Sta-kon terminal tool

  Quality crimp connectors need a quality crimper. This Thomas and Betts solderless connector system has been around since the mid-fifties, the company has been in the electrical connector business since 1898. Thomas and Betts was bought by the ABB Group in 2012. More on the crimp connectors here. 

Thomas and Betts are also known for their invention of the ubiquitous plastic cable tie in 1958.

 

Wyandotte dump truck

Another job you may not want to do; Itinerant tinker

  A tinker was a metal worker who travelled around repairing pots and pans and other household items. This photo was taken in 1940 near Kysuce, Slovakia. This man is wearing the traditional linen shirt and heavy felt pants. He walked around the countryside carrying a bag of tools and a roll of wire, working where needed.

Sidecar Sunday

 Ridiculous helmets...

Little old multitool

 No name on it but I expect it's a special tool for some sort of machine like a cream separator or something. About 5 inches long, buy it for the sculptural qualities.

 

Saab 900

Just another Saab story (as they say). Still going strong. Looks like a survivor not a restore... 

Previous post.

 

B & H Footshift

 From 1948...

Discussion on the device here.

 

Maytag engine fuel mixing can

Today I learned that those lovely little Maytag washing machine twins (and single cylinders) were two stroke!

 

Melker adjustable wrench

 Another German manufacturer! Here's a Melker monkey wrench dating from, at a guess, 1900-1920ish... There are a few for sale online but no company info online that I can find.

Speed records, 1955

 Messerschmitt Kabinenroller on route to 3 speed records for sub-250 three wheelers. The modified 200 cc Sachs motor powered this machine to a blistering speed of 65.75 mph over 1000 miles, 65.24 over 2000 km and 64.03 for 24 hours. The driver's name is not mentioned. 

Here's an account of the event (in German).

Know your 1960s snowmobile maintenance

 They left out the pull cord check. It doesn't matter, you'll probably get stranded no matter what you do. Why do I want one?

Gee Dee multi-tool

 This is a "Gee Dee" German-made "multi-tool" - in all its glory - the handle is hollow. The head of the hammer unscrews from the handle, and those "bits" are stored inside the handle. Clearly a quality tool set for the professional. 

Thanks, BK!

 

The land that time forgot

 Snapped last summer... suddenly it's 1975...

Honda 90, 1967

 This was the most beautiful thing a rural kid travelling by bicycle could have imagined back then.

Starrett micrometer patent

 Patent 433, 311 Datamp notes it was not known to be produced.

100th Bugatti 46 chassis

 Monsieur Bugatti (center, behind steering wheel) with staff and friends posing at Molsheim in 1930. I wonder what the chassis number is. Bugatti register.

Triumph in 1967

 Just not sure what they're selling here...

Sidecar Sunday

 Hauptman trial? Anyone remember the Lindbergh kidnapping?

Seemed like a great idea at the time...

 

Link belts

The Teach Yourself books
 A E Peatfield, Engineering Components and Materials. The English Engineering Press, 1951

 Still around today... 

Lee Valley

Baldwin Duckworth chain

1948

 Care and lubrication here.  History of Baldwin Duckworth here.

Unnecessary cross section view?

Cyclopedia of Modern Shop Practice, American Technical Society, Vol 1, 1903

 The mystery of vise mechanisms revealed! No one could have known.

The Future of Transportation!

Junior Language Book B by Donalda Dickie, 1938

 But hadn't we already eliminated Zeppelins a few years earlier?

Long live the Offenhauser engine!

Artist; Vic Berris

  The Offy 4 cylinder racing engine was designed in the twenties by Fred Offenhauser and Harry Miller of Miller Racing as a marine racing engine. During the 1930s, when Indianapolis racers favored 1.5 straight eights, it was adapted for car racing and started winning due to the displacement allowance of 3 litres for fours. During the 1950s, rules changes and the need for more power prompted a 4.1 litre supercharged version. Starting in the late sixties, turbocharging was being developed, With displacement back down to about 2.6 litres, and 25- 40lbs of boost the engine was again competitive.  In all, cars powered with various forms of the engine won Indianapolis 27 times between 1935 and 1976. 

We used to make things in this country #379 Bricks

 Domtar (Dominion Tar and Chemical Co.) is a large paper and forestry product company that was in the brick business through most of the 20th Century, selling it to Canada Brick in 1997.

 The company was known for the safety messages stamped in the bricks. These ones found on a lawn nearby say "Don't learn by accident". Other messages were "Drive Safely" and "Live Safely" as shown/sold at this site.

Tempo Hanseat

 

  I found reference to this oddball in an old book, the internet sent me to this blog, Project Tempo. It's a three wheel delivery truck made in postwar Germany that features whole driveline mounted on the front fork. That includes a watercooled 400cc 2 stroke engine complete with radiator and four speed transmission. Who thought that was a good idea? Not sure if there was a connection but it looks like a development of the Phänomen, previous post here.

Cunningham C-4R

  Briggs Cunningham in the C-4R at LeMans in 1954. The car was built in 1952 for use at LeMans and was retired in 1956, its best result was in the 1953 event when it finished 3rd. 

The engine was a Chrysler Firepower V8 coupled up to a Cadillac 3 speed manual in a tubular frame with torsion bar suspension. 

 Below, Briggs Cunningham behind the wheel, later on. 

 

Tooling display

  Cincinnati Universal cutter and tool grinder. Just the thing for a machine shop that needs a full time dedicated tool sharpener. Not sure exactly what all the accessories are that are casually displayed all over the floor but seeing all that precision tooling lying all over must have given any journeyman machinist fits.

Cincinnati Milling Machine company was founded in 1889 to produce machine tools, specializing in milling machines. By the mid twenties the company was the largest machine tool manufacturer in the US. in the early seventies the company was reorganized and became Milacron which pivoted to injection moulding machinery. A portion of the original Cincinnati company remains, now under the name Cincinnati Machines.   

Autos in war, 1904

Cyclopedia of Modern Shop Practice, American Technical Society Vol III, 1907

 But automobiles will never replace horses... right?

Monday Mystery, Commemorative knife

 Here's an interesting one.

 "Our man" Jay in New Jersey, found this somewhere in New Jersey and wondered what was being commemorated. 

   Starting at the beginning, it's a product of Utica Cutlery, (still in business). The bridge illustration figures prominently, but googling major bridge openings is inconclusive, in Vancouver the Cambie St. bridge was opened in 1985, it doesn't look like this one. In 1985 the Burlington Skyway was twinned, (if you squint hard, maybe?). It is near Toronto... and a local of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America is located in Toronto. Then we have the Great Seal of the United States.

The other side of the handle illustrates a number of non-related technical type activities. Whew.

 Any guesses?

Tire balance and equilibrium

More quirky (and dated) illustrations from Related Science for Automotive Trades by Louis Jensen and William Brazier,  Delmar Publishing, 1958

 

Sidecar Sunday

 Here's a sidecar from an older carousel, much too nicely shaped to be a simple merry go round object. The manufacturer is unknown but German.  A quick Google finds there are still manufacturers making things like this. Technical Park.