New York Central, Water Level Route.

 

The Water Level Route, from New York City, up the Hudson river and along the Erie canal to Buffalo on the way to Chicago. Art by James R. Bingham.

Hong Kong, Then and Now.

 Peak Tram 1954

 

Peak Tram and Hong Kong 2012

 

We used to make things in this country. #25: No Dusto Noiseless Blackboard Eraser

Those of us of a certain age will remember chalkboard erasers, and sometimes being given the dusty task of taking them outside and banging them together to clean them.  I don't know if classrooms use chalkboard erasers anymore.  The National Gallery of Australia actually has one example signed by Joseph Beuys catalogued as art!

The one above was made by the Copp Clark Company Limited of Toronto, better known in our country as a publishing house.  The company traces its history back to 1841.  Now owned by Pearson Plc, "Copp Clark Limited " is a trading name for what is still the oldest, continuously active publisher in Canada.  However, they have dropped the book and game publishing activities, and now exclusively focus on financial and settlement calendars for the world's financial markets.  So, you'll need to source your No Dusto Noiseless blackboard erasers elsewhere these days.

For more detailed histories, visit  McMaster University (the source of the image below) and/or CoppClark. 

1938

The marvelous Addressograph!

The World Book Encyclopedia.  Chicago:  Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, 1958.

How addresses were put on business envelopes in the 1950's and 60's.  To understand how it worked, see the Wiki article.  The company that made these machines soldiered on until 1982.   Then the computer started saving the labor of retyping.

Greeves Trialsbike

 

Cast aluminum exhaust pipe? Never seen that before.

Cannonball Bakers Greatest Record

 

On September 13 1929, Cannonball Baker climbed Pikes Peak 6 times for what he considered his greatest record, despite his two transcontinental runs the year before.

In tanks, size is everything

S.J. Duncan-Clark and W.R. Plewman.  Pictorial History of the Great War.  1919.

Vanished Tool Makers: William Marples & Sons, Sheffield, England

I recently acquired this lovely Marples bow-saw:

Until the 1990's they were still made by Record Tools in England, with solid beechwood frames.

The Splendid Book for Boys.  London & Glasgow:  Collins, c. 1950's.

This adds to my very small collection of tools from this firm--an awl, a scraper and a wood chisel:

I also have a rose bit with their name on it:

And a lovely hand-forged spatula which I use very frequently:

In 1821, William Marples Junior joined his father’s joinery making business, and the company was founded in 1828.  In 1860, William's own sons joined him and the firm became William Marples and Sons.  Over the years, they acquired John Moseley & Sons (London plane makers) and Thomas Ibbotson & Co. (Sheffield edge tool makers), growing to become the most prolific and best known Sheffield tool maker.  Their large factory was known as the Hibernia Works:

http://www.wkfinetools.com/huk/marplesW&Sons/wMarples-index.asp

Their trademark was a shamrock, which appeared on some of their tools (like the badge on my awl, pictured earlier above). 

1907

In 1961, they had about 400 employees.  In 1962, the Record Tool Company and William Ridgway acquired a 50 percent interest in the company and in 1972 the companies merged with several others to form Record Ridgway Tools Ltd.  After 116 years at its Hibernia Works, the company was moved to Dronfield.  A 1982 takeover by A.B. Bahco of Sweden was short-lived, and in 1985 Record returned to British ownership, first as Record Marples Woodworking Tools Ltd. in 1988 then as Record Holdings plc. In 1993.   In 1998, the company accepted a bid from American Tool Corporation, subsequently trading as Record Irwin.  Irwin itself was acquired by Newell Rubbermaid in 2002, and was renamed Irwin Industrial Tool Co.  Both the Marples and Record names were rebranded “Irwin.”  However, the name has since been resurrected as Irwin/Marples and applied to wood chisels and table saw blades reportedly now made at Irwin's new facility in Udine, Italy (although some claim that the chisels are made in China).  I had a look at one of the saw blades in Lowes, and noticed that the package has a paragraph providing a very brief history of Marples.  As the original Marples firm never made circular saw blades, and is long gone now and so had nothing to do with the production of these ones which are not even made in England, I guess the use of their name is sort of a tribute on the part of Newell Rubbermaid. "Hey, we bought your company and closed it down, but some people remember that you made good tools, so we'll stick your name on another tool made somewhere else by someone else."  As the old saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me."

As an aside, William Marples was the uncle of Robert Marples and Joseph Marples, both of whom established competing tool-making business in Sheffield.  The Robert Maples firm disappeared early in the last century, but Joseph Marples Ltd. continues as one of the last old family-owned tool-making firms in Britain.

Marusho; 1948-1967

One of the victims of the Japanese Motorcycle Wars.

Vanished Tool Makers: Druge Brothers Manufacturing Company

I picked up this lovely old tire inflation tool:

Tire pressure is registered through a glass lens in the top:

I hope to refurbish it and put it back into use.

The Druge Brothers Manufacturing Company of Oakland, California seems to have specialized in air pressure tools, making pressure gauges that were used by the U.S. military among others.  Their "Tru-Flate" trademark was registered in the U.S. in 1948.  

They also seemed to have manufactured pinions for post-war Garand rifles.  The only other reference I can find to the company is on a site featuring two toy "straddle carriers" otherwise known as "hysters, " "lumber carriers" or "lumber loaders."  Daniel O. Druge et al. were awarded U.S. Patent No. 2601930 for this toy in 1952.  Apparently, in their ads they pictured both the toy and the actual machine on which it was based, and their toys were dead ringers for the real thing.  A remarkably whimsical product departure for the Druge Bros. firm.

http://www.tnttoytrucks.com/StradLit1.html

"Tru-Flate" is now a trademark of Plews & Edelmann, a company with roots back into the early decades of the last century.  They continue to sell window-style inflator gauges.  My guess would be that they acquired Druge Bros. sometime along the way.

Plews-Edelmann