Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Monday, October 2, 2017
Map Room, U.S. Weather Bureau, 1946
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| The Universal World Reference Encyclopedia. Chicago: Consolidated Book Publishers, 1946. |
The way it used to be done.
Vanished tool makers: J.B. Ridge Ltd., Sheffield, England
This little gimlet has the name of its maker stamped on the end of the wooden handle. Perhaps this was customary on such tools at one point in time, but it's the first gimlet I've ever encountered that was so marked. The maker's name is given as J.B. Ridge Ltd., Sheffield.
On the other end of the handle is stamped 7/32, the diameter of the shaft:
There's very little information available about this tool maker. The only thing I've been unable to unearth is this notice from The London Gazette in August 1887:
So, if this refers to the same firm, it would seem that in 1887 Joseph Bingham Ridge parted ways with his business partner, George Sansom, formerly trading as "Joiners' Tool Manufacturers" under the name of Sansom and Ridge. Thereafter, the company became J.B. Ridge. I've no idea how long the new firm endured, or how old my little gimlet is.
Sunday, October 1, 2017
"Americans should produce their own rubber"
The quote by Harvey Firestone at the top of the ad caught my eye. In the years following WW1 the US was expanding its world view and the rising automobile industry needed raw materials. The British interests in Malaysia had a virtual monopoly on rubber production, their Stevenson Restriction Scheme was an attempt to stabilize prices by controlling supply. The American response was the Rubber Survey authorized by Congress in 1923 and attempts were made to increase American presence in the rubber market. US investors increased their influence in the world rubber growers, experiments began for making synthetic rubber and to grow rubber trees in the US, with little success.
In the end, growers in The Dutch East Indies did not join the Stevenson plan and captured much of the American tire market. The Stevenson Plan was repealed in 1928.
The quote in this 1925 ad might also have been a bit of promotion for Harvey Firestone's upcoming book, Men and Rubber. The Story of Business, published in 1926.
As for the design of the actual ad, the car being piloted expertly on the edge of a cliff, either shows the driver on the wrong side of the car (no steering wheel is in evidence) or both people visible are happy confident passengers at the mercy of an unseen but trusted capable driver- I guess.
Vanished retailers: Lacy & Co., Jewellers Supplies, Toronto, Ontario
I found this lovely jeweller's saw at a thrift store. German-made, it was still in its original packaging:
Original price tag: it retailed for $22.98 back in the day.
Lacy & Company was founded in 1927. The parent company, Lacy West Supplies, is now out of Vancouver and, according to its website, "Serving the Jewelry Manufacturer, Goldsmiths, Silversmiths, Opticians, Dental Lab Technicians, Musical Instrument Repairers and many other Allied Trades for decades." In 2015, the Toronto warehouse was shut down. I guess there weren't enough specialists left in Toronto to make a go of it.
The parent company still carries unusual tools like dapping sets. "Dapping" means to curve metal into a hemispherical form. See how to dap and dome.
Master Mould for making LP Records
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| David Chatterton (Editor). The Mind Alive Encyclopedia. Technology. Chartwell Books Inc., 1968, 1977. |
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