Military production

 
 A few of the nearly 100 000 16H motorcycles Norton produced for the military during WW2.

Conspicuous consumption for the Depression

 

The Cadillac V16 was introduced right after the stock market crash, despite that it received a lot of interest and 2000 were sold in the first 6 months. That exhausted the market and although the car was in available till 1939, production numbers were only about 50 per year. Just too expensive for the times, but this beauty is the Aerodynamic coupe for 1936.

Previous post on the V16 engine here.

Frary Family Scale

A nice little decorative kitchen scale in brass, there must have been millions sold and used over the century or so that the company existed.

 Landers, Frary & Clark was a housewares company based in New Britain, Connecticut. This scale was just one of whole variety of kitchen-related gadgets and tools, coffee grinders and percolators, food grinders and tableware they made. They made a successful transition to electric appliances in the early 20th century, see previous post here.

A man's Triumph

Not sure what the man on the left is doing, but that's his motorcycle. 
 

Barnstorming pilots 1927

(General Photographic Agency)

 No idea what the real story is, but preliminary research seems to indicate that is MARSHALL's grandfather doing his signature "Flag" trick after his usual wing walking act. Always a crowd favorite.

 Actually, this just in; It is aerial acrobat F. Schindler, notorious for his foolhardy stunts, practicing one of his tricks listing out of the vertical, from (probably) a Klemm Kl 25 piloted by Richard Perlia. 

Vandegrift adjustable wrench

Here's an interesting ( and well worn) adjustable nut wrench- as they called them.The Vandegrift Manufacturing Company was a maker of nut and pipe wrenches, founded by Theodore F. Vandegrift and operating in Shelbyville, Indiana. He received his first patent in 1891, for a wedge type adjustable wrench (444,171) and he formed a company to manufacture it. The wrench in this post was based on 1897 patent 589765 and they were made in different sizes,  and with either this loop handle and a wooden handle.  The wrenches were also made for various farm machinery companies, and these tools may turn up marked with names such as International Harvester or McCormick. The company was active through at least 1905. 

ebay

 

Patent 589,765

Spring breakup in Toronto 1912

 No bread left behind...Ideal Bread delivery wagon gives up in heavy mud conditions.

The Rasputitsa, "the season without roads" in Russian.

Toronado cutaway

Blew me away when I was a kid, still does.

 

Wright adjustable wrench

 I saw this Wright adjustable wrench yesterday, the first Wright tool I've found. A quick Google found that Wright Tools has a plant in Barberton, Ohio, one of only three manufacturers still making wrenches and sockets in the USA.

 The company was started in 1927 by tool salesman C. Nelson Wright, he quickly grew the company into a manufacturer of quality hand tools. When he retired in 1967, his son took over the business and ran it till he retired in 2007. The company is still privately owned, with about 180 employees.

 Company history here and the Alloy Artifacts page here.

The adjustable wrenches are expensive on Amazon.

1969 Benelli four exploded view

Kel Carruthers won the 250 ccc class in 1969, riding a 4 cylinder Benelli, the last time a 4 stroke won the 250 cc GP class. This is an exploded view of the motor, based on a large one piece aluminum crankcase casting with holes covered by a rectangular pan and four round covers, through which the crankshaft, seven speed transmission and clutch were assembled. A large aluminum oil pan bolted to the bottom. There were four separate cylinders with right and left cylinder heads. The cams were driven by a three gear train and there were two valve and four valve versions.

 In 1970, the class formula changed to two cylinders and six speeds which favored the Yamahas and Benelli withdrew.

 

Multi-socket speed wrench

 Here's a multi socket speed wrench, no name on it that I could find but apparently made by Blackhawk.  Simple action, pull the head outwards to choose a socket, push it back in lock it in place. 

 

 

Sidecar Sunday

 

Just another day, testing at the Benelli factory

Or maybe it's just lunch break...

 

Clerget airplane engine

Clerget rotary engines were used in Sopwith Camels and Triplanes among others.. They were different than the Gnome et Rhône rotaries in that they had both intake and exhaust valves as well as a carburetor. The crankshaft design was simpler, pistons were aluminum and the connecting rods were tubular in shape. The engine components had to be well balanced as the whole 400 lb engine rotated at 1200 rpm.

Here is a video on Youtube showing the assembly of a Clerget 9 cylinder engine.

 

Assembling scooters

 

Building Vespas at the Piaggio factory.

One of my vices is vises, Nippon #140

A big solid vise from Japan with 4" jaws, but not much more info online that that.

 

Mustang for kids

1937 Red Hunter engine cutaway drawing

Back before valve spring technology was perfected, they used to be run out in the open to keep them cool. In 1937, Ariel introduced a sheet metal valve cover for the valves. It was short-lived, the next year came real modern alloy covers with screw-in caps for adjustment. 

 

International Harvester wrench

Just a fairly common M231 wrench, intended use long forgotten...  Many more of these agricultural equipment wrenches here.

 

44 foot yacht

This might be the stupidest thing I've ever seen manufactured... 

 

BMW chopper

LeDepassionme

Also no April Fools joke. This picture taken in Hamburg in the 70s.  

 Photo; Michael Wegener

Vincent Trackmaster

 

When I found this image, I figured it had to be a joke, who would take the time and trouble to fit a big heavy motor into a flexible flat track frame? But no April Fools, apparently it's real.

 https://egli-vincent.net/2014/01/26/trackmaster-vincent-the-speedway-racer/