At the Morse key

The Canadian Girl's Annual.  London:  The Amalgamated Press Ltd., undated.

We used to make things in this country. #105: McGlashan-Clarke Silverware, Niagara Falls, Ontario

This old fork was in a free pile at the end of a laneway:

It's a silverplate "rattail" pattern probably made for the hotel industry. These items offered for sale on the web are often mistakenly identified as originating in Birmingham, England.  The actual maker was McGlashan-Clark Silverware which was founded in  by Leonard McGlashan and Dr. Gardner Clarke in 1880 in Humberstone, (since amalgamated into Port Colborne) Ontario.  In 1895, the firm moved to Niagara Falls to take advantage of the hydro-electric power available there.  It was the first company in Canada to make silverware and the first to manufacture stainless steel cutlery.  The company became one of the city's most prominent manufacturers, and remained in family hands until it closed in 1955.

This information was taken from an online article by Sherman Zavitz, the official historian for the City of Niagara Falls.  The article, entitled "History column:  a life tragically cut short", recounts some of the family history of the founders, including their construction of a home called Adanac Lodge (or "Canada" spelled backwards)!

1957 Harley Hummer

The Harley version of a motorcycle designed by German motorcycle manufacturer DKW and taken as war reparations by the allies after World War II. The BSA Bantam was another motorcycle built from the same design.

Another Kinsey Locomotive Portrait

1996 Kinsey Calendar; Pomegranate Calendars and books

Four men and a happy dog subject themselves to the long exposure time required to create this portrait of the three truck Shay belonging to Sound Timber Co. at Darrington, Washington in 1936.
More: http://www.whatcommuseum.org/photo-archives/category/1-darius-Kinsey

 http://content.lib.washington.edu/kinseyweb/#top

Sopwith Snipe assembly line

Laurie Lee and David Lambert.  The Wonderful World of Transportation.  Garden City Books, 1960.

Davy Crockett's Pocketbook

I found this at a yard sale last weekend:

Inside was this raffle ticket:

How many of us growing up in the 50's had that dream--to be Davy Crockett behind the wheel of a '58 T-bird!  (Maybe without the unibrow.)  Chick magnet!

The town of Gravenhurst, Ontario continues to celebrate a fall Calvacade of Colour with cruises aboard the R.M.S. Segwun (built in 1887, making her the oldest operating steam-driven vessel in North America) and the Wenonah II (a replica of a 1907 vessel).

Werus Adjustable Wrench

 

Pretty ordinary adjustable wrench made in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and part of a tool display- nearly un-photographable behind a sheet of plastic- on the Russian Missile Corvette Hiddensee at Fall River. Most of the tools appeared to be pretty forgettable though it might be fun to pull out a wrench marked Made in USSR once in awhile. Maybe I can find an old Lada in a junkyard somewhere that still has its toolkit!

 

Grand Prix 1959 by Louis T Stanley

This is a annual of the 1959 Formula 1 season. Although the book has a bit of BRM slant due to the author being a part of the team, all the races are described and covered down to the lap time charts. The teams, background stories, the "personalities", and the drama are all described and photographed in detail.
Louis Stanley began as a journalist, writing articles for magazines on a wide variety of subjects. In 1955 he married Jean Baber, the sister of industrial magnates Sir Alfred and Ernest Owen of the Rubery Owen company. Stanley became involved in BRM, the Formula 1 team which was owned and financed by the Owens. In his spare time he wrote these Formula F1 "Year in Review" annuals from 1959 through 1969. They pre-dated Autocourse as a hardcover F1 annual by 2 years.
Well worth picking up for the fan of historic Formula 1.

 

 

 

Old solar technology: Clothesline pulley & holder

The latest thing in solar drying technology!  Actually, quite a nice piece of work, with all of the wire bending that would have been required to manufacture this.  I found it in a free pile at the end of someone's yard sale.  They told me it was destined for the dump if no one took it.  I did.  It goes nicely with the old clothesline holder I picked up years ago, from a day when such things were manufactured from wood.

We used to make things in this country. #104: Canada Sand Papers Ltd., Preston, Ontario

This firm was founded in 1931 in Plattsville, Ontario by Percy Richard Hilborn.  He was born in Berlin (Kitchener), Ontario in1886 and graduated from McGill University in 1909 with a degree in Mining and Metallurgy.  He worked for ten years for Clare Bros. Ltd., a Preston furnace manufacturer.  In 1914 he became a partner in Salyerds Manufacturing Company, which made hockey sticks and brushes, but sold out the following year to buy the Preston Furniture Company.  This company later acquired the Baird Furniture Factory and Sawmill in Plattsville, where Mr. Hilborne started the sandpaper company.  Preston Furniture took over the Canadian Office and School Furniture Company in 1928, keeping the two companies operating separately.  Hilborn aquired the Canadian Brass Company in 1945, as well as a forty percent interest in the Hahn Brass Company of New Hamburg.  In 1953, the Schmidt Furniture Company was absorbed, becoming the Preston Seating Division of the Canadian Office and School Furniture Company.

As for Canada Sand Papers Limited, it vanished, presumably in the face of foreign competition.