptable?  Give me the 2200 pound Morgan any day... 

Itma wrench

Itma was a brand name introduced in the 1950s by Belzer Tools of Germany, Chrome Vanadium as a material came into use in the mid 1920s.

 

Catalog pages from the always-great Alloy Artifacts

Trans-Canada Air Lines, Vickers Viscount

 1955

This was the first turboprop airliner in service in North America and TCA bought 51 in total and operated them till 1974. Why did TCA purchase the Viscount? Answer here.

Directions in aviation, 1941

Agnes Rogers, From Man to Machine, A Pictorial History of Invention, Little, Brown and Co. 1941

  The brand new Being 307 Stratoliner towers over the Aeronca K in front. On one hand the four engine airliner with pressurized cabin carrying 30 passengers over 2000 miles was clearly the future, but the Aeronca was one of a number of light aircraft inexpensive enough for private pilots to own and fly. A large boom was predicted for the light plane- everyone will soon own an airplane as well as a car!

Adjustable wrench

I'm not really a fan of adjustable wrenches, new or old...but this one has character. buy it, hang it on a nail in a prominent part of the garage, just out of reach so no one is ever tempted to actually use it.

 

Peter Witt streetcar

 The Peter Witt car was the staple of the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) from 1921 till the PCC cars came in, and they were in service till 1965. The car was designed by the Cleveland Street Railway and named after the commissioner Peter Witt. Most of the TTC cars were built at Canada Car and Foundry in Montreal with some also built by the Preston Car Company (Preston is now part of Cambridge, Ontario) and the Ottawa Car Company. 

One car (Number 2766) out of the 575 built was saved and restored, and is still used for occasional excursions. 

Sidecar Sunday

Fritz Scheidegger  and Horst Burkhardt working hard.

 

Bluepoint Valve tool, CF-7

  This is a valve spring retainer lock replacer patented by Ira Clark of Clark Feathers and sold by Blue Point. Looks a little fiddly to use, Youtube link here, but Patent No 2,091,500 was also used by other manufacturers including: Cornwell- VT-21, Lisle- CF-7, OTC 851-A, Herbrand- VL-550, New Britain- VL-139, Matco- CF-7, Wilde K.C. MO. 

 

Model A hop-up. Ruckstell cylinder head

The Ruckstell high compression Power Head made use of new heat resistant aluminum alloys and raised the compression to a heady 4.9-1, (big numbers pre-leaded fuel) It was said to raise horsepower to 50.5 at 2400 rpm while providing a weight reduction too.

 

Buick Roadmaster, 1953

 

Grain harvesting progress

 Looks awkward and ungainly but probably a huge leap in efficiency over the rig below...

Motosocial TO, May 1st 2024

 A few of the  bikes that stood out among the hundreds of Triumph twins, Ducati's and Harleys in Toronto last night...

Trimont adjustable wrench

We've covered Trimont tools in previous posts but this adjustable monkey wrench (with the name cast in everywhere possible and the rivetted semicircular part in the frame) seemed a little special. I didn't buy it, this type of wrench mostly works on square head nuts, I don't run into them much...

 

Lorraine Dietrich racer

 This car, originally a 1912 Grand Prix racer, was converted to road use by fitting it with fenders and rudimentary road equipment to turn it into an early "sports car". 

Curran Steam Commercial Vehicle, 1928

The Curran Steam Commercial Vehicle was a latecomer to the steam powered vehicles. The experimental steam bus chassis was built in 1928 utilizing the latest developments in metallurgy and steam power. The boiler was a combination of fire tubes and water tubes running at 600lbs pressure, The three cylinder engine was adjustable for steam entry into cylinders from full stroke length down to five percent of stroke length. The engine also acted as a brake as soon as steam entry was closed off, saving the mechanical brakes.  The fuel could be pretty much anything from gasoline down to low grade fuel oil. 

The bus chassis, loaded to 11 tons was tested on various roads and grades and was found to have high torque at start-up, a good power to weight ratio and ease of operation. However, the public was skeptical, all the steam car companies were long gone. The company failed to attract investors and the vehicle never entered production.

 

Hotel, canned goods and patents...

 Seemingly unrelated services but.... 

probably dates to about 1865.

Cast aluminum toys, bus

 

I don't see manufacturer's name, it looks like a 1936 White Motor bus at Glacier National Park. Even has dual rear tires. I wonder if it is related to this aluminum car?

Wire sculpture

Nicely done.

 

Ok, a litte late for a Monday Mystery...

 

But any guesses as to what this is? The date doesn't look like a patent date...

Cooking corner

 Another kitchen gadget we never knew we needed...

Sidecar Sunday

 

Weed Chain pliers

 A nice hefty pair of pliers used for install and remove links in Weed tire chains. I guess there wasn't much expectation of inflation, the price is stamped right in.

datamp.org
and a second patent.

Andre's BSA

Beautiful bike, works well. It would be well suited to rural two lane roads cruising at about 60mph in the summer sun. Lovely.

 

Riteway Oil can opener and spout

A handy device for adding oil to that old automobile, from the pre-plastic bottle era. Remove the engine oil cap, insert spout, drop a can SAE30 into place and squeeze the handle to make a hole in the can. Manufactured by the Artra aluminum foundry in St. Charles, Missouri. The company was founded by Arthur E. Hoelting and partners,  seemed to still be in operation into the 1980s.