British motorcycle manufacturers in 1920

Sell's National Directory of Large Commercial Houses and Buyers' Guide.  
London:  Business Dictionaries Ltd.,  1920.

Triumph and Norton are conspicuous by their absence.

American appliance manufacturers 1953

Mr. Fix-It's Complete Book on How to Make Your Own Electrical Repairs.  
By Six Leading Authorities.  New York:  Greystone Press, 1953.

How many of these names are still around?

Hercules Wankel ISDT bike

Another one that never made it to production. Based on the W-2000 Wankel street bike, this is an interesting variation.

Utility Launch by John Alden

Named the Pilgrim III. No clue what happened to her but there was a Pilgrim IV used by the school.

More on the Farm and Trades School for Boys

We used to make things in this country. #153: C. Wilson & Son, Toronto, Ontario

Canadian Machinery, 1903

Below, a photo of the scale I found on Antique Hunter, which also provides a history of the company which I have summarized below.

C. Wilson was born in Ireland in 1818 but came to Ottawa, Ontario in 1840.  He moved to Toronto in 1849 and established his business in 1851.  By 1885, he was employing 25 men as well as 8 "travellers" (salesmen). The firm made a variety of scales, from small confectioner's ones up to 1000-pound platform scales.  In the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900, the firm was awarded a silver medal.

I'd love to see the particulars on their "Ball Bearing Computing Scale."  Around the turn of the 19th century, a number of such devices were patented:

The record for the first such scale goes to Julius Pitrat of Gallipolis, Ohio, who was awarded U.S. patent 314,717 in 1885.  Six years later, Edward Canby and Orange Ozias of Dayton, Ohio, purchased Pitrat's patents and incorporated The Computing Scale Company as the world's first computing scale vendor.  In 1895 they introduced the first automatic computing scale. In 1911, the Computing Scale Company merged with the International Time Recording Company and Tabulating Machine Company to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company.  In 1924 it was renamed IBM. 

Racing bling in 1948

The belt buckle would have been especially attractive to people whose memory was failing.  I don't know how they handled customers whose given names contained more than four letters though.

Schneider Cup 1921

Only the French showed up to challenge the reigning champion Italians for 1921. To assure victory, Italy fielded 10 planes to the French one. Seven didn't make it to start line and neither did the French. During the 200 mile race, a further two failed and the winning plane averaged only 117 mph, less than the previous year.

Poster for the event

Steam-powered airplane 1893

The World Book Encyclopedia.  Chicago:  Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, 1958.

Good thing, too.  Best to stick to machine guns.

SETI antenna?

"Can you hear me now?"

Seen along Highway 2 between Brockville and Ganonoque, Ontario.  

"The Favorite" Earth Closet 1872

Canada Year Book 1988.  120th Anniversary.
Published by authority of the Minister of Supply and Services, 1987.

Before the advent of indoor plumbing, the call of nature could be heeded indoors with the use of "earth closets" where the, ahem, results could be mixed in a separate compartment with dry soil or even fireplace or stove ashes.  Proponents argued that they were safer than cesspits and more economical than "water closets."  In spite of this, indoor plumbing began to appear in the 1890's and the earth closet took a back seat in technological history.

Anderson & Kedey were manufacturers in St. John, New Brunswick.  George Anderson had previously made pianos, so it was perhaps not an illogical step to make earth closets.  Less is known about Robert Kedey.  City directories of the time indicate that Anderson & Kedey was short-lived, and that Anderson went back to pianos.