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Very strange things

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Posted by Miningman on Sunday, March 29, 2020 2:19 AM

The story of a great company! I would like to think there are still a few companies that operate in this fashion, with the devotion and decency as displayed and led by George Blaisdell as it's CEO. Reading the story of how they operate exposes Wall St, greedy Hedge Fund guys and the rest of crony capitalism for what they are, people who could care less about you and their own country.  
 
We need more George Blaisdell's! 

 
 
“The Zippo Manufacturing Company, of Bradford, Pennsylvania, makes Zippo cigarette lighters. In peacetime they are nickel-plated and shiny. In wartime they are black, with a rough finish. Zippos are not available at all to civilians. In Army PXs all around the world, where a batch comes in occasionally, there are long waiting lists.
 
“While I was in Italy I had a letter from the president of the Zippo Company. It seems he is devoted to my column. It seems further that he’d had an idea. He had sent to our headquarters in Washington to get my signature, and then he was having the signature engraved on a special nickel-plated lighter and he was going to send it to me as a gift.
 
“Pretty soon there was another letter. The president of the Zippo Company had had another brainstorm. In addition to my super heterodyne lighter he was going to send fifty of the regular ones for me give to friends.
 
“I was amused at the modesty of the president’s letter. He said, ‘You probably know nothing about the Zippo lighter.’
 
“If he only knew how the soldiers coveted them!  They’ll burn in the wind, and pilots say they are the only kind that will light at extreme altitudes. Why, they’re so popular I had three of them stolen from me in one year.
 
"Well, at last the lighters came, forwarded all the way from Italy. My own lighter was a beauty, with my name on one side and a little American flag on the other. I began smoking twice as much as usual just because I enjoyed lighting the thing.
 
 
“The fifty others went like hot cakes. I found myself equipped with a wonderful weapon for winning friends and influencing people. All fifty-one of us were grateful to Mr. Zippo.”
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Posted by Jones1945 on Sunday, March 29, 2020 1:55 AM

Flintlock76

I believe rotary dial phones are still usable.  There's some for sale at a local antiques mall, updated with modern phone jacks by the seller.  Just plug 'em in and you're ready to roll.

Needless to say you can't do the things you can do with a push-button phone, but if all you want to do is talk and you want some retro-cool, AND you want to drive one of todays kids crazy trying to figure out how to use one, a rotary phone's the way to go! 

Yes, at least one of my rotary phone is still functioning in today's system. But the last time I used it for international phone calls was around 1999 - 2000. It was some phone calls from Hong Kong to Chicago... 

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Posted by M636C on Saturday, March 28, 2020 9:45 PM

rcdrye

 

 
Overmod
I was referring to the locomotive. Offhand, the only thing I know that has stylish canted window frames like that from an early era are Krauss-Maffei Amerika-Loks, which were rare on PRR. Granted, I think this is entirely a result of creative (and excessive) retouching ... but it sure would be fun to see what it would be. (Personally I think this photograph's original might be familiar, an F or E unit judging by the shape of where the side window on one would be behind the engineer.

 

Probably a Zephyr power car from Budd/EMC.

 

 

Not just a Zephyr power car...

It is most likely 9908, which had such a shaped side window in addition to the similar front windows. As the last of the shovel nose units, it would have had a control layout similar to the E units being built concurrently. As a 567 engine unit, it might have lasted long enough in main line service for train radio. 9904 to 9907 were similar but had the cab door closer to the angled window in question.

The side walls are vertical. All the Krauss Maffei units had inward canted cab sides to allow delivery by rail to the docks (and for the original units to be tested in the Austrian alps.)

Peter

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, March 28, 2020 8:54 PM

I believe rotary dial phones are still usable.  There's some for sale at a local antiques mall, updated with modern phone jacks by the seller.  Just plug 'em in and you're ready to roll.

Needless to say you can't do the things you can do with a push-button phone, but if all you want to do is talk and you want some retro-cool, AND you want to drive one of todays kids crazy trying to figure out how to use one, a rotary phone's the way to go!

