Vernier bevel protractor

 Looks like a wallpaper pattern.

DOT race bike

  Here's a 125cc racer from the DOT marque with an usual layout.    No technical details given but for some reason, the Villiers engine is tilted forward 90°, possibly to lower the center of gravity? In any case, the whole bike seems much lower than usual. Wish I had a better view, it's rather unique. They entered this motorcycle in the IoM TT in 1951 and appear to be have been successful on some level, DOT won the team award that year but did not continue the program. This layout was also not used for production bikes.

 The company was founded in 1906. They produced motorcycles until the mid thirties when they settled into making three wheel delivery vehicles. In 1949, they were sufficiently back on their feet to restart motorcycle production, producing a utilitarian two stroke motorcycle that could be modified for trials and scrambles. With the end of Villiers as an engine supplier, they eventually stopped motorcycle production again. More here.

Dellow Automobiles

 Dellow was a niche automobile company near Birmingham, England, in business between 1950 and 1957. The ads above show the final model, all the images I see are of the earlier vertical grill and separate fenders-type bodies. The cars were originally based on a Austin Seven chassis and were intended as a competitive trials car or sporty little road car. The Austin Seven-based cars were not strong enough for the rough world of trials and there was soon a new chassis with 1200 cc Ford engine and Ford axles, each car produced was different than the one before as improvements were incorporated.

More here

Hagerty

Mark V

Chisels and Chipping

Shop Theory, Henry Ford Trade School, McGraw Hill, 1943

 

Oh yeah, this will definitely be on the test.

Metropolitan police

 Dibs on the Harley!

Radical Software #2

  Seems like a hippie new media project. At the time, the term radical software referred to the content of information rather than to a computer program. The cover image was computer-generated, a novelty at the time. 

  The magazine was an outgrowth of the Raindance Corporation in New York during the summer of 1969. Their intention was to found an alternative media think tank; a source of ideas, publications, videotapes and energy providing a theoretical basis for implementing communication tools in the project of social change. The magazine struggled along to number 6 as the founders were seeing the production was a distraction from their overall mission of the Raindance Corporation. 

The whole story here.

Tatra V8

  A rather unique Czech car built from 1936 to 1950, with a break for WW2.  The rear mounted 3 litre air-cooled V8 could push the car to nearly 160 kph.  3056 units were made.

 

1986 Suzuki Samurai

 We need something like this again. 

Manufacturing processes, metal stamping

Volkswagen hoods

 

Renovation solutions

 Here's a hard one. A heritage house comes up for sale and you want it. Price is right but it's rough, nothing is near code... 2nd floor is a bit spongy, etc etc.. and you really don't like the seven foot ceilings. Hmmm So you bite the bullet... and realize its going to need a roof... and floor joists etc. Eight foot ceiling height requires raising the roof.  This of course is going to affect the overall aethetic of the building. you do it.

So, was this a successful solution?

Sidecar Sunday

No, that's not a Zeppelin.  When gasoline got scarce during both world wars, there was a lot of development on wood and coal gas as fuel. These vehicles required a large bag for the gas, previous post here.

 This image is a colorized version of this photo and I bet those smiling passengers are paid actors.                  Thanks, André!

Armstrong fork, 1955

This fork was presented as an alternative to telescopic or Earles forks as manufacturers moved away from girders. Honda stepthroughs used a variation of this design slightly later.

Cast iron bench

Nice lines on this cast iron bench. It looks vintage, or at least old enough for the wood to rot. No name cast in that I could see so maybe it is actually fairly modern.. I'd buy one.

 

We used to make things in this country, #378 Eskiloos boots

Eskiloos were a specialized fashionable line of waterproof, fleece-lined boots produced by Uniroyal (often under the "Dominion Rubber" brand in Canada) during the 1960s and 1970s, designed for cold, wet weather. It was an outgrowth of the Rubber Machinery Shop which was established in 1917 in Kitchener, Ontario, by the Canadian Consolidated Rubber Company Limited. RMS was a self-sustained division of Dominion Tire Company which was acquired by Uniroyal, but operating and maintaining its own facilities for sales and manufacturing. Although Uniroyal would be RMS’ largest client during the period, economic conditions saw the company branch into other industries and begin manufacturing machines for such diverse purposes as producing medicated Band-Aids and cutting wooden bungs for whiskey barrels, and products such as portions of the (now removed) peri-telescopes on the CN Tower. 

