Ariel leader body panels

 

Sidecar Sunday

 

 The 1933 model year was one of the lowest production years in Harley history, with only 2671 big twins produced and a total production of 3703 units (includes singles and small twins). Both motorcycles pictured are powered by 74 cu in. sidevalve engines with hand-shift three-speed transmissions. Of the two motorcycles used in the photo shoot, the sidecar model, is the rarest with only 164 being manufactured.

Little Tonka vans

Some kids took better care of their toys than others. I always liked the little "cabover vans" from Tonka, probably led to the string of 60's Chevy vans and Toyota vans I owned and drove over the years. 

 

Land Rover cutaway view

 Interesting angle, by Italian cutaway artist Giulio Betti.

1920's gasoline tank truck

Cute, the tank looks about the size of a furnace oil tank.

Another good use for old pistons

  From a 1958 Popular Mechanics Shop Tips magazine. If you already had enough ashtrays made from pistons you could use cut down pistons to make a tailstock or a set of indexing centers for your horizontal mill. I admire the ingenuity and amount of work done here, but have to wonder just how many of these things were made by readers.

 

Wright reciprocating saws

 

 Wright Power Saw & Tool Corporation had a different idea for chain saws. The saws at the time were heavy awkward and the chain design was prone to kickback. Their first product in 1947 was a pneumatic-powered reciprocating saw designed primarily for underwater demolition, marine dock building, and military applications, but was soon adopted for logging. Tapping into the commercial logging and farming boom of the 1950s, Wright adapted its reciprocating technology to gas engine powered units. Initially the reciprocating action was directly worked from the crankshaft with its own connecting rod, no clutch! Although the machine was refined over the years, it always cut slower than a comparable chain saw and by the 1960s, they had moved on to a conventional chain arrangement and the manufacture was contracted out to Poulan. They went out of business in the 1970s.

Granite surface plate

 I've wanted one of these for years- decades! It's not been a must-have but definitely in the nice-to-have category. Besides, it gives my vernier height gauge a home.  It had been sitting in a friend's shed for 20 plus years ago, when he bought some forgotten object, it was given to him. My son quipped that he would remove it from my shop in 20 years... 

CPR toolshed padlock

 These brass locks were used on many railroads and were similar to the locks on switches, though they were keyed different. They don't look terribly secure.

 

Cast iron banks

  In 1920, the A.C. Williams Co. of Ravenna, Ohio was the world’s largest cast iron toy maker. They also made piggybanks in a large variety of shapes including these (appropriate) banks. 

Testbed

 This ex-Air Canada Viscount used in the development of the PT6A-50 turboprop engine model utilized as the powerplant for the de Havilland Canada Dash 7 commuter airliner.  The conversion was done by the United Aircraft of Canada, now Pratt and Whitney Canada. The modified plane flew from January to October in 1974. 

VickerViscount.net

Rich Child Cycle

 Who named that kid?

Warner radial engines

 
 

I was surprised to find that Warner is still around supporting their radial engines in the 125-185 hp range. From their site comes this: Warner Engines have powered many different civilian and military aircraft over the years:

 Aeronca, Amphibion, Beasley, Bird, Cabinaire, Cessna, Challanger, Commandaire, Consolidated, Conquest, Cosmic, Cross-Foster, Cunningham-Hall, Curtis, Dart, Davis, Doodlebug (NACA), Fairchild, Fleet, Gee-Bee, General, Goodyear (lighter than air), Harlow, Howard, Inland, Issoudun, Laird, Lincoln, Loening, Luscombe, Meyers, Monocoupe, Monosport, Ong, Paramount, Pitcairn, Porterfield, Ranger, Roamair, Ryan, Rearwin, Simplex, Sioux, Sky-Car, Stinson, Swallow, Swift, Travelaire, U.S.Navy (lighter than air) Valkyr, and Waco.

Along with the engines, they sell drawings like these. 

VW Jetta in white

 More than once people have stopped to look at and photograph this car. So here it is. To me it's just another one of thousands of boring old Jettas, but I guess to some folk it's getting to be a "vintage car"...

 

Jas. Clark Electric tools

  When the company opened in 1892 the company was named after the founders, Cooper and Clark. L H Cooper retired in 1907 and the renamed company continued making their handheld power tools. This 1944 ad seems to indicate the company was doing well, but it was acquired by new owners in 1948 who closed and liquidated the company the same year.

Sidecar Sunday

 Passenger needs a windshield...

Supershort chassis SJ Deusenbergs

  Apparently there were only two supershort chassis Deusenbergs made, one for Clark Gable (above)  and one for Gary Cooper.  I found these two images in different books, each said they were an example of the supershort chassis Deusenberg but Gary Cooper's car looks stodgy compared to Mr. Gable's. 

 

Caille outboard motors

 Around 1906, the first gasoline outboard motor was designed by a Yale law student from Detroit named Cameron Waterman. Waterman asked the Caille Brothers, who manufactured slot-machines, to build the first 25 outboard motors. When the motors sold out immediately, Caille began producing their own successful line of outboards, and by the 1920s were making racing outboards. 

The company struggled during the Great Depression and was eventually acquired by Fuller-Johnson Company, and outboard production ended by the mid-1930s. I found some conflicting information which says the Fuller Johnson company closed in 1932. In any case, that was the end of the company.

Fashion Friday, Dress like Nuvolari

 

Stylish. That's a look to aspire to.

Aluminum tops the Washington Monument

  The capstone of the Washington Monument is a 9-inch tall aluminum pyramid, placed on December 6, 1884, to finish the 555-foot obelisk. Aluminum was chosen because it was as valuable as silver at the time due to the difficulty in refining. At the time it was the largest piece of cast aluminum ever made.

 Two years later, newly discovered industrial processes brought the price of aluminum down to earth but the original capstone is still there.

1986 Nissan van

 This van was introduced to North America in 1986, following a similar-styled Toyota product a couple of years previous. Being midengined and short wheelbase, neither the Toyota nor Nissan sold well, the Chrysler minivan was the popular choice if you wanted a small van. The Toyota at least lasted 6 years in the North American market before being replaced by the Previa. The Nissan had a 2.4 litre engine crammed under the front seats, too much engine in too small a space and was known to have caught fire in at least a few cases. Nissan issued recall after recall, till they decided to buy them all back in 1994. 

Overman Wheel bicycle wrench

Datamp.org

 I happened upon this surprisingly modern angular-style bicycle wrench at Datamp.org, a far cry from the usual wrenches of the day. Turns out it was patented by British inventor James Kemp Starley, who is better known for the modern "safety" bicycle, which replaced the "penny farthing" and was responsible for the wild popularity of bicycling in the 1890s. His company, Rover made bicycles before branching into motorcycles and then cars. (you might remember a Rover post from a few days ago, everything is connected, apparently)

The sheetmetal wrench was adopted by the Overman Wheel company, a bicycle manufacturer in Chicopee Falls and sold under their own name.  A Jan 1891 ad shows the OVERMAN WHEEL CO. "VICTOR" PAT APLD FOR wrench as a new product. It didn't last, an 1894 advertisement indicates Overman Wheel was abandoning this design for a lighter style with one open side.

 

Hartness Flat Turret Lathe

  Jones & Lamson grew out of the gun-manufacturing company Robbins & Lawrence. Jones & Lamson was formed in 1869 and continued in the gun business also manufacturing machine tools for making guns and sewing machines along with engine-lathes, screw-milling machines and drill presses. In 1888 James Hartness became the superintendent at Jones & Lamson and began development of a flat-turret lathe of his own design. He obtained patent 457,967 in 1891 and the company changed its focus to the production of the machine. The undated bottom picture looks like the machine in the 1911 article here.

 Machine description here.   

Manual for Flat-Turret Lathe by James Hartness here

 

Reeving a Two Fold Purchase (a lost language)

Boatswain, Royal Canadian Navy, Trade Group One, 1960

 

Rover P5B Coupe

  Rather an unusually styled car with 50s styling and a radically lowered roofline, making it a tough-looking ride. The Rover P5 was introduced in 1958. the P5B Coupe variant was produced from 1962 till the end of production in 1973, by which time it was definitely an anachronism. 

One of my vices is vise/anvils, an abused Rock Island Manufacturing anvil/vise

   Interesting and very abused Rock Island Manufacturing anvil/vise. It looks like there is a quick adjust feature, in that the screw block slides on the same track that the jaw does, that track appears to have been replaced. The anvil portion has seen a lot of use, and it appears someone has broken and welded the jaw to the anvil. It's for sale in Winnipeg here. 

Previous Rock Island post here.

US patent 1,111,103

AC Sparkplug cleaner

Sandblast and save gas!

 

Suzuki with actress

 

Posted only because this is another picture of the rare fat-tired RV90... Oh, the actress who is blocking the view is Uschi Obermaier.

The cheapest oil filter wrench

Three stamped pieces of maybe .080" or .100" thick steel, a coupla rivets and we have a simple and effective oil filter wrench, the maker didn't even put their name on it.

 Second thought, maybe its just a kitchen can opener?

 

Sidecar Sardine Sunday

 

  An illustration for the artisan sardine cannery La Quiberonnaise, by comic book artist Frank Margerin.

Zubian sealing wax

 Sealing wax for sealing lids while canning fruits and vegetables, when that was a normal part of life, not sure where the seemingly exotic name "Zubian" came from. 

The Dicks- Pontius company didn't disappear as canning became less popular, they branched out into calks and sealants after WW2, merging with Armstrong and changing their name to a name you might recognize- DAP Global, and are thriving today.