 

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, March 28, 2020 8:53 PM

I suppose it converts the rotary function to the same as a push button.

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Posted by Fr.Al on Saturday, March 28, 2020 8:38 PM

I'm pretty sure one can still use a rotary dial phone, but don't quote me on it. Back in the 90's, my church in the Detroit area still had a rotary dial phone, in the church; not in the rectory. Since everybody has a cellphone now, it was taken out sometime after I left in 2006.

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, March 28, 2020 8:28 PM

You can dial out using the rotary dial? 

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Posted by Penny Trains on Saturday, March 28, 2020 7:53 PM

Flintlock76

 

 
Penny Trains

I have a wall mount rotary in the basement in avacado.  Smile, Wink & Grin

 

 

 

I have to ask, does it still work?  Avocado?  A souvenir from the 70's!  

 

Of course!

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

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Posted by Fr.Al on Saturday, March 28, 2020 7:50 PM

I go back to small town Vermont, late 50's- early 60' s. We didn't even have s dial on the phone because we only had a three digit number. You would pick up the phone and ask the operator to connect you to whatever number you were calling. Later, we moved to Bennington near where Vermont,  New York, and Massachusetts meet. Then we had the first dial phone with a seven digit number.

     As for Briggs & Stratton, we had a Toro Reel Type mower with a Briggs & Stratton engine. It had a rope start and I recall my Dad swearing in his heavily accented English when he couldn't get it started. Had he been back in Russia and he were trying to start a motorboat, they would have called him the Vulgar Boatman

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, March 28, 2020 7:39 PM

Penny Trains

I have a wall mount rotary in the basement in avacado.  Smile, Wink & Grin

 

I have to ask, does it still work?  Avocado?  A souvenir from the 70's!  

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Posted by Penny Trains on Saturday, March 28, 2020 7:09 PM

I have a wall mount rotary in the basement in avacado.  Smile, Wink & Grin

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, March 28, 2020 3:54 PM

YEAH!  Zippo!  The lighter that won World War Two!  

Still in business and as good as ever!  

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, March 28, 2020 3:12 PM

One left.  Who knew?

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Posted by rcdrye on Saturday, March 28, 2020 1:54 PM

Overmod
I was referring to the locomotive. Offhand, the only thing I know that has stylish canted window frames like that from an early era are Krauss-Maffei Amerika-Loks, which were rare on PRR. Granted, I think this is entirely a result of creative (and excessive) retouching ... but it sure would be fun to see what it would be. (Personally I think this photograph's original might be familiar, an F or E unit judging by the shape of where the side window on one would be behind the engineer.

Probably a Zephyr power car from Budd/EMC.

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Posted by rcdrye on Saturday, March 28, 2020 1:50 PM

Flintlock76
Car phones! Man, the only time I ever saw any car phones they were on TV shows like "Burke's Law," "Mannix," or "Cannon." If you had a car phone back in those days you had muh-neeeee!

I still have a car phone in one of my cars.  It's a Motorola M800 that's on its third car.  I recently went to my cell provider's storefront for one of my other phones, and the salesguy said "You have a car phone?  I've never even seen one!"

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Posted by Deggesty on Saturday, March 28, 2020 1:46 PM

Dial telephones? I grew up in a small town in South Carolina--and we had dial phones in the forties! The county seat, about ten miles north, still had operator assistance on all calls. Once, a cousin from the county seat was visiting, and she asked how the dial phone worked; I was so astonished at her question that I could not answer her.

In the fifties, when I went to college in Bristol  (where I could watch the N&W J's), I had to learn to tell the operator what number I wanted to call; during my time there, a dial system was put into service, with the prefix SO for numbers in the Tennessee city, and NO for numbers in the Virginia city--do NOT dial N zero or S zero!

Much later, I had to learn how to use pushbuttons.

After I retired, I wish I had taken my desk telephone home with me--it really rang!

Johnny

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Posted by Jones1945 on Saturday, March 28, 2020 11:16 AM

Overmod

Let me permit me to make your day, then.  

I want to try something new today: 

 

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, March 28, 2020 10:54 AM

Jones1945
I love 6-wheel cars ...

