Introduced in September of 1930, the new Bentley luxury car cost about $15,000. Powering it was this 487 cu. in. 6 cylinder overhead cam 4 valve engine producing 220 horsepower. Unusually, the cam was driven by 3 connecting rods. The bore was 110 mm (4.3 in), the stroke was 140 mm (5.5 in). Bentley went bankrupt 6 months later. only 100 cars had been made.
The Gellman Co. made the wrenches in three sizes but realized they had to diversify to grow, by the thirties they were making kitchen convenience items like can openers. This wasn't enough and in the forties, they pivoted into commercial baking equipment and food packaging machinery. In 1962, they diversified again, becoming distributors of Triumph and Jaguar automobiles, the manufacturing ceased in 1963.
Draper Tools is British tool company, founded in 1919. They started as a reseller of government surplus and tools, becoming an agent for King Dick, Britool and others as the business expanded. They also contracted out manufacturing for their own line of wrenches marked B.D.S. after the company name Bert Draper and Son. The BDS name was phased out in the 1960s, to be replaced with the Draper Tools brand. The manufacturing is now contracted out to Taiwanese and Chinese companies.
Draper Tools is still in business and on the third generation of family ownership. Now I have to find a BDS wench!
This is a nice little metal and bakelite corded palm sander, lacking a little in styling perhaps... This unit doesn't look like it was ever used.
Livingston Mfg. set up in Rockland Maine in 1890 to make stone cutting, shipwright and blacksmith tools. In 1928 the manager of the company, Putnam Bicknell, acquired a controlling interest and changed the name to Bicknell Manufacturing. The factory continued production for several more decades, despite the dying stone trade and the rise of steel construction in ships.
