We used to make things in this country. #129: Faultless-Doerner Manufacturing Company, Waterloo, Ontario

I found this old steel knob in a drawer.  The knob had originally had been used to adjust spring tension on an office chair:

It is stamped "Doerner Faultless, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

The Faultless Doerner Manufacturing Company of Waterloo, Ontario initially made furniture, particularly office furniture.  

1960's vintage Faultless Doerner office chair

They seem especially remembered for their reproduction of the famous Eames lounge, designed by husband-and-wife team Charles and Ray Eames in the mid-1950's (although the company may have only made some of the hardware for this chair).

From what I can determine, the company started out as the Doerner Products Company in the same city. The founder, Frank Doerner, may have begun his work experience as an employee of the Sunshine Waterloo Company.  This company was founded as the Waterloo Manufacturing Company, making farm combines for the North American and Argentinian markets.  

Source:  Vintage CCM

When the depression effectively ended this market, they turned to automotive stampings, then to bed warmers, baby carriages, roller skates and industrial steel shelving.  During World War II, they changed production to bombs, land mines, army truck doors, gun mounts, airplane parts and complete nose assemblies for the Mosquito fighter-bomber.  In the process, they became Waterloo's largest employer during the war years.  Office furniture was added during the 1940's and 50's, especially after they were acquired by Massey Ferguson, when the company became Sunshine Office Equipment Limited.  In 1978, the company was bought by E.F. Hauserman Inc. of Cleveland, and folded in 1990.

If Mr. Doerner was an employee, he brought his experience to his own company.  Sometime in the ensuing decades, it became a wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary of the Faultless Caster Company of Indiana.  This company was founded in 1889 after Bernard H. Noelting had perfected a "faultless" furniture caster at his hardware store in Nebraska City, Nebraska.  

In 1913, the Faultless business was moved to Evansville, Indiana, then one of the world's major centres of furniture production. 

Faultless Caster Company c. 1920.   Source:  Historic Evansville

Following this change of ownership, Faultless-Doerner specialized in bases and control mechanisms for office chairs, rather than its former line of furniture.   At some point, the company was acquired by the Axia Holding Corporation.  In 1984, Faultless-Doerner closed its factory, putting 22 employees out of work.   In 1985, Axia sold the company to Babcock International.  After this, it looks like it was sold to  Northfield Metal Products, which was itself purchased by Leggett & Platt Inc.  (J.P. Leggett patented the spiral coil bedspring in 1885.  Photos below from their website.)

Below, an adjustment knob made by Northfield Metal Products.

British driving school

Compare this with the American version.  The Yanks practised in 3-D!

Bultaco Metralla GTS

http://www.lamaneta.net/motoguapa/Catalegs%20virtuals%20Bultaco/Bultaco%20MetrallaGTS%20groga.jpg


Model 203, as it left the factory, one of 2159 built between 1977 and 1979.





The Duke's Metralla; before he bought it in 1986.

The Panama Railway; Shortest transcontinental Railway

George Abdill; A Locomotive Engineers Album, Bonanza Books 1965

Vanished Tool Makers: Wolf

Another tool named Wolf.  I can find no information on the web about this make or brand of looping pliers (used to make loops in jewelry).

Model Germans

Encyclopedia Year Book.  The Story of Our Time.  
The Grolier Society, 1957.

S.L. Mayer (Editor).  Signal.  Years of Retreat 1943-44.
Hitler's Wartime Picture Magazine.  Bison (Prentice-Hall), 1979.

Von Braun, of course, survived the war to become a celebrated American rocket scientist.  Schepke, in contrast, died in March 1941 crushed into U-100's periscope standards on the bridge when his U-boat was rammed by HMS Vanoc.

This reminds me of a story I once heard about an American marine aviator in WWII, who along with his wings wore submariner's dolphins.  When asked about this curiosity, he remarked, "I started out in submarines but then I got to thinking that whatever goes up has to come down, but whatever goes down doesn't necessarily have to come back up."

Jet locomotive

Britannica Book of the Year 1967.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1967.

In 1966, a diesel engine locomotive was fitted with two roof-mounted General Electric J-47 aircraft gas turbines.  When they were lit up, the 62 ton engine car managed 183.85 mph.  Its cruising altitude was not reported.

COE GMC

Just to complete the Cab Over Engine set...

Velocette KTTs on the shipping dock

10 motorcycles being loaded into a train car. I wonder if that represents the days production.

The family that shoots together...

Encyclopedia Year Book.  The Story of Our Time.  The Grolier Society, 1957.

I think this has since become a deep-south American pastime.