Let me permit me to make your day, then.  

The Nautilus, from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

(It's for sale; time to buy it, put in a proper full active suspension, and enough Tesla componentry to enable Ludicrous++ mode... after all, it should always have had electric drive to be 'prototypical' ...)

Still can't beat the eight-wheel car, though: in particular, Kipling's Octopod, a car capable of running down streambeds with fairly large rocks at 60mph, among other things.  Mr. Pirolo would certainly have had one with ... certain enhancements.

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, March 28, 2020 9:34 AM

Flintlock76
The upper left corner?  I'm guessin' that's the PRR's inductive train telephone system in operation. 

I was referring to the locomotive.  Offhand, the only thing I know that has stylish canted window frames like that from an early era are Krauss-Maffei Amerika-Loks, which were rare on PRR.

Granted, I think this is entirely a result of creative (and excessive) retouching ... but it sure would be fun to see what it would be.  (Personally I think this photograph's original might be familiar, an F or E unit judging by the shape of where the side window on one would be behind the engineer.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, March 28, 2020 9:21 AM

Overmod

 

 
Miningman
A Rust-Heinz designed Bowen and Schwartz Phantom Corsair I take it kinda rare.

 

Rarer perhaps than it should have been.  Rust Heinz was the son of the pickle guy.  He was studying naval architecture at Yale but quit, and went to Pasadena as an industrial designer.  The Phantom Corsair was developed on a Cord chassis but with only one of the Pasadena coach builders (Maurice Schwartz) assisting.

Heinz died in a crash (at age 25) ensuring there would be no more of these -- they were to be volume-produced at between $12,500 and $14,700 (which someone noted was 3 times the price of a late Cadillac V16) but I don't think he would actually have had trouble finding enough demand to 'save' at least the mechanical part of Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg 

While in the subject of phones in strange things... what's this in the upper left corner?

 

The upper left corner?  I'm guessin' that's the PRR's inductive train telephone system in operation.  I've seen it in old Pennsy promo films.  

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, March 28, 2020 9:19 AM

"The Phantom Corsair."  Well, if anything qualifies as the Batmobile that's it!

Car phones!  Man, the only time I ever saw any car phones they were on TV shows like "Burke's Law," "Mannix," or "Cannon."  If you had a car phone back in those days you had muh-neeeee!  

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Posted by Jones1945 on Saturday, March 28, 2020 7:09 AM

Overmod

Why six wheels?  Fuller only needed three...

...If you're going to admire Stout, you really have to admire Hans Ledwinka more.  (See the settlement between those two...).  I have a suspicion the real Jones1945 dream car is one like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8fNpTSLi80

(What other vehicle make can boast partisan cred for knocking off key members of the Nazi officer corps?)

The music fits the promotional film of Tatra 603 perfectly! I watched it two times in a row... A capable car, a skillful driver and a lady who has good manners.  It is a good looking car but you know I am not a big fan of postwar modern styling, including new cars that I can find in the car dealership nowadays! 

Fully's Dymaxion car is cute but the riding quality is predictably rough. I love 6-wheel cars, including buses and trucks like London Transport's 6-wheel trolleybus, one of the most elegance and environment-friendly public transport every made. The suspension is soft, riding quality is bouncy but not rough.

For private cars, the list is too long. I love the 1931 Maybach DS8 Zeppelin streamlined, 1937 Duesenberg SJ-397 Town Car made for Rudolf Bauer and the 1938 Phantom Corsair!

 

 

 

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, March 28, 2020 6:47 AM

Miningman
A Rust-Heinz designed Bowen and Schwartz Phantom Corsair I take it kinda rare.

Rarer perhaps than it should have been.  Rust Heinz was the son of the pickle guy.  He was studying naval architecture at Yale but quit, and went to Pasadena as an industrial designer.  The Phantom Corsair was developed on a Cord chassis but with only one of the Pasadena coach builders (Maurice Schwartz) assisting.

