Progress is fine, but it's gone on for too long.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Central Pacific commuter locomotive, 1881

George Abdill; Rails West, Bonanza Books 1960

Another oddly proportioned 19th Century locomotive, this one intended for running in both directions in commuter service.

Bern Grand Prix, 1951

Great poster. According to Wikipedia, this was the first Formula One race of 1951, significant as the race where Stirling Moss made his debut.

A round of the motorcycle Grand Prix was held on the same weekend, explaining the race car and bike on the same poster.

Five Roses flour & The Lake of the Woods Milling Company

The Lake of the Woods Milling Company was founded in 1887, with a mill in Keewatin, Ontario which became one of the largest flour mills in the British Commonwealth. In 1954, the company was bought by another long-established Canadian firm, the Ogilvie Flour Mills Company of Montréal. (When Sir William Van Horne, who pushed the Canadian Pacific Railway to completion in the 80's of the last century, was asked by a British visitor to name the national flower of Canada, he replied, "Ogilvie Flour, of course.") In 1967, the original Keewatin Mill burned to the ground, ending 79 years of production. It was not rebuilt and 130 workers, half the workforce of the northern Ontario town, were put out of work. In 1994 the Archer Daniels Midland Company of Chicago bought the entire Ogilvie operation. The "Five Roses" brand was acquired by the J.M. Smucker Company of Orrville, Ohio in 2009.

The Five Roses Cookbook first appeared in 1913, and is now on-line as "My Cookbook." Below, from the 1962 revised edition:

It is interesting that it placed such a strong emphasis on Canadian products. That's pretty much gone today.

Talk about product support: readers were encouraged to directly contact the author, Miss Pauline Harvey:

The book also included coupons for other company cook books:

Also of interest was the fact that, even in 1962, instructions were provided for ways to bleach the flour bags, presumably so they could be used for other things. The recycling ethos was still in place back then.

Industries in South-Eastern Ontario, 1910, 1937 and 1952

Ontario School Geography. Toronto: The Educational Book Company Ltd., 1910.

Ontario Public School Geography. Toronto: W.J. Gage & Co., Ltd., 1937.

Donald Putnam (Editor). Canadian Regions. A Geography of Canada. J.M. Dent & Sons (Canada) Ltd., 1952.

Amazing the variety of things that used to be made in my area: agricultural implements, stoves, radiators, carriages, furniture, pianos, locomotives, leather goods, woolen mills, shipbuilding, marine engines, hardware, abrasives, machinery, tools, radios, paper boxes. Today, pretty much all of these industries are gone. Below, examples of some, with the dates that they closed their doors:

Renfrew Electric & Refridgerator (Renfrew), 1952
Frost & Wood (Smiths Falls), farm equipment, 1955
James Smart (Brockville), tools, castings, equipment, 1967
Canadian Locomotive Works (Kingston), 1969
Canadian Dredge & Dock (Kingston), shipbuilding, 1973
Davis Tannery (Kingston), shoe leather, 1974
Babcock Mill (Odessa), wooden baskets, 1994
Black & Decker (Brockville), lawnmowers, tools, 1998
Nortel (Belleville), telephones, electronics, 2002
Beach Industries (Smiths Falls), tool boxes, 2008
Superior Electrics (Pembroke), electric appliances, 2009

The U.S. has been going through a similar process of industrial decline. See America in Decline. The legacy of the "multi-nationals."

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Layout of motorcycle controls

Floyd Clymer 1952

TT Pipes, Shell Racing Specialties

A friend sent me these pictures, picked the box of pipes up from a friend. As he says....
"Well this was a deal, rare treasures indeed ! I found extras in the box, a vintage Surefire Decompressor, (The Hot Set-up in the Day !), A Pair of Shells 750 Head gaskets (new) and the sales bill from Shells Specialty, California. All Cool stuff for anyone into Vintage Historic Dirt track."

Crossing the Sahara by Citroën, 1923

La Vie Quotidienne des Français au XXe Siecle. 1900-2000. Booster-LPM, 1999.

Following the First World War, the Citroën company sponsored four film expeditions using their half-track vehicles called the "autochenille" ("caterpillar"). (In addition to cameras, they apparently also carried a Maxim gun!) The first expedition, illustrated above and led by Georges-Marie Haardt and Louis Audouin-Dubreuil, was a crossing of the Sahara in 1923. This was followed by the "Black Cruise" across Africa from Algeria to Madagascar in 1924, the "Yellow Cruise" which crossed Asia from Beirut to Beijing via the Himalayas and the desert of Gobi in 1931-1932, and the "White Cruise" from Chicago to Alaska in 1934. (The titles of their cruises were just a little racist.)

Gripping Tales: Utica Drop Forge & Tool Corporation, Utica, New York

Notice the quality of the teeth in the jaws:

Above, some of the Utica pliers I've picked up over the years.

Utica, New York, was once a bustling industrial centre. This included the Utica Drop Forge & Tool Company, founded in 1895 by W. Pierrepont White and Hubert L. White. From the beginning, they specialized in pliers and nippers. A fire in 1907 destroyed their factory, which was rebuilt and enabled an expansion of their plier offerings.

1909

Their "three diamond" logo was first registered in 1911. In 1956, the company was purchased by the Kelsey-Hayes Company, becoming a division. After Kelsey-Hayes subsequently scooped up Herbrand in 1961, Utica Tools and Herbrand were combined into one operation in 1962 in a new factory in on Cameron Road in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Eventually at over 400,000 square feet, it was reputed to be the largest hand tool manufacturing plant in the US.

Today, from Google Earth, it looks like the factory site still exists, but is no longer in use:

Bonney Tools became part of this small empire in 1964. Then the Triangle Corporation gobbled them all up in 1967, followed by Cooper Tools, which ultimately became the Apex Tool Group which still uses the Utica name as a brand for its torque-limited screwdrivers and click wrenches (products which Utica never made when it was its own entity). (Part of the old Utica company was also acquired in 1995 by UCA Holdings, becoming part of the TECT group.)