Sidecar Sunday

Kawasaki power

 

Frazer & Jones

 

  I thought this was just another wrench from a long-gone 19th century agricultural equipment manufacturer, it's good to see that Frazer & Nash is still around casting iron in Syracuse, New York.

 From their site, the company was established in 1845 as Frazer & Benedict, became the Frazer & Jones Company in 1882 and was acquired by the current parent company, The Eastern Company in 1945.  Their business is medium to high volume castings less than 25 lb. No hulls for Sherman tanks or steam locomotive tender frames

I expect this wrench probably dates to their early days.

Hoffar homebuilt sea plane

 In 1917 Vancouver boatbuilders James and Henry Hoffar built this seaplane. Not too many details but it apparently flew successfully but was later destroyed when it hit a log in the water.

 From this experience, the boatbuilders acquired a contract to build a 2 seat flying boat to be used as a fire patrol craft. It also was successful on a few test flights, but suffered engine failure as it flew over the city. It crashed into the roof of a house and was destroyed. 

In 1929, Boeing acquired the Hoffar-Beeching yard and used it to build their seaplanes.

1927
Westendvancouver

First advertised wireless broadcast

Dame Nellie Melba, the famous Australian prima donna broadcasts from the Marconi works in Chelmsford England on June 15th 1920.

 Dramatization on Youtube. About 44 minutes in...

 

Steel castings

Flickr

 Locomotive 576, Nashvillesteam.org

Tank encyclopedia

I was recently catching up on the Pennsylvania Railroad T1 Trust steam engine reconstruction and noted that they are constructing the main frame as weldments instead of the original castings. I guess that makes sense, casting huge pieces of steel isn't as common as it used to be, the required strength of the frame can be determined by using FEA, the casting can be redesigned as a weldment. Pieces are laser cut and then welded together, no issues, it's a tried and true technology. But I remember reading about large (huge) castings being made more than a hundred years ago, whole 50 or 60 foot long steam locomotive or tender frames being cast in one piece, armour plate tank hulls cast in one piece... Those guys were massively skilled.

The Blitzen' Benz

   Fitted with a 21,504 cc four cylinder engine producing 200 hp at 1500 rpm, this car achieved a speed of 127 mph at Brooklands in 1909, piloted by Hector Hémery. A year later Barney Oldfield went even faster- 131.7 mph on the beach at Daytona.

 

Octave Chanute glider test

 A.M. Herring pilots a multi wing glider built by Octave Chanute in 1896. 

   Chanute, a railway engineer, became interested in flying after seeing a balloon flight in Peoria in 1856. When he retired from his career in 1883 he began studying flying, publishing a book Progress in Flying Machines in 1894.  He built a series of gliders and tested them on the dunes near Miller Beach. The Wright brothers corresponded with him for several years before they achieved powered flight in 1903.
 

Wood plane, section view

Peter Collinette, Woodworking school, Quill Pub. 1984

 I don't do a lot of plane posts, other sites do wood planes far better- people that know their planes, know their planes.

 But this is a nice cross section drawing for someone just learning...

1956 Cadillac ad

Let's gather around the pool, gowns by James Galanos

 

Morgan 3 Wheeler 2011- 2021

Powered by  a 2 litre S&S V twin coupled to a Mazda 5 speed transmission, I expect this thing is a lot of fun to drive. The replacement model featured a Miata motor.

Morgan 3