BSA Bantam

  Ad from 1967, a groovy cool couple on a Bantam.

 The bike had been part of the BSA lineup since 1948, from a 1930s DKW design first sold in 1939. It soldiered on till 1971.

Pontiac Parisienne drag car

Shouldn't be sitting outside....

 

Not a cellphone...

 Do guys still shave wherever they are?

Edgley EA-7 Optica .

 

Looks like a bug, but this a British light aircraft designed for low-speed observation work, it first flew in 1979. It was intended as a low-cost alternative to helicopters with a loiter speed of 80 mph and a stall speed of 67 mph. Power is by a flat six with a ducted fan. Only twenty two units have been built.
 

Weeden steam engine # 34

  This toy steam engine model with 8 inch long boiler was introduced in 1898 and produced till 1940.  The boiler jacket of this model was decorated with the star pattern shown here as well as snowflake or round hole patterns.

  Weeden was an American company that began making toy steam engines in 1884 as a promotion for The Youth's Companion magazine. Company history here.

Monday Mystery, tool with knob

  It's easy enough to google the Snap-on part number and find out what this nice little tool is for but before you do can you figure it out? The Snap-on name would indicate automotive... hint, it's used with a socket.

sidecar sunday

 

Ivory Calthorpe

March/April 2020 Motorcycle Classics 

 

CleanCut candle wick trimmer

  At first I thought this was some specialized medical-type pair of scissors, but they seemed too decorative for that use. Google Lens pointed me in the right direction, it's a candle wick trimmer for all that candle maintenance you've been neglecting...

 

Slaymaker lock

   John Slaymaker started his company in 1888 to make locks for the Pennsylvania railway. In 1898, the company started making steam cars, but Mr Slaymaker soon abandoned the now-named Baldwin Automobile Manufacturing Company venture to return to his locks. With the Pennsylvania Railway connection, I wonder if the Baldwin Locomotive company was somehow involved. 

  He purchased the T. Slaight lock company in 1904 and that company was renamed the Slaymaker Lock Manufacturing company, until 1917, when W.E. Fraim of the E.T. Fraim lock company bought in changing the nam e to simply Slaymaker Lock Co. In 1921, John Slaymaker exited, prompting yet another name change. 

 Manufacturing so often seems to be just a game of musical chairs. 

   So quite likely this lock dates to that 17 year period.  And finally, nothing really of note in this cheap lock except the Slaymaker logo.

 

Jaguar XK150

One of my vices is vises. Trojan

A sad old neglected and abused vise.  According to Garage Journal, Trojan was the economy line for Parker. The ones I see online usually have a cast-in model number.

 This one was outside at a local antique market, rusting away with a broken base and seized up, a shame. 

A substantial flange is broken off the base, it should be like the view below.

Flying boats in London

Short Calcutta 1928

Short Solent 1948

Short Sunderland

Every city needs more seaplanes.

Film at British Pathé

Motorcycles on record albums, Living Strings play the Monkees

 Miniskirt, a Honda 90 and the Monkees, there's the sixties right there. 

"Living Strings" was a RCA Victor-created band for making easy listening cover tunes...

We used to make things in this country #374 DMP Minibikes

 Lots of manufacturers were getting involved in the motorized leisure market in the late sixties and early seventies. Delhi Metal Products produced a line of minibikes, this Rupp clone Trail-Champ has full suspension and the inclined Tecumseh motor with torque converter.

Delhi Metal Products was a supplier of fans for furnaces and air handling systems, also antennas and other metal products. The company was bought by a US company General Instrument in 1973 for the antenna business. I suspect that was the end of the minibike production.

Woodworking Machines in four languages

  Here's an interesting idea for a book. Definitely from a different era, it consists of 350 pages of examples of woodworking machines with descriptions and details in four languages, intended to make translations easier for salesmen and others in the industry. Lots of variety of manufacturers, most of the names are new to me.

H E Horten, Woodworking Machines in four languages, Holt Publishing, 1968

 

Scott Trivan

  In 1929 Scott motorcycles was working on an air cooled single cylinder 298cc engine to expand into the lightweight market. That motor was not a success but plans were already in the works to use that engine in a three wheel delivery van. A few prototypes were made and a company- S. A. V. Light cars was set up to market it but soon disappeared.

Jeff Clew, The Scott Motorcycle, The Yowling Two-stroke, G.T. Foulas & Co. 1974

 

Traveler

   Here's a minor little sharpening stone, sent to me a reader in New Jersey (thanks, Jay!). He said he had found this promotional item from a company in Brampton, Ontario (near Toronto) at a sale in New Jersey. It would be fun to learn how it actually ended about 540 miles away from home.

 We moved to a 10 digit phone number format in about 2001 so it must be at least 25 years old. The company seems to be still in business today.

 

Marion, Indiana, Dec 1958

 Found on dozens of Tumblrs and below, on Googlemaps in July 2023.

Sidecar Sunday

 

OW1 Poster 66, Office of war Information, Washington, 1943