Heinz died in a crash (at age 25) ensuring there would be no more of these -- they were to be volume-produced at between $12,500 and $14,700 (which someone noted was 3 times the price of a late Cadillac V16) but I don't think he would actually have had trouble finding enough demand to 'save' at least the mechanical part of Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg 

While in the subject of phones in strange things... what's this in the upper left corner?

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, March 28, 2020 1:31 AM

Gonna sneak in some stray car stuff while we are briefly sidetracked and empty the file and rid my car stuff: 

Indiana State Police 1936 Cord 810 Not Bad! 

 

German Police Porsche souped up to do 300 kph or 186 mph 

 

A Rust-Heinz designed Bowen and Schwartz Phantom Corsair

I take it kinda rare.

 

Now this has to be worth a buck or two. A trailer full of Maserati !

 

And now for some Classic accessories ...

 

A car phone of course ... but rotary dial so only us classic dudes will know how to operate it! 

 

And of course a record player for music!

 

And the Ultimate! ... Jimi Hendrix in a Box device. Wow!!

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, March 27, 2020 9:45 PM

A Briggs & Stratton car!  Amazing!  But I'm surprised there's no pull-cord to start it.  Wink

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Posted by SD70Dude on Friday, March 27, 2020 9:25 PM

Here's an actual 6-wheeled car, from a non-traditional manufacturer.  Not nearly as cool looking as those others, but I suspect it would be much easier on gas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftMxCehD08U

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, March 27, 2020 6:48 PM

Oh yeah, I know.

And if a certain book, "A Higher Form Of Killing," is to believed there's the possibility the bomb used in "Operation Anthropoid" was spiked with a biological agent, botulinum toxin, "Just to make sure."  

Considering what happened afterward, this probably was a "hit" that shouldn't have been done, even if the target deserved it.

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, March 27, 2020 5:40 PM

If that's who I think it's going to be... you do know that he died because fragments of upholstery were blown into his wounds and infected them.  So this car, too, gets honorary partisan status...

The prewar Tatras were fairly high-powered hemi V8s, with the whole of the engine slung out behind the rear axle centerline like those conversion kits to put a Chevy 350 in a Porsche 911.  It also had IRS with swing axles that behaved much like those on early Corvairs, abruptly lifting and rolling the tire into rim contact if the rear should swing out in oversteer... and we all know where that goes.

Apparently so many folks got seduced into going too fast, rolling, and dying in various fits of high-speed trauma that orders were issued that the cars should not be driven above a certain not terrifically fast speed - I think 80km/h.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, March 27, 2020 12:10 PM

Love that Stout "Scarab!"

Mod-man, you're going to have to tell me where to find the story about how Tatra knocked off  "...key members of the Nazi officer corps."  That's a new one on me.

Meanwhile, guess where a car belonging to a major psychotic Nazi SOB turned up?  No, not Adolf, someone else.  I won't say who, why spoil the surprise? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP4DA0PSegs  

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, March 27, 2020 11:51 AM

Jones1945
This car would be welcomed by the townfolks in summer. I would have made it a 6-wheel car with two smaller pusher propellers that had a casting integrated into the streamlined car body.

Why six wheels?  Fuller only needed three.

And read up on the ChannelWing, particularly the kind with a proper Fowler-flap-style multiple thrust-enhancing duct on 'the rest' of the enclosed channel, and then look at the aircraft with pusher ducted props to the rear of an Aircar-style four-person streamlined flying-boat cabin... remember that the Aircar itself was adapted from the Republic Seabee.

The afterbody of a properly-shaped cabin can easily form some of the duct structure for an effective pusher fan.  My early designs had much of the 'inner' blade length of the 'fans' shrouded spinner-style, with a directed afterbody to shape the exhaust flow... this would work with a 'multiplicity' of rear-mounted fans in a way that would preclude 'inadvertent collateral ingestion'.

If you're going to admire Stout, you really have to admire Hans Ledwinka more.  (See the settlement between those two...).  I have a suspicion the real Jones1945 dream car is one like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8fNpTSLi80

(What other vehicle make can boast partisan cred for knocking off key members of the Nazi officer corps?)

 

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