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/

Citroën DS convertible drawings

The convertible version of the DS was designed by Henri Chapron and introduced in 1958 to rave reviews.  The coachbuilder was approached by Citroen to create a production version, which became available in 1960.

Monday Mystery, short wrench

Here's an odd 1 1/2" wrench with an unsually short handle. It must be part of a system that utilizes a slip-on type handle, possibly formalizing the 6 foot pipe-persuader process, so favored by us hacks.

 The printed text "DWG ####" and "TLD ####" don't seem to help in a google search.

 Someone must have these in their toolbox, thoughts?

 

Catalina flying boat with JATO assist

 Actually the ones they built in Canada were named Cansos. In the postwar years experiments were made to try to shorten the space required to operate from.  Here a Canso of the 408 Sqdn of the RCAF takes off from Golden Lake, Ontario. Seems like cruel and unusual punishment. 

Sidecar Sunday

 

Inspector Charles Greenwood Toronto police motorcycle squad, 1928

Stamped wrench assortment

 

It's maple syrup season

Here is a spile from back in the cast iron days. These days they'd be formed sheet metal or injection molded plastic. Drill a 7/16" into the sapwood, tap the big end into the tree, and hang your bucket on the hook. 

(Bottom) We have enough for all your trees.

 
 

Chevrolet trucks

Traffic jam of delivery vehicles.

Buck Rogers Flash Blast Attack Ship

National Air and Space Museum

 Tootsietoy, 1937

Rudge Whitworth bicycles

 

Making DKW RT-1s

This doesn't look like a staged photo, does it? How about the "showroom " below?

Probably the mostly copied motorcycle ever, becoming the BSA Bantam, Harley Hummer, the Russian M-1A Moskva and the Yamaha YA-1, among others.

Elliott Erwitt photo. Karlsruhe, Germany     1951

 

Bruno Will pliers

  Here's an old pair of pliers, probably dating to pre WW2 with very unusual handles with defined fingers and thumb grips. There are other Bruno Will pliers on ebay etc, none have this handle configuration. 

 The business seems to have passed on to Harry Will who after WW2 moved the business into West Germany (Harry Will history in a previous post here). Confusing to me is the fact that Bruno Will tools continued to exist, becoming Orbis Will in 1947 while Harry Will-labeled pliers also continued to be available, though they seemed to be the same company. Orbis/Will history here.

 

Cross Transfer-Matic machine

 

  This is a Cross Transfer-Matic machine for automatic machining operations on V-8 engines. Ford introduced this machinery in their Cleveland engine plant in the early 1950s.  Though there was a large reduction in required manpower, the equipment was very expensive and inflexible. Short video here.

Golden Comet motor oil

 

Available in grades frrom 10W to SAE70.  Very little information on the can but apparently Golden Comet motor oil was a product of the Sinclair Refining Company. Not clear when it disappeared from the market.
 

Honda for 1968

 Scrambler styling for the Black Bomber. 

Almost psychedelic background.

Ford Plant Stamping Press, 1927

 Compare to this one.

Number series of machine screws

Cardon's Tools is having a fastener sale, wish I needed more small machine screws, but it started me wondering where the # screw series came from. Fractional bolts go down to 3/16 and 1/8" but those smaller sizes are little used. The number series 10-24, 8-32 etc. screws are much more common. 

So, it seems the system starts with the base size "0" being .060" and the sizes go up and down from there in .013" increments, so a #6 screw is .138" diameter, .060+ (6 x 013") and #000 is .060-(2 x.013"). Over the years the odd number series have been pretty much discontinued. Seems pretty arbitrary to me but here we are 100 years later.. 

Where did that protocol come from? I find two references. 

  In 1907 the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) defined two series that used Seller's thread, numbering the sizes by gauge numbers from 0 to 30. Who was William Sellers? He was an American machine manufacturer who, when elected to the Franklin Institute in 1864, was instrumental in the adoption of a thread form different than Whitworth and also a graded series of nuts and bolts. 

Also, apparently during and after WW1, the powers that be, the ABC (America, Britain, Canada) Council, decided there should be more standardization in threaded fasteners, part of that process was the decision in 1919, that small screws needed better defined, hence this # series. There have been other systems for small screws, but the main standard for screws smaller than #0 is now ANSI/ASME standard B1.10 Unified Miniature Screw Threads.

More than you wanted to know about threads at Wikipedia, here. 

Jaguar D-Type .

Here's two drawings of the D type by Christian Henry Tavard.   He was a technical draftsman, artist and editor-in-chief of the French magazine L’Automobiliste till October 1987.  More of his work here.

The D type was built from 1954 to1957, during which time 71-75 were built.

Lion brand wrench .

 Lion brand spanners were made by Armstrong, Stevens & SonLtd, a stamping and drop forging company located in Birmingham and later Willenden. It was founded in 1835 and in 1920 taken over by Sheffield Steel Products which retained the name. They focused on wrenches, selling under Lion Brand, ASSW and for tool kits; under various automobile manufacturer's names.

Grabce's Guides

Sidecar Sunday

Le Container blog

 Bottom view of the Ural

Wheels for kids

Western Auto

 

Planes in formation, P40s

 Flying Tigers over China, photographed in 1942 by AVG pilot Robert Smith.

First generation Riviera

The Bill Mitchel-designed personal luxury car had been introduced to compete against the Ford Thunderbird in 1963. To my mind a clean and elegant design, the 1965 with hideaway headlights was the nicest version. A 1963 Riviera happened to be the 11th million Buick made.