Bing steam toys, 1910

 Beautiful things...

Monday Mystery, anvil/vise, unknown maker

Found in Eastern Ontario on the auction site, Maxsold, this is an anvil/vise of unusual configuration. It's been sold for $57. No idea who made it, anyone? 

Thanks, Ken1

 

Sidecar Sunday

 A nice drawing from 1933, a couple on a sidecar combination stop to consider the 1/3 scale Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway. The railway is still going strong, the sidecar rig, probably not.

Wooden handle spoke shaves

 I found these two nice little spoke shaves in a Maine antique store, one straight blade, one curved. No names on them that I could find,  I would guess they could be homemade.

Bolshevik Technology

  After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the new Soviet government invested heavily in a policy of science and technology. This poster by Alexei Kororekin urges "Unite the power of science with the creativity of the working class"
 

Farriers nippers

 This is a large (14"long) pair of pliers or nippers, a similar pair on eBay is advertised as a farrier's tool for pulling horseshoe nails or snipping them off. The manufacturer's name appears to be Merit or Merit AM, can't find much info on them online.

Planes in formation, Swordfish

 The invasion stripes look a little incongruous on the British Navy Swordfishes in June 1944. 

Construction of the dirigible Akron

  The Akron was a helium-filled dirigible built for the Navy in 1930,  it and sister ship Macon were a new generation of dirigibles with many improvements and developments in construction. Designed as an aerial aircraft carrier, it was to carry five aircraft contained within the envelope and launched from a trapeze.

   The lifting gas was helium, a huge improvement over the inflammable hydrogen used earlier. The inert gas was carried in 12 independent "bags", allowing the engines to be mounted inside the envelope. using shafts to drive the propellers which were mounted on streamlined pods. 

  Hard to imagine the scale, the 785 foot long frame consisted of 132 foot diameter structural Howe-truss rings that were self supporting, rather than ribs and wires of the Zeppelin design. The 10 main rings were 74 feet apart, with 3 lighter frames between each pair. The envelope was also a new material, rubber impregnated cotton, a huge improvement over the Zeppelin's cow intestine-based skin. 

  With all the modern developments, this ship seemed like a practical way forward for the lighter than air craft. It first flew in September 1931, unfortunately on April 4th 1933 it went down off the coast on New Jersey in a thunderstorm, killing 73 of the 76 on board. 

Investigation of Dirigible disasters

 

Motobecane 350 triple

   In the 1960's this French manufacturer's main business was bicycles, mopeds and light motorcycles. In 1972, they introduced their first full-size modern bike, a 2 stroke 350 triple. Although it doesn't look too different than the Kawasaki S-2, it had apparently been in development for a few years and was not simply a copy. In 1974, a prototype fuel injected 500cc version was in development. 

The 350 was sold between 1972 and 1975, during that time production was under 800 units.

 Motobecane went bankrupt in 1981 and was bought by Yamaha.

new hermes Pantographic Jewelry Engraving Machine

Youtube on machine operation