Saturday, May 07, 2022

Jerome Biederman (1919-1939) did a lot of Golden Age of Aviation, and brass era car paintings. The Detroit Historical Society offered a traveling exhibition of his work, Hemmings Classic Car did an article on him back in 2005


Born in 1913, Jerome Biederman was a nationally recognized illustrator of transportation. Whether his subject was an automobile, aircraft, or locomotive, his renderings were technically accurate and highly detailed. His medium of choice was tempera paint on illustration board.

After graduating from the American Academy of Art in Chicago, he entered the advertising world where he did almost everything except illustration. By 1940, he chose to leave the corporate advertising world and return to the creative atmosphere of a studio.

He was working for the McCleery-Cumming Corporation in 1956, a calendar company, who retained the artist to create six paintings for each of their 1958 automobile calendars. 

He painted for the calendar company for 36 years, and in the first 31 of those years, 186 automobile paintings were printed without interruption. A total of 444 Biederman transportation paintings were published in McCleery-Cumming calendars by 1993. In addition to the calendars, Mr. Biederman's automotive paintings were featured prominently in Playboy magazine, Automobile Quarterly and Horseless Carriage Gazette.









1893 Mogul Freight


1856 Baltimore and Ohio "William Mason" 


1860 Hamilton-Ontario "Scotia"


1859 Philadelphia and Reading "Hiawatha" 


1860 Rogers Locomotive Works 4.4.0 freight


1908 Mack Fuel Tank Truck





 thanks Steve! 

the SAAB friction tester, thank you Andrew F!

This example, purchased by a collector of SAAB 900s in 2009 through a Dulles surplus auction, was among the last examples built in-house at the Saab Car Division of Saab-Scania in Nyköping, before General Motors purchased a 50-percent interest in the company and closed the Friction Tester department.

The Saab Friction Tester, introduced in the 99 model in 1977 and continued in production through the 1979-'93 lifetime of the "classic" 900 hatchback


Under the back, the trunk floor contained a hatch panel that covered a chain-driven, friction-measuring wheel that could be hydraulically lowered and raised. This wheel, shod with a tube-equipped 4.00-8-inch tire sporting a rubber composition and tread akin to those on airplanes, was geared to rotate at a constant percentage of slip—usually 10 to 30 percent—relative to the car's steady speed. That speed typically ranged from 40 to 60 mph, although this assessment could be performed at up to 100 mph. A torque sensor read the resistance against the chain drive, and fed this information to an onboard computer that transmitted in real time to Air Traffic Control, which in turn relayed runway condition codes—0 to 6, with 6 being dry and good braking—to incoming and outgoing pilots.

quite an unusual look for a Ford tractor


 https://www.facebook.com/mecumgonefarmin/photos/2715564708721112







interesting sales pitch from RM Sotheby's about what a collectible is



 

D11s at work on an Australian farm. A D9 would have cost them 450k, the D11 was 250k, and the 2nd D11 was bought for parts, but turned out to be a 20k fix. So then they had two! The farm needed a dozer for flood repairs


Drones are so damn nice for video work like this

1909 Best steam tractor getting stuck by accident, and trying to get it unstuck

 

The Phillips Brothers Mill, near Oak Run, California, the last fully steam powered mill in America and is still operated by the family, all mill machinery is powered by stationary steam engines, little changed since it was first constructed. Probably has existed longer than any of the companies that made the equipment


and this is the scratch built truck that moves the saw dust 
 












in 1897, when he was twenty-five, Ed Phillips bought the iron head plates from the dismantled Myers Mill for twenty-five dollars apiece to make the log carriage for the sawmill he was building on North Cow Creek. These same head plates have been used in each progressive stage of the Phillips Mill -- from Muley wheel (overshot water wheel) -- to Pelton wheel and penstock -- to steam power -- a span of 106 years.

The first board was cut May 4, 1898. This mill was run on day and night shifts by Ed and one of his brothers, Frank Phillips. Old kerosene lanterns hung on beams and brackets furnished light. Frank cut by night and Ed sorted and stacked by day.

Fire destroyed their first mill on May 3, 1913. At this time the partnership was dissolved between Ed and Frank, and Frank eventually moved to Chico. The following year the mill was rebuilt as a portable mill when Dan, another brother, became a partner. 






They shipped a 1910 Best tractor from Chico to Bella Vista and Dan drove it from there to the mill site on Cow Creek. This steam tractor, built in San Leandro, California, was used at the Phillips mills from 1914 until 1938 when it was replaced by a caterpillar tractor. Even so, it was occasionally used for demonstrations and odd jobs until 1957. This steam tractor made a complete changeover in logging by eliminating entirely the "horse logging". 



The first little logging truck, which had been built in 1905, was now supplemented by a larger truck to haul tandem loads. This truck, like the first, was constructed by hand of native black oak in Ed's blacksmith shop. Wheels were cross sections of Ponderosa pine forty-two inches in diameter, fifteen inches thick at the hub and curved with a spokeshave to ten-inch rims. Handmade squared and sharpened pegs of red fir ten inches long were driven closely into the wheels to strengthen them.


 Axles were made of iron shafting purchased at the Bella Vista Box Factory and the hubs were cast by the Redding Iron Works.






1906 Best traction engine and a 1909 Case

Friday, May 06, 2022

his Grandfather helped fly the first KC-10, tail number 79-0433. He was on its last Flight. Master Sgt. Paul Stoshak


Leo Hazell, a test flight engineer, was deeply involved in McDonnell Douglas’ development of the KC-10 and actually flew on that first tanker when it made its first flight.

When the time came for the 79-0433 to be retired and permanently preserved at the AMC Museum in Dover, his grandson, Master Sgt. Paul Stoshak had the opportunity for one final flight, taking the plane his grandfather helped to develop to its final destination.when the time came for the 79-0433 to be retired and permanently preserved at the AMC Museum in Dover, he had the opportunity for one final flight, taking the plane his grandfather helped to develop to its final destination.

“It was absolutely surreal,” Stoshak said of that last trip from McGuire to Dover. “I was thinking about him the whole flight down there. Just memories rushing back and being a kid in the airplane. And then not only that, but just all the great times that I’ve had on the KC-10, just flying around all over the world.

Seen on today's walk


this is the first cool Nova I've come across without a car cover
 







why the hell this 735 BMW is on the street is a mystery, I seriously doubt anyone is going to fix it, and why spend the money to make it nicer? Instead of using that same amount to buy a nicer car? I don't get it