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

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Sectional Drawing of a McCormick-Deering 10-20 Tractor

A.L. Dyke. Dyke's Automobile and Gasoline Engine Encyclopedia. Nineteenth Edition. Chicago: The Goodheart-Willcox Company, Inc., 1941.

Vanished tool makers Forsberg Manufacturing Company, Bridgeport, Connecticut

Above, my two Forsberg "Whale" clutch head screwdrivers. Curiously, the steel shanks are stamped "Apex."

Could it be that the shanks were made for them by the Apex Machine and Tool Company of Dayton, Ohio?

Below, my Forsberg No. 30 "Whale" coping saw:

Harold S. Forsberg started out working for the Crescent Tool Company before founding his own firm, the Arrow Tool Company, in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1921. Within a year it became the Arrow Tool & Manufacturing Company, and then the Forsberg Manufacturing Company. The "whale brand" was their trademark. Their primary products were screwdrivers and hacksaws. The company disappeared sometime in the late 1950's or early 1960's.

Hacksaw frame, from ebay

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Millers Falls No 99 Hacksaw

Another basic old hacksaw returned to regular use, picked up for a dollar, made when tools were made to last.

CPR Consolidation #314 and 315

A camera comes out and the whole crew wants to get into the action. These are two examples of the "Big Hill" locomotives built by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the CPR.

Another job you wouldn't want to do: Testing lipstick, 1954

The New Wonder Book Cyclopedia of World Knowledge. Philadelphia & Toronto: International Press, 1954.

Vanished Tool Makers: Arcade Manufacturing Company, Freeport, Illinois

Above, a lovely, tiny saw I found buried in the dump on my farm shortly after I moved here. I found the fence interred elsewhere, but never did find the mitre gauge. The tool had been in the earth for years, if not decades, but still looked worthy of restoration. I took the saw back to the shop and stripped it down, replaced the bushings and cleaned it up, and it works like new. I believe that the only repair needed was to make and braze on a new foot, since one of the four had been broken off. The guard is not original. I found it at a garage sale or thrift store and adapted it to fit. It's a testimony to the build quality that the saw could be restored after suffering such ignominious treatment.

Years later, I posted these photos on the Vintage Machinery site and last February another member kindly identified it as a product of the Arcade Manufacturing Company. Below, an ad posted on the site. It turns out I should have painted the saw grey.

The story of the Arcade Manufacturing Company goes back to 1868 when two brothers, Charles and Edward Morgan, founded the Novelty Iron Works in Chicago. By 1874, they had prospered enough to build a brand new factory on the same spot. Business then turned bad and the company failed in 1885. It was reorganized the same year by the Morgan brothers and another partner as the Arcade Manufacturing Company. Yet another new factory was constructed. The company produced a wide variety of items including hinges, screen door hinges, stove pipe dampers, lid lifters, cork extractors, corkscrews, and numerous small notions and novelties. Coffee grinders were a particular specialty of the firm. Then, in 1921, they struck a deal with the Yellow Cab Company of Chicago to produce a toy cab. Going against the received wisdom that Americans would not pay more than a dollar for a toy, the firm went on to produce a toy farm tractor, the Fordson Model F. The company's slogan for its toys was "They Look Real" and many people believed that the cast figure on the tractor seats was none other than Henry Ford himself. A whole host of miniature vehicles followed. They didn't start making home-shop tools until 1935, initially under the Arcade, Arcade Craft Tools and Craftmaster brands and, in 1941, Homecraft. In 1946 the company was acquired by the Rockwell Manufacturing Company for the sake of their foundry and machine shops. The machinery was relocated to Tupelo, Mississippi in 1952 and the company's name disappeared along with most of its products.

1908

Friday, January 1, 2016

Ferry Princess Helene

John Edward Belleveau, Iceboats to Superferries, An Illustrated History of Marine, Atlantic Marine 1992

The car ferry Princess Helene was run by the CPR from Saint John New Brunswick to Digby Nova Scotia. Her first run was on July 28 1930 and for 33 years provided reliable service across the Bay of Fundy till she was replaced April 27, 1963 by the SS Princess of Acadia.
The Princess Helene was sold to Greek owners and scrapped in 1967.