Friday, November 6, 2026

We used to make things in this country,#382 IEL Pioneer chainsaw


  This is another pre-diaphragm carburetor chainsaw. In this design, the engine and bar remain solidly connected while the tank and carburetor are rotated as a unit to keep the float oriented correctly. 

 IEL is Industrial Engineering Limited, based in Vancouver BC from 1940 till it was purchased by Outboard Marine Corporation in 1956, which eventually moved manufacturing to Peterborough, Ontario. 



Scandinavian American, 1913


   S.S. Frederik VIII of the Scandinavian-American Line, originally painted by artist Ferdinand Worms (1859–1939). 

  The Frederik VIII was launched on May 27, 1913 and much of her service for the next twenty years was between Copenhagen and NYC though she occasionally called in at Philadelphia and Halifax.

In December of 1935 she was retired and 11 months later was sold to the Hughes Bolckow Shipbreaking Co. Ltd. for scrap.

OEC Four 1934


 A proposed 4 cylinder motorcycle by the Osborne Engineering Company, the prototype was not completed in time for the show. The engine was a narrow angle V4 from the Matchless Silver Hawk. The machine never made it to production as Matchless discontinued the development of the engine.

Thursday, November 5, 2026

General Electric Electronic Toys

  Here's a GE Model 186-3 toy record player. It came with a 78 rpm record of nursery rhymes, to match the printed illustrations on the sides. It's made of stamped sheet metal in an unusual teardrop shape, even the tone arm is sheet metal. This was sold in the late 1940s and into the 1950s for around $10, not a cheap toy.



 

Wednesday, November 4, 2026

School projects


 This tool was offered at an antique market, it was described as a school project. It's a different type of a project, as the big one (after we made a c clamp) in my high school machine shop was a hammer, examples which still turn up occasionally at used tool stores (two examples below).  Then there's an entirely different project in the Duke's 2015 post.



Different times, indeed


 This was found in a 1970s fishing industry newsletter which did this as a "retrospective".  The caption at the bottom says it all.

Monday, November 2, 2026

Tailoring shears



  Now that's a pair of scissors! Heavy and about a foot long, the handles are beautifully formed to fit the operators right hand.

 On the brass medallion is cast, "R. Heinisch Inventor - Newark, N.J." and "Latest Patent 1859".  These scissors were manufactured by Rochius/Reuben Heinisch in Newark, New Jersey. The 1859 patent (X8680) describes a refined iteration of his earlier innovative handle designs (pioneered in 1835 and 1839), specifically shaped to prevent hand cramping during heavy-duty tailoring or sail-making work.


Crafts of New Jersey




1950 Buick hood ornament


Looking like a gun or bomb crosshair sight. 
More comment here, Michigan Work History.