Spike Milligan's Fantastic War Machines

From Spike Milligan, Adolf Hitler.  My Part in his Downfall.  Penguin, 1971 (reprinted 1988).

He attributes the drawings to his brother Desmond.  He writes that when his father and brother presented these drawings to a representative of the War Ministry, "Father and son were then shown the door, the windows, and finally the street.  My father objected, 'You fool!  By rejecting these inventions you've put two years on the war.'  'Good.' said the Colonel.  'I wasn't doing anything.'  Father left.  With head held high and feet held higher, he was thrown out."

Sit Naturally!

Corregidor Forty Years After The Battle

Jet Tales.  The Luft Hansa Magazine.  3/81.

Manilla, once hailed as the "Pearl of the Orient," had the dubious distinction of being, after Warsaw, World War II's most devastated city.

Vanished Tool Makes: Champion

Note the unusual two-piece ferrule in the photo below:

This screwdriver was an item in the 1897 Sears, Roebuck & Co. Catalogue:

Interestingly, by the time of the 1908 Sears, Roebuck Catalogue, the special (and likely expensive to manufacture) ferrule appears to be absent (and the price has dropped!):

It's not clear who actually made this tool.  I did find a picture on the 'Net  of a "Union Champion" screwdriver set produced by Tower & Lyon.  (Founded by John J. Tower and Polhemus Lyon, the company out of New York City made tools between 1884 and 1916.  According to Lee Valley Tools, they sold plumb bobs, pliers, oilcans, unusual wrenches, police equipment (shackles, clubs, dark lanterns, badges, whistles, handcuffs), Chaplin's planes, Stephens' bench vises, Snediker's blacksmiths' leg vises, McWilliams' Scandinavian padlocks, and many of Kraeuter's products (ticket and belt punches, dividers, calipers, scissors, button hole cutters, pliers).  Maybe they made the screwdriver.  On the other hand, "Champion" is clearly a good name for a tool, so another company may also have produced screwdrivers for Sears, Roebuck under this name.

One of my vices is vises: RAE

Rae #2 Vise, one of a line of vises once made in Hamilton Ontario.  Another company that just up and vanished.

  

A Rae being advertised on Kijiji:

And another:

 And a woodworking vise from the Duke's shop:

Emergency Coal Priority Card

Don't leave home without it!

Completely New 1937 Hudson!

Life, November 1936

Moto Guzzi Ghez

 This lovely little 50 cc two-cylinder 2 stroke was first presented at the 1969 Milan motorcycle show. The engine was new but the frame was from another 50cc Guzzi, the Dingo. Other components were sourced from the 125cc Stornello. Apparently the engine was never run in public and nothing more was heard until a few years later, when the bike was presented again, this time as a 125.  Unfortunately neither was ever put into production, as they were considered to be too expensive.

Motorcycle Pulp Fiction: Collision Course 1976

Well, don't leave the bike in the middle the road, Ray.

Miniature Cameras

Thomas H. Miller & Wyatt Brummitt.  Eastman Kodak Company.  This Is Photography.  Its Means and Ends.  Published by the Case-Hoyt Corporation for Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, NY, 1945,  1952, 1955, 1959, 1963.

The authors write:

     "Back in the '30;s there appeared a new type of camera, the miniature.  Originally, its claims to fame were based on the facts that (1) it used short lengths of 35-mm motion picture film, (2) it usually had a fast, short-focus lens that permitted picture making under the most unlikely conditions, and (3) it was a precisely engineered mechanism.  Too, because many and fascinating accessories were provided for it, it became the favorite of gadgeteers.

    But the miniature's appeal changed and broadened vastly when Kodachrome film was made available for 35-mm cameras.  The whole plan, which involved the color processing and return of the customer's film in little slides suitable for projection, ushered in a new kind of personal photography. 

     The first miniatures came out of Europe, and some are still produced there.  But today America is making more miniatures than is Europe.  And the quality of many of our cameras is unbeatable."