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
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.
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| thanks, Andre! |
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| C.F. Caunter, The Light Car, a technical history, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, |
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...
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.
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.
Josef Erlich formed the Erlich Motor Company to develop 2 stroke engines. The plaque describes this as a single cylinder engine but the badge on the side of the engines says EMC Puch and that motor looks suspiciously like a split single Puch engine.
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| No 50 Thirty foot Launch No 55 Thirty two foot Regular Launch |
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| No 56 Thirty five foot Half-Cabin Launch No 57 Thirty eight foot Half-Cabin Launch |
Leaf springs front and rear. But look at that rear cantilever swingarm with novel leaf spring mounting. There seems to be some telescoping swingarm action happening too.
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| The Classic Motor Cycle May 1986 |
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| 11 Deguise, Sorel-Tracy, QC, Canada. |
This is a 1913 portrait of a newly lauunched tugboat in Portland Maine harbour. The Commercial Towboat Company of Boston commissioned the Portland Company to build a new 144 foot steam tug. It was named the “Greenough” to honor a Charles Pelham Greenough. Who was he? Charles Pelham Greenough (1844 - 1924) was a son of William W. Greenough who helped establish the Boston Public Library. Following a Harvard education and some Civil War service he worked in Boston as a lawyer and historian. There must have been some maritime connection...
On or about Halloween in 1913, the new "Greenough" steam tug fired up her first good head of steam, and sailed south to work in the Boston area. The "Greenough" developed an impressive 900 horsepower with its Hyde steam engine. The engine turned a single 4 bladed cast iron "wheel" (propeller) that stood nearly ten feet tall.
No word on the life span of this boat but it was working at least into the late 1930s.
Looks the part of an offroad explorer, but it looks much too clean and sweet to actually risk scratching or even getting dirty.
These look like a good quality end cutter-type tool made in Japan, but for some specialized purpose, the jaws are offset. Discussion among commenters leads us to believe they are actually tile cutters.
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| Commenter Dave's two similar-looking tools. These carbide edges and in fact tile nippers. |
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