Lawn Mower Racing

You call That a Sport?  Sports Illustrated for Kids, 2003.  Photograph by Bill Kennedy/The Cleveland Plain Dealer/AP.

Sid Barron.  The (Le) Barron Book with Puddytat Centrefold, Toronto Star, 1972.

Although Canadian editorial cartoonist Sid Barron saw it coming earlier, the sport was first started in England by Irishman Jim Gavin over a few pints in 1973. It quickly evolved into the British Lawn Mower Racing Association.  According to their website:

"Over the years lawn mower racing has attracted motor racing legends and celebrities. Sir Stirling Moss has won both our British Grand Prix and our annual 12-Hour Race. Derek Bell, five times Le Mans winner and twice World Sports Car Champion, has won our 12 Hour twice and one of those was with Stirling. The actor Oliver Reed, who lived locally, regularly entered a team. We also feature in the Guinness Book of Records with the fastest mower over a set distance and the longest distance travelled in 12 hours. Other famous names who have been seen in the paddock are Murray Walker, Alan deCadenet, John Barnard (Ferrari F1 designer), Phil Tuffnell, Jason Gillespie, Chris Evans, Guy Martin and Karl Harris (British Super Bike riders), John Hindhaugh (Radio Le Mans commentator)."

We used to make things in this country. #32: Canada Wire and Cable, Leaside, Ontario

A cool steel ruler and wire gauge I picked up:

The Canada Wire and Cable Company was founded in 1911 by Roderick Parke, Herbert Horsfall and Emil Wallberg.  In 1914 they built their factory in the new Town of Leaside, Ontario, becoming that town's first major industry.  Their first products were cables to meet the demand of the expanding hydro electric power network, but they branched into wire rope that was used in logging, mining, drilling and elevators.  Good corporate citizens, around 1920 they donated the land for the town's first school, and company workers were the first volunteer fire fighters.  During World War I, the company turned out munition shells, becoming the largest producer of six-inch shells in North America!  The U.S. Army actually paid for a new shell factory to be constructed, which was completed just as the war ended.  The Army simply gave the new factory to the company, which sold it to Durant Motors which made Durant and Star cars and Rugby trucks from 1924 until 1934 when the car company went under.  During WWII, the plant made aircraft wires, navy cables, field telephone wires, and anti-submarine nets.  After war expanded to over 25 acres, in 1970's was largest producer of cable in wire in Canada, with 2,700 employees and annual sales of $100 million.  At some point it was acquired by Noranda, which eventually sold it to the French industrial giant Alcatel in 1990, which moved its operations to Markham in 1996.  The Leaside buildings were demolished in 1999 to be redeveloped as a shopping centre. 

Cheesecake Sidecar Sunday

Good Roads Machinery Co. Steam Roller ,1909

William Barlow; Everything for the Roadmaker,

Published by Possibilities. 1991

Another product from the Good Roads Machinery Company in Goderich.

The Woodstove

 

It's never too cold to chop wood

When you're out of fire. 

Verse and photos from Back Home by Joe Clark HBSS. Privately printed for the Tennessee Squire Association, 1965.

See you later, alligator!

Alligator wrenches were used primarily with square nuts (which used to be more common than hex-sided nuts) and for pipe.  Although the first patents didn't appear until the 1870's, versions of this tool date back to the early years of the 19th century. 

They were made by a wide variety of tool manufacturers, initially as stamped wrenches beginning in the early 1800's.  Below, a combination alligator wrench/screwdriver tool made by "Col. Metal Prod., Inc." and also stamped "U.S." and "1953."   (Although cheap stamped wrenches continued to be produced into the 1970's by companies like Oxwall, the "1953" is likely a model or tool number since manufacturers had no reason to stamp the year of manufacture on their tools.)

Below is an alligator wrench that incorporates a regular wrench opening, as well as a screwdriver and some other protrusions of unknown purpose:

  
Unfortunately, the manufacturer's name or brand name has been all but obscured by pitting:

 

 
On the wrench below, the M inside a diamond indicates that this is a product of the Frank Mossberg Company of Attleboro, Massachusetts.   

In 1899 Frank Mossberg and other investors founded the Frank Mossberg Company to manufacture tools, with the intended production of pipe wrenches, bicycle wrenches, and related items. The company was initially located in Providence, Rhode Island and operated independently of Mossberg's earlier business(es), but by 1900 the company had moved to Attleboro, and then in 1901 the earlier business operations were merged into the Frank Mossberg Company. By the early 1900s the company was producing bicycle wrenches in a number of styles, with names such as Sterling and Diamond.  In 1927, the company merged with APCO (the Auto Parts Company) to become APCO-Mossberg, and later specialized in the manufacture of torque wrenches.

