One of my vices is vises, Dunlap 5244

    Craftsman was the premier line of tools from Sears, Dunlap was one of the names they used for home or hobbyist-quality tools,  much like Companion later on. With the exposed thread, this certainly looks like a lesser quality unit and it has been repainted, (looks like a Rustoleum colour to me.)

Odhner Model 30 Mechanical calculator

  Willgodt Odhner, based in St. Petersburg, made his first mechanical calculator prototype in 1875. It utilizes a pinwheel mechanism, not unlike a mechanical speedometer, and it will add, subtract, multiply, divide and calculate square roots by pushing various buttons and turning the crank in different directions. 

  Odhner passed away in 1905, his son continued the business, moving it to Sweden during the Russian Revolution. The company passed through more hands, machines were developed further, new models released and were in common use till the early 1970s. 

 I'd love to take one apart and play with it (probably ruin it) but fortunately there are people online who have done detailed studies of these mechanical miracles.

 How to use one here.

History and lots more here.

Thank you, Iris!

Sidecar Sunday

 

Car accident on Bloor St., Toronto

 On March 4th 1918, this car slipped on an icy patch, (note the rear tire chains) and clipped the front fender of a streetcar, which caused it to careen into the path of a streetcar going the other way. The driver suffered minor injuries but the passenger later died in hospital.

 

AMC 250

  1959 AJS/Matchless engine with separate transmission, though the right case covered both, making it look like a unit engine.

  Artwork by F. W. Beak who also did work for The Autocar magazine. Not much more information online.

Cyclecar Sabella

British paper merchant Fritz Sabel was the producer of this JAP V twin powered cyclecar. Only a few were produced between 1906 and 1914.

BSA Starfire

   Always thought these were a well proportioned motorcycle, the styling works better on this single than it does on the bigger 650. They do have a reputation for being fragile.

J T Slocombe Micrometer

  John Tibbits Slocombe was born in New Brunswick but moved to Maine as an infant. At 16 he started at Bangor Foundry & Machine Co. as a machinists apprentice. From there he worked at several machine companies and while working with the highly crafted measuring devices of the day developed the idea for making a precise, affordable micrometer. He also seems to have been influential in setting the standard of measuring in thousandths of an inch. 

 He and a partner,  C.E. Barlow set up J.T. Slocombe Co. and started selling measuring tools in 1893.  The company was sold to J.H. Drury in 1914.

Catalog No 12.

How to adjust a Slocombe micrometer

Patent 559,820

Buick Regal Sport

 Who writes headlines like that?

Tools of the carpenter and joiner, 1813

 

Thomas Martin, The Circle of the Mechanical Arts, Richard Rees, London, 1813.

  In 1813 Thomas Martin compiled a large handbook outlining the trades and manual skills used in manufacturing in early 19th century Britain. In this post, looking at just the woodworking section, the tools of the carpenter and the joiner are shown on one page:

The tools most useful to the carpenter, the axe (7), adze (6), saw (24), socket chisel (13), firmer chisel (5), auger (1), gimlet (3), gauge (16), square (9), compass (36), hammer (21), mallet (22), hookpin (11), crow (12), plumb rule (18), and level (19 ). 

 The tools most often associated with joinery;  the jack plane (30), trying plane (31), smoothing plane (34), tenon saw (25), compass saw (26), keyhole saw (27), square (8), bevel (23), gauge (17), mortise chisel (4), gouge (14), turnscrew (15), plow plane (29), molding plane (35), pincers (37), brad awl (10), stock and bit (2), sidehook (20), workbench (28), and rule (38).  Most of these tools are virtually the same 200 years later. Is the turnscrew (15) a screwdriver?

Minute parcel delivery

 He really wanted a truck.

Jamestown ain't looking so good these days...

Homelite chain saw with bowbar

  The idea was less pinching of the bar, but it doesn't seem safety was much of a factor. 

 History of bow saws here with safety notes, scroll down.

Glider issues

Long after the Wright brothers achieved powered flight in 1903, they continued playing with gliders. Here in a 1911 test, things get a bit out of hand with a gust of wind. No issues though, the next day they achieved a 9 min 45 second flight, a record that lasted 10 years.

 

Fiat Spyder by Pininfarina

  Nice little car, designed by Pininfarina in 1966, who after Fiat discontinued it in 1982, took up manufacturing it under their own name.  Pininfarina had always produced the bodies which were shipped to Fiat for completion.

  In 1982 the company took the whole assembly in-house and sold them as a Pininfarina Azzurra for the North American market and Pininfarina Spidereuropa for the European market. 

  The very fine print in the top corner of the page credits the turbocharger setup to Legend Industries of New York. That must have only been for the American market.

Monday Mystery, casting number

  One of the good thing about old cast iron is that it seems like every time someone made a casting they used it as an excuse to cover it in text, so we can frequently identify patent dates as well as long-gone foundries and manufacturers. Not exactly the case here but the patternmaker did do a nice raised panel so this ESH-010 number remains clearly marked.  

  I found this while scouting for firewood candidates. I was considering a clump of deteriorating older soft maple trees growing on a rock outcropping in the woods. One tree had broken off at the roots and in among the rocks and rotting roots was this foot-long chunk of iron.  What was it doing there? That outcropping is next to a bit of valley that could possibly have been cleared as a pasture or field in the 19th century so is it a piece of farm machinery? It does vaguely resemble a ploughshare. But that region of Ontario also experienced a minor mica mining industry around the turn of the last century so maybe it's related to that.   

  Anyways, I can't quite get myself to scrap/recycle it just yet.

Taft-Peirce gauge

   This would probably be an adjustable go no-go gauge made for some specific job in a production environment. Taft-Peirce started out making sewing machines in 1875 but as the market became too competitive they moved into making special machinery, jigs and gauges on contract to other manufacturers. The company closed in 1995.

 History at Vintagemachinery.org

 

Sidecar Sunday

1963 Thunderbird

This is a nice rare piece, a friction-powered tin toy made in China back in the eighties.

 

Mk 23 practice bomb

Interesting that these WW2-era things still appear in antique shops.      These practice bombs were made of cast iron and were used for low altitude bombing practice. There was a special charge resembling a shotgun shell that went off when it hit the ground, making a small fireworks explosion. 

More here.

 

Williams knurling tool holder

Vintage machinery

The Splendid Book for Boys

   Jet fighter, aircraft carriers, rockets! What more could a boy desire? This classic British boys' adventure publication,  a staple for young readers during the 1940s and 50s, possibly later? seems to have been available in both magazine and hardcover versions each offering exciting short stories of adventure. Lots of copies available, not so much history online.

One of my vices is vises (another anvil vise)

These combination anvil vises are more common than I thought.

 

Oscillating gas motor

  In 1880 Joseph Ravel,  a French engineer and inventor, built and patented this acetylene-powered two-stroke engine. Patent 236,258.  The design seems to be ahead of its time but was apparently abandoned after a series of accidents culminated in a huge explosion.

  Acetylene was discovered in 1836 but had been rediscovered in France in 1860 by chemist Marcellin Berthelot.

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.