Union Pacific Streamliners, 1956

 

Carousel motorcycle by Monteilhet, France

 Nice carousel motorcycle with fibreglass body, pictures are a bit blurry looks like it was modelled after a jet engine or a foreshadowing of the Hercules Wankel? To me its a bit ornate for something from the early 60s. Nice for the livingroom!

VW Beetle Limo

Built in 1969 by Troutman-Barnes for the Southern California VW distributor. I wonder if it's still around, people care for this sort of car. 

Troutman-Barnes were established custom car builders in Culver City, California, having built bodies for several Chapparal race cars and the Mustang I show car for the Ford Motor Company in 1962. 

Monday Mystery, guide

This obviously some sort of guide or jig for some task. the only marking is the word "Moore" on the close end. Any ideas?

 

1970 Mustang Mach 1

 

Sidecar Sunday

Classic Motor Cycle Mar 1985

 Fun with perspective...

Wheel Horse wrench

This long 1 1/8" wrench was supplied by the company to remove blade spindle nuts. A little googling indicates they were not a quality item.

 

One of my vices is vises, Wards Master Quality

From one of the Montgomery Ward tool lines, this would have been sourced from one of the vise manufacturers. The shape is distinctive and seems familiar, but I can't quite identify it.

AJS R7 346cc cutaway

Seen at the Brooklands Museum.

John Player Special motor oil

Brooklands Museum

Part of the whole product promotion of John Player F1 sponsorship 1971-1986. Find it at your local tobacconist...

 

Toyang 12 inch Power Jaws pipe wrench

 

Here's a Power Jaws pipe wrench made by a Japanese company, Toyang. As usual, not much information on the company online. 

It's a clever design, rotating the head clockwise through the handle opens the jaws. When the jaws slip over the pipe diameter,  rotating the handle clockwise tightens the jaws on the pipe as the pipe is turned. It's fun but just how useful it is, I'm not sure.

Random Youtube showing the operation (not mine).

Packard Twin Six cross section

 Packard's 60° flathead V12 of 1916, in production till 1923. It has a 3 bearing crankshaft with 6 throws, 2 rods per throw. The camshaft was also 3 bearings, with 24 lobes to open the valves.  The oversquare engine produced 85 horsepower from 424 cu in. About 3600 were built. Factory manual here.

Audrainautomuseum

Christmas Eve tradition...

Another reblog, piggybacking on a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Christmas Eve tradition, the reading of "The Shepherd" a story by Frederick Forsyth about a Vampire pilot flying home for Christmas.  Enjoy!

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-the-shepherd-edition-2017-1.4455219/fireside-al-maitland-reads-frederick-forsyth-s-the-shepherd-1.4458378

Drawings for reassembly

I did a previous post on Fred Martin, a naval architect working out of mostly Wisconsin at the turn of the last century. Here are a couple of Fred Martin drawings illustrating a completed frame for a 32 foot clipper hull. The frame is about to be knocked down for transport to another shop for reassembly and sheathing at another shop and I assume the drawings are an assembly aid. Seems a lot of extra labour, but it must have made sense in the circumstances.

 I do like the typical hull layout drawing shown below. Everything a guy would need to build it I guess, but I don't have the translation skills to really understand them, even if I wanted to build one.

 

Sleepless musings

 

One of my vices is vises, Wells Bro's foot vise

thanks, Andre!

 The Wells Bro's were part of manufacturing boom along the Connecticut River, drawn to the area by the abundance of water power available. The Wells brothers were fired from Wiley and Russel in 1876 and started their own firm making tools for farming and backsmithing. The products labeled “Wells Bro’s & Co.” were made in the years after 1878- according to the site of The Museum of our Industrial Heritage, but this device seems newer than that. The site also provides an interesting graphic for tracing the ownership of the various companies along the river. (Bottom image)

 

Hercules Wankel cutaway

thanks, Rolf!

 

Runabout Whisper

Pretty sleek...seen in Belafst Maine.

 

Sidecar Sunday

thanks, Andre!

 Looks like fun!

Know your 1959 Wankel engine

   In 1957 Wankel and then German motorcycle and car manufacturer NSU completed a prototype of the DKM type rotary engine which combined a cocoon-shaped housing with a triangular rotor. However the complicated structure of the DKM, saw the trochoid housing itself rotate which made this type of engine impractical for production. A more practical KKM engine with a fixed housing was completed in 1958.  NSU officially announced the completion of the Wankel rotary engine in November 1959. From Motorequipmentnews.

Early Wankel history here.

Archer Tapper No2

Reversing tap driver for a drill press. I've never used one, but as I understand it, lowering the drill press spindle engages a clutch and then, threading done, lifting the spindle activates a reversing action to withdraw the tap. Good for production in controlled circumstances and spindle speeds. I don't know if I could trust myself with this device, I can break taps turning them by hand.
 

1915 Peugeot, sectioned

C.F. Caunter, The Light Car, a technical history, Her Majesty's Stationery Office,

 Note the luxurious interior, the sophisticated crash and rollover protection. The antilock braking system (probably unlockable actually...)

1957 Cadillac, The car of cars...

People you'd probably enjoy knowing... 

A gentleman in his pink Cadillac, his wife in a gown by Edith Small.  Cadillac was certainly selling a lifestyle.

More Edith Small, scroll down...

 

SKC Thread Tool die handle

 

I happened upon this diecast die handle at a tool store, it looks like an older imported light-duty kinda tool. Then a second identical handle in different packaging. Googling Century Die Stock #98504 brings an entirely different tap handle on Amazon. 

According to their site, SKC is a Japanese thread tool company that's been in the business since 1940. 

Kaiser Supersonic cylinder head

Hop up for your Willys hotrod. The Supersonic head raised the compression ratio from the Willys 6.48:1 to 7:1 giving 8 more HP for a grand total of 68. Bottom image shows it all spiffed up.

 

We used to make things in this country #370 Water bombers

 Seen at the Musée de l'Air in Le Bourget, Île-de-France, CL-215 1023 is on static display outdoors, one of 125 units built between 1969 and 1990.

 The CL-215 amphibian was designed in the 1960s as a waterbomber but was also envisioned for use as a transport or for carrying passengers. In many cases it was replacing WW2 era Catalina flying boats.  When introduced, the CL-215 was powered by a pair of 2,200 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial engines, considered to be the most reliable engine for maritime use, in 1987 a turboprop version was introduced. Apparently retrofit kits were available for earlier units. In 1990 production ended and development of a successor the CL-415 was started and introduced in 2003.

 In action

Michelin House

The highly decorative Michelin Housee located in Chelsea, London, was the first headquarters of the Michelin company in England. Built of ferro-concrete in just 5 months, the design was by a Michelin employee, François Espinasse who does not seem to have done any other buildings. It opened in 1911, the style could be decribed as Art Nouveau or very early Art Deco. Motoring customers were accommodated on the ground floor, cars entered through powered doors in the front of the building, tires were stored in the basement.

When Michelin vacated the building in 1985 it was taken over by Terrence Conran and Richard Hamlyn, owner of Octupus Publishing. The building was restored and reconfigured as a bar, restaurant, Conran design Shop and offices for Octupus Publishing. The stained glass windows and glass cupolas had been lost over the years, they were replicated and installed to duplicate the original look.