Canadians, in the form of McKinnon Industries Limited, also got into this business:

The company was started in St. Catherines, Ontario in 1878, opening a drop-forging plant to manufacture chains and other items in 1905.  After the founder died, a new company was formed in 1925, which managed to acquire the Canadian interests of J.H. Williams, of which more below.  In 1929, the company was purchased by General Motors.

Another alligator wrench below is stamped "Bull Terrier" and on the reverse is a diamond enclosing the initials "W&B":

 

This refers to Whitman and Barnes Manufacturing Company, founded in 1877 in Akron, Ohio.  Over the years they acquired many other smaller tool companies, venturing into the wrench business in 1893 when they built a factory for this purpose in West Pullman, Illinois.  They used the names "Bulldog" and Bull Terrier" for their alligator wrenches.

1919

1908.  Exterior view of a Whitman & Barnes Manufacturing Company building, located on the southwest corner of West 120th and South Morgan Streets in the Town of Pullman, in the West Pullman community area of Chicago, Illinois. The view is looking down a street along the enclosing fence. Text on the negative reads: West Pullman Trolley Trip.    Source:  http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n006360))

Below, one of their large "Bulldog" alligator wrenches:

Around 1920, W&B was acquired by the once mighty J.H. Williams Company of Brooklyn and then Buffalo.  The Williams wrench below, a "Twin Bull Dog" shows the influence of the W&B acquisition. These much stronger forged wrenches began appearing in the early 1900's. Williams, after a maze of mergers and acquisitions, ended up in the hands of Snap On in 1993, which continues to offer tools under the Williams brand.  

Below, "The Hawkeye" wrench made by the Hawkeye Wrench Company of  Marshalltown, Iowa and incorporating 3 thread chasing dies in the centre.  They were based on a 1903 patent awarded to Charles Benesch of North Dakota.

Popular Mechanics, February 1906

Finally, my favourite, the "Neverslip" patented in 1897:

"Neverslip”was the store brand for the E. C. Simmons Hardware Company of St. Louis, Missouri.  Edward Campbell Simmons went from lowly clerk to president of a huge hardware firm, with tool plants in New Hampshire and the largest pocket knife factory in the U.S.  He introduced the “Kleen Kutter” like of tools and knives, and then extended the alliteration to King Koaster children's wagons; Klipper Klub ice skates; Korn and Koffee Krushers; Karpet King sweepers; Kool King ice boxes; Klear Krystal lamp chimneys; Kar King accessories; King Kord tires, and Keen Klipper lawn mowers.  The company’s 1901 catalogue had over 5000 pages!  The company went bankrupt in 1939 and its assets were purchased by the Shapleigh Hardware Company who continued to market its trademarked Simmons lines into the early 1960’s, living up to E.C. Simmons’ slogan, “The Recollection of Quality Remains Long After The Price Is Forgotten.”

We used to make things in this country #33: Westclox Big Ben

The Westclox Big Ben was first sold in 1909 and evolved through different styles and movements. This one, a Style 5 Loud Alarm was designed by Henry Dreyfuss and was sold from 1939 to 1949. These clocks were made in several countries, this particular one in Peterborough On. Canada.

Truck meets tracks

THE ADAPTABLE MOTOR-TRACTOR

Equipped with flange wheels and hitched to a flat-car train on a logging railroad, it makes a bully motor-truck of real hauling capacity.

 From The Railroad Problem

How to Drive 1890

Doug Fischer (Editor) & Ralph Willsey (Editor/Designer).  Each Morning Bright.  
160 Years of Selected Readings from the Ottawa Citizen 1845-2005.  Ottawa Citizen Group Inc., 2005.

Mechanics around the house: Edlund Top-Off

Most of us mere mortals have learned that it can be an herculean task to remove lids the first time from store-bought jars.  In our house, we used to imagine that bottling companies employed men with over-developed arms to tighten jar lids.  Fortunately, inventors have come to our aid. Below are two examples of one such marvelous mechanical device. I can attest to their effectiveness at removing very stubborn lids.

The one on the left with the wooden handle is an earlier model:

As can be seen above, the tool uses a rack and pinion to close metal jaws on the bottle lid, adding considerable mechanical advantage.  The opener was patented in 1933 by Henry J. Edlund of Burlington, Vermont, who had previously patented an ornamental design for a broom in 1923, a can opener in 1925 and a mechanical egg beater in 1931.

 The later model added teeth to the jaws:

The Edlund Company is still in existence in Burlington, manufacturing what is now referred to as “foodservice equipment”  including can and bottle openers.  Sadly, the model featured here is no longer offered.