E Type Jaguar jack

 This jack with the square recess is apparently a jack for an E Type Jaguar. Everything else on the table has a price tag- not the jack. 

When asked... "Well, I've seen them go for $500 to 1000 US". Yes, how much is this one?  It takes a bit of back and forth but eventually we arrive at the fact that he is asking $500 Canadian... 

I guess. If E types are selling for $100k, the accessories are going to be correspondingly ridiculous. 

The First Classic BSA Scene, 1979

By some coincidence, there have been a lot of BSAs appearing lately. So I've been looking for more, these 1979 photos come from the 1982 Bruce Main Smith book.

 It's refreshing to see what might have been a typical bike and attitude 10 years after the factory closed.  No danger of over-restoration accusations here.

 This looks like a good fun bike to own and ride.

Frazer Nash

 Frazier Nash seen at British Car Day.

 Wait a minute, isn't that an old VW Beetle front end?

 And 4 pipes? 

Oh yeah... that's what it is.... well, its still rare...

We used to make things in this country#342 Radio Tubes

 Ad from 1935. 

Ripped directly from Wikipedia... In 1924, Edward Rogers formed Rogers Radio Ltd of Toronto to manufacture radios. While visiting the United States, he witnessed an experimental tube operating using AC current demonstrated by Frederick S. McCullough. The demonstration proved that an AC operated vacuum tube was feasible, but it exhibited too much hum, due to the filament cycling at the generator frequency. Returning to Canada, Rogers experimented with ways to reduce this hum by redesigning the filament and successfully demonstrating the hum reduction in the fall of 1924.

The Standard Radio Manufacturing Corporation was formed in 1925 to mass-produce this new AC operated vacuum tube. Rogers produced and marketed one of the first Canadian and United States AC operated triode vacuum tubes with the production of the Rogers R30 and R32. RCA would market the UX-226 AC triode in September 1926.

In 1928, Rogers changed the name from Standard Radio Manufacturing to the Rogers Radio Tube Company Ltd. Rogers by this time had put more emphasis in vacuum tube development and manufacturing over the manufacture and selling of radio sets.

As well as developing radio receivers he was getting interested in the broadcasting end of the business and in 1927 started the radio station CFRB. Not content with audio, in 1931 he was granted the first television license. He passed away at 39 years of age in 1939, leaving a son Ted Jnr. who, following in his fathers footsteps, entered the broadcasting business in 1960 with the radio station CHFI FM. Ted Jnr. also saw the future in cable television and by 1979 Rogers Cable TV dominated the Canadian market. 

Grand Prix poster 1950

 Poster for the Grand Prix races on the Albi street circuit in 1950.  

Event poster by André Bermond, printed by Moullot, Marseille.

Snail brand wrenches

Snail brand wrenches (with two different styles of snail!) continue to turn up occasionally. Previous post by the Duke here.

 

Horse drawn days

Before trucks and cars there was horse-drawn vehicles. Traffic jams were common, wagons pulled by teams of horses took up a lot of room and weren't easily maneuvered, the horses probably weren't enjoying the work and environment, they could and did kick, bite and bolt, threatening bystanders. They also got sick and sometimes died. 

One of the less attractive things about horse drawn transportation was the manure problem, on any street with traffic there would be a fresh carpet covering the roadway, add the urine and the city might not be a nice place to live in the summer.

 Stables, many located in urban areas, always had huge piles to get rid of, sometimes accumulating for months. And if the urine-soaked manure was distasteful, as it dried out it to turned to a dust that blew around causing the respiratory diseases that were part of urban living at the time. 

Cities tried to keep things clean but it was a daunting task. In 1880 Kansas City announced it would only clean the streets once manure was more than 3 inches thick. 

Most streets were unpaved, making cleaning inefficient. The abutting householders made the decision to pave or not, and a smoothly paved street brought more traffic, the "elites" with their fast carriages (and towards the turn of the century, bicycles) who made life hazardous for the pedestrians, residents and children who, having few parks, shopped, socialized and played in the street. 

New York,1893

Clay McShane, Down the Asphalt Path, Columbia University Press. 1994

A blockade at Broadway, 1883.

Monday Mystery, Late 19th C Locomotive patent model

 I got a request from the owner of this model to see if we can find out more about this model. It reputedly dates to the mid 1890s but to what aspect of the design is new or novel isn't clear. The model is impressive, 43" inches long or approximately 1 to 12 scale. 

The Atlantic 4-4-2 wheel arrangement was introduced in 1895 by Baldwin as a highspeed passenger locomotive for the Atlantic Coast Line but comparing the wheel locations and details in the frame with the locomotive shows differences. Perhaps the model illustrates some not very obvious details of the suspension system or mounting arrangement of the leading or trailing trucks, but guesses are welcome!

History of Baldwin
First Atlantic Coast Line 4-4-2

Kalmbach Steam Locomotive Cyclopedia

This Santa Fe Atlantic has a longer wheelbase but once again details are different- and it was a 1910 design. 

Messerschmitt M33

 

In between building light transport and training planes, the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (Willy Messerschmitt's company) produced this lightweight design for the homebuilder in 1932. Perhaps because of the depression, none were built.

Make your own model here.

Look like a winner...

 All right, then...