Monday, October 12, 2026

Safety wire pliers



 Common in aviation and racing where bolts cannot be allowed to come loose. Run your safety wire through the bolt head and nearby tab, grab the two ends with the pliers, pull the center knob back to turn the pliers to make a nice regular twist. No name on them but a couple of decades ago these seemed to show up at surplus stores,  these are first ones I've seen in a while.

 


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Sunday, October 11, 2026

Sidecar Sunday

Seen at the Brooklands Museum. Grubbs "pullman" Tandem with add-on. I can't imagine it handled well. 



 

Saturday, October 10, 2026

What's inside a hand crank phone?


  Giving the hand crank a spin on these phones spun a magneto which sent a pulse down the line to the operators switchboard and alerted her to the incoming call. That grey box in the center may be the magneto, but I don't know what the drycell batteries are for. 




 

Safety first!

 Misplaced apostrophes, but you get the message...


 

Friday, October 9, 2026

Fashion Friday. Polyester leisure suits anyone?

Dow Chemical Company 1958

 

Remember the Maine!


 “Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!” was the American rallying cry used to push the United States into declaring war against Spain in 1898. Wikipedia

Naval Institute

Thursday, October 8, 2026

Chevy Stepside


 Nice sporty vehicle from 1976, get it with the 350 4 barrel, I think.. These days this generation is known as the squarebody, but in the seventies, GM called this the "Rounded-Line" generation due to rounded windshields and door frames. That was before the Audi 5000.

Wednesday, October 7, 2026

Ingenuity at work


This is a Canadian-made Connor wringer washer, popular in the 1940s and 50s, outfitted with a smaller tub and a wooden paddle arrangement to churn butter. Anything to reduce the workload of the farm wife!








 

Museum display


  William George Barker was Canada's fourth highest scoring ace in WW1 at 50 victories. This entry was found in a catalog of the Canadian War Museum in 1967 when it was located on Sussex St. in Ottawa.  I don't remember seeing this aircraft at the new War Museum building constructed on the LeBreton flats, but it is listed as a display. 

One of my vices is vises, a Grizzly?

Thanks, Arthur!

 Not sure of the pedigree of this heavily used bench vise, I suspect it's an older Taiwanese import, just doing what it was intended for...