How to make a lathe

 We were talking about the proliferation of lathe manufacturers at the turn of the last century, this Lindsay books reprint of a 1920 South Bend booklet shows how prevalent machine tools were in society.       This is an instruction book to build your own lathe at the school shop. Comprehensive instructions, full drawings and the cheater page at the end, if you can't cast these parts yourself, your implied "substandard" school can't do the process (ok, I exaggerate), South Bend can supply the rough cast parts you need.

 Lindsay books used to supply reprints of long gone technical books, he closed the business in 2012.

 

Bugatti 35C

 1928 Bugatti 35C, known as ‘Genie, from the Alan Haworth collection.

   The car was sold to John Bentley in 1989 and as of 2019 is owned by collector Peter Rae who has ensured its safe keeping and in as near original condition as essential maintenance allows amid its utterly authentic originality. GNE’s current value must be heading towards £5 million.  Ownership history from Porschecarhistory.

Save wheat, save meat

  I've read lots about the severe hardship experienced by England after WW2, export or die, gas rations etc., but wasn't aware there was a similar situation on this side of the Atlantic. These posters from 1947 promote the American voluntary food conservation campaign aimed at preventing famine in post-WWII Europe and curbing inflation. Introduced by President Truman, the campaign encouraged citizens to help feed a devastated world while stabilizing the economy. 

 

Arnstrong Siddeley service card, 1927

 A handy chart for the home garage. If I read the chart correctly, the driver did 15,760 miles that year with only a speedo cable failure.

Motorcyclist magazine Feb 1943

Tough publishing a motorcycle magazine during wartime, just 16 pages. Two paid ads, one is for war bonds. A few classified ads, including one for a dealership closing down for the duration. Hang in there,..

 

Know your drill press

 

Parcel delivery express

Unsafe at any speed?

 

Minidrill

   Found in a 1965 British motorcycle magazine, this seems like a variation of the Dremel. The fact that it's being sold by a mail order company probably indicates it was a short-lived product.

 

Fiat Dino V6 section view

Nicely done section view of a Fiat DOHC V6, a detuned Ferrari engine. The signature seems to read G. Bettl, no luck on that...

BMW Telescopic fork section views

 

Sidecar Sunday

Re: last Sunday...  Anything you can do, I can do better...

Posing with a Norton single

 Wonder who this is?

 Looks like a drive in theatre in Toronto on the upper right. Date unknown. Google suggests Honor Blackman and she did star in a movie made in Toronto in the seventies, but I don't think this is her. Update. And it's not. It's a Martha Deaken, co-pilot of Howard Adair's Manx Norton and keen supporter of CMA airport racing, our cover girl for this month."  Canadian Motorcycle Association News, November 1951.  From the Ted Whitney collection.

Wrench tips and techniques

William H Cruse, Automotive Engines, McGraw Hill 1959

(From GM) That appears to be a cylinder head as found on a 230 cu. in. six...

 

Adams-Farwell rotary engine

 

  One of the first rotary gas engines, designed by Fay Oliver Farwell in 1896. The year before, he had joined joined the Adams Company of Dubuque, Iowa as manager. His experimenting with internal-combustion engines led to a 3 cylinder rotary engine powering what was probably the first rubber-tired automobile in 1899.  Apparently it all worked well enough that he then developed the above 5 cylinder version for the next generation Adams automobile. The company made about 200 units between the years 1898 to 1913. 

 The only real advantage to that layout has got to be the cooling aspect of cylinders whooshing around through the air. The penalties for having that much metal and machinery whizzing around near the passengers was enough that no other auto company felt the need to copy the arrangement. 

 For some reason the pioneering aircraft designers liked the idea though, and stuck the whirling mass on the front of flimsy flying machines. Le Rhône developed the idea into successful 7 and 9 cylinder engines during the WW1 years.

Images below and early rotary engine article  (including the contemporary Balzer rotary) from Hagerty. More info in Smithsonian.