Black and Decker Workmate

   Growing up, these things always seemed to be the mark of the amateur woodworker or hobbyist, not a serious tool. And they were not cheap. But having had one donated to me a few years ago, I've got to grudgingly admit that they are a very handy thing to own. But does it fit in the category of "one of my vices..."?

AJS 7R Chaincase

Pure sculpture...

 

Horsecar meets the future

  Queen St West at Gladstone, view west in 1893. A horsecar full of passengers passes the new electric streetcar track construction. It's about to pass under the multi-track railway underpass, now CN, GO and the UP express.

Mike Filey, Victor Russell, From Horse Power to Horsepower, Toronto 1890-1930, Dundurn Press, 1991

 Same view 1993. An articulated LRV replaces the horsecar, and a natural gas-fueled bus is making the Gladstone jog around the break in Dufferin St. A warehouse replaces the CPR ticket office. 

Below, 2018. Yet another generation of streetcar heads eastbound past new condo buildings. 

Streetview

Motorcycles on record albums, Living Marimbas

 Cheesy easy-listening Latin versions of popular hits.. But it's a BMW!

One of my vices is vises, Dunlap 5244

    Craftsman was the premier line of tools from Sears, Dunlap was one of the names they used for home or hobbyist-quality tools,  much like Companion later on. With the exposed thread, this certainly looks like a lesser quality unit and it has been repainted, (looks like a Rustoleum colour to me.)

Odhner Model 30 Mechanical calculator

  Willgodt Odhner, based in St. Petersburg, made his first mechanical calculator prototype in 1875. It utilizes a pinwheel mechanism, not unlike a mechanical speedometer, and it will add, subtract, multiply, divide and calculate square roots by pushing various buttons and turning the crank in different directions. 

  Odhner passed away in 1905, his son continued the business, moving it to Sweden during the Russian Revolution. The company passed through more hands, machines were developed further, new models released and were in common use till the early 1970s. 

 I'd love to take one apart and play with it (probably ruin it) but fortunately there are people online who have done detailed studies of these mechanical miracles.

 How to use one here.

History and lots more here.

Thank you, Iris!

Sidecar Sunday

 

Car accident on Bloor St., Toronto

 On March 4th 1918, this car slipped on an icy patch, (note the rear tire chains) and clipped the front fender of a streetcar, which caused it to careen into the path of a streetcar going the other way. The driver suffered minor injuries but the passenger later died in hospital.

 

AMC 250

  1959 AJS/Matchless engine with separate transmission, though the right case covered both, making it look like a unit engine.

  Artwork by F. W. Beak who also did work for The Autocar magazine. Not much more information online.

Cyclecar Sabella

British paper merchant Fritz Sabel was the producer of this JAP V twin powered cyclecar. Only a few were produced between 1906 